Press Releases/Marketing (DIY or no?)

[merc_fx]

Hey guys,

I've been a lurker at this site for a while and poured over tons of posts. We have a game in development and are currently looking into marketing/advertising outlets. Anyway, obviously, we need some sort of way to let plenty of sites and gamers know about us and our game. So, we have looked into writing up and distributing a press release. In a lot of ways it doesn't seem to me that these press releases do a good job on calling attention to your game, but they still seem worthwhile in that at least it lets websites and magazines know you exist. So there may be some places that bite. Did you guys write up your own press releases and distribute them on your own or let someone else do it for you. There seem to be many places that would do this, example vgsmart, and may be a good call in that they have a lot of contacts, but do we really need to pay someone to write up our release?

[Nexic]

I wrote my own press release and sent it our with www.softpressrelease.com. I was very pleased with my return on investment.

[Reactor]

Joseph at vgsmart wrote up our press release (which I was able to look over and make changes to if I wanted) and then had him send it out. The $70 or so was more than worth it. Ours news made it right across the world (from Russia to Australia, where we're based) and has landed us quite a few inquiries from publishers, distributors and reviewers.

I'd go vgsmart again without a single thought, and I previously didn't think a press release would be good for anything.

[gamemaker]

I'm with the opinion of Reactor - press releases are good. You can potentially get many people from idustry (and joe public) getting in touch with you and some sources may even offer to do a piece on you/your game themselves for nothing!. Good luck!.

[KNau]

My experience with paid PR submissions is mixed.

While it's true that my press release went out to tons of websites there was no attempt made at targetting the releases. Thus a "puzzle game" press release ended up at action gaming websites and hardcore techie sites, the readers of which have no use for this info and no traffic resulted from it. To the best of my knowledge all paid services use this "shotgun" approach to distributing your press releases.

Worth it? At least do it once to see how it works but you should immediately start building a database of friendly editors and useful sites so that you can take over the process and be more effective in the future. Out of the hundreds of sites that got my press release, many of them picked up the info but only about 10 delivered any meaningful traffic. The rest were a waste of time.

The same applies to paid shareware site submissions, there are only a handful of shareware sites that deliver useful traffic. Find them and you won't need to pay for submissions any more.

Paying for submission services more than once is being lazy and throwing money out the window in my opinion.

[tretmike]

Hi there,

I wrote my own press release and sent it our with www.softpressrelease.com. I was very pleased with my return on investment.

I'm very glad to hear such words from our client. Thanks, Nexic!

We make everything to improve our services. That is why we offer the special game distribution service oriented to indy game developers.

More information about our service here:
http://www.softpressrelease.com/games/

[merc_fx]

Worth it? At least do it once to see how it works but you should immediately start building a database of friendly editors and useful sites so that you can take over the process and be more effective in the future. Out of the hundreds of sites that got my press release, many of them picked up the info but only about 10 delivered any meaningful traffic. The rest were a waste of time.

What are some examples of these 10 useful sites. Our game is not a strict puzzle game, but it has some puzzle qualities that would make it appeal to these sites as well.

Thanks for all the help so far.

[queasy]

I have a related question: do the services have a greater chance of putting out a press release since it comes from a known source? IE. Don't the services have better (quality) contacts than the standard news@site.com address?

-j

[monco]

I wrote my own press release and sent it our with www.softpressrelease.com. I was very pleased with my return on investment.

How much turnaround time was there before your PR started appearing? 1 month? 3? 6?

[terin]

Hey I strongly reccomend VGsmart too, he's a great guy! Totally awesome :-)

Haha, Looks like Mike and I are 1 to 1 on happy customers in this thread.

Anyway, if I had to say by what time can you expect to see the bulk of all posts up, 48 hours.

VGsmart can write and issue a press release in the same day if it is neccessary.

-Joe

[Chris Evans]

It also depends what service you use and what type of coverage you get. For example, DPDirectory does pretty well with some magazines. However, sometimes it can take anywhere from 2-6 months for your news piece/review to appear in those magazines.

With Web coverage you'll probably get a pretty fast turnaround, but it could be awhile before something shows up print media. Though it's the print media that often times will give you huge spikes in sales. But again, it's hit or miss. Still, I'd say a press release is an absolute must. Even if you don't get a huge surge in sales/traffic, often times you'll get presented some business opportunity, which can lead to smore ales down the line.

[maksum]

More Kudos to VGSmart from me. I wrote my own PR, but he helped me clean it up. Next time I may just have him write it, as it quickly becomes quite apparent how professional he is as you start working with him.

After my PR was submitted I had it posted on several web sites (8-10) within only a couple days, and I started seeing traffic come to my from those sites. Also, I had two people request demos so they could review my game and possibly post reviews on their site (I have yet to see this happen, but I just barely released my game, so who knows.)

Thanks again Joe.

Mike

[Jim Buck]

which can lead to smore ales down the line.

I'm always up for beer - so I'm now sold on press releases. :)

[gmcbay]

Mmm beer and smores.

[Bluecat]

Mmm beer and smores.


Actually, I'm still waiting for Skittlebrau. ;)

[Chris Evans]

Haha, funny how a misplaced "s" can totally change the meaning of a sentence. :)

[terin]

You gotta be typing DARN fast to misplace the S in FRONT of the word More when it is supposed to be in front of the NEXT word.

LOL. I dust jon't get how you can make an error like that. (seriously that took me 30 seconds of cognitive thinking to replicate)

-Joe

[ErikH2000]

What are some examples of these 10 useful sites. Our game is not a strict puzzle game, but it has some puzzle qualities that would make it appeal to these sites as well.
Just download the free demo of SharewareTracker and peruse their list. The best ones in terms of traffic are rated "1".

But for me at least, once I see a big list like this it is difficult not to submit to all the sites on it--even the crummy ones. It's about two minutes of work per site submission, so why not hit them all? Plus, more links to your site brings you up further in Google searches.

-Erik

[Chris Evans]

You gotta be typing DARN fast to misplace the S in FRONT of the word More when it is supposed to be in front of the NEXT word.

LOL. I dust jon't get how you can make an error like that. (seriously that took me 30 seconds of cognitive thinking to replicate)

-Joe

Hehe. Actually it was pretty simple. Initially I noticed that I left off the "s" in front of "ales" when I was proof reading it. So I went back and edited my post, but instead of putting the "s" in front of "ales" I put it in front of "more". :)