Donât make mobile marketing an afterthought
In a world dominated by mobile, why are so many online gaming operators failing to impress their mobile players? Element Waveâs CTO James Harkin explains how Mobile Marketing Automation can transform an operatorâs mobile business
Speak to any head of mobile at one of the leading online bookmakers and Iâd be confident that theyâd highlight mobile player churn as one of their biggest concerns. The way consumers interact with their phone is changing and progressing all the time, but the online gaming industry is still lagging some way behind other sectors.
Mobile marketing is going to be where the battle is won and lost. And that certainly doesnât mean just tacking on some push notifications and hoping for the best. Mobile marketing needs to be fully integrated into an app so that it becomes a vital part of the user journey. It clearly must work well for the brand but it also needs to be appealing for the user.
Part of the problem for online gaming operators is that it is very difficult to stand out from the crowd. Most sportsbook apps are very similar to each other â there is little differentiation. However, operators should view this as an opportunity to think differently and creatively about mobile marketing in order to differentiate themselves.
Personal approach
Take a look at leaders in other sectors like Gilt in retail and Airbnb in leisure and tourism. Personalisation and data-driven marketing is a fundamental part of their strategy and impacts hugely on their mobile revenue. Why isnât the gaming industry doing the same thing? If they want to do it, they have to embrace the combination of technology with mobile marketing.
Mobile marketing gives brands an unrivalled ability to combine context, previous purchase history, real-time real-world events, and viral behaviour into compelling content, not just another mass push notification. It is vital for operators to focus on mobile marketing, but they also need to take it one step further by creating what we at Element Wave call âMobile Momentsâ.
When users are targeted with in-app messaging that considers factors like their average stake, typical interests and betting patterns and awareness of the current moment (e.g. five minutes before half-time) they feel engaged. There is also the specific point in their journey (currently live streaming a football match within the app) and offering something of value like a bet suggestion taken from the most popular trending bets in the userâs area at that time. This is a Mobile Moment.
Taking a moment
At Element Wave, we work with a number of different sized gaming operators and we regularly see campaigns like this produce over 100 times more bets placed compared to a control group. Companies think it takes a mountain of technology to implement this, which it does, but they donât have to reinvent the wheel themselves. This is the reason why we have just launched Mobile Moments, the first Mobile Marketing Automation (MMA) platform created specifically for the online gaming industry.
The platform means our customers can now create personalised, automated campaigns that drive users through particular user journeys in real-time. This opens up a massive opportunity for in-play betting in particular. We strongly believe that this will completely change the way that mobile marketing campaigns are created within the online gaming industry.
Mobile first
Operators know they need to engage and retain their mobile customers, but until now, there hasnât been one platform on the market that analyses every app session, deposit and bet placed by each mobile player and is able to convert that to actionable marketing.
Operators need to choose a mobile marketing supplier that will work closely with them to ensure that every marketing initiative is measurable. Not all online gaming operators have extensive in-house mobile marketing teams. This is why we have created a dedicated mobile marketing team to plan and implement strategic mobile marketing campaigns on behalf of our customers. Our team are extremely proud to say that 200% increases in in-play betting and 300% increases in pre-match bets placed are commonplace.
As we specialise in mobile marketing for the online gaming industry, we have discovered some really interesting and insightful data. Weâve analysed literally millions of mobile betting transactions and, depending on certain factors, over 70% of mobile bets are in-play. However, we typically find that less than 10% of mobile marketing effort is dedicated to in-play marketing. This huge disconnect is one of the biggest opportunities facing sportsbooks today.
Beyond the push
Mobile marketing requires much more than just sending the odd push notification â it needs to be truly embedded into the user journey in a seamless way, subtly driving the user through their purchase journey. This can only be possible using the best real-time technology and for gaming operators the best and most cost-effective solution is to outsource this to MMA experts.
The majority of sports betting apps present generic content where users effectively have identical experiences no matter where they are betting. This doesnât make people stick around, operators need to create something that is more meaningful for the user.
So, what are some examples of tightly integrating mobile marketing with an app? A common challenge for operators is users looking for the best odds. Open up an app, check the price, open up another competing app, check the price, repeat five times until they eventually find the best odds.
Imagine using a product like Mobile Moments to detect this scenario and send a push notification 10 seconds after a user has moved onto another app saying âwant to see the top trending bet right now?â. When the user opens it, they are then shown a pre-populated bet with a little tool-tip saying â65 people in your area are betting on Arsenal nowâ.
After adding the bet to the bet slip, the user sees a discreet message saying “Good choice – popular bet”. Finally, after placing the bet, a pop-up appears offering the user an optional kick-off notification alert when the game is starting.
Compare this experience to an app that says and does nothing while a user is deciding to place a bet. This kind of user-journey-control and real-time reactive marketing is available and produces real value. Brands that use a combination of push notifications and event-based in-app messaging in this real-time manner see 65% increase in player loyalty, an increase in conversions of over four times, and over three times more app launches compared with traditional approaches.
The gambling industry is one of the fastest growing and most dynamic industries out there, yet mobile differentiation and personalisation is still far behind where it should be. Having experienced the technical challenges of this approach first-hand, but also having seen the transformative effect it has on mobile turnover, I can say with certainty that significant success is waiting for operators who are willing to dedicate the time and resources into delivering a truly personalised experience to their players.