By Dave Schwab
The start of another season of football is right around the corner which means it is time to dial up your efforts to market your private bookie services to any number of potential sports bettors that are looking for the added level of customer service and personal attention to detail that only you can provide as an independent sports bookmaker.
Since most of today’s sports betting action is booked through the Internet, the first important step to marketing your bookie business for football is to make sure that your company projects a highly professional online presence. Your customized sports betting website is your calling card. It is the first thing someone will see once you do attract them to your bookie service so you need to make sure that it is constantly up to date with current graphics, it has a betting board that is built out to match what the big offshore sportsbooks operating online offer and it is user-friendly and easy to navigate in both its layout and functionality.
You only get one chance to make that first impression and if your company website does not project a highly professional image, it is highly doubtful that any sports bettor is going to feel comfortable trusting you with their sports betting bankroll. Customization is extremely important when you are creating a unique online presence for your bookie services since you do not want a stock site that does not reflect the high level of service that you can provide for your sports betting customers. You are far better off waiting to launch your site until it is right than rushing something to market that could actually do more harm than good.
Once you have your website up and running in a fashion that will attract bettors to your services, you then need to create a marketing plan for getting the word out. While creating an email list that includes both your current betting customers as well as some potential bettors that you are trying to attract is a great start, you also need to employ other forms of social media that can be targeted to the right audience. Twitter is still a viable form of social media for the online sports betting industry as well as any other online sports betting forums that might be out there.
Grass roots marketing in attempt to grow and expand your customer base can be a very effective way to reach your target market and there is no better form of advertising than word of mouth referrals. Reaching out to your existing customers in an attempt to obtain referrals for potential customers has already proven itself to be one of the most effective business tools there is to growing your business. You can take things one step further and institute a referral bonus program similar to the ones that just about every big online book has in place. Giving something back to your loyal customers is a great way to thank someone for their business while also rewarding them for helping your business grow.
Given just how big football is when it comes to the betting action you bring in as a private bookie, any new customers you add now will undoubtedly pay some big dividends down the road. Football leads right into basketball season which then spans well over half the sports calendar year. It is far harder to try and expand your overall customer base without football. That is why now is the time to ramp up your marketing efforts. Once the season starts most bettors are already going to be settled in with their betting outlet of choice.
