I wrote this post to help you clearly identify your goals and use my free tips to reach them. And if you don’t work in eGaming it’s relevant for you too as the skills are transferable and will update your social media marketing knowledge.
Tip 1: Define Your Goals
How much money do you want to make? How much do you want to make a year? A month? A week? A day? An hour? A minute? According to their shareholder reports, betting businesses like Party Gaming make $1.279M a day*. How would you like to make that in your business?
The good news is that where you are now is exactly the right place to start from! Once you know where you are you can overcome any shortfalls with solutions. Ask yourself, what is my primary outcome? Make this outcome is so big and exciting that once you achieve it, it will be the most exciting thing you have ever done! Then figure out what resources you have right now to achieve it and how you will know when you have achieved it.
Tip 2: Picture it
Use your Imagination to see and feel what your business will be like in 12 months. Visualization is a very powerful tool and not just for NLP students. Here is a generic example, then create your own!
"It is now Christmas 2009 and you are up in the Top 10 of gambling sites. Annual yield is up, player accounts are up, daily actives are riding high, daily take is growing, actual player deposits are climbing, the player & affiliate forums are full of praises, lifecycles are getting longer and lifetime player value has rocketed up. 'Dead' accounts have been re-activated and your players feel like winners!"
Tip 3: Go Guerrilla!
This methodology is what allowed Bowmans Poker to increase their Poker accounts by 127% and Sportsbook accounts by 72% with a fun sexy viral and under-the-net guerrilla campaign. Once you have your stand-out creative, you need to let the people know. You can use social media and low-cost direct marketing techniques to spread the word. Try these low-cost techniques to compliment your media buying:
* Blogs & blog comments
* Social Networks (Facebook)
* Microblogging (Twitter)
* Your own network (Ning)
* Business networks (LinkedIn)
* Article Marketing
* Free Press release marketing
* Videos (Use Camtasia, Mash it up then Youtube it)
* Landing Pages / Squeeze Pages
* Social Bookmarks (Digg)
* Forums
* Affiliates
* eZines
* Podcasts
* Forums
* Wikis, Knols
* Teleseminars
* Squidoo Lens
* Yahoo Answers
For example, lets take Twitter. Want to get your gaming brand in the papers, PR folk? Get it in front of an influencer via microblogging.
Tip 4: Focus on Player Marketing
Got huge acquisition costs and players that fly out the door as quick as they come in? Get back to basics with some analysis of the behavioral and demographic characteristics the players share and differ in. CRM virgin? Study up here http://www.jimnovo.com/ on:Recency Frequency, drop-off rates, re-activation patterns, bet triggers, player attitudes, lifecycles, hurdle rates and feedback loops. Once you've done that, here are the types of marketing content you can offer your players in the 'Player Marketing Funnel'.
And here are the types of player segmentations you'll be opening a dialogue with in the 'Player Funnel'.
80 percent of revenue will come from 20 percent of players. Segmentation optimizes results and eliminates wastage.
Tip 5: Get Affiliates Quick!
If you are entering new markets, either geographic or product based, speed to acquire critical mass & liquidity is essential. Try working closely with an outsourced affiliate management company (e.g. Income Access) http://www.incomeaccess.com/. You can hit the ground running with hundreds of new affiliates in the first few weeks!
Inhouse, I bet your affiliates are already huge Web 2.0 fans so why not assist their marketing further by investing in coaching for them on the types of low-cost techniques we have already discussed such as the below features and benefits. Plus new measurement tools are entangling with social media marketing to allow complete affiliate tracking and cost per engagement analysis, See here: http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/12/12/has-skimlinks-solved-the-problem-publishers-have-with-affiliates/:
Feature, Benefit
* Social bookmarking Increase reach in key markets; -> Human aspect to search
* Building Sales pages -> Pique interest and funnel leads
* Article creation & syndication -> Help build links and traffic
* Blogging Reach niche audiences, -> Are highly targeted
* Write Product Reviews -> Encourage sign ups and actual player deposits
* Write a Wiki -> Provide compelling relevant information to build relationships
If you'd like to know more about offering these services to your affiliates, receiving coaching across your marketing dept. or getting a complete outsourced solution, just email us at [email protected]
Tip 6: Put it all together
Then you put it all together. OK so not all SEO is free, neither is PPC and JVs are commission based … but these low-cost methods are still additional resources you can invest in without much cost or risk to compliment your existing online media buying or affiliate programs across CPM, CPC, CPA, CPE, CPL, commissions, tiered and hybrids.
So there we have it 6 easy recession proof tips you can start implementing today in your marketing mix.
Wishing you the rest of a wonderful 2008 in marketing and here’s to recession proof results with ROI in 2009.
PS. I am inviting you to submit all your comments as my last post on Online Gaming http://sarawaller.com/?p=299 generated so many interesting discussions.
About the Author
Sara is an eGaming consultant and Marketing professional of 13 yrs in online marketing including 9 years in the eGaming industry. She is also a practitioner of NLP and has worked with various NGOs. Her skills include:
– Exposure on Social Networks, Blogs, Articles, eBooks
– Guerrilla & Low Cost Social techniques and Media Buying
– Online PR, Events, Online Reputation Management & CSR
– Emarketing acquisition strategy & conversion
– Offline Marketing inc. Ambient, Print, Outdoor and Sport Sponsorship
– Retention, Reactivation, Direct Mail, eCRM, CRM, VIP & Loyalty Progams
– Search Optimisation and Affiliate marketing
– Fundraising and NGO projects
Originally posted at http://sarawaller.com/?p=315