The sun is shining today :-)
I'm also starting to get some more positive feedback on Sumeria from my playtesters, and one of them (who hadn't noticed I was a co-deisgner on Carpe Astra) sent me a nice email about how much he liked Carpe Astra and how he's spread the word amongst his friends.
Back on topic:
If you have a weakness you're definitely best off recognising the fact and then trying to do something about it. I'm aware that marketing is not my strong point, so I've admitted it (here and on BoardGameGeek) and asked for advice. The next step is to do something about it. What though? My friend Wilka has recommended a few blogs that I've added to my RSS reader, I'm enjoying Seth Godin's the most of his suggestions, I was previously aware of it due to the Yak-shaving story but I'd not been following it. I should also get my hands on a decent book on the subject, as yet I don't know what that is though.
Of course, if I had more money I'd be able to hire a decent marketing guru, but in the meantime, I need to be able to do an adequate job by myself. Reading through the blog's Wilka recommended they make a lot of hay about Twitter the micro-blogging tool (it allows you to post blog-style comments about what you're doing limited to 140 characters in length). What do you think? Is it worth Twittering as well as these longer blog posts? Does anyone care? Would anyone read it?
Another big thing on those blogs is Word-of-Mouth. Getting customers to market your product for you to potential customers by being enthusiastic enough about your products to convince others to try them. How do you cultivate Word-of-Mouth? I've no idea yet - that's something I'll have to work on!
Update:I'm still catching up on the backlog of posts from the blogs Wilka recommended. One of them, Brand Autopsy, had posted in December this list of great marketing books published this year. Look's like a great place to start...
Posts
9 comments:
Thanks for that interesting link. When you say you want to improve in Marketing, do you mean Strategy or Tactics? Strategy I still suggest Sun Tzu's Art of War. The best strategy book ever.
For tactics, especially SMIs - try Guerilla Marketing. Good primer.
Sign up for Twitter, mess around for a bit, link to others and follow to see what is broadcast. I have found a few tips for my field (hospice) and for my blog (Pallimed).
Would reccomend and RSS feed setup through search.twitter.com (no need to sign up) with key words related to your games (ie titles). You may see people talking about them.
For example here is what I got when I plugged in Carpe Astra:
I'm studying public relations, which is similar to marketing and my instructors emphasize how important it is to do a lot of research before moving forward with any plan.
What type of people are you interested in reaching with your games? If its the heavy gamer type then you might try a focus group or survey amongst people on board game geek or bgdf.com to determine how much awareness they have of your products, their attitudes towards you, and what their current behavior is (do they buy your games ect). Or if you are targeting average players or families then you could get a focus group or survey people in your area to determine their knowledge/interest in your games or board game in general. With that information you might be better able to decide where to spend your time/money.
For example, if 80% of your survey respondents from board game geek have a positive attitude about your games and seem interested in buying them, then you should focus less on advertising on board game geek and more on turning their positive attitudes into behavior (buying your games), such as through special promotions. Or if you find that most people don't know anything about you you could give away some games to people like Scott who review games and have good readership.
Just some ideas,
Pinebars
Thanks for the ideas everyone. I'd not really thought of the strategy/tactics divide, so that's something I should consider.
Pinebars, I think that most people don't know about my games, (certainly in the wider public) but I'm not sure - market research might be the way to go...
Cheers,
Jack
Art of War was recommended by my business/management tutor just before half term - but it didn't strike me as immediately( practically) relevant, when I get a few minutes I'll email you across some titles of the other books and business strategy/marketing notes I've got now.
(Actually I spend most of the lectures thinking about your business, as it's much easier to understand and apply the theory to a small business than to a Local Authority!)
Perhaps I should sign you up!
And thanks for the book suggestions.
Cheers,
Jack
Perhaps I should sign you up!
And thanks for the book suggestions.
Cheers,
Jack
Have you got yourself on Twitter yet, then? Even my employer's got a Twitter account, to which they just posted this link:
7 practical tips on how to market your small business website
http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk/sevens/2009/01/7-practical-tips-on-marketing-your-small-business-website/
Thought it might be of interest. :)
Hiya Mal,
I'm not on Twitter yet, but that link is useful - thanks.
I think I'm doing everything they say to some degree - the difficult thing will be working out which of them will give the best return on investment for doing more of it.
Cheers,
Jack
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