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The #1 secret behind the success of any indie game is marketing. Sure, creativity, graphics, gameplay mechanics and the likes are pretty important. But none of these will help you unless you market your game. Because, how can you expect to get players if nobody knows your game even exists?
Here’s an 8-step guide full of insider tips from the experts at Campaign Cooperative on how to create an effective indie game marketing strategy!
1. Market Research
This process contains 2 important steps:
- Identifying your target audience so that you know exactly whom to focus your marketing efforts on
- Researching your competitors to analyze their marketing strategies and unique selling propositions (USPs). This information will help you come up with a plan on how to distinguish yourself from them
Identifying your target audience includes getting to know their age group, gender, challenges, goals, gaming habits, and the types of games they play (to gauge whether they would be interested in playing yours). You can also give people a brief description of your game and ask them if they fancy it.
Now, how do you actually go about collecting this data? First, you need to make an educated guess about the kind of people who are likely to enjoy your game. Who are you making the game for? If you’re making a time-based word puzzle, your target audience might be writers, readers, and editors. Go to the communities, forums, and social media platforms where they hang out and come up with ways to get them to fill out a survey.
Another method is the lookalike audience method. Make a list of 3-5 of your competitors and analyze their players. Since your games have similar themes, we can assume that your audience looks like theirs. The next step is getting their audience data. You can use tools like SimilarWeb or Facebook Advertising Audience Insights.
2. Elevator Pitch
Now that you know who you’re making your game for, it’s time to come up with a brief pitch to convince them that they need to play your game. Imagine you’re in an elevator with your target audience. You have 2 minutes to tell them what your game is about, what it offers, and why they should play it. This is your elevator pitch.
Be memorable and make sure your game’s USP is clear. You can use this pitch to promote your game on social media and forums to get more people interested. Use relevant hashtags like #indiegame, #indiedev, #indiegamedev, or #gamedev to boost visibility.
3. Trailer and Teasers
Peopleare going to want to know what your gameplay mechanics, music, and graphics look like before they decide to buy it. This is where a trailer comes in. Here are some tips on creating an impactful trailer:
- Keep it short (maximum 1 minute)
- Hook the viewers within the first few seconds
- Highlight what makes your game unique
- Depict your game in an orderly fashion
- End with a CTA
Don’t be shy to promote it everywhere!
4. Steam Page Creation and Optimization
A whopping 69 million people use Steam every day. It’s one of the main ways in which indie games gain visibility, which means your game needs to be here. Your Steam page should be up and running at least 6 months before your game launch, because you need to collect wishlists.
Think of wishlists as bookmarks. When someone adds your game to their wishlist, they receive an email as soon as it launches. And these wishlists are highly converting! A general rule of thumb is to collect at least 7,000 wishlists for a successful launch. A Steam page also gives you a place to point people to when you market your game on other platforms.
But creating a Steam page alone isn’t enough. You need to optimize it so that you can rank higher in search results and build game awareness. Here’s how you can achieve this:
- Come up with an appealing title
- Get a professional logo for your game
- Add a brief description that explains what your game’s all about (you can use your elevator pitch here)
- Add related tags that talk about your game’s genre, mood, themes, features, and visual properties
- Add a trailer and screenshots that highlight a range of gameplay mechanics
5. Demo Version Launch
Should you release a demo? Yes, absolutely! They give players a little taste of your game, leaving them wanting more. They offer a different experience than trailers and can increase your pre-launch wishlists. Let me explain. In a trailer, a player is just a viewer. But in a demo, they are the participant!
A demo also lets you gauge players’ reactions, get feedback, and tweak things based on this before launch. But one (well, two) of the most important benefits of a demo? They let you collaborate with streamers without having to wait for your launch date, and let you participate in the Steam Next Fest, both of which can also–you guessed it–get you more wishlists.
6. Influencer and Streamer Collaborations
Now that you have a demo, you can start collaborating with influencers and streamers right now. Because you already have something that they can play for their audience.
The thing about influencers and streamers is that their followers trust their recommendations. A lot. So much so that just watching them play your demo and get excited about it is enough for their fans to wishlist your game and buy it after it launches!
But this will only work if you choose your YouTube influencers and Twitch streamers carefully. They should fit your game’s genre and have a good balance of views and engagement.
7. Power of Community
Community building is one of the most crucial aspects of indie game marketing–a process that needs to start right after you identify your target players. Start by promoting your game on platforms like X and Reddit, as well as gaming forums where your target audience hangs out. Start a Discord channel for your upcoming game.
In addition to promoting your trailers and teasers, you can also share behind-the-scenes of your game development process. Building such a community will increase your wishlists, increase word-of-mouth referrals, and give you a group of ready-made players upon launch!
8. Press Releases
Getting media attention is a great way to market your game to any interested players you might not have targeted so far. For instance, people who aren't active on social media. But you need to choose the media outlets carefully. Pick the ones that cater to indie games and cover games that fall under your genre. When you finally start reaching out, make sure to include a press kit that contains all the information they may need about you and your game.
An important thing to note is to save your press releases for really newsworthy moments, such as the launch of your trailer or a demo version, or the announcement of your release date. This will get you more traction and give people something new to check out about your game.
Finally, improve your game by fixing bugs and minor issues based on player's feedback. This shows that you care about the player experience and will get you brownie points and loyal consumers.
Marketing an indie game can be time-consuming. Why not leave it to the pros so that you can focus on developing it?
You make the game, we'll bring the players. [Contact us now!]