Len Shneyder, Marketing Manager, OtherLevels participated in an intriguing Q&A with Loyalty360 to discuss how the mobile gambling industry, estimated to be worth $100 billion by 2017, is evolving and how with all the success that brands are having in this industry, the challenge of cutting through the cluttered gambling marketplace and reducing player churn and disengagement remains a concern.
For brands to deliver ROI, the ability to engage and retain players is essential and, according to Shneyder, it’s more critical now that every marketing message be well timed, relevant, and targeted.
Q: Can you talk a bit about the evolvement of mobile gambling and how, specifically, brands can engage and retain players to ultimately deliver ROI?
There’s been a lot of progress in recent months toward the acceptance of Internet gambling across the U.S., with states like Nevada and Delaware not surprisingly leading the charge with its Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement. Juniper predicts mobile devices alone will top $100 billion by 2017 so mobile gambling is the next logical step. And, with the U.K. betting market proving to be extremely lucrative, many U.S. mobile gaming developers like Zynga and King are preparing themselves for wide-scale U.S. adoption as well.
Crucial to that preparation is creating the framework for engaging and retaining players. The key is to avoid putting your players in big, general buckets—instead focusing on the fluidity of mobile users. As with “traditional” mobile games, analytics techniques that apply to messaging being sent to players can ensure that an app’s content is creating and nurturing long-lasting conversations. Developers need to use smart platforms that pull BI, CRM, and other user behavioral data into the decision-making process while leveraging granular segmentation so that relevant content is being delivered to the right user at their particular level of engagement.
Q: Can you offer a brief example of how a brand can use messaging analytics to gain actionable customer insights?
We believe that unless you engage new players early in their journey with relevant content, not only do you risk not being able to gain more player insights, but also having players churn out and removing your game altogether. To avoid this from happening, brands need to analyze user behavior at a very granular level and tailor their messaging to gain the most data about the player and their preferences. Too often the cadence and content of messages are not grounded in any data analysis and that can lead to disengagement. Some examples of this include messages being ill-timed, excessive, or irrelevant to the gamer’s preference – all of which must be avoided to lessen churn rates. We help brands look at things like recency and actual message outcomes that really help isolate what’s working and what can use refinement. Additionally, our platform allows users to test different message content in real time to ensure messaging is flexible enough to cover numerous potential use cases.
Q: What is the key to engaging and retaining players?
A mobile device is one of the most personalized devices on the planet. The approach to engaging and retaining players is all about testing and retesting your messaging content to ensure that every interaction with a mobile user is relevant and welcomed. Testing alone is insufficient—you need good behavioral analysis to help refine things like delivery windows. Brands need to have a deep understanding of who they’re targeting with each message and create nurturing campaigns that speak directly to the mobile player at an individual level.
Q: How can you make mobile interactions more effective?
There are several messaging variables that can be tested including the tone of the message, length, time of day you send it, in app content, etc., and brands yield dramatic effects in reducing player churn and increasing player engagement by finding the right balance.
Another way to improve message effectiveness is by viewing mobile as the first physically constructed omnichannel tool. Mobile’s myriad of communication channels like push notifications and the rich inbox should be viewed as interconnected highways and byways, rather than standalone communications channels. A push message may drive traffic back to a game but without proper deep linking to a rich inbox, or specific page within the app, the actual push message can generate confusion instead of engagement.
Q: How do brands combat player churn?
As churn directly impacts the lifetime value of a player, it’s crucial that every interaction has the goal of encouraging players to continue using and returning to your game. Successful mobile games are ones that tailor every message delivered whether through push notification, in-app messaging, or by other means to determine the messaging style is resonating with its users and then replicating those efforts.
Another way to avoid player churn is to identify and understand what’s not working on a mobile game. Messaging that interrupts game play, has irrelevant offerings or is excessive all have the potential to have adverse effects on player engagement. Also, understanding the distribution of players from highly engaged players, to non-engaged first time users, is important. Focusing all your efforts on the monetization of recent downloaders is more than likely too aggressive. Nurturing less engaged players into more engaged ones will yield a bigger, more active user base, then and only then do you start moving them up the funnel and monetize them.
Q: What are the most effective mobile tools to maximize retention and keep the most active gamers engaged?
We advocate using tools such as player segmentation, A/B testing and message retargeting. These familiar marketing tools bring the same level of sophistication marketers have used to engage and retain users through email, web and other digital channels. Too many companies view mobile push notifications and in app messages as a broadcast channel where every user gets the same message. This is incredibly shortsighted and can lead to player disengagement. By linking individual message copy from pushes and in-app messages to users’ behaviors, we are able to identify excessive and irrelevant pushes or in-app alerts that can prevent players from coming back after the first session.
Q: What is your definition of customer loyalty and has that definition changed in recent years?
Customer loyalty has definitely seen its share of changes in recent years, especially with the proliferation of mobile devices. For mobile gaming operators, customer loyalty comes down to maximizing the interactions that you have with these players. Typically that includes: A) engaging them frequently, B) up-selling gamers from free to paid versions, and C) introducing customers to new game titles with your network.
The most direct way to do this is through thoughtful, intelligent messaging. By creating notifications that are well timed and relevant, game marketers can achieve critical goals like longer play sessions and in-app purchases.