Melanie Jones, Affiliate Manager for Income Access, Sheds Some Light on Best Practices when Promoting Online Bingo Sites.
To effectively promote bingo sites, it's important to understand what distinguishes bingo players from players in other online gaming verticals. With that understanding, you can better target potential players.
First, unlike the stereotypical bingo-hall patron, the average online bingo player is female, age 18-40. Secondly, online bingo rooms have much more of a community feel than other gaming verticals. There can be hundreds of players in one bingo room at a time, so it feels less like a competition and more like a lottery. When it comes to promoting online bingo, then, you want to (1) target women ages 18-40, and (2) add to the community experience.
Social Media Marketing
A great way to do this is through Social Media Marketing. Basically, social media marketing is about creating interactive user experiences. It is so well suited for promoting bingo rooms, moreover, because the online bingo community is already hyper-social. In fact, bingo affiliate portals commonly use a number of social media tools.
Forums
Online bingo forums are one of the most common places to promote online bingo rooms. They allow users to both share and discuss the experiences they’ve had in various bingo rooms.
As the forum moderator, you can post bingo room reviews and start threads that members can then respond to and discuss. Because online bingo players are so community-oriented, the kind of interaction provided by forums is ideal for attracting and retaining a user base of bingo players.
Blogs
Much like forums, the comments area on blogs gives bingo players a place to express themselves and interact with each another. You can also add to the bingo community by publishing bingo room reviews and reporting on various player promotions. A blog that’s regularly updated can easily attract bingo players looking for a reliable source of up-to-date information.
Other Community Contributions
You can also engage bingo communities without building your own. What draws bingo players to communities is the useful information they find there. A great way to drive traffic, then, is to re-package existing information.
XML Powered Tables
One way to offer useful information is by featuring real-time bingo information on your site. This is often done by pulling the XML feeds from various bingo rooms and packaging the information into an easy-to-read table. These tables commonly feature information on the number of players in different rooms, current and recent jackpots, and when the last time was that a room paid-out.
Such tables let players compare the jackpots and odds of different bingo rooms at a single glance. So when they make their choice where to play next, the affiliate makes a referral commission.
Desktop Widgets
Desktop downloads are a great way to retain users even when they’re not on your site. Bingo affiliates commonly offer desktop widgets that serve real-time updates on player promotions and popular bingo rooms. By developing desktop widgets that provide players with useful information and offering them for download, you can engage players even when they’re not on your site.
Sharing is Social
Because online bingo players are so social, the best way to reach out to them is to add value to their interactions. As a bingo affiliate, you can do that by either creating a space that they interact in, or providing information that they can share.