Card Sharks: Online Poker and Marketing
Of all the niche consumer groups, of all the vertical markets, online poker has and maintains some of the largest potential for company profit to date. It’s an area of the game and web that hasn’t been around for long; upwards of a decade, perhaps a little more, but in that time it has grown to both boost and challenge the original green-table format. It began with home PCs and an internet on the rise, with Flash and forum chat rooms. Nowadays, tablets and mobile phones carry the online game to even greater heights and cash return. An estimated 36% of the world’s population owns a smartphone in 2018. The global games market holds a value of almost $138 million as of the same year, and 50% of that net worth is the result of said mobile apps and games.
Apps including the coveted online poker franchise.
In a Competitive Vertical Market, the Only Way is Up
With so much profit up for grabs, needless to say, the virtual poker table is a little crowded at this point. There are plenty of big fish, plenty of small, and even more so-called ‘bottom-feeders.’ Each of these websites comes forward with their own unique deals every week. They have themed tables, classic tables, entry offers and tournament prizes trending all the way up to the seven-figure realm. They all coexist to a degree. But make no mistake – this is a cutthroat market. And a cutthroat market calls for cutthroat marketing.
See, there’s a limited population for all of these websites to draw upon. While playing competitive poker for money, be it cash games or tournaments, big sums or small, is popular in the simplest definition of the word, it’s not popular. Estimated player numbers are in the hundreds of thousands at low points and the low millions at peak online service. We’re talking globally, across multiple continents and languages. Even if a given company were to focus on one location, they’re likely to struggle to build an audience amongst pre-existing competition. Standing out is tough and rising to the top a near miracle – and yet you might not have to.
Like many online markets, poker can get by on a small population due to the nature of the game itself. A single user could play one round a week or they might play a thousand. If you can attract a niche within a niche, that is to say, the big hitters within your own small population and player base, profit comes regardless. It’s simple statistics. The question is: how do you get there in the first place?
A Case Study in Modern Inbound Marketing
One of the most common and most effective strategies online poker websites employ is that of promotional marketing. A website might offer a free initial cash value to a player’s account when they first join, double any deposit or increase the cash prize on a given table for a limited amount of time. It makes a player’s cash worth more, up to a limit, and entices first-timers especially to try their hand. At the time more seasoned card sharks might be tempted to return or, alternatively, try a new brand or website.
Take 888poker for example; one of their main standing promotions is wildly similar to culinary pub strategy. Each day of the week comes with specific themes and bonuses for certain games on their site, Tuesday being specific to card and poker games, Wednesday to certain casino games and so on. This way, 888poker attempts to not only maintain a regular customer base on certain games by improving their returns once a week, but invite players to try other areas of their repertoire at a discount, too. Their 21st of the month blackjack night takes advantage of the date as ploy, and throughout the year, there are doubtless other seasonal occasions for Halloween or Christmas poker happenings. As the saying goes, any excuse for a party. Well, any excuse for a chance at the big prize!
These kinds of offers make up the majority of online poker’s on-site draw, though bigger events might be advertised off-site on television or elsewhere online. The real skill comes in maintaining competitive rates on all such promotions when compared to the rest of the virtual herd – there are third party sites dedicated to finding the best promotional offers for online casinos, so should yours fall short, it’s likely to see less traffic as a result. And once the marketing has done its job, that is, brought in the curious, the new, the veteran and the old, it’s down to the website itself to maintain a quality online environment for play.
Social Media, Tournaments and Free Advertisement
Promotions aren’t the only tool at hold ‘em’s disposal, however. The online scene grew up with the internet, meaning it’s grown and maintained a strong relationship with social media. These ‘hubs’ are, in essence, free advertising. They provide a way for companies to interact with customers behind a screen, sell the latest promotions (as above) and draw external interest. Be it through memes, the establishment of a community or a way to serve advice, Twitter, Facebook and others are a key aspect for any serious online poker site’s marketing strategy.
They are, at the end of the day, the customer-facing aspect of a company. One other way the bigger sites drum up business is through tournaments, online or in person, hosted or sponsored, and the resulting posts, news and photographs can all draw media attention and provide a human view to an otherwise virtual world. Such tournaments really are a very large part of the online poker ‘ecosystems’ lifespan. While the start-up online poker sites might do weekly or monthly bracketed events with moderate buy-ins and prizes, the very largest of fish can take things full circle, all the way back to an in-person competition somewhere around the world. Such competitions are, however, usually streamed online or on television. The broadcast aspect of these things never quite goes away.
Some tournaments are free, some are pricey. Some are classic hold ‘em, others are variants on the game; snap poker, deep-stack or turbo. Regardless, they make a change from the regular drop in, drop out cash games that most users will take part in online. Whether players take part or watch, they’re drawn into the game, into the hype and tempted to go further themselves. Players pay to take part and inadvertently drum up hype and advertisement for the site when they succeed, posting about such winnings online and elsewhere.
Poker as a whole scales upward, from the small to the big fish, from those cash tables to the million dollar tournaments and lifetime winnings. That promise is one of the game’s biggest marketing tool, too: the promise of success, the opportunity to try and forever a way to double down. And in such a vertical market, it’s the ones that capitalize most on such niches that end up winning big. Any site can do a promo. Any site can host a tourney. It’s the ones that do it well, professionally, memorably, and in the greatest combinations that thrive.
Marketing is never a one-way street, especially when it comes to online poker. Rather, customer attention can be drawn from every angle.