How to Use Email Marketing for Gambling

It may seem that email, as a communication channel, has lost its significance due to the rapid growth of messaging apps. However, numerous research studies prove otherwise.

According to Statista, the number of global email users is projected to reach 4.6 billion by 2025. Pathwire reports that 84.3% of customers check their emails at least once a day. Furthermore, the research by Salecycle reveals that 59% of respondents are influenced by email marketing when making decisions, with 50% of them making a purchase from emails at least once a month.

Clearly, email’s popularity is on the rise, and email marketing is poised to remain a powerful business tool for the foreseeable future. It is especially important for the iGaming industry because of limitations for advertising in many countries. Most likely, email marketing for gambling is completely legal in your region.

Email marketing stands out as one of the most cost-effective marketing channels. It not only enhances customer retention and player engagement but also boosts brand awareness. Let’s explore how you can leverage its methods in your iGaming project.

Email Marketing Pros and Cons

Email marketing offers several advantages, although it’s important to exercise caution when using this tool.

Advantages:

Cost-effective: Email marketing is one of the most affordable marketing channels.
Effectiveness: Email marketing significantly boosts player engagement, retention, and brand awareness.
Flexibility: Email marketing services provide ample data to evaluate performance, identify issues, and refine marketing strategies.

Disadvantages:

Limited viral effect: Email campaigns have a limited impact on growing your subscriber base organically.
Legal issues: In many countries, you cannot send marketing emails to individuals without explicit consent.
Spam alert: If your emails are marked as spam by many recipients, your domain may be blacklisted by major email services. Consequently, your emails, even those sent from other addresses on the same domain, could be automatically filtered into spam folders. Also, words like ‘money’, ‘opportunity’, ‘free’, and many others can make your message appear spammy. In the context of email marketing for gambling, it can be challenging to completely avoid these terms.

Content for Email Marketing

Users need a compelling reason to subscribe to your newsletter, so it’s essential to provide valuable and helpful content through your email marketing efforts.

Relevant content is particularly attractive. You can brainstorm numerous ideas for online poker content, including tips, lessons, reviews, game analytics, and more. If you have a blog with interesting and useful articles for players, consider sending a weekly or monthly digest featuring the latest or best articles.

Furthermore, the email channel can be used to inform players about new features, special tournaments, promotional offers, and more. Remember, the content should motivate subscribers to play the game or visit your website.

When designing your email content, aim for a visually appealing yet simple layout. Initially, it’s best to avoid complex web features as not all popular email clients support them. Once you have collected substantial data, you can assess whether subscribers use modern email services and clients, and then incorporate more visually striking elements into your campaigns.

Signup Form

First and foremost, you need to establish a subscriber base, and the most obvious approach is to create a signup form on your website.

When designing the signup form, ensure it is user-friendly and includes the following details:

Clearly state the number of emails subscribers will receive.
Specify the frequency of sendings.
Describe the type of content you provide.
Highlight the value of the newsletter for the user.

Avoid overwhelming users with excessive information. A lengthy form can discourage subscriptions. Requesting their email address, name, and perhaps their city of residence should be sufficient. This information can later be utilised for email personalisation. By the way, don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive interesting and helpful content for the iGaming industry.

Lastly, don’t overlook the importance of double opt-in. Bounce rates, which refer to undelivered emails, can have an impact on the likelihood of your messages being flagged as spam. By requiring subscribers to confirm their email addresses immediately after filling out the form, you can ensure the validity of the provided emails and keep your bounce rate low.

Utilise the Website

It’s a good idea to place the signup form on either the contacts page or the home page. If you have a blog, it would be preferable to position the form there, conveying the message, “Subscribe if you’d like to receive such content via email.”

Another powerful tool is a popup. However, it’s important to bear in mind that popups can be quite irritating. To make them less bothersome, follow these guidelines:

Avoid displaying the popup to users who have already arrived from an email.
Refrain from showing the popup if another popup has already been displayed, or set a minimum interval of several minutes between popups.
Avoid displaying the popup if the user has already started reading the article.

You can also suggest subscribing during the new account creation process. Since you’ll probably request the email address anyway, you can include a checkbox asking if the user would like to receive your newsletter. Remember, the consent must be explicit, so the checkbox should not be pre-selected.

Lastly, consider designing a dedicated landing page with a signup form for subscriptions. This can offer added convenience, particularly for promotional campaigns.

Promote the Newsletter

Make use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to expand your subscriber base. Share information about your newsletter and provide a link to the landing page with the signup form. Additionally, consider creating a teaser video for your YouTube channel.

Here are some tips to boost motivation for subscription:

Share enticing highlights from the newsletter accompanied by captivating visuals and a strong call-to-action to encourage signups.
Grant potential subscribers access to a limited archive of past newsletter issues to showcase the quality and value of your content. Check our email campaign archive, for example.
Utilise push notifications in your app to remind users about your newsletter and prompt them to subscribe.
Offer exclusive content available only to subscribers, gradually releasing it to maintain the value of the newsletter.
Provide exclusive bonuses and promotions solely for newsletter subscribers. Organise special online poker tournaments or events tailored to them and promote these offerings through your website, social media platforms, and poker communities.
Collaborate with popular poker influencers, streamers, or bloggers to endorse your newsletter and extend its reach.
Invest in paid advertising on platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or industry-specific websites, targeting online poker enthusiasts to increase visibility and attract new subscribers. They will subscribe because of the interesting content, but then you can convert them into your players.
Create a lead magnet, such as an eBook, poker strategy guide, or video tutorial series, that addresses common challenges or topics of interest for poker players. Offer it for free in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter.
Arrange webinars or masterclasses featuring professional poker players or industry experts, providing exclusive access to recordings or presentation slides for newsletter subscribers.
Implement a referral program that rewards existing subscribers for referring new subscribers to your newsletter, offering incentives like bonus poker chips, exclusive content, or entry to special tournaments.
Include QR codes on print materials like posters at offline poker events to facilitate easy signup.
Optimise your newsletter content for sharing by incorporating social media share buttons and encouraging readers to share your content with friends.

Improve Effectiveness

After the initial campaigns, you will have gathered valuable data to analyse. Evaluate the effectiveness of various email elements and prioritise the most valuable aspects for your subscribers.

Conduct a series of experiments periodically to prevent subscriber boredom, even if it temporarily impacts the performance of your email marketing. This will provide you with more information to analyse and optimise your campaigns.

Here are some additional tips:

Segment your subscriber list based on user preferences and personalise your newsletter content to increase engagement and stimulate word-of-mouth recommendations.
Maintain a consistent and predictable newsletter schedule, ensuring that subscribers know when to anticipate your content. This fosters trust and encourages word-of-mouth recommendations.
Optimise your newsletter and signup forms for mobile devices, enabling users to easily subscribe while on the go.
Implement retargeting campaigns on social media and search engines to reach website visitors who did not initially sign up for your newsletter. Offer compelling incentives, such as limited-time promotions or exclusive content, to entice them to subscribe.
Create captivating subject lines for your newsletter emails that boost open rates and prompt subscribers to share the content.
Establish an email automation sequence for new subscribers, delivering valuable content and promotions gradually, while encouraging them to share your newsletter with their network.
Maintain a clean subscriber base by identifying inactive users who have not opened your emails for an extended period and unsubscribing them. This improves your open rate and reduces the likelihood of your emails being marked as spam. Additionally, promptly unsubscribe recipients who experience email delivery issues to minimise bounce rates.

Conclusion

Email marketing is an affordable and versatile tool that can greatly enhance your overall marketing strategy.

It’s especially important for the iGaming operators in countries with severe restrictions on gambling advertising. At the same time, the policies of many popular services forbid poker, betting, or casino email marketing too. So, you have to find a service loyal to the industry. However, it’s not a problem if you use the EvenBet Gaming platform. We’ve integrated a wide range of email services, allowing you to send notifications and boost player engagement and retention. To get further details just contact our managers.