I personally think there are many opportunities for casinos to utilize these platforms positively:

• These gaming platforms will be a wealth of data from the player tracking perspective.
• There will be plenty of online opportunities to cross promote products within the user interface of the gaming platform.
• The databases of sites not affiliated with a property could be a source for prospect marketing for the brick and mortar casinos.
• There will be opportunities for online players to earn comps enticing them to visit the property.

It will be interesting to see how quickly online gaming will come to market and how marketing efforts will be focused to work with the technology.

• A highly competitive market place
• An industry based on the willingness to spend discretionary income
• Tourism is highly affected by economic conditions outside of the industry’s control

The three items listed above will never change and we need to just consider them the wild cards of the industry. Let’s focus on things we can control. One thing that many of us are guilty of is not planning. When you don’t plan, you add unneeded stress and put yourself up against very ambitious timelines. When you are working under the gun, that’s when mistakes have the highest likelihood of happening. Humans are natural procrastinators, but it does not need to be that way.

Many casino promotions are based around events that happen on the same day every year, so why not start planning the event and what your first piece of communication about it is going to look like months advance? For example, you know New Years is going to happen, so why not start planning in the summer opposed to scrambling in December? We realize that plans change and you have to adapt, but if you spend the tail end of the previous year planning for the upcoming year, you might find your job just a bit less stressful when the time comes to execute.

In case you haven’t started planning for the year, here is downloadable PDF of a list of events that you can tailor your promotions around.

To have any shot at effective branding, you need to have standards and a rule book for your brand. These are called “brand standards.” This can come in the form of rules that are in the heads of your creative team members, but like most plans, they are easier to communicate and you tend to evaluate them more when these thoughts are manifested into a document.

At the very least, these standards should explain how to use your logo in all color situations, the specific colors that are acceptable to use to identify your brand, font selections, and the voice of your brand.

If you don’t plan your visuals, you can plan on failing visually. Take the time and use the resources available to create a brand standard. In the long run, you’ll be glad you did it.

Secondly, the amount of copy is very critical to give your print ad, billboard, or website balance and effectiveness. Just because it looks like you have tons of space available to use, there is no need to cover all of it with text. This is a mistake made by many people that don’t truly understand what the particular media is trying to achieve. For example, it would be foolish to use a billboard to list all of the great things about your players club card. On the other hand, a page on your website would be the perfect place for that type of communication.

Lastly, make sure your copy speaks to your audience. In the casino industry, a marketer’s primary job is to communicate complimentary or value based offers to your players through a call to action. Make sure the call to action is clear in what you are sending them. Keep in mind that the players you are reaching out to are receiving offers from more than just one casino. Make yours stand out.

Many of the times all of these options don’t fall under one particular department, but do fall under one effort, to effectively reach out to customers. If you are like most organizations, you’ll want to do this as efficiently as possible.

Each one of these potential customers is an individual, like me and like you. Even though we’d like to think that everyone prefers to be communicated to the same as us, in reality that isn’t true. That’s were, what Darden Restaurants calls, the “Platinum Rule,” comes into play. As we all know, the “Golden Rule” is to treat everyone like we would like to be treated. The “Platinum Rule” is just a bit better. It’s to treat everyone how they would like to be treated. We should consider the “Platinum Rule” when choosing how to communicate to our customers. If your department only utilizes certain touch points, don’t try to be the all-star and assume everyone wants to hear from your organization by the methods you manage and it is the best way to do things.

The best way to find out a customer’s preference is to ask. Seems simple right? There are a number of ways you can do this and you and your budget might like what you find. You may figure out that a customer that you were mailing is more than happy receiving an email with the exact same offer.

Any chance that you have, communicate well with your customers, they will appreciate it.