One sale from a customer is good. Convincing that customer to stick around and buy more games is, of course, better. And generating new customers from existing ones is best. In other words, in today’s challenging marketplace, “repeat business” is the holy grail. You want to attract clients who love your games (and why shouldn’t they?)—and then foster a relationship with them so that making incremental sales afterwards is a breeze. Heck, once gamers are convinced of your studio’s brilliance, all you should need to do is remind them you’ve just released a new gem and there should be no reason to convince them again. Not only will they buy, but hopefully they’ll also tell their friends, who’ll tell their friends. . . .
There are many tools you can utilize to ensure you are top of mind—from proper branding inside your game to ensuring premium placement of new games on all the top portals. One trick often overlooked is to stay in touch with your customers and to make them part of your community—and one of the best places to do that is online. Gamers are already downloading your casual games online, they’re coming to your website, and so it makes sense for you to send them some kind of additional online communication to help grow your relationship with them.
Arguably the communication tool of choice—the one that is most cost-effective—is an e-mail newsletter, delivered, say, once a month or corresponding to new products launches. With the correct platform, the right message, and a good e-mail subscription list, you can maintain a consistent message and stay top-of-mind with your clientele.
Successful e-mail marketing programs aren’t only about getting high “open rates.” They’re about
building strong, long-term relationships with subscribers. Here are some tips for doing it right:
It All Starts with the Database
While getting users to your website is not an easy
task, Ernie Ramirez from Reflexive and Paul Thelen
from Big Fish Games are both strong proponents
of the power of using your game brands to drive
users to your website. If you create a great game
and distribute to the major portals, many users will
find your website without you trying—by employing
a simple Google search.
So, when one of these gamers arrives at your website and gives up her e-mail address to download your game or register it, you’ve already established a certain level of trust and begun a relationship with her. But is this going to be a one-night stand or a marriage? That depends on whether you can wow her so that, when you’re ready to pop the question on your next game, she’s most likely to say “yes.”
If your website doesn’t currently capture e-mail addresses of visitors, you need to do something about that, pronto! Make it necessary for visitors to your site to sign in with their e-mail addresses, or create a contest or giveaway that requires them to provide their addresses. Then make sure to get those addresses into a database so that they can be used for further marketing. Ultimately a sale on your website is worth more in both customer loyalty and increased sales price than a sale on a major portal. Your database should be a growing gold mine, the place to which you’re going to keep coming back for more gold. The bigger the mine, the more gold you’re going to find.
Keep The Conversation Going
If gamers loved your most recent game, there’s a good chance they are looking around for
something else you created. Have something to offer? Or is the next game still in production? If the
latter, you’re going to need to keep your fans
enthralled until the release date, which means
giving them some value or some extra fun.
There’s plenty you can offer your audience in between games: tips and tricks, contests, coming attractions, gamer reviews and comments, interviews with your design team, screenshots of upcoming games, and so on. Remember that the goal is to establish a long-term relationship because “long-term” means more money from a repeat customer.
Don’t Get Tongue-Tied!
But let’s face it. Your studio’s strength is
creating great casual games, not sending out
e-mail marketing campaigns. There are many
companies that started off with good intentions
of building their own e-newsletters and then, two
or three months down the road, when they got
busy with their own core activities, the online
communication fell to the wayside.
Before you launch a community-building e-newsletter, have a solid plan of how you’re going to execute it. A meeting with your team is a good idea to decide what it’s going to take for you to design, write, produce, deliver, and track something professional—and to keep your database up-to-date. What will it take to have someone who can take a few days each month to do the job right? Or will you send less-frequent e-mails just around product launches?
Like A Jigsaw Puzzle
It’s important to understand that effective
marketing is made up of multiple pieces like a
jigsaw puzzle; it’s a portfolio of activities that
you are employing to create awareness of your
brand, to stay in touch with your customers
and prospects, and to get feedback from them
as well.
If your only communication with your fans is through your website, or via advertising, an e-newsletter can offer one advantage that the other vehicles can’t: you control the timing and content of the message. For example, if you have the portfolio to support it, the newsletter could be sent every month on an ongoing basis. You can’t guarantee that people will look at your website every month. And you may not be able to afford to advertise every month. But you can’t afford not to communicate with your clients at critical junctures. That’s where e-newsletters come in!
What’s the Upside?
Most game companies that have launched
successful e-newsletters find that there are three
advantages to keeping them going:
(1) Your database grows. One of the first things
gamers tend to do when they think a game
is really cool—or when they get a new piece
of information about a game—is tell their
friends. And if their buds recommend a game
or a studio, you can be sure that other gamers
will follow.
(2) A bigger database means more sales. Now
you’ve got more gamers who know about
how much fun your games are. If you continue
to interest them with good content and more
great games, sales are likely to increase.
(3) Brand equity expands. An investment in
brand-building is an investment in future sales
growth. As more people learn your company’s
name and associate it with quality
games, they’ll be more inclined to
buy your next offering—often simply
because you’re offering it.
What Might Be the Downside?
One obvious downside to e newsletters
is that they cost money (and
time) to create. That’s money and time
that could be used for other purposes.
So if you’re not in the mood to increase
your e-marketing activities right now,
or if you’re considering cutting your ad
and marketing budgets, you might
see an e-newsletter as an unnecessary
expense.
At the same time, many developers have outsourced most of their marketing and relationship management to a publisher or to major portals. They don’t have direct customer relationships or a website that would enable them to begin cultivating such relationships. Before they could even think about creating a newsletter, significant work would need to be performed on their own website to allow for the purchase of the games, the gathering of names, and the building of a database. For such developers, an e-newsletter would require more than just time and expense; it would require a whole new way of doing business.
It Takes Work
Casual game developers are fortunate.
Your fan base is out there talking to each other,
enjoying your products, asking questions, and
anticipating your next game. That doesn’t happen
very often in other businesses. You’re selling fun
to a community that is passionate about what
you do. And communities—especially passionate
communities—build databases. And databases
generate prospects—who buy even more
games—but only if you take the time and make
the effort to reach out to them.
Remember, as in “real life,” relationships only
work when you work at them.
* * *
Paul “The Game Master” Hyman has covered the videogames industry for well over a dozen years; he currently writes for Gamasutra. com, Game Developer magazine, and The Hollywood Reporter, among others. He is also editor-in-chief of www.OpenMoves.com/games, an enewsletter marketing firm whose clients include videogame companies. E-mail Paul at paul.hyman@casualconnect.org.
