Competition in the gambling business forces casinos to hold various sweepstakes and promotions to attract new customers and maintain interest in the casino of regular players. Yet, not all of them are popular among visitors, and as a result, not all of them turn out to be efficient.
For specific campaigns, casinos spend large amounts to get more employees to work. However, they are often not sufficiently working on the formulation of goals and objectives of this campaign, do not calculate the possible costs o in advance, and do not specify the segment of consumers for advertising campaigns. So is it any wonder that they are carried out without proper preparation and do not bring the expected results?
We will analyze the main aspects of creating promotions in land-based or online casinos.
Defining the Target Audience
Before starting any promotion, determine a group of players it is made for. Of course, you must be clear about this promotion: you want to attract new visitors, make them hold to the casino for a long time, change the image of the casino, and so on.
But all your efforts may go to the dogs if you do not know who you are trying to attract with your promotion. It may attract the wrong customers.
There is a theory that casino players can be divided into five categories, guided by why they come to casinos. Here are the groups:
- seeking for respect
- escaping from real life
- wanting to communicate
- looking for the best deals
- playing on the result
We do not claim that this division is the only truth, but it helps to understand the psychology of customers, determine their motivation and make an effective promotion. Let's analyze these groups in detail.
Customers Seeking Respect
They go to the casinos where they feel they are valued and loved. You can raise their spirits with attention from the administration and a personal invitation from the manager to participate in the tournament. They like when they are recognized and acknowledged.If you pay enough attention to them, they will be the most loyal customers who win happily, are upset about the losses, and consistently participate in all activities. They may be among the most profitable customers.
Visitors Escaping from Reality
These customers come to the casino to forget about everyday problems. They do not want to think about work, kids, bosses, diseases, and other troubles in the walls of your casino. Achieving this result makes them passionate about the game.As a rule, they do not feel the need to communicate and do not want to be bothered. They do not need your stories about future promotions. All they want is to spend the time with excitement. So leave them alone. For them, good service is quick and accurate without unnecessary questions.
Such players can visit various casinos without favoring any of them. They are not the most loyal visitors, so they do not require special treatment. So you do not need to spend extra money on them. They also play well enough and do not run away from the casino at the first large winning. All this makes them welcome customers.
Clients Desiring Communication
They visit casinos to spend time with other visitors and staff. They often do not care what game to play. They almost do not make big bets. For them, your casino is a club or recreation. They know all croupiers, waitresses, bartenders, security guards, and regular customers. They are ready to sit down at the tables with a game. Such customers rarely lose a significant amount, but they go to the casino almost daily, bringing good monthly revenue.Gamblers Looking for the Best Deals
These players go to different casinos, choosing those with the most profitable promotions. They subscribe to all newsletters, collect coupons, monitor the status of their accounts in the loyalty program, never give up and always use lottery tickets to visit all the campaigns. Immediately after the end of the promotion in one casino, they go to another where the promotion is just starting.Of course, holding these clients is extremely difficult. If you think you have won them, approximately calculate how much money you have to spend on them (prizes, receptions and so on). In addition, they can be pretty problematic and scandalous.
Advantage Players
They are professionals or players who want to become professionals. They can count cards in blackjack, control the dice roll in craps, and use the mistakes of inexperienced dealers at roulette. They will never make real bets in games with rules disadvantageous for them. They would rather be alone to fight the random number generator in video poker than sit at the table for Caribbean poker.These clients can play for some days, but they will be a long stretch in the black or, as they say, "on their own." During draws, they play together in groups, hoping to get at least a small part of the prize fund.
Under the impression of big bets, the casino administration often gives such players discount cards and other privileges. Of course, this only helps professionals to benefit from casinos.
Staging the Real Goals
Realizing the goal of casino customers, you can develop a promotional campaign to make it attractive for the representatives of the first three groups described above and useless for those seeking benefits and playing for the result. Nonetheless, this does not mean you have to drive them from the walls of your casino. It is possible that your promotion can make all interested customers abandon their principles of being professional players.
Anyway, you have to work on the promotion well enough.
- Analyze it in detail and predict the tricks of the most cunning players.
- You may not want to get the advantage of clients, who make big bets, but in the casino promotion, they rarely lose.
- Make it for players who cannot use the achievements of other customers (this is a problem in brick-and-mortar casino drawings).
In short, simulate different situations and imagine yourself in the place of specific players to understand how they behave.
Calculating the Costs
If you are going to make a promotion, carefully evaluate its costs if top management does not require casinos to do this in advance (it isn't peculiar). It is essential to calculate the possible incidental costs.
Value of prizes, purchase of necessary equipment, transport costs, payment of additional personnel, ticket printing, advertising, show program, buffet, symbols - you need to analyze all these details.
Otherwise, you are risking going beyond your budget.
Conclusion
We deliberately do not mention features of specific promotions because this subject is vast and needs a whole series of articles. But we hope this article will help you understand the general principles of creating casino promotions.