Getting players to sign up to an online casino is tough, and keeping them loyal is even harder, because the market is incredibly competitive and rival brands are always looking to poach customers from the opposition.
That said, with the right strategies and tactics it is possible to acquire and retain users, so here are a few impactful options to try if you run a casino site.
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Offer compelling sign-up incentives
Every online casino will have some kind of new player bonus or offer that is designed to pull in the punters with the promise of free bets or some other money-saving incentive.
This is all well and good, but it’s not just a case of slapping together a deposit-matching scheme and hoping for the best. Arguably a more intelligent way to go about this is to tie in your incentive with some external event which is relevant to the interests of your target demographic.
If you offer sports betting, for example, you could give new customers the chance to wager on a major tournament or one-off game free of charge if they create an account.
Making your incentives specific in this way will give you the marketing momentum you need to click with fresh faces.
Keep your game library fresh
Even the most carefully-crafted, high quality online casino experience can become stale and boring if customers are faced with the same old selection of games every time they log in.
Conversely, the newest Amatic casinos are fun to play precisely because there is novelty and variety in the latest games arriving as soon as they are launched.
The obvious answer is for casino sites to constantly be on the lookout for cutting edge games, especially slot games, from reputable developers. These can easily be integrated with your existing infrastructure, and will appeal to veterans as well as new customers.
Reward loyalty
Another misstep that a lot of online casinos make is to offer the juiciest incentives to people who have yet to sign up, at the expense of alienating their existing customers who have so far remained loyal.
If players feel like they are ignored once they have created an account, then they could easily drift away from your site and end up giving their business to a more attentive competitor.
Setting up a loyalty scheme that is tied into a combination of a player’s level of activity on your site, as well as the length of time they have been a customer, can overcome this conundrum.
It also pays to provide loyalty rewards which are actually relevant to the ways in which they are using your casino services.
So for people who love playing slots, offering free spins on their favorite games when they surpass a particular deposit amount or wager limit, is wise. Equally if a customer is an avid sports bettor, this can be included in the rewards you offer.
Tailoring your service and providing personalization is the key to customer retention not only in online casinos, but in almost any business, so this is a lesson every decision-maker should take onboard.
Improve the user experience
Another vital part of the customer retention puzzle is getting to grips with how your casino site is being used, and whether there are any experiential issues which are leading to frustrations, and potential service abandonment.
The user experience (UX) is an all-encompassing topic to consider, yet one which must be tackled sooner rather than later. Everything from the layout of the interface to the legibility of the text and the number of interactions it takes to log in and start playing will influence it.
Simply put, if customers sign up and then find that your casino services are not straightforward to use, they are unlikely to remain loyal.
Likewise if you are going to make any major changes, test these out thoroughly so that UX quality doesn’t take a backwards step unintentionally.
Get feedback
An excellent yet often overlooked strategy for acquiring and retaining customers is actually asking them how they feel about the online casino services you offer, and getting their input as to any improvements which might be needed.
If you are too close to a project, you won’t be in the right position to pinpoint issues like this. Even following up with customers that have stopped using your service can make sense, as they will often tell you what caused them to fall out of love with your site.