The Casino Marketing & Technology Conference that ended Wednesday in Reno was largely attended by marketers. Therefore, the panel on the latest methods of communicating with customers drew a lot of attention on Wednesday morning.
Panelist Andrew Kordek, VP of customer engagement at iPost, surprised the audience when he stated, “There are 30+ major email and SMS vendors that don’t allow casinos or other gaming providers to transmit their messages on their channels.”
SMS stands for “short message service” and has become a key component of many marketing campaigns. Most of us know it as “texts.” While the regulations concerning email are a bit looser, all the panelists agreed that SMS has strict rules governing its use and it’s critical for casino marketers to use firms that understand those guidelines well or get educated internally. Kordek added that messages can “get kicked off without warning if you don’t do your research.”
Most of the panel discussion, led by Raving Consulting’s Chris Archunde, concerned the topic of “omnichannel” communication. Wikipedia defines omnichannel retail strategies as “an expansion of what previously was known as multichannel retailing. The emergence of digital technologies, social media and mobile devices has led to significant changes in the retail environment and provides opportunities for retailers to redesign their marketing and product strategies. One of the challenges that retailers are facing as a result of increased channels, is to provide a personalized experience for customers.”
Using omnichannel marketing can be extremely effective, but it’s not easy. Chris DiFranco, a loyalty product manager at Everi, said, “Reaching out to the right customer with the right message at the right time can be very difficult to do. Their data can be spread out. We have to understand when they will respond to one channel over another and that’s constantly changing. It’s hard to put together an effective strategy. At Everi, we’re putting more focus on the mobile side right now.”
Aaron Bare, the CMO at Etix, which focuses more on the entertainment side of the gaming business, said, “Email is number one in the entertainment business right now, but social media, websites, and all channels work together. There is no way to work with a single channel. You need to build an entire ecosystem so that everyone in your organization is working together. We don’t want to bombard our customers with mixed messages.”
Archunde stressed the importance of an overall road map, so everyone on the team moves in the same direction and uses the same process. “Having a process takes the emotion out of it. And it helps the vendor, since you’re all speaking the same language.”
Bare noted, “Unfortunately, we see quite a bit with casino partners that there are siloed departments that work well individually, but they have difficulty working across those divides. There needs to be a set of values in the organization around working together. It takes time. It can be a land grab.”
DiFranco added, “It’s important to have specific objectives. Making sure you aware of where you are, your skills set, and are you ready? Look for easy wins and set up to achieve realistic goals for your omnichannel marketing.”
In summary, Kordek repeated his cautions from earlier. “Emerging tech is just that … emerging. Any vendor you use, make sure they’re compliant. Choose a vendor that will give you good information on SMS and email regulations.”
