Increase your sells successfully by asking for a review of you game! Yes but….

[Stridge]

This question is for the big guys around.

One way to increase sell is to get reviewed, by ezine, magazine, blogs, website, etc.. (:confused: hmm…did I forgot any?) We know it’s not an easy task, but how did YOU proceed ?

Do you simply send an email to the ezine xyz and ask for the review? Or perhaps you had a tip on a contact inside, maybe an email of an editor…
How did you stand out of the multitude of email these guys must have?
Basically what I’m asking is course on approach 101. I guess the same approach is the same for all business deal.

Thanks for your valuable time, I think will help a lot of inde!

[theshadowfan]

I've never asked for someone to review my game. If they truly wanted to review it they would ask for an evaluation copy. If they don't ask for one they probably would have given the game a bad score anyway. Never give out copies to websites that haven't at least posted your press release.

In the email mention that evaluation copies are available upon request!

Avoid any email titles that could be quickly seen as spam. Assume that a website gets 100 emails a day, most of those subject lines will be quickly read with some emails never being opened. Make sure that your subject indicates that what you have is a video game and not viagra. :p

[Coyote]

I am gonna have to disagree with David on asking people to review your game. Though maybe we're just looking at it from different perspectives (hard to argue with the success they gained with getting reviews for Morning's Wrath...)

From my (admittedly limited) experience, gaming press seems to operate on more of a push-basis than a pull-basis. While they present the illusion of scouring the globe for tidbits of gaming news, they actually have as much of a finite number of resources and attention as the rest of us. They often rely as much on tips and connections for their news as press releases. Just like customers, it may take hearing about your game two or three times to pique their interest.

The big boys cultivate relations with journalists and editors. It's not a bad thing to do. It still won't guarantee their attention or a good review, but it's often worthwhile. It really depends upon how much your marketing effort is worth. A ton of effort to woo the attention of a tiny little blog with only a hundred readers might not be the best investment of your labor, but you never know. Today's microblog might be tomorrow's joystiq.

Anyway - your press release is probably your first strike. But that's not the end of your marketing job. The whole "If you build it, they will come" thing is a total myth.

Other things you could / should try:
* Contact some of the smaller press sites, with an email structured appropriately as David recommends, and offer them a review copy of your game. You can also offer interviews or whatever else... though if you are a first-time game developer, the draw of an interview might not be very high.
* Casually mention the game's release in those forums full of your target audience that you are ALREADY a contributing and active member of (you did all that in advance, right? You do NOT want to be a forum spammer!) Any communities you are involved in - let it be known.
* Announce it in your newsletter (you DID already get a newsletter up and running, right?)
* Be creative in exploring other possibilities. Cliff Harris sent a bunch of free copies of his game, Democracy, to a bunch of government officials, in the hopes that at least one might play it and comment on it in some way. Joseph Lieberman arranged a little online battle with a beta version of Void War with the press one morning. Okay, both of these ideas kinda bombed, but once again - you never know.
* Some people are offering free review copies of games to anyone with an established blog who will blog about the game. I dunno if that works or not, but those ideas must be tried.

I also recommend picking up Joseph Lieberman's book on Video Game Marketing (http://www.vgsmart.com ). It's really a great marketing 101 text.

[Tertsi]

Yes, not submitting your game for review will cost you exposure and thus sales. Even if you had submit a press release to them earlier there's a greater chance that a personal call or e-mail will get the game to be reviewed. I got Battles of Norghan to several important sites which wouldn't have reviewed it otherwise this way.

[DanMarshall]

As far as I'm concerned, you need to get your game in every magazine and on every single website in order to garner even the smallest degree of customer awareness.

Gibbage got everywhere after release, and that's because I sent tons of emails out offering up review copies. Not press releases, they're boring as hell and will get deleted; I get sent them all the time now I've got a Reviews section to my site, and I delete them.

I sent a proper, hand crafted email talking about Gibbage, the story behind it and a link to a review copy, and it worked for about 50% of the places I got in touch with.

I'm now in the situation where I get approached by magazines in I've never heard of other countries asking for review copies.

People on these forums have been saying this since I joined and I paid no attention. It's only after releasing Gibbage that I realised they were completely right: you need to be prepared to put an awful lot of work into the marketing side or you'll get nowhere.

Maybe we should just put that on the splash page at www.indiegamer.com?

[Polycount Productions]

One way to increase sell is to get reviewed, by ezine, magazine, blogs, website, etc.. (:confused: hmm…did I forgot any?) We know it’s not an easy task, but how did YOU proceed ?

Ask nicely.

[DanMarshall]

Ask nicely.

Good point. People who ask nicely for coverage at Gibbage.co.uk are more likely to not only get featured, but get it done so nicely.

People who send arrogant, poorly written copy-and-pasted emails that say "Hi Dan, just wondering if you'd review my game on your site Jayisgames" get bad, bad coverage.

ps yes, that has really happened. On several occasions...

[bignobody]

If you want to get reviewed on Dan's site, make sure you start your email off by telling him how awesome Gibbage is. Flattery will get you everywhere ;)

[Skinflint]

Ask. Ask. Ask. Waiting for opportunity to come knocking is just that... waiting. Go talk to someone and convince them that what you have is what they are looking for.

When Reflexive was just starting out, I was the "whipping boy"...I did everything that no one else wanted to. This included contacting the press and trying to get our stuff reviewed, on CD's in magazines, etc. Through much trial and error of contacting people through e-mail and over the phone, I found a few things that worked for me:

1) Know their audience. Is your game something that their readers are interested in? Will it play better if you compare it to successful games that your game is like? This might not be an issue for most places you contact, but believe me, they will be thinking about it.
2) Be nice (as mentioned earlier). Confidence plays well...arrogance does not.
3) If it will work, try and be funny, but put it in context. I got a review on one site because I offered to "eat a bug" if they would review Swarm for us. I knew from reading the reviewers reviews that he would appreciate that type of joke...and it worked.
4) Give them quick and easy access to what they might need to proceed. Screenshots, download links, quick 20 word description...make them readily available so that if they are mildly interested they can take a look. (side note: make sure the links work. They probably will not contact you back with "hey, the links didn't work". They probably get so many contacts that they don't have the time or inclination to ask you to send them stuff that works. They'll assume right away that you don't know what you're doing and move on)
5) Contact the right person. Do research. Find out who in the heck does what you need and contact them directly, customizing your contact appropriately. Blind e-mails to no one don't feel good to send, you can't personalize it, and a lot of times don't get a response.
6) Call if you can. It's not as easy as an e-mail, but I got Swarm on quite a few magazine CD covers because I took the time to call the right person...and my e-mails were not getting a response. A phone call is harder to ignore.
7) Don't give up. So the first 3 places turned you down. Keep going...but evaluate your approach. Is it you they are turning down or your product? If they didn't get a chance to even see your game, you've got more work to do in the approach department.

[joe]

Good post, Ion. I absolulty second this...

[Fost]

As a side question: How important are reviews? We've got tons, but I don't think we've ever tracked that many sales from them. Sure, you'll get a lot when they go up, and there's obvious knock on effects, but perhaps they are not as big a deal as we like to think?


Note: I am not saying you should avoid contacting reviewers, as that would be stupid... :)

[Skinflint]

Well, if direct sales links were the only way that reviews were evaluated, then I would say that they might not be that important.

However, I don't think that direct sales links are necessarily the most important things that reviews do. Sure, they can contribute, and in some cases, can make a world of difference in the success of a title.

But it's the other things that reviews do that can build a mountain out of a molehill.

1) They can build your company up (assuming it's good). Not only for others to see and for the company's fortunes, but good reviews provide good feelings throughout the entire company...even if it's just you and your artist. Don't underestimate the power of feeling good about the direction you are going in.
2) You get to mention the review elsewhere, and it can open doors that might not have been open without it. We got a retail deal for Swarm (years ago) based on the great reviews that we got from lots of different gaming sites. They took a chance on it based on what reviewers said...they flat out said so during the negotiation process.

I'm sure that there are more things others will elaborate on, but these jump to my mind right away.

[Stridge]

Hi,

Alot to think about in your replies...


David:
Avoid any email titles that could be quickly seen as spam.

Good point and noted. I find it more and more difficult to write without being trashed. If you are not a safe sender list your email seam to be doomed. My brother used to get junked before I put him on “the safe side”. I get on my knees every night hoping everyone browses his junk email folder before trashing it!:o

Coyote:
The big boys cultivate relations with journalists and editors.

I wonder is the good old Mexico style, bribe still work, a small gift perhaps? Or a good and respectful, business like relationship is the best way to go?

Coyote:
A ton of effort to woo the attention of a tiny little blog with only a hundred readers might not be the best investment of your labor, but you never know.

With the rising of those micro blogs, In few years, we’ll have to outsource to India to face the amount of work!

Coyote:
Contact some of the smaller press sites, with an email structured appropriately as David recommends, and offer them a review copy of your game. You can also offer interviews or whatever else...

Why the smaller?
Do you have few example of few small one?

Tertsi:
Even if you had submit a press release to them earlier there's a greater chance that a personal call or e-mail will get the game to be reviewed.

Did you have a good result by contacting by Phone people?

I’ve read a text written by Al Harberg DP Directory (he does press release) a count down of tip about press release. There what he said…

#8. Telephone only those editors whom you consider to be friends. Before you send them your press release, if you call editors who are strangers, you're going to annoy them because they don't have the information they need to carry on an intelligent conversation with you. If you call them after you've sent the press release, and ask them if they've gotten it, read it, and are going to print it, you're going to annoy them even more. Your press release must be a stand-alone document that tells your entire story. Telephones are for ordering pizza.
What is your experience?

Dan Marshall:

Gibbage got everywhere after release, and that's because I sent tons of emails out offering up review copies. Not press releases, they're boring as hell and will get deleted; I get sent them all the time now I've got a Reviews section to my site, and I delete them.

Hmmm… Don’t know what to think about that… :confused: a lot of people trash them? Do we send press release because, it’s the right thing to do, some people get good results, no? Or it’s like submitting to shareware archive, doesn’t worth a dime but we do it anyway…

Dan Marshall:

People on these forums have been saying this since I joined and I paid no attention. It's only after releasing Gibbage that I realised they were completely right: you need to be prepared to put an awful lot of work into the marketing side or you'll get nowhere.

You got to feed the beast and the food is marketing.

Thanks, good post Ion, a lot to think about… I wonder, is every people is as much incline to reach for the phone get reviews.

What about you FOST you said you had a lot of review did you do a lot of phone work?

Thanks

[Skinflint]

Phone calls might not make sense in every situation. However, if it seems like it would make a positive difference, then do it. I hate cold-calling people myself (feels like...sales...uck) but sometimes it can really make a difference.

Some doors just flat out stayed closed to me until I picked up the phone.

[Chris Evans]

I got a question for you guys.

Do you typically send the download link to your full version in your initially e-mail or do you prefer to establish contact first? I like to establish contact first, so I know what places to follow-up on. Most websites/magazines don't tell you when they post a review, so I like to keep a short list of places to look out for where I could expect a review.

However I've been thinking in the instances where I have direct contact info (like a specific name not news@...), maybe I should just include everything in the initial e-mail. Not just screen shots and info but also the actual download link to the full version. Though I'm hesitant to do this. If I'm going to give out the full version to someone at the very least I'd like to establish a contact even if I don't get a review written up. If I give them everything in the first e-mail, it means they really don't need to ever reply to me and I'm left in the dark.

What do you guys think?

[Tom Cain]

Not too long ago I hired Joe's game marketing company (http://www.vgsmart.com/) to get in touch with relevant review contacts on my behalf. He knows a lot of people -- and I know few to none ;) -- so I was pleased with his results.

[Stridge]

Hi Chris,

Well you approach sound the best way to go. On the other hand, does the reviewer as the time to reply and spend the time to pull a review version or will he decide to go to the next.

I guess the answer is in the question I have for you.

Do you get a lot of reviews?

[Fost]

What about you FOST you said you had a lot of review did you do a lot of phone work?

No, and I would never phone someone unless they asked me to. Speaking from the other side - whenever anybody I don't know really well asks if they can ring me about business, it's a warning flag for me that they are a **** and that I should try and avoid talking to them. On occasion I have told them I am deaf.

We essentially did nothing to get all the reviews because when we started we knew nothing whatsoever about marketing. we didn't even issue a press release - the reviews just came over time.

[Coyote]

Why the smaller?
Do you have few example of few small one?

Oh, not that you shouldn't try to get noticed by the bigger sites, too. You may as well try to get Gamespot and 1Up to review your game - you really don't have much to lose. However, because of their size and workload, they don't have much to gain by reviewing some unknown indie game. With 500 other games by mainstream publishers who actually pay big bucks to advertise on their site that they are trying to get reviewed this month, they are less likely to devote resources to your game. But again - you never know.

You have more to offer for a lower- and mid-tier gaming site. They are looking for a competitive advantage against the big boys themselves, so some unique coverage on a game overlooked by the larger sites may be valuable to them. The smaller sites, in particular, need CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT. High quality is best, but almost anything will up the ol' Google ranking. If you can provide them with something unique and interesting, a story that "writes itself," you make it an easy decision for them.

Some of the smaller sites that could be of interest:
http://gamechronicles.com/
http://www.gamersinfo.net/
http://www.strategyinformer.com/
http://armchairgeneral.com/ ( If you have a strategy / war game)

There's about a zillion others out there. One trick to finding them is to google for a review of some popular indie or budget game, and see what comes up. A lot of them might be just shareware / freeware sites with user reviews, but you'll undoubtably come up with a few interesting ones.

Hey, as far as I'm concerned, if you are interested in getting some coverage on MY tiny little corner of the blogosphere, just message me and let me know! I especially like interviews - it's like, you know, FREE CONTENT! Have your story seen by.... ummm.... dozens? :)

[terin]

No, and I would never phone someone unless they asked me to. Speaking from the other side - whenever anybody I don't know really well asks if they can ring me about business, it's a warning flag for me that they are a **** and that I should try and avoid talking to them. On occasion I have told them I am deaf.

I'm going to have to politely but very FIRMLY disagree with this.

The telephone is the world. Cold calling is an art, but a very important art. And IF there is some business contact I am unsure of the FIRST thing I do is pick up the phone and call them. You can tell a lot more about who you're dealing with when you talk to them in person; because its easy to sound slick and smooth when you can take an hour to craft an e-mail, but you can't be johnny on the spot unless you know your stuff.

I personally seek MSN or phone contact ONLY with people. Why? Because that is how you get stuff done. E-mail doesn't get squat accomplished with most people. Usually, even if they are interested, they'll forget, you'll forget, it will get spam filtered, ect. Phone calls and MSN interrupt your routine, which is exactly why you should use them. Sure, our pal Fost doesn't want his routine interupted, but that's exactly why you should call him.

;-) I think I have his number somewhere.... *hatches an evil plan*

-Joe