Whatever type of business you run, there are lessons to be learned from the online gaming industry.
According to Statista, the global online gaming market generated around $21.1 billion in 2020, which grew by 21.9% from the previous year. So, the gaming industry must be doing something right. Check out the following five takeaways from the thriving online gaming industry so you can also create a highly successful business.
Five Business Takeaways from the Thriving Online Gaming Industry
1. Mobile Optimization Is Critical
Not only are people playing more video games and casino games online than ever before. They are also increasingly using mobile devices like smartphones to play games. The online gaming industry has been quick to pick up on the rising trend of mobile usage by ensuring their websites and apps are optimized for mobile devices. The benefits are obvious: when people can play live roulette or MMORPGs on mobile-friendly platforms, the more users those platforms will gain.
The same can be applied to your business. Whatever type of business you run, a website is integral to success in the modern digital world. By ensuring your website and apps are optimized for mobile, you can gain more users. In turn, you will get more conversions and therefore more sales for your product or service.
2. Customer Feedback Helps You to Develop the Right Products or Services
Many video games and casino games take years to develop and perfect. Along the way, developers will find glitches and problems that need to be solved.
In order for developers to find solutions, they listen to the feedback of the gaming community and then improve the game based on their responses. This is an excellent example of how important gaining customer feedback is when you are developing new products or services.
Make sure you keep testing to identify any pitfalls and continually get your target audience’s feedback via things like social media tools and surveys until you arrive as close to perfection as possible. The more you listen to your target customers, the more you will be able to create products or services that are successful and generate profits.
3. Customer Loyalty Is the Key to Success
Video game fans are pretty loyal to certain game franchises and developers. But it is in the online casino gaming industry where customer loyalty is utilized to the max. While online casinos use various marketing strategies to obtain new players, they spend even more resources on retaining those customers.
They primarily do that by providing returning customers with bonuses and discounts, while making them feel special at the same time.
You can create customer loyalty by following the same pattern. In addition to giving special offers to returning customers, consider implementing a regular reward scheme or a loyalty-based membership option in which customers can choose a bronze, silver, or gold level.
Quite simply, the more you give back to your customers, the more they will return to your business and stay away from your competitors.
4. Greater Choice Creates More Customers
Both game developers and online casinos know the value of providing more choices to consumers. While it is equally as important to focus on quality as much as quantity if your business expands the number of choices customers have, you can expand the amount of custom you receive. You could expand your range of products or services, diversify into another product range or provide new convenient options like click-and-collect.
Take a leaf out of the online gaming industry’s book by providing greater choice, and you could see your business grow a lot in a short amount of time.
5. Building a Community Around Your Brand Can Help Your Business Thrive
Today, people do not only play video games and casino games. They also watch other people playing on streaming platforms and at e-sports events. That is just one area that demonstrates how important community is to the gaming world.
Gamers engage with each other to have detailed discussions about specific games and they use social media platforms where they can share images, videos, and other content.
The gaming community is growing all the time. In turn, that community allows the gaming industry to grow and cater for games toward consumers more accurately.
The community element of the gaming industry has led to non-gaming companies using the same model. Big businesses like Starbucks, Lego, and Nike have all created enthusiastic brand communities in which people actively engage. So, your business could do the same. It will take some time to build a community around your brand, but it is most certainly worth investing the time and money.
When you grow a community around your brand by creating social media groups and pages and providing gated content via forums, you develop a feeling of inclusion that creates value for your members.
