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A Practical Marketing Guide for Indie Game Developers Flipbook PDF
A simple digital marketing guide for indie game developers.
Created by the Smart KAMK project team (Aile HA, Marika PÖL
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Marketing 101
A Practical Marketing Guide for Indie Developers
Ha Aile, Marika Pöllä, Marc Lewis, and Ruey Komulainen
A Practical Marketing Guide for Indie Developers
Table Of Contents Marketing strategies for indie/small game developers
4
Introduction
4
Game Industry And The Marketing Environment
5
Brief Look at Today’s Gaming Industry Landscape
5
Marketing environment of today
5
Marketing strategies and game development
6
Why the marketing strategy matters
6
The Two-Way In uence of Marketing and Game Development
7
Marketing Mix and Branding
8
Marketing Mix and Branding
8
Marketing Mix and Why It Matters
10
SEO & SoMe Optimization and Contents Management
12
Brie y on SEO
12
Basic SEO terminology:
12
Tools to check popularity of keyword searches
13
12 Tips to use SEO to full capacity
13
Brie y on SoMe
14
Managing Your Content
17
App Store Optimization
18
Measurement of Success
18
Performance Analytic for Developers (Metric)
18
‘
19
Balanced Scorecard
19
Marketing 101
A Practical Marketing Guide for Indie Developers SoMe measurement
21
Extra resources
23
NOW it’s time for you to practice!
23
TASKS: TASK 1: List out your 3 main reasons for doing marketing for games…………………………………….1 TASK 2: Draw an analysis for your game marketing environment………………………………3 TASK 3.1: Draw your SEO plan……………………………………………………………………………………………….14 TASK 3.2: Draw your SoMe plan…………………………………………………………………………………………….14 TASK 4: Draw your ASO plan……………………………………………………………………………………………….17 WORKSHEETS: WORKSHEET 1: De ne your business and target audience………………………………………………………………Error! Bookmark not de ned. WORKSHEET 2: The ultimate SoMe checklist…………………………………………………………………………………Error! Bookmark not de ned. WORKSHEET 3: The ultimate content marketing guidance…………………………………………………………….Error! Bookmark not de ned. WORKSHEET 4: The ultimate digital marketing checklist………………………………………………………………..23
Marketing 101
Marketing 101
Marketing strategies for indie/small game developers Introduction he gaming industry is changing on all levels and companies need to change T with it. There are many creative ways for indie companies to adapt on a small budget, if one examines the eld carefully. This little guide is aiming to give the reader a general understanding of today’s situation and how to work the prevailing trends and in uences for one’s advantage. The second aim of this guide is to break down the wall between the marketing and development departments inside the game companies. MY ACTIONS
arketing M your game (Steam Devs Days 2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=477rvRSjE5U Indie Game Marketing 5 things to know before you start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EehTJ4N5SLU TASK 1: List your 3 main reasons for why to market games. WORKSHEET 1_De ne your business and target audience.docx
Marketing 101
Marketing 101
Game Industry And The Marketing Environment Brief Look at Today’s Gaming Industry Landscape oday’s industry is in a ux and in the process of re-de ning itself in T multiple aspects, starting from the games themselves due to the development of technology, and ending with the customer base due to societal changes. With trends like “edutainment,” gami cation of school topics are becoming increasingly mainstream. You can clearly see the audience changing. There is a signi cant increase of relevance when it comes to the social aspects of games. This can be seen in the following instances: The rapid increase of multiplayer ONLY games Similar increase in online ONLY games Community development around popular franchises and brands Increase of interest in sharing gameplay and watching said shared content Gaming as a profession akin to an athlete
Marketing environment of today eople perceive things differently and look at unique information outlets in P different styles than a decade ago. Marketers must gure out a new way to bring products and services to their potential customers’ attention. The Legacy Media (physical newspapers and journals, traditional satellite TV, and traditional radio) has been heavily on the decline as digital media continues to rise in popularity. Mobile marketing, which is still new and constantly developing
Marketing 101
Marketing 101 MY ACTIONS
arketing M Environment Analysis Checklist: http://www.austincc.edu/sfarr/online/game1303/Game1303_Week06_B_Strategy_in_Video_Games%20%20SWOT.pdf TASK 2: Draw an analysis for your game marketing environment READ additional resources for understanding the game environment Gamasutra: https://www.gamasutra.com/ Newzoo: https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/the-global-games-marketwill-reach-108-9-billion-in-2017-with-mobile-taking-42/ Digital trends: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/ NOTE: The above are just suggestions from the authors to illustrate sources where indie developers can nd information about industry trends and use them to conduct the required marketing environment analysis.
Marketing 101
Marketing 101
Marketing strategies and game development Why the marketing strategy matters First, examples:
he Call of Duty game series was intended for twenty-somethings yet T ended up being most played by teens around 13 to 15 years. Pokémon GO was aimed for those aged 12 to 17 to make them be more active, yet ended up being most popular with the long-time Pokémon fans, who are in their thirties and play it for the nostalgia value. The My Little Pony reboot show and franchise line was initially aimed at 3 to 7 year old girls, yet the strongest customer base ended up being grown men. All these are positive examples in the sense that even if the targeting was off, they all found a strong, paying audience, and made a massive pro t regardless. Not everyone has luck on their side. Their branding (covered later) was strong, which gave them more visibility than what they would otherwise receive. The negative cases are: Less visible and heard of simply because due to the error in targeting, projects failed to get off the ground and just faded into obscurity, at worst, dragging down whole companies/start-ups with them. All these positive cases were by big companies with strong brand names: Hasbro, Electronic Arts, The Pokémon Company. Even if said projects would have failed commercially, these companies would have been able to absorb the damage and recover. Small companies do not have that luxury. If content was king all the time, scam artists would not be a thing. Selling a product is almost equal parts of what it is, and how and to whom you present it.
Marketing 101
Marketing 101
The Two-Way Development
In uence
of
Marketing
and
Game
arketing and development branches MUST have a dialogue when a game M is being made. Developers often make the huge mistake of start making a game and only later ask themselves: “Who am I making this for?” The core purpose of a company is to generate value, so the product must be marketable. In best cases, the dialogue between branches can help streamline the development and spare both money and employees. Similarly, marketers that are aware of the development process acquire indepth knowledge of the product and are thus more equipped to present it to the world.
Marketing Mix and Branding According to Newzoo 2017, Global Games Market Report:
he phase that the games market is now entering is rede ning how we talk T about our industry, audience and future. Gamers should be replaced with ‘game enthusiasts’ Fast growing viewing audience who has no time or does not play through eSports Traditional boundaries between games, media, telecom, sports etc. are disappearing sparking new partnerships, M&A and other strategic moves across the globe Games are no longer a ‘games-service’ but an ‘all round business’ External environment forces discussion The output is to identify opportunities and threats
Marketing 101
Marketing 101
Marketing Mix and Branding
Segmentation: Divide the total market into smaller segments based on prede ned criteria
Marketing 101
Marketing 101
eographic- different geographical units G Demographic - age, life-cycle, stage, gender, income, occupation, education, religion, ethnicity, and generation. Psychographic - different segments based on social class, lifestyle, or personality characteristics. Behavioral - consumer knowledge, attitudes, uses, or responses to a product Digital Games Concept: age, gender, disposable income for games, geography, technology acceptance, devices they play, games genre, play behavior (social, hardcore, audience of E-sport etc.), purpose of play (pass time, education, wellness, etc.), gaming competencies (beginners, skillful, etc.), user experiences, aesthetic values, etc. What are their needs? How can these be satis ed? Targeting: Select a set of buyers sharing common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve. Targeting strategy Di erentiation: Create superior di erentiated value(s) for targeted segments. Identify a set of di erentiating competitive advantages to build a position that is sustainable. Positioning: The way a product is de ned by consumers on important attributes. MY ACTIONS
EAD examples: R Sony PS: http://panmore.com/sony-corporation-pestel-pestle-analysisrecommendations Nintendo Co. SWOT: https://www.swotandpestle.com/nintendo-co/ REFLECT on these topics for the game(s) you are developing
Marketing 101
Marketing 101
Marketing Mix and Why It Matters It helps to understand the customer insight and predict the customer’s buying behavior.
The buying process systemizes the psychological stages leading the buyers to make the purchasing decision, which is impacted by individual, group, environment, and marketing methods. In the rst stages when the problems arise, potential buyers tend to gather data from the surrounding sources sorted by the di erent categories: culture, social class, etc. When su cient data is collected to compare with others products with the same function, buyers now will consider its value-added features which are guided by environment factors, and its marketing practice. Understanding customer buying behaviors can reinforce the marketing strategy by focusing on improving the stage that most in uences customer nal buying decision. READ an example:
Marketing 101
Marketing 101 eneral: G https://www.theseus. /bitstream/handle/10024/21183/Henri_Lindgren_.pdf? sequence=4&isAllowed=y In-app purchase: https://jyx.jyu. /dspace/bitstream/handle/123456789/45622/URN:NBN: :jyu201504141570.pdf?sequence=1 Stages in adoption process: The adoption process represents the customer’s acknowledgement of the product. By raising the awareness about the new products, customers who are in demand for it will collect data and even examine the product quality. When the trialing process is done and the quality is well proven, it means the product gains the trust from the customers and makes want to keep buying whenever they need it. READ example:
doption A of innovation: https://jyx.jyu. /dspace/bitstream/handle/123456789/45622/URN:NBN: :jyu201504141570.pdf?sequence=1 Product characteristics that in uence the rate of adoption To be successful in gaining a customer’s trust and be more competitive than other products with the same function, it should represent its uniqueness, value, user-friendliness, wide application, and e ectiveness.
Marketing 101
Marketing 101
SEO & SoMe Optimization and Contents Management Brie y on SEO EO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” It is the process of getting S traf c from the search results on search engines. In today’s world, more and more people search for information, in every aspect, online. The most common practice to nd things is to use search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo. Thus, it is more important than ever for companies that advertise their products and services to be visible in the search results of these engines. Biggest SEO Engines and their market shares (2016):
oogle – 67.6% market share G Bing – 18.7% Yahoo – 10% Ask – 2.4% AOL – 1.3% Source: searchenginewatch.com http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/study/2345837/google-search-enginemarket-share-nears-68
Basic SEO terminology: TR = Click-Through Rate C CPM = Cost-Per-Mille CPA = Cost-Per-Acquisition CPL = Cos-Per-Lead CPC = Cost-Per-Click
Marketing 101
Marketing 101
Tools to check popularity of keyword searches ord tracker - https://app.wordtracker.com/ W Trellian’s Keyword Discovery: http://KeywordDiscovery.com Good Keywords - https://goodkeywords.com/ Google AdWords - http://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
12 Tips to use SEO to full capacity 1. Optimize for mobile search and browsing 2. Engage in intentional link building 3. Optimize for voice search 4. Optimize for Rich Answers 5. Consider using shorter URLs 6. Local optimization is a must
Marketing 101
Marketing 101 7. Focus on improving user experience 8. Use related keywords in your content 9. Write longer content (optimal is 2000 words) 10. Speed up your site 11. Aim for high topical authority 12. Focus on user intent MY REFERENCES:
ttp://www.virtualsnipers.com/cpm-cpc.php h https://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo http://www.techmagnate.com/blog/9-important-seo-ranking-factors2017/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2017/03/30/12-mosteffective-seo-strategies-for-2017/5/#3e10c4706b17 https://searchengineland.com/8-major-google-ranking-signals-2017278450
Marketing 101
Marketing 101
Brie y on SoMe SoMe Optimization: Social Media (SoMe) is a collection of channels with content sharing through interaction and collaboration to create a community-based input and fun.
Di erent SoMe channels:
Marketing 101
Marketing 101 Channles Features Raptr
Target
Upload images, Serious manage gaming life competitive gamer
WeGame Video footage Screenshots voting rate
Casual gamer
Suitable for... Build strong gaming data base
Build up strong connection base
with
Shared themes Gamurs
Pro le reminiscent Serious and More in one with the link of Google+ casual gamer to other network
Play re
Content ranking
Casual gamer
Multi atforms (smartphone, PSN...)
Duxter
Upload images, Casual gamer videos, streams
Funny and creative memes
Onverse
Role-playing / VR
Make new friend and boost gaming experience
News update
Casual gamer
Marketing 101
Marketing 101 MY ACTIONS READ Examples of successful marketing campaign by applying SoMe channels: 1. Forge of Empires by InnoGames With over 150 million players around the world, InnoGames is one of the most successful developers and providers of online games. Forge of Empires achieved a 48% increase in quarterly install since using Facebook as the main platform the marketing campaign. Their solution was to reuse its TV creative for its Facebook ads and focus ad copy on the key selling point of the game: city-building throughout the ages of human history. It also used App Event Optimisation, which allowed it to optimise the purchase event instead of the install event and create a Custom Audience. 1. Glu Mobile Glu Mobile is a well-known smart-device game developer focusing on original IP games like Gun Bros and Deer Hunter. Running their campaigns on Facebook helped the company achieve 39% increase and made 800,000 impressions. Their solution was to create smart photo ads displaying a brilliant CTA to “Install Now” resulting in a boom of app installs, using Facebook’s Power Editor and Ads Manager. https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/5-successful-social-media-campaigns-you-can-learn-from
ASK 3.1: Draw your SEO plan T TASK 3.2: Draw your SoMe plan WORKSHEET 2_The ultimate SOME checklist.docx
Managing Your Content SoMe and Content Writing 1. Understand how your ideal customer moves from awareness to conversion 2. Decide why you will use SoMe for business and identify KPIs 3. Choose the right social network to engage your audience 4. Research content topics 5. Plan you content calendar 6. Build trust through consistent engagement 7. Measure progress and adjust course Successful Content: 1. Has a clear goal 2. Asks for engagement 3. Includes a photo and a link 4. Is brief (from 40-70 words) 5. Is not always promotional, can be inspirational
Marketing 101
Marketing 101 Notice to have a successful content: 1. Be aware of the global con icts and be careful of unintentional bias 2. Look at your slogan from a di erent perspective before letting it go live 3. Avoid stereotype marketing 4. Avoid sexism and racism 5. Review your campaign if your analytics tools show that it's having a negative e ect on your engagement and/or increases negative mentions of your brand MY ACTIONS
ow to write a good social media content: H https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/anatomy-of-al-facebook-post https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/write-good-instagram-caption https://blog.bufferapp.com/writing-great-tweets-scienti c-guide http://www.writehacks.com/viral-blog-posts/ Gaming review blog: https://wolfsgamingblog.com/ https://kotaku.com/ https://indiegameenthusiast.blogspot. / WORKSHEET 3_Content marketing.docx
App Store Optimization App Store Optimization (ASO) is the process of improving the visibility of a mobile app (such as an iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry or Windows Phone app) in an application store (such as App Store for iOS, Google Play for Android, Windows store for Windows Phone, or BlackBerry World for BlackBerry). ASO mechanics: 1. Title: heaviest search tra c keyword 2. Keywords: relevant keyword and target audience. These are used monitor competitors and help compare against them 3. Total number of downloads 4. Ratings and reviews
More info: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/app-store-optimization/ https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:476799/FULLTEXT01.pdf TASK 4: Draw your ASO plan
Marketing 101
Marketing 101
Measurement of Success Performance Analytic for Developers (Metric) 1. Measurement system that quanti es a trend, dynamics or characteristics 2. Used by businesses to measure current conditions and forecast future trends 3. Common method for evaluation of success What to measure? 1. User acquisition and timeframe – aim to acquire as many users as possible in short time frame 2. User retention – as long as possible and move them to next game 3. Big spenders – nd and keep users loyal and happy! Maximize their lifetime value! Why to measure? 1. Enable lookalike targeting or retargeting 2. Repeat successful activities – max. revenue from existing players 3. Optimize non-paid channels 4. Improve user-experience – measure vital outcomes e.g. click vs download vs purchase 5. Identify issues before becoming a problem 6. Understand return on marketing dollars Challenges when measuring: too much data, too many sources, too many platforms to measure, deciding the correct things to measure, source credibility, data accuracy and timeliness. These issues make measuring time consuming and resource draining. Terms and abbreviations:
RPU: Average Revenue per User A ARPPU: Average Revenue per Paying User ARPDAU: Average Revenue per Daily Active User CPA: Cost per Acquisition CTR: Click Through Rate eCPI: Effective Cost per Install eCPM: Effective cost per mille (thousand impressions) IAP: In-app purchase LTV: Lifetime value – present value of everything the player will spend on your game
‘ Marketing 101
Marketing 101
Balanced Scorecard
After de ning the business mission, values, vision, and strategy, a balanced score-card helps to implement and focus on the issues to develop a strategic initiative to clarify actionable steps. A personal objective is developed and adjusted to suit the organizational activities.
Marketing 101
Marketing 101
SoMe measurement Tools can help to track the marketing e ectiveness
Marketing 101
Marketing 101 1. Google Analytics: operate on data-driven model, has advanced segments and comparison tools, real-time reporting features, can perform cross-platform, and across multiple devices. 2. KissMetrics - Funnel reporting: track conversion, multi-channel operator, show the bulk tra c and customer source 3. Marketo - Marketing ROI tool: determine e ective program impacting revenue, marketing budget-focused, simplify key marketing metrics and deliver daily, weekly or monthly reports. 4. RapidMiner - analytics platform: user-friendly, data connection with key analytic, graphic interface, predictive model. What to track metrics for SoMe?
Metrics
Facebook's platform
Follower growth
Insight -> Likes
Optimal time engagement
for Insight -> Posts
Likes and reactions for Insight -> Post -> All the post published posts Monitor mentions
Newsfeed
Delve into audience Insight -> People demographics Determine reach Review replies comments
Insight -> Reach and Insight -> Post -> All posts published - Reactions, comments, and shares
Marketing 101
Marketing 101 MY READINGS
ttp://socdir.com/ h https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/10-metrics-to-track-for-socialmedia-success/ Web metrics measurement: https://app.klipfolio.com/dashboard Google analytics daily overview: https://www.klipfolio.com/gallery/dashboards/google-analytics-dailyoverview Year-in review: https://app.klipfolio.com/dashboard SoME measurement: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/4-waysmeasure-social-media-and-its-impact-on-your-brand/
Extra resources WORKSHEET 4_The ultimate.docx
he T content marketing calendar: https://edukainuumy.sharepoint.com/:x:/r/personal/aiha_kamk_ /_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx? sourcedoc=%7B2082C977-2004-4F00-8E4CB9F5CFB797DA%7D& le=Social_Media_Content_Calendar.xlsx&action=default 53D4-4E45-80AA-4CF470D95091%7D&ListItemId=279 Marketing Strategy - Checklist marketing mix for games.docx Marketing Plan - template example.docx Marketing Plan - proposed template.docx Digital Channel Management.docx
NOW it’s time for you to practice!
Marketing 101