Public Relations and Marketing

Start Marketing From Day 1

If your plan is to sell copies, plan a marketing campaign from Day 1.

• Use Social Media, funnel to a newsletter, forum, or Discord server. Have continued interaction with your community.
• Share what is unique about the development team and the game you are making.
• Go to events, have people playtest your game, and gauge the reaction from your users.
• Build assets for marketing to give your best first impression. Create a PR Timeline and schedule out your marketing.
• Set goals for marketing. Try to write articles that will make your game or studio standout and get noticed.
• You have to spend money to make money. A minimum budget for traditional marketing is around $50,000 dollars.

Make a Solid Landing Page

• Show off your game. Use the best screenshots, videos, etc.
• Have a Call-to-Action that incentivizes. Offer demo, soundtrack, updates, newsletter, digital assets, concept art, etc. in exchange for email.
• You have to give value to get your core audience invested.

The Importance of Marketing Analytics

PR has quantifiable data such as views, clicks, and acquisition. Use analytic tools on Google and social media. They will show how effective your adverts and social media posts are doing. Use A/B Testing to improve your marketing pages. The goal is to use A/B Testing to reduce the cost of an acquisition and optimize your marketing strategy. Adjust and test against different marketing material to determine which advert will draw more views, clicks, and acquisitions. These are questions you should ask yourself: What is bad about the marketing material? The Header? The Content? The Media? Another question to ask is: Who is your target demographic? Your data might show that the demographic you are attracting is different than the demographic you were originally targeting. Consider adjusting your marketing accordingly.

How to Get Help from News Outlets

Easiest way to get News Outlets to help is to prove that your game has the potential for success. Build a relationship with a journalist, then pitch your game to them. Be precise with your PR approach. Show them that your game is launching and has a community.

Make a Press Kit for Media Outlets

A press kit provides media outlets have all the essential information and images to use in their articles or videos. Give creative freedom to the author or content creator. If you are being interviewed, be honest and say things with 100% certainty. Do not make assumptions about what will be in your game. Avoid using licensed music from the Music Industry in videos/trailers if you don't have an agreement to use it. This could result in a DMCA takedown on the video, a copyright strike on the YouTube Channel, or lawsuit.

Attend Festivals and Offer Demos

Festivals give you an opportunity to showcase you game to thousands of attendees. With the advent of Online Festivals, such as Steam Next Fest, you can potentially reach millions. Offering a demo lets potential customers try your game early and provide feedback. If atendees like your demo, then they are more likely to purchase your game on release because they will want to play more of it.

Sources:

Chris Zukowski - How To Market A Game
Michale Brown - CEO of Vicarious PR
Andrew Pappas - Author of RenGen Marketing