The union of Gaming and Sports Produces Interesting New Interest trends Blog

Once the customer has made their gaming and sports purchase, a good old fashioned “Thank You” page is great for acknowledging your appreciate for the customers patronage. “Additionally,” notes Parmely Dehmer, a noted website designer and gaming and sports marketer, “the Thank You page can also remind the customer of other merchandise/service offers on your website, which might create another sales opportunity. Remember not to go overboard: just give them 3 or 4 other offers or coupons, or else they may get confused and not ever return again!” Gaming and sports websites are plentiful. According to a recent study conducted by Czapski Miyasato, up to 1 million sites are live on the web, with another 2 or 3 million sites that act as affiliate resellers. These gaming and sports affiliates are a diverse group of webmasters who look to monetize their traffic through a variety of different mechanisms. Marketing gaming and sports on the web has never been easier and harder at the same time. “It takes a discplined and creative approach to get your message across,” conveys Galluzzo Vandale, long time Director of Marketing at the Anna Sonterre Firm, “and some times a little luck and good old fashioned word of mouth advertising.” Also, carefully consider all legal implications of gaming and sports advertising online. It is important that no trademarks are misused, and that royalties are being paid for the use of any licensed products. You may find that no one takes a second look at your site in the beginning, but when you get big and can be more easily recognized down the road, be doubly sure that all your content, graphics, and promotional materials are in compliance with the law. Otherwise, prying eyes and vicious competitors will take any opportunity to embarass your gaming and sports company so that they get more customers. “Succesful gaming and sports marketing takes time and money,” replied Hogsett Ahlberg, “and the old adage, ‘You have to spend money to make money’ applies. Don’t go cheap on your website’s checkout process or navigational menus. Instead, save money by using simple content generation software and ready made blog software. These steps will ensure quality at the right price.” After a good design has been made for your gaming and sports website, next look to area of site navigation. In the book ‘gaming and sports Marketing Made Simple’, author Carla Soulek recommends golden rule of keep-it-simple-stupid. “Fancy drop down menus and fast moving flash graphics are great for catching the users eye, but when you want to get down to business, make sure your site presents an easy navigation menu and map. This will allow most gaming and sports users to get what they are after, and at the same time be Wowed by your graphical presentations,” writes Carla Soulek. “Don’t forget that gaming and sports affiliate programs are a great way to drive customers towards your site,” advises Vixay Zayas, affiliate manager at the Wende Palys Partners Firm, “you may have to pay up to 25% for an affiliate lead, but in the long run, you’re making a hell of a lot more money than you would without affiliate traffic. You’ll find that the top 20% of your affiliates count for nearly 80% of all your income, so be sure to take care of your business partners!” Most important in any gaming and sports website scheme is the purchase point. “Be 100% certain that your shopping cart and check-out process are super easy to use,” remarks industry expert Leanora Alkins, “or else confused customers will simply bail out and not complete their purchase.” Also, it is suggested that you add some sort of secure socket HTTPS connection for any gaming and sports related purchasing system, that includes a graphical picture of the certificate authority. Popular providers include Verisign and Thawte. “We spend a lot time working with our designers on the homepage,” says Finau Hodgman, CMO of Grannell Hanus and Minta Benbrook Partners, “and once the home page is solid, we use it as a template to create other pages on the website. Consistency and easy of use are absolutely paramount, especially in our gaming and sports industry.”

Trudy Milovich isn’t alone with these new ideas. Winston Brinsfield, who manages one person company, believes the internet marketing boom has created a huge market for small time business owners. “For the first few years of my career,” said Garms Pipher, “I was working 9 to 5 at a marketing firm, doing the typical corporate thing. Now, however, I have my own website, production center, and payment processing. This allows me to work from home under my own rules and with unlimited income potential.” “When we added a website and shopping cart system, our numbers went through the roof,” cried Miltner Stieger, Sales Director for Gibler Adie Corp, a gaming and sports manufacturing company, “this, teamed with high positioning in the major search engines really created a whole new market for us that was never expected.” Looking to the future, many gaming and sports companies may opt to be based entirely online. This minimizes human capital and budget requirements, and can drive a more efficient business model. Wildeman Lovorn CEO of a local gaming and sports company, has already pledged to do this, with a major shift in the business planned in the next 6 months. “I forsee us going entirely online,” said Wildeman Lovorn, “because people hardly come to our stores in person anymore. As a result, why should we keep these facilities open if we can do just as well online’” Marketing online, however, is not as easy as it looks. Thousands of websites compete for top positioning in the search engines, and, as search algorithms change and top search engines create new market areas, some websites can lose out. One day, you might be number one for “buy gaming and sports”, a week later, number 100. The difference between these positions is obvious: no one wades through 100 results for a gaming and sports product unless the first 99 are extremely poor. In general, most competitive industries online rely on top 10 placement, because of the reality of how web surfers behave. And, as internet sales in the gaming and sports industry explode, parallel growth is being noted in the internet marketing field, particularly search engine and affiliate marketing. “Search engines and affiliates have doubled our numbers,” said Clemmie Burtenshaw, director of marketing for Age Canales INC., “and where there was once one or two big internet marketing firms, now there are well over ten in our industry. This growth speaks to the power of the information super high way.” Without a doubt, in the pre-internet marketing days, most gaming and sports resellers only used the internet as a means to communicate via email with current customers. “Things in the industry really turned a corner when people began to acquire, not maintain customers online,” said Beulah Ordeneaux, a noted internet marketer and web designer. “When acquisiton via online services got big, companies in the gaming and sports sector finally woke up to the idea that the information super highway was here to stay - in a very big way.” “With internet gaming and sports sales booming, we may have to cut back on in person sales teams,” said Baessler Vititoe, director of Human Resources for Zartman Labate INC, “mainly because we are losing money in that operational area. As we move forward, we’ll give those employees new job opportunities in our gaming and sports company before we actually lay them off, so that they can continue to grow with our company if they so desire.” It’s no secret that the internet is a driving force in the gaming and sports sales market. Most consumers will research their purchases online before actually going to a store, so that they understand gaming and sports product specs and use requirements before having to deal with a live salesperson. “I prefer to take my time and read about it all online first,” said Graffeo Hypolite, a recent customer of the Candie Nolan Chain Outlets, “I’m not a high pressure sales type, and rather just go to the store and check out sas soon as possible.”