Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are strictly those of the author, CT Moore, and interview subject, and in no way reflect those of Gaming Industry Media.
Understanding your target market is about more than just knowing how to best design and package your product. It’s about offering you customers added value – those little extras that make your product that much more friendly, familiar, and/or enjoyable than that of your competitors.
In the world of online bingo, since the average player is female, age 18-40, those little extras include community and targeted content. These, in turn, mean social media integration and celebrity gossip.
Recently, I got to chat with the President and CEO of BunnyBingo.com, Shaun Measday, and he discussed what BunnyBingo is doing in these areas. Shaun was a little tight-lipped about their near-future plans for social media, but admitted that those plans are big. He also discussed how BunnyBingo approaches is using search engine marketing for acquisition and customer relationship management.
CT Moore: What have been some of the most popular and effective promotions that you've run, and what were their outcomes?
Shaun Measday: Wow, there’s been so many. I don't want to give away too much – rubbish interviewee, aren't I? [chuckles] But I think understanding our demographic, and gearing our promotions to what they want will always work.
CT: Where has social media fit into your marketing strategy?
SM: You know, it will play a massive part – but like a lot of online businesses, it’s difficult getting the right tone of voice and leverage with social media. We have a pretty ambitious plan in Bunny HQ, which is under wraps and being worked on throughout the night by a secret force of programmers... Erm, maybe I’ve had too much coffee! [laughs] Ok, we have got a big plan with social media, but I think it's a case of learning as we go.
MySpace, Twitter and Facebook have all changed the way in which we interact with each other and the internet – how it changes the way people interact and react to our brand will be interesting... But watch [us] in this space!
CT: What branding techniques have you employed to increase awareness and recognition?
SM: We've been lucky that our brand has a good recognizable factor to it. Our market research since launch has told us that people remember us, and we have even got a bit of a cult following!
Brand building is a part of marketing mix, but I believe that it's the values behind the brand that will ultimately be the most effective strategy. Great games, great service and value for money.
CT: Have you applied SEM strategies to increase your site's visibility on key search engines? If so, what were your outcomes?
SM: Yes, we employ both PPCand CEO strategies. PPC is our background so we're comfortable with that and have a good deal of success. Its competitive out there, but actually, nowhere near as competitive as something like Poker or Casino… Well, not yet!
CT: How much does CRM factor into your retention strategy?
SM: Its an ever increasing aspect. When we launched, our goal was to recruit as many players as possible to establish some kind of critical mass. However, that's useless if we do not retain the customers. In fact the timing of this question is great, as we are about to launch a brand new CRM strategy, based in house. Our customers are suddenly going to get a lot more communication from us, and hopefully they're going to feel a lot of Bunny love!!!
CT: How often do you measure your traffic conversion from visitors to customers?
SM: Erm, about once every 5 minutes [chuckles]. Seriously, I'm a stat junkie, so I am forever checking our stats, from conversion, to bounce rate to CPR to CPA. You name it, I check it! The reason being, the more I know, the better the decisions I make are going to be.
CT: How often do you update content on your site?
SM: We're kinda unique because we have our gossip blog which we update 4 or 5 times every day. So I can honestly answer we update every day. Also, we are consistently updating the site in small ways on an almost daily basis. Having come from an affiliate background, we have the benefit of knowing that constant tinkering can pay off!!
At the time this was written, CT Moore was a new media strategist for Income Access, a provider of affiliate marketing solutions to BunnyBingo.com.