On Marketing
visioNationstudios:
It may very well be that both would be of help to us. However, I think I may be able to boil down vNs' own quandary into two aspects:
1) How to make visioNation studios and its products known to a larger percentage of the gaming community.
2) How to get those who have been exposed to vNs and its products to move from being interested (and even sometimes thoroughly enjoying the demo) to actually purchasing said products.
In short, finding potential customers, and making the sale. Now, I also recognize that solving either of those problems could, in fact, be enough of a working solution to get us by for awhile until the other becomes a reality. I'm a mechanics guy, so let me break down what I mean. Let us assume that the "average" ratio of consumers exposed to the products to consumers who purchase the products is 50:1. (I honestly have no actual numbers for this, but it seems an easy number to work with.)
Solving problem #1 raises the number of those exposed, solving problem #2 raises the number of those who purchase. Either one, in theory, achieves the goal of selling more product. At 50:1, it's clear that raising your exposure to 100 gets you 2 sales, while having the product viewed by 500 provides 10 sales. Raising your number of sales decreases your ratio, so you could be selling at a 25:1 ratio instead. Which again, achieves the same goal of selling more product.
Some more specific information pertinent to vNs is that we are currently selling on RPGNow (pulling an average of about $50/mo royalties), YourGamesNow (no sales since signing on in August), CreateSpace and Amazon (both carrying our perfect bound book, but sales have only been to close personal friends thus far), to and are waiting to hear back from Brennan regarding IPR acceptance. Minimal budget has kept us out of the major Cons so far, but those we've been to (and other demos) have seen about 1 book sold per session run. And I've recently sent out postcard mailers to 100 game/hobby stores in Florida (our state) regarding carrying our books in their stores. Press releases on all the major gaming online outlets are a given with product releases, and our website averages 124 unique visitors a month.
So, take that as my roundabout way of answering your question, Pelgrane. :>
Pelgrane:
First, I'd say spend no money on banner ads and the like, nor print ads, not any traditional marketing. Second, make useful contributions here, on the story games forum, and even on rpg.net. What appears to have happened recently is that "social proof" of your personal status amongst designers has become an important factor in getting your game into the public eye. Now, I'm not suggesting you are cynical about it - it's mutually helpful in any case to have a relationship with other designers. Your games will speak for themselves, but they need to be heard. Second, don't expect to make more than a small hobby income from your games, however good they are. Yours might be the surprise breakout game, but all but a few of those only earn a hobby income.
A few more very basic pointers. Have you sent your comp review copies on rpgnow.com? Have you solicited the top ten rpg.net reviewers to offer them review copies (with an undertaking from them to review it)? Are there page samples available for download (I couldn't see any)?
The most important thing is to show what is unique about your game. I'm sure you game has unique selling points, but reading your text, I don't know what they are. You are telling me that is "the future of roleplaying", but why? How is different to the many other fantasy games around? If you had to pitch it in 25 words to a potential face-to-face customer, how would you do it in a way that excites interest, and demonstrates this USP? What does the book look like? Is it a hardback, what size is it? Are there any actual play reports anywhere?
As an aside, I think perhaps your tagline is a little hubristic, if ambitious. Forgive me if this is a little harsh. I hope this was helpful.
Ron Edwards:
Hello,
I'll modify one of Simon's points a little:
Quote
What appears to have happened recently is that "social proof" of your personal status amongst designers has become an important factor in getting your game into the public eye.
This is true as far as it goes, but I think that "the public eye" is limited in this case to friends, on-line associates, and clique members of the designers. In other words, as the independent scene rapidly expanded in the last four years, it also became insular and prone to marketing to itself rather than continuing to focus on constant outreach. This effect is, I think, due both to the IPR phenomenon I wrote about above, and also to the status priorities that have become overwhelming at Story Games. Somehow "community" has transformed from a diverse hodgepodge of priorities that share or significantly overlap regarding a common goal, to a clique to which people are added if they can score enough points in a playground social scene.
I don't think it can last; such things tend to blow apart after a couple of years. Therefore I think that promotion at RPG.net is actually more useful in the long run. Popularity among "story gamers" (a clique label with no content-meaning) will guarantee sales at the outset, but I think this past GenCon showed its economic limitations, which will quite likely become pits soon.
Best, Ron
jburneko:
Ron,
That issue of "outreach" is really important to me, even just in terms of my immediate local SoCal vicinity (I rarely travel). However, I am forever lost on how to do it effectively. Despite having design projects in the work, they really aren't my primary interest. I tinker with them when I'm in the mood. I really consider myself more of an enthusiastic marketing tool since I like promoting other people's work through play and discussion.
However, what I've observed is a general attitude that "everyone who can be reached, has been reached." Locally, there has been a trend of no longer running public games in favor of setting up private games by word of mouth. This has been a factor of two things. The first is unfortunately the presence of certain regular but high profile attendees who simply are no fun to play with. There are even certain games I've stopped running because they attract these attendees 100% of the time. But the second is the growing attitude of, "Well, I"m just going to playing with the same six people anyway."
However, just last con I ran a game of Primetime Adventures and had 5 people who had never played before. About half had heard of the game and owned it but just hadn't played. That game generated at least one highly enthusiastic sale from someone who hadn't ever heard of the game and wandered in on curiosity from the description I put in the con book.
That happens about once a con for me. By no means am I reaching people by the droves. However, I continue to do this is the face of growing resistance. I am repeatedly told that I'm fighting a losing battle. That's there's no one left to reach. That I'm opening myself up to disappointing play for no good reason. It's very disheartening.
Jesse
Cynthia Celeste Miller:
I won't claim to be a marketing guru or anything like that. However, I have learned some marketing techniques over the years that cost you absolutely nothing. Keep in mind that these techniques (if you want to call them that) aren't going to make your product suddenly fly off the shelf, but they can definitely help get your product recognized, at least by the internet crowd.
Forum-Pimping
Haunt all the gaming-related forums that you can find, seeking out existing threads in which you could pimp your game. You need to be careful, though, as this can get annoying if overused and could tick the admins off. When i first started using this method of self-promotion back in 2002, I went overboard. Just about every thread that I could even remotely connect my product to, I would be there with bells on, pimping away like Huggy Bear. As time went on, though, I learned that moderation and timing get better results than flooding forums with pimp-posts. You have to pick your spots wisely.
Signatures
Post on forums as much as possible, even when you aren't pimping. But the trick is to have a catchy/informational signature, complete with your company name, your URL and even a blurb (e.g., "[insert game] coming in 2009!"). If you have freebie PDFs available, the specific URL for them can be very helpful to include. Every post you make while using a promotional signature is like a mini-billboard. Use that billboard to its fullest extent. Make it stand out, too, by using different colored text, larger fonts, etc.
Reviews
This is a given, but reviews (good or bad) can really drive interest in a product. People can get a taste of what the product is all about without purchasing or downloading anything. Better still, they're getting a "real person's" opinion on it, which is far more credible to most than your own sensationalistic hyperbole. So, don't overlook the notion of selecting a few good reviewers and asking them to review your product.
Haunt Related Non-Gaming Forums
This is really just a slightly different take on "Forum-Pimping". It just requires a defter touch. If you have a game based on soap operas, find the best soap opera forums and make a few posts there, pimping your game. Be careful in how you pimp in non-gaming forums, as most of the denizens aren't going to be familiar with RPGs. Make sure that you don't use a bunch of jargon that will read like Greek to them.
Advertise on Related Non-Gaming Websites
Find non-gaming sites that have similar themes or subject matter and contact the owner, asking him to advertise your game on the site. I've done this before and it does draw in new customers at a higher rate than you might imagine. For example, I asked the guy who ran Thundarr.com to advertise the original Cartoon Action Hour rulebook. He posted stuff about it on the front "news" page and I received quite a few queries from folks who saw it there. Most of them ended up purchasing the game.
I hope this helps.
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