Pre-Release Marketing

[merc_fx]

I am looking to do some pre-release marketing for Miner Madness, our first title for Mercury Effects. I am wondering how to best go about this. We would really like to get some people to sign up for our mailing list and just get some interest in the game. Now, we'll obviously have the site up before we go about doing this, but how do we let people know besides just dropping links everywhere we go. Can we submit our link and a document to websites or what?

Also, we are thinking about giving a discount to anyone who signs up for the mailing list prior to the launch of the game. Is this a stupid idea where we will lose money or will this get some early buzz going? It could add people to the list who wouldn't initially and then later purchase the game. Just something we are throwing around, what do you think?

[Antdizzle]

I think one good way for prerelease marketing is to go around to various game forums and have your team be active in them. I don't know about other people be I usually go to the websites of those that are active in forums. And the discount thing might be a good idea, but I think that the people would buy your game regardless of the discount if they think it is a good idea.

[stay]

I strongly recommend you talk to Joe at VGSmart (http://www.vgsmart.com/). We paid $75 for him to write and send a press release to a large list of real game sites, and the results were unquestionably worth it. This is going to be many times more effective than trying to hit all those sites yourself.

It seems so obviously worth it to me that I feel like I'm somehow restating what everone already realizes, but then I figure many people just don't know that Joe's service exists.

[tentons]

Buzz comes from something that's really special, so your game needs to look great and offer something unique that people will want to talk about. Just "getting the word out" isn't enough, though it's part of it. The product has to dazzle people to get lots of buzz going.

Having just looked at the Mercury Effects website, there's no reason for anyone to sign up for the newsletter since there's no content whatsoever.. or did I miss something?

[milieu]

Also, we are thinking about giving a discount to anyone who signs up for the mailing list prior to the launch of the game. Is this a stupid idea where we will lose money or will this get some early buzz going? It could add people to the list who wouldn't initially and then later purchase the game. Just something we are throwing around, what do you think?
I don't think this is a good idea, because you end up giving a discount to all of your fans in the hope of getting a couple more customers. Chances are, simply getting a discount is not going to inspire anyone to buy the game.

What about offering free prizes? Give away 10 copies of the game to people randomly selected from your mailing list? You could use the list to keep people informed about the game progress, new screenshots, and the eventual drawing results. This way, people will sign up for the chance to get something for nothing...and maybe you can lure a couple of them into buying.

[merc_fx]

Having just looked at the Mercury Effects website, there's no reason for anyone to sign up for the newsletter since there's no content whatsoever.. or did I miss something?

The site is coming, we are not talking about getting them to sign up now. But if you have any suggestions how to tailor your site to get interest, I'd be glad to hear them. Example: Should you have screenshots right away, or should they be on a "games" page with the description. Should the download buttons be on the front page? How beneficial is a gameplay video? Obviously, we'll only have one game so we'll probably feature it prominently on the front page.


What about offering free prizes? Give away 10 copies of the game to people randomly selected from your mailing list? You could use the list to keep people informed about the game progress, new screenshots, and the eventual drawing results. This way, people will sign up for the chance to get something for nothing...and maybe you can lure a couple of them into buying.


I like your style, dude. That sounds like a good idea, and better than a discount. I just thought with a discount, everyone gets something. But something for free is better than something for cheap.



I think one good way for prerelease marketing is to go around to various game forums and have your team be active in them.

On it!

Thanks for all the info. It really is great the kind of support you guys bring to the indie community. I know we, and many others just starting out, would be at quite a loss without it.

[mkovacic]

The site is coming, we are not talking about getting them to sign up now. But if you have any suggestions how to tailor your site to get interest, I'd be glad to hear them. Example: Should you have screenshots right away, or should they be on a "games" page with the description.
It think that the best way to go about it largely depends on what your game is like (and in turn, your target demographics). Nobody wants to see concept art for some match-3 puzzle. You could find people that have succesfully pulled of pre-release thing for a game in your genre, and look up their old sites on webarchive.