How can esports marketing strategies help a business to grow?

Esports is a curious world, not only because of the type of sport it is, but also because of the immense power it has right now. 

600 million people around the world reportedly followed esports in some way in 2021. Estimates say that by 2024, esports is set to be a $1.6 billion industry. That has massive companies including as ESPN, Red Bull, Intel, and even Taco Bell looking for an avenue into the action.

Here’s why companies are scrambling to the esports industry, and what the future may hold.

The right audience

Esports has shown the importance of demographics, and programming that caters strongly to a specific one.

Traditional sports find themselves struggling to deal with an increasingly old audience and decreasing interest in the product from younger crowds. Many traditional sports organizations including the Golden State Warriors, Paris Saint-Germaine, and Vancouver Canucks are turning to esports to leverage different markets to prospective sponsors. 

Good content marketing

Marketing esports is relatively easy as they’re often pitched directly to people who play the games casually. But to position itself where it is today, esports has been putting out excellent content campaigns like SlotsUp for years now. 

Esports has not lost its focus and remains largely centered around the games they’re played on. All the content that comes out of esports is perfectly positioned for endemic fans to find it. On top of this, the quality of the content is very strong with esports broadcast comparing favorably to traditional sports programming

Influencer marketing

Many people are repulsed by the term influencer, but there’s no denying their reach. Esports knows this very well and influencers are part of the esports celebrity community, with most esports organizations sponsoring a stable of streamers and YouTubers.

What makes esport influencers interesting is that they don’t necessarily focus on macro personalities. There are thousands of micro influencers, which promote and work towards the growth of esports in their own way.

Giveaways

Receiving products for free is one of the greatest rewards in the consumer world. There is a huge amount of esports merch, and giveaways with t-shirts, mugs, jackets, or other products is an effective means of generating goodwill for newcomers to the space.

They don’t necessarily need to be anything big, either. There have been successful giveaways in major events in the form of free signs for fans to show which teams they support at a tournament, which conveniently also have the logo of the brand that made them.

Some people may still find esports a bit strange. Others don’t even want to admit interest in esports. Whatever the position, the truth is that one can profit from the rise and conquering of online games.

The fame of esports did not appear overnight, as there has been years of marketing, development, and dedication that have contributed to its growth.