In the second installment of his two-part blog, Xtremepush Senior Account Executive Brandon Asgeirsson continues his assessment of the rapidly growing US igaming market. You can read Part One here.
Use data to understand who you’re talking to
As an operator, your players are your most important asset. So, you need to take the time to fully understand them. That means knowing their preferences and behaviors, such as favorite teams and games, markets and bet types, how often and how much they wager, win loss ratios and more.
If you’re not constantly analyzing this data to get these types of insights you won’t have a true understanding of your players, and your retention efforts will likely go to waste.
Identifying where your players are along the funnel using your data will help you to engage the right players in the right way. For instance, some players in new states will need to be educated on a few things as they begin using your app. So helping them understand things like what a parlay is or how to bet on props will keep them engaged with you.
Your more mature players in more established states won’t need education. But there is a lot of value in understanding what makes them tick as well. Understanding their behaviors can help you promote different bets and games to them. Putting relevant products in front of these players and understanding how to cross sell to them will drive lifetime value.
Building out successful campaigns and communications is made much simpler by unifying your data. Businesses often have their data stored in silos, making it much more difficult to get an accurate view of your players. Having it all stored under one roof makes it much easier to build out player profiles and engage with them effectively.
This is where the benefits of having a Customer Data Platform (CDP) solution and the ability to create a single customer view comes into play.
As the volume and complexity of customer data continue to grow, operators across the globe have identified that they do not have the right technology to properly manage the data they have on their customers. They are now beginning to turn to Customer Data Platforms to effectively manage these challenges.
The business outcomes that come from investing in a CDP are becoming more and more apparent to operators that use them. For some, customer satisfaction rate has grown 9X, annual company revenue by 3X, 5.7X in average customer spend, and 5X annual growth in cross-sell and up-sell revenue.
The ability to understand your customers with a single customer view becomes a much easier task with a CDP. Your player experience and marketing effectiveness will become a lot stronger because of it.
Identify the right channels
Once you generate a deeper understanding of your players you’ll discover how much player preferences differ and how varied the attributes are that you need to consider to really build a relationship with your customers.
Player preferences span a whole array of different data points, from playing different sports and different games to betting on different markets, using different devices and having preferred channels for communications depending on the time or day of the week. The same goes for how they access your app or website and how they interact with you.
The best player experience is provided to your users by understanding their behaviors in real-time as well as where they want to see your content and campaigns. Your data should provide you with this information. Then, you can start to send out push, or email campaigns to your segments that respond to them best.
Brands that are getting this right, see a significant increase in engagement. But getting it wrong means that your players are far more likely to miss the messages that you send them. And the more they miss your promotions, deals, or offers, the less they will engage with you and your app.
Provide a personalized experience
Personalization is no longer a luxury that players get with the odd provider. It is very much now an expectation when it comes to communicating with your players.
Some companies are stuck in the past and still have a tendency to send out batch and blast campaigns. Sometimes they might be necessary, but in the grand scheme of things they don’t work and customers expect an individualized experience, tailored to them.
What does work for operators, is getting into the omnichannel marketing mindset. This is where personalized player communications really come into their own.
Players respond much better to messages that take their interests and activity into account and effectively connect campaigns across all channels to ensure the messages are complementary and driving traffic to their site or app. Companies doing this well will win big. So, store your data properly, understand player preferences, and use that information to send them messages that are relevant and delivered at the right time in the right place.
Using AI and advanced automation tools available to send offers and bonuses personalized to each player is one of the best ways to catch their eye and build brand loyalty whilst driving efficiency. It’s also cost effective and can aid in reducing bonus costs. Operators can often send out the same bonus to all of their players. But a lot of the time bonuses aren’t necessary to incentivize players to bet with you. If you’ve created a great experience using real-time data and the right tools, you can identify which players require what level of bonus in order to increase their activity with you. It’s all about providing value to your customers.
Having the right technology
For any of the above to be achievable you have to have the right martech stack in place. Some businesses currently operate with tech stacks that don’t allow marketers to deliver personalized communications at scale.
Overall, the experience of using an app for players doesn’t really differ throughout the industry. They could jump from app to app and they all tend to look, feel, and act the same with no real differentiation.
Tech providers need to ensure that they meet customer expectations but also innovate to drive differentiation within the industry. The more they innovate, the more loyal customers will become as they use them.
Offering something extra to excite players and keep them with you will help to drive lifetime value. Features like real-time sports feeds keep players engaged with your app even after they have placed a bet on a particular sport. It also plays its part in driving bet velocity while the action is taking place live.
Delivering the best possible experience and moving towards relationship and retention-based marketing is what will help operators win in the market. But in order to get close to the top, you need to invest in the right tech stack.
What CRM teams should consider
CRM teams need to look for tools designed specifically for the industry they are operating in. With hundreds of platforms out there to choose from, there’s a lot to consider for operators evaluating the best solution for them. Here are a few things they to look out for when choosing the right solution.
The ability to personalize and send messages through advanced automation is an absolute must. This provides a seamless experience on both sides. Customers get the personalized experience they expect, and CRM teams’ lives are made easier in delivering campaigns to their players. The overall outcome being increased productivity, increased efficiency and faster execution.
But in order to personalize, you need to segment. The ability to segment on a deeper level means that you can identify different types of players based on behavior and send them personalized messages. Responsible gambling measures must be at the heart of any solution in order for CRM teams to install and administer these controls while also managing communications in a relevant way. This can include automated cooling-off times as well as educational messaging.
Real-time data ingestion that can be attributed to campaigns needs to be a non-negotiable when it comes to your communications. There are numerous tech providers in the market that claim to have real-time capabilities, but it’s a false narrative. To be considered real-time, data must be processed and ready to use within seconds. These so-called “real-time” providers use batch processing, meaning that your data is ready to go almost a day later. By then, that data is pretty much irrelevant. This is a limitation that CRM teams need to be aware of when choosing a platform, as it will have a negative impact on your results and ultimately your bottom line.
Comprehensive data management is a key capability of an efficient CRM platform. It should provide businesses with the ability to capture, store, and organize customer data in one centralized location. Some benefits from this capability include faster processing, improved analysis, enhanced security, and cost savings.
All states across the US have unique requirements when it comes to sports betting and iGaming. A platform needs to be able to facilitate multi-state deployments seamlessly. Platforms need to deliver performance at scale across multiple jurisdictions in order to be suitable for use in the US.
There’s a lot of value in having robust analytics and reporting capabilities. A CRM should enable businesses to track KPIs, gain insights into customer behavior, and make data-driven decisions with real-time insights. A business intelligence tool built specifically for the iGaming industry means that the understanding of players becomes much deeper and provides more insights for CRM teams to utilize.
And, as with any tool you use, security should be a high priority. Any good Customer Engagement Platform or CRM platform must have strong security measures in place to protect customer data and prevent unauthorized access, otherwise you will be exposing your business to major risk. If you want to know more about how Xtremepush can help you retain customers and drive loyalty with your brand, get in touch with our team of experts or book a demo.
