5 Critical Strategies for Video Game Marketing (Part 1)

The fact of the matter is that with less money going towards game companies, they’re looking for ways to stretch their budgets.  This puts into play the traditional relationship of the publisher vs. developer.  The developers who make the game pour their effort and skill into making a game and the publisher who finances that game wants to see a return on that investment. Game publishers need to get past the idea of throwing millions of dollars into marketing promotions that rely on dated marketing channels.

Here are 5 things video game publishers, developers and marketers can do that will stretch their marketing budgets when constrained by a significant dip in funding.

1.    Unless you’ve got a ton of money to throw into the budget, avoid TV.

Television’s influence on the purchasing behavior of the gaming demographic is steadily dwindling.  Most gamers spend more time online or playing games than watching TV.  With the added channel of mobile gaming, from the PSP, Nintendo DS or the iPhone, gamers’ interaction with gaming periphery is steadily chipping away at their TV watching habits.  Unless you’ve got the cash, TV cannot reliably be tracked down to a purchase or a site visit, TV rarely engages users in any non-passive behavior & the amount of shows that cater to the gamers’ interest is scattered at best. 

2.    Incorporate Search Engine Marketing in Your Campaign.

Enthusiast gaming media has a firm grip on search marketing.  When gamers look for games, they are motivated more by brand search than by category search.  Simply put, the searches for “first person shooter” pale in comparison to “Bioshock”, “Doom 3” or even unannounced games like “Halo 4”.   Planning the development of the game microsite to incorporate good search engine marketing can allow you to control the information and visibility of your site when your brand is stemmed to include keywords like “screenshots”, “info” and “videos”.  Each of these games’ sites don’t show up on the first page of Google’s results when the search is stemmed.

 

Keyword/ Average Monthly Search Volume

Bioshock: 1,830,000

Doom 3: 1,500,000

Halo 4: 246,000

First Person Shooter: 135,000

 

3.    Gamers Have Been Using “Social Media” Since BBS.

You’re no longer going to get money thrown at you the minute you say you’re utilizing a social media strategy.  That’s almost boiled down to saying, “I’m throwing shit up on MySpace, Facebook and maybe Twitter”.  Social marketing is an established habit and behavior of gamers.  We crave information and we’re more than willing to modify it, share it, post it and do whatever the hell we want with it.  Video game social media marketing is about knowing what core behaviors and desires gamers have and feeding that need with a planned and programmed content release schedule.  The big social media sites merely give you a platform to engage in that  behavior, the sites are NOT the strategy, they are the platforms that socialize the behavior quickly to gamers’ networks. 

4.    Drive Traffic to Online Sources.

Every single article, PR piece, image, video, piece of swag should be focused on the end result of the gamer buying the video game.  Put the URL on everything that’s fit to print.  Have a designer make the URL into a logo.  Make the destination a part of the artwork.  It should be simple, recognizable and visually appealing enough to put on a T-shirt alone and be appealing.  As these product based traffic drivers spread, users will come to your site.  This is a no-brainer, but I’m still surprised when I see video game marketers simply forget that they have a website.

5.    Integrate An Opt-In eCRM System.

Online marketing is focused on the conversion.  It’s how we make money, it’s how we measure success and it’s a critical metric of how our product is valued.  As you’re utilizing channels to drive traffic to the website, make sure you have a goal in mind.  You want the user to opt in to sign up for email messages.  I can’t count the times I’ve signed up for an email on a game website and I receive little to nothing from them until they’re asking me to please buy the game.  In my mind, giving away my personal information should have provided value for me.  I want contest information, I want community news, I want deals and exclusive content.  This eCRM system full of gamers who are enthusiastic could be transformed into loyal customers and producers of content for you.  Very few things are worse than becoming “that friend” who only calls you when he needs your money.

 

Read Part 2… 5 More Strategies for Video Game Marketing

5 Critical Strategies for Video Game Marketing (Part 1)