Effective Content Marketing?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by James Coote, Jul 31, 2013.

  1. James Coote

    James Coote Member

    Jul 31, 2013
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    Android Games Developer for Crystalline Green Ltd.
    Nottingham
    I'm a one man indie developer, and been trying the whole content marketing thing for my app, producing blogs, videos (both promo, video diary and general gaming stuff / stuff about other games).

    However that all takes time, and it takes time away from development. At the same time I find on a typical day (or week even if it's behind the scenes stuff,) I probably don't generate enough visible progress to justify a blog post or before/after screenshot or whatever.

    As a result, I'm also finding the content only indirectly related to my game is making up the vast majority of what I'm producing.
     
  2. flathead

    flathead Active Member

    May 16, 2013
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    Im tired of the suggestion that you NEED to create content about your game to be successful. When you're relatively unknown and no one sees the content you create, whats the point? I'd rather put more time into making my game exceptional and have the chance to go viral than have 30 blog posts that 100 people see. Unless you already have something to build on (previous games, social media presence etc) I just don't think its worth it.
     
  3. nvx

    nvx Well-Known Member

    Jan 7, 2011
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    UK
    I'm with flathead, and I am sure there are many others who would agree:

    Indie devs are more and more frequently falling into the trap of wasting their resources on marketing when they could be investing more on adding further quality and value to their games in the first place.

    Yes marketing is very important, but the scope and efficiency will depend on the size of the development team and the specifics of the game in question.
    One size doesnt fit all, and even doing everything will not guarantee success.

    Particularly in your case, one-man inde, if you insist on promoting the game as you develop it, I would suggest either finding someone else to do the marketing for the game while you focus on the dev (family or friend for example), or to outsource it to a marketing company if you can afford it (although you would still have to do most of the blogging yourself).

     
  4. WAKSTER

    WAKSTER New Member

    Jul 31, 2013
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    Yes, I agree with the previous posts. We're a two person band and we've just finished a game called Jumping Jupingo. I've been doing lots of pre-launch content marketing like these posters and videos on Pinterest http://pinterest.com/pingels/jupingo/ as well as running a website, blogging, Facebook, etc. I don't think the pre-launch content marketing has made much of a difference but once the game launches it will probably start having more traction.

    NVX has a point about asking a marketing company to help out but for a one man band this can be expensive and I've see clients that has gone down that route and the marketing was just awful and dull as dishwater. The ones that are good are not interested unless there's lots of budget available.

    The best thing to do for an small Indie is to focus on creating great games and to find a publisher that can take it to market. We've given the game to Marmalade whose platform we've used to develop the game. They're putting a launch campaign together and I can get on developing new games.
     
  5. R3v

    R3v Well-Known Member

    Sep 17, 2012
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    CMO @ PIXEL FEDERATION
    +1, well said
     
  6. Hunted Cow Studios

    Hunted Cow Studios Well-Known Member

    Mar 7, 2012
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    Company Director
    Hi James,

    I've sent you a PM on the forum :)

    Cheers,
    Andrew
     

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