MRI Casino Marketing Blog
Train Your Gamblers to Move From Print to Digital (and save money!)

Our City of Brotherly Love will play host this weekend to the 2017 NFL^® Draft. As the stage is set in Philadelphia on the steps made famous by Rocky Balboa, it has me thinking about our field position when it comes to digital marketing. Are we bringing on the punt team, or are we in the red zone?

Training camp won’t start for these players for a few months, but for casino marketers, training season is now. We need to train our gamblers to become lean, mean, digital marketing-interacting machines. In the past, we've made things too easy for them: we send them print, email, web updates, text messages, billboard signs, push notifications and radio ads. They don’t have to think at all. They know we’ll get to them if we really want to -- they can just sit back and wait.

However, if we want them to be active, responsive customers, to help build and interact with our brands, we need THEM to move. We want to see them moving to more cost-effective and immediate solutions. We want them to take advantage of media that’s ready when they are. If they’re out looking, it means they’re ready to take action at that moment -- and that action will hopefully be coming to your casino!

So, it's time to start training your customers to see a better return on your marketing efforts -- and here's what you can do to make sure each is a touchdown this year.

Connect Direct Mail With Digital

What are you doing with your direct mail pieces to incentivize customers to visit your website or social media pages? Are you still putting phone numbers on your print pieces? Why?

Studies on advertising have shown that direct mail requires 21% less cognitive effort to process than other forms of advertising -- and that people who received direct mail were able to recall the brand 75 percent of the time. Those stats show that direct mail makes an impression on the people who see it, which means that it's a great place to tell them to hop on board with your digital presence.

How do you direct them from the piece of mail in their hand to your digital channels? Tell them to text instead of calling your phone number. Tell them to download the app to receive their casino offers instead of receiving mail. This is training for the digital world. Take advantage of the power of the mailing -- and don’t give them the out.

Not only will converting to digital make it more convenient for your players, it’ll save YOU money.  Here’s the math. If you normally send out 100,000 letters at $1 each, and even if only 15% of your customer base converted to the mobile app, you’d see a potential cost savings of $15,000 each month thereafter.

Utilize Social Media

Are we using social media well? Regularly? If not, then it's time for you to shift your focus. Most people are spending their time on social media these days -- in fact, Facebook currently has 1.86 billion active users, while Instagram has 600 million active users. That's a whole lot of people who could potentially see your posts!

Social media platforms aren't only a great option for reaching a wide audience -- social media marketing is an extremely cost-effective marketing solution. In fact, over 50% of marketers rank social media as "very" or "somewhat" cost effective marketing solution.

Are people used to seeing you on social media? While they might not react to every message -- they do need to get used to seeing your presence and know that they can rely on your profiles for valuable info. So post on social media regularly. Create an active stream of tweets, Facebook posts, Instagram pictures and more.

By regularly offering information and deals online, potential customers will know they need to turn to these channels to find information that will benefit them and that they won't want to miss out on. They'll abandon the wait for the mailman and replace it for the anxious anticipation of your next tweet!

If you want to shift your customers from people who consume printed marketing material to those who are connoisseurs of digital media, it's time to take active steps. Don't forget: We’re the coach, and the dialogue is ours to own. With a little training, that championship ring will be yours this year.