Developing a video game is a lot of work. Every video game developer hopes that their game is going to practically sell itself, offering enough originality and fun that people will be eager to buy it at the moment they learn of its existence.
However, if you want to make those sales, you’ll need some kind of marketing strategy in place. How do you build one?
Marketing Expertise
While it’s certainly possible to learn the fundamentals of marketing and build a marketing strategy entirely on your own, you’re usually better off hiring and trusting experts with a robust body of marketing experience under their belts already. Depending on the size and scope of your video game development company, you might choose to hire or appoint a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Ideally, this will be someone who has years, if not decades, of marketing experience, as well as the characteristics that can make them a great leader within your organization.
You can also choose to hire a fractional CMO, says this source. A fractional CMO is very similar to a traditional CMO, except instead of hiring them as a full-time employee, you’ll work with them on a contractual, flexible basis. It’s a great way to get access to the experience and authority of a traditional CMO without having to spend a ton of money to do it.
Once you have a marketing expert in place, leverage them to the fullest. Take advantage of their knowledge and wisdom as you choose the right channels and messaging tactics.
Researching Your Target Demographics
Before you do anything else, you need to research and understand your target demographics. The better you understand your target audience, the more relevant your messaging is going to be, the better channels you can choose, and ultimately, the better you can utilize your marketing spending.
There are many tools, platforms, and strategies you can use to better understand your target demographics. To start, you can rely on demographic information from Census.gov or other reliable sources. You can supplement that with the help of surveys, focus groups, and other forms of direct interaction.
Who is going to be playing your game? And how are you going to best appeal to them? Don’t make the mistake of trying to market your game to everyone at once.
Analyzing the Competition
It’s also important to analyze your competition. Chances are, your video game isn’t entirely unique; while it may be an original concept, there are other games in this genre that people have bought and enjoyed before. There may even be current games with very similar structures to yours. Pay close attention to how these similar games market themselves, so you can learn from their greatest successes and failures alike.
Setting a Budget
One of the most important decisions you’ll have to make for your marketing strategy is how much you’re going to spend. If you had unlimited resources, you could dump a ton of money into promoting your video game. But if you’re like most video game developers, there’s going to be a strict upper limit on what you can spend. You can make the most of this money by spending it strategically, on the channels and tactics you feel are going to be most valuable for your brand.
Choosing the Right Channels
There are many viable channels for marketing a video game, all of which are at your disposal.
· SEO. Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about making sure your video game is highly visible in mainstream search engines like Google and search engines within digital video game stores. The more visibility you achieve, the more traffic you’ll get.
· PPC ads. You can also cater to your fans with pay per click (PPC) ads. In exchange for a fixed cost per click, you can generate more traffic and attention for your brand.
· Influencer marketing. Increasingly, video game developers turn to the help of influencers to promote their games. If you can have a famous Twitch streamer play and talk about your game for even a few hours, it could generate thousands of new customers for you. Of course, you’ll typically pay for this type of promotion.
· Social media. You can also take advantage of social media channels. Showcase your finest gameplay, engage with existing gaming communities, and joke around with memes (if that seems like a good fit for your brand and target audience). Since organic social media posting is free, there’s no reason not to take advantage of it.
· Cross-promotions. You may also consider cross promotions with other video games, especially if you have compatible audiences. It’s often mutually beneficial and relatively easy to execute.
Setting Up Analytics
If you want to be successful in the long term, you need to set up analytics. In other words, you need a way to objectively measure the success of your campaign. There’s no other reliable way to determine which of your tactics are working and which ones aren’t.
Preparing to Adapt
You may be able to put together an awesome video game marketing strategy from the very beginning, but if you want to continue increasing your revenue and expanding your brand influence, you need to be willing to adapt. In the fiercely competitive world of video game publishing, only the most adaptable marketers survive.
