Highlights: Several different business sectors use promotions to build their customer bases in ways that are beneficial to their continued growth.
Below are three different business sectors that incorporate promotions in their strategies. The primary target of these is to find and retain new customers. After we cover the sectors, we will give an example of an industry that includes often-used promotions in all three sectors.
Real money online casinos use several of these types of promotions to grow the customer bases on their apps and websites.
Retail Sector Promotions
Retail business sector promotions use marketing strategies designed to drive sales effectively. These strategies cut down buyer guilt by offering something extra or free for their money. In this way, they find it easier subconsciously to spend their hard-earned dollars. Retail promotions appeal to a customer's logic - it makes more sense to buy now.
Some effective retail sector promotions include:
BOGO/BOGOF
When you're talking retail language, BOGO stands for "Buy One, Get One". BOGOF means "Buy One, Get One Free". There are variations of the two terms as well, like getting half-off a second item if you buy a first at the full price.
Loyalty programs and points
Retailers use loyalty programs to increase customer loyalty to their brands. Loyalty points accumulated on customers' purchases are redeemable for discounts on future shops. This encourages participating customers to return. With some of these programs, customers can also qualify for free shipping on reaching a prescribed number of points.
Certain retailers could assign points for referring customers or writing reviews. Even sharing a retailer's post on social media could earn you points.
Seasonal offers
Some of the retail sector's biggest and most successful promotions involve specific times or days of the year. Everybody knows about Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There are also special offers on holidays all year round, like on Valentine's Day, for example.
Over these seasonal periods, retailers raise the bar on discounts. Customers compare countless special offers before settling on one that fits. A retailer that takes good advantage of these times can secure market share, not only seasonally, but for the foreseeable future too.
Hospitality Sector Promotions
Hospitality business concerns essentially promote an abstract service. If they promote well, it results in increased sales and profits. Hospitality is all about customer satisfaction, atmosphere, entertainment, and social contact. Let's look at some of the promotions that the hospitality business sector uses:
Non-peak promotions
Many bars and restaurants advertise "happy hours" or specials on days of the week when business is slower than normal. On these specific times or days, patrons receive discounts or special prices on certain menu items or beverages. As such, an infrequent customer is more encouraged to do so more often.
If the experience is good, a customer may consider visiting at busier times too.
Regular patron rewards
Many hotel and restaurant chains offer cash discounts or other types of rewards for regular patronage. The aim of these is to encourage new and existing clients to use their offerings more for their benefit. In return, chains receive larger and more frequent bookings. Invaluable word-of-mouth advertising from happy patrons often results.
These regular patron rewards likely take the form of frequent stay or dining programs. You are also, no-doubt, well-aware of frequent-flyer plans that many airlines offer for accumulated travel. These operate on a similar principle.
Tech Sector Promotions
Promoting a business through the tech sector can be more involved than in the other business sectors mentioned. To effectively promote your brand you have to show potential clients what you can provide, and not only offer special discounts or prices. Promotions through the tech sector relate more to user-friendliness and good customer support. Here are some examples:
Develop an outstanding mobile app
Businesses with top-class mobile apps are in demand. If an app is UX-friendly, user-friendly and glitch-free, customers enjoy the experience more. With the number of mobile apps on the market, having an excellent one promotes your enterprise in ways that even discounts won't do.
Clear and concise content marketing
Some of the best tech promotions you can do for your business lie in portraying your skillset in ways that the layman understands. A business with authentic tech content on its website promotes itself through easy understanding.
High-ranking SEO
The first trick in such a competitive sector is to ensure eyes are on your business. The best way to get website hits is to rank higher than your competition. When you have an existing audience it is easier to experiment with discounts and specials.
The Real Money Online Casino Example
A real money online casino is a prime example of an industry that utilizes retail, hospitality, and tech sector-type promotions. A few ways that it does so are as follows:
Retail
Online casinos offer reward and loyalty programs encouraging visitors to sign up as members. They give players the chance to earn points from their gambling. The more a player spends, win or lose, the more points they accumulate. Players redeem these points in several ways, including different discounted or free offers.
Online casinos will often offer free spin bonuses to new players on registration. With these bonuses, players receive a set number of free spins, often on new slot machines or those that are not the most popular. The casino also usually enforces a payout limit.
Real money casinos also don't miss a trick that many retail businesses use. Taking advantage of seasonal periods are opportunities to encourage new customers. They create special offers for use only on those days. Players considering signing up to earn real money may, hence, be wise to wait for an approaching holiday to do so.
Holidays like Valentine's Day and even Christmas Day often include seasonal casino offers.
Hospitality
The food and beverage industry has a long-standing affiliation with gambling. Many online casinos take advantage of this when encouraging new clientele. Online casinos may team up with bars or restaurants that provide special rates or discounts for casino members. You can redeem these via loyalty points or through special rates given by the F&B establishments.
Like F&B, some hotels and holiday resort chains have solid relationships with online casinos. In some instances, they even host a casino's physical site. Free and discounted venue stays aren't uncommon prizes presented to reward players. Such affiliations are popular among many online casino customers.
Word-of-mouth is an effective tool for promoting a business. Real money casinos use existing members to spread the word about the casino to help introduce new players. They incentivize members with bonus money rewards if a new player uses their link to make a deposit. Although these referrals do work, they're not in place in many online casinos.
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Tech
Most online casinos promote their sites and apps through articles, blogs, and videos. This marketing provides potential customers with informative and valuable content. Content may also take the form of reviewing new slots or highlighting gambling strategies. It may feature experiences and reviews from existing players or gambling industry news.
For convenience, many online players use smartphones and tablets for regular casino access. Casinos recognize this and work to improve their mobile app functionality. They will focus on user experience to promote their business. Top-rate mobile apps are important for attracting new customers and keeping them.
Top-notch SEO and optimization can give an online casino an edge over its competition. Effective SEO means more clicks from potential new customers through search engine results. Top casino tech teams target high-ranking results for both website and mobile app searches. More organic traffic means more visits and more customers.