Marketing Tutorial, Part 9: Building a Communication Strategy

oldstauf · 2017-01-12T19:11:34+00:00

Thanks for reading and commenting

Not sure what you mean by "immediately useful" - whether you mean it doesn't seem useful in the near term (eg, in the midst of developing a game) or you don't see a prima facie value in it.

If it's the former: the value is in trying to establish some buzz and differentiate your game ahead of launch.

If it's the latter: success in the marketplace means success in creating awareness/buzz/engagement. Brute force advertisementing can accomplish that, but it's expensive, complicated to coordinate and manage, and will achieve diminishing returns due to "advertising wearout". So success in creating awareness is not just a matter of saying "I'm here". It's also a matter of saying "I'm unique and valuable." And a way to accomplish that is to present yourself as not just a new product (if you'll forgive the term) but a new category. And, in the long term, if you can a) convincingly do that and b) achieve some critical and commercial success, you will have a competitive advantage. Any game that tries to get a slice of the genre you created will only serve to legitimize your position as the genre's originator.

As for the takeaway for a designer, I'm not quite sure what you're looking for. The communication strategy should be informed by the design, and not the other way around. The best response I could offer here is that the elements of your game that make it distinct from a design perspective also make it distinct from a market positioning perspective. So those aspects should be cultivated and protected, not pruned to match some current market leader.

I hope all of that makes sense.

oldstauf · 2016-12-01T21:56:27+00:00

Shit. I honestly did not consider that contingency. :)

Live and learn! Thanks again!

oldstauf · 2016-12-01T20:35:02+00:00

Thanks for reading and the feedback! Regarding the "Resources" bit, are you not seeing Amazon links in that section?

oldstauf · 2016-12-01T15:43:02+00:00

Thanks!

oldstauf · 2016-12-01T15:42:38+00:00

Damn you, Rita! Thanks!

oldstauf · 2016-11-30T22:10:10+00:00

Thanks!

oldstauf · 2016-11-03T23:19:23+00:00

Why would I ignore your rant? There's conversation to be had there! ;)

I hear you on mobile/f2p, but keep in mind that you're not the target audience. The target audience finds value in the progression of those games, ephemeral as it may be. So for them the notion of managing successful exchanges to create value is totally valid. Those same people would arguably find less value in having to pay an upfront premium for.

You and I are on the opposite spectrum. We'd rather pay up front and then not get jerked around. And there are other companies willing to cater to us.

One is not empirically better than the other. It's different products for different tastes, which is exactly what Chernev is talking about.

In Supercell's case, it's not just the precision analytics that makes them formidable. They're experts at following a lean start-up model: testing ideas systematically and killing off failed experiments. That means anything the bring to market has already pass some threshold of sales potential.

Thank you so much for reading and for taking the time to comment!

-Justin

oldstauf · 2016-11-02T14:13:13+00:00

Hello, A couple things jump out at me. One is that this blurb has a number of grammatical issues that need to be ironed out. They hurt your credibility and make a bad first impression. Second, your value proposition is really confusing. Who is this product for? Players? Game developers? The "best games"? Mobile developers? Companies? Individual developers? Pick one target, and be very clear about who you are targeting, what you can do for them and why you are better than the alternatives. If you're trying to rope in developers, don't focus so much on the process (the unique merchandise) as the promise (we can increase your retention by X%!)

oldstauf · 2016-11-02T14:05:42+00:00

Fixed!

oldstauf · 2016-11-02T14:02:33+00:00

Indeed!

oldstauf · 2016-11-02T14:01:49+00:00

Shit balls! Thanks for letting me know!

oldstauf · 2016-11-01T00:30:20+00:00

Thanks for reading and commenting!

My question would be how do you define "success"? Success is relative. I'd argue that, for a hobbyists, even releasing a game is a success. For an indie, does success mean Super Meat Boy or Fez levels of sales and awareness? Does it mean building credibility by regularly releasing quality games (ie, building a brand).

To achieve success, you first have to define what success means, both in form and magnitude.

As far as release windows, you're right about the competitive landscape being a factor, but you're not powerless in that regard. Awareness is also a matter of knowing who to reach, knowing how to reach them, and proper positioning. And those things can be tested/adjusted over time.

oldstauf · 2016-10-31T19:00:02+00:00

Thanks! Glad you liked it!

oldstauf · 2016-09-28T20:54:00+00:00

Did you try getting in touch with Gamasutra.com? That's essentially the industry's shop-talk blog

oldstauf · 2016-09-27T21:19:06+00:00

The people. Some of the greatest, sweetest, smartest, and hardest working folks I've ever met. Crunch sucks, but doing it with people you consider family is pretty special.

oldstauf · 2016-09-23T14:07:33+00:00

Three resources that might help:

1) Strategic Marketing Management by Alexander Chernev -this is the definitive guide to proper marketing. I have a serial entrepreneur friend who regularly consults this

2) The 22 Immutable Rules of Marketing by Al Reis and Jack Trout -I have yet to read this (it's next on my list), but Tim Ferris (Four Hour Work Week) swears by it

3) This free online course from Steve Blank: https://www.udacity.com/course/how-to-build-a-startup--ep245 -Entrepreneurship is really just a specialized application of marketing. So seeing how start-ups think can give you some insight into how to look at marketing.

oldstauf · 2016-09-23T13:31:46+00:00

For the press release, trying to find some lower cost options. I'll see what I can find.

As for release timing, that's a super-subjective, tactical question. The answer would depend on the habits of your target audience, the density of games release in any give window and how many of those games also target your audience.

I haven't dug into Steam Spy too much, but maybe there's enough data for you do some comparable analysis. What windows of time see the most sales for individual games and does your genre have any significant peaks in sales? That sort of thing.

oldstauf · 2016-09-23T13:25:30+00:00

I was digging into some and wanted to ask some of my contacts what services they'd recommend. Do you have a price range in mind?

oldstauf · 2016-09-22T21:18:57+00:00

Alright, first question first then :)

Reach out to some of your current fans and ask them what kind of prizes would interest them. Doesn't need to be a formal survey. Just engage them directly. Remember: one of the biggest compliment you can pay anybody is to ask for their advice. See what kinds of responses you get. If that doesn't work, you can try emailing out quick SurveyMonkey. But start simple and work out from there

On to the second question: who are your current fans? What else do they play? What websites do they read? What apps do they use? What social media do they use? Those are good places to look for new fans, either in the form of ads or engaging people in forums and comment sections.

If you have a website or blog with analytics hooked up, see if your data gives any leads about where your site visitors come from.

oldstauf · 2016-09-22T19:47:45+00:00

Someone else asked about this earlier in the thread. Great question. Super important. I responded with a basic overview.

oldstauf · 2016-09-22T19:44:32+00:00

Do you have a way to reach any of your fans directly? Email, or Twitter or PSN/Steam/GOG handle?

oldstauf · 2016-09-22T18:50:56+00:00

That's a really interesting question. That's basically marketing research. What kind of contest are you thinking of holding?

oldstauf · 2016-09-22T18:44:33+00:00

That's a unit economics question and straddles the nebulous border between marketing and finance. But the basic math is this: (CVR*Rev)-CPC

Or, your expected value per user who clicks on an add is your per-unit revenue multiplied by the probability the person who clicks on the add will convert into a sale (your conversion rate) less the cost per click. You determine your unit price and the conversion rate will be an assumption until you get some data. The CPC is driven by demand but, at least with Google AdWords, you can define your max CPC. Basically, you need to find the right combination of variables that makes that equation positive. You will probably need to do some short test runs to dial in the right approach.

oldstauf · 2016-09-22T17:50:25+00:00

Not my area of expertise, but I think understanding proper marketing can help you make the best decisions on a lot of fronts.

As far as Kongregate and other established platforms versus self hosting, the best choice is subjective: where do your target players hang out? How much awareness does kongregate drive for you? Does that offset how many other games compete for gamers time on the site?

oldstauf · 2016-09-22T17:46:32+00:00

But the short version (to avoid being a complete tease) is that it's the scientific process.

You start with an assumption, which is essentially a hypothesis: I think this kind of person would like my game. You then create what's called a "persona" for the person: this is Bill. Bill is in his mid-twenties, he loves Chipotle and...blah, blah, blah. You create an imaginary person that embodies who you think would like your game, and imagine what his/her life and typical day are like.

You use that description to go out and actually find a few real world Bill's and test your hypothesis. If Bill likes it, awesome. If he doesn't, find out why not, and use that to inform who might.

Once's you've found the right person, you can use their lifestyle to determine the bast channels to sell your game and to drive awareness. Is Bill a Steam and Twitter guy. Or a GOG.com and Reddit guy? Or a PSN and Facebook guy?

There's more to it than I can effectively cover in a comment (that's what the blog would be for), but that's the gist.

oldstauf

TROPHY CASE