Is Your Casino Loyalty Club an Eagle, Chameleon or Flounder?

In the casino industry, loyalty clubs are the relentless workhorses of marketing. Loyalty clubs effect casino operations like veins, carrying offers and touching almost every departmental function. Many loyalty clubs are content to flounder and remain the same. Or, like a chameleon, only change after a competitor lights up the market with a new and better offer.

Your club chugs along daily … responsible for feeding the database. Plus, doing the daily workmanship of attracting, sustaining, and retaining the most important players in your universe … the people you know.

Is your club a high-flying market leader, a constantly changing chameleon, or a flounder that lays on the bottom and blends in?

The loyalty club is a microcosm of the casino business. To succeed in your market, your organization doesn’t need to just be better than your competitors, it needs to be exceptional.

Being unique and out front with newer trends keeps your casino fresh and worthy of repeat visits. Clubs that are unremarkable, fail to grow, and play it safe, will fade faster than a flounder on a sandbar.

As casinos become more and more a part of the fabric of the USA, the only effective competitive strategy is to understand your product, deliver a positive guest experience, and keep ahead of trends that change faster than a gecko on a TV screen.

So, what are the trends today that keep loyalty clubs in the forefront?

Here are four leading trends from casino and non-casino loyalty clubs:

1) Omni-channel is king! Reward members for evangelizing

You have a relationship-driven loyalty club and deliver a strong guest experience. Why not reward guests for becoming advocates? Offering rewards – such as points or gifts to guests who refer new players, share posts, post photos or create content – is a leading trend in the loyalty universe. The customer advocacy reward trend is made possible because your guests interact daily via mobile phones on numerous social media channels.

Imagine your casino’s social media channels hitting supersonic reach across numerous social media outlets driven by your own guests. By rewarding customer advocacy, your impact on social media, mobile, and digital channels can mushroom and snowball. With today’s tracking methods, you can reward guests who advocate for your casino. Plus, it’s a great way to keep your guests engaged and informed.

2) Gain emotional loyalty with stuff you can’t buy!

Research indicates that emotional loyalty to your brand is one of the strongest drivers of success. Use your club to provide soft benefits that relate to the unique market differentiators your brand delivers. Is your casino for foodies? Offer unique rewards where guests can interact with your chefs. Is your spa top of the market? Offer contests or reward triggers that put your players into a spa party with friends and family. Backstage passes to concerts, special casino interactions with dealers to learn new games, private parties at your event centers and golf lessons with your pros, are all programs that fit your unique brand and tap into emotional loyalty with your guests.

3) Keep continuity programs in-line

Continuity programs are the backbone of casino player development and loyalty club marketing. However, like old milk in the refrigerator, you better give them the smell test on a regular basis. Continuity programs, like the vaulted senior day or club acquisition programs, can run on without change, turning them into Ghostbuster programs without end.

Continuity programs sit in your lineup forever, and are the top candidates for layering. Therefore, it’s a good idea to regularly review and analyze your continuity programs with a goal of keeping them fresh and profitable.

4) Partner with partners

All the kids are doing it. Why not make partnerships work for your casino? To increase loyalty and value, tap into regional partners. Adding programs with market partners can bind your guests to your casino and open up new guest experiences. Using or rewarding points for products or services in your market is a tried-and-true program with legs, that uses benefits you are unable to produce alone. Creating new market opportunities using strategic partners offers exciting ways to raise revenues using differentiating benefits that puts you apart from your competition.

Is your club soaring with the eagles or floundering with the chameleons?

In summary:

• Using omni-channel rewards to motivate your guests to advocate is a bold step towards expanding your market reach.
• Offering guests one-of-a-kind experiences that reflect your brand. This is a great way to increase loyalty that can’t be duplicated by your competition. It’s yours alone.
• Keep your continuity programs profitable by analyzing and updating to keep them fresh.
• Partner with regional companies to offer products and services that add value and excitement that you can’t do alone.

And, whatever you are … don’t be a flounder!

Reinvestment, loyalty club structure, continuity programs, direct marketing … is it time for a strategic marketing check-up to ensure your programs are on target? Trust us, a good audit can save you thousands if not more and, frankly, taking the time to do this in-house just doesn’t happen when everyone wears several hats. To get more information on our simple audit programs and strategic check-ups, contact Amy Hergenrother at 775-329-7864 or [email protected].