Inspired by @itshannahflynn's excellent AdventureX talk - twitch.tv/videos/5028820… - I thought I'd start a thread on practical indie game marketing things you can do RIGHT NOW that will take ten minutes or less. [THREAD]
@itshannahflynn 1. Write a quick email to your subscribers, informing them of the latest updates in development.
@itshannahflynn 2. Have a browse of Steam's 'upcoming' list to see if there are any similar games coming out soon, then consider what they're doing well, and what you could do better.
@itshannahflynn 3. Visualise your perfect launch, and write down three things that make it awesome on a post-it note. Stick it to your monitor and look at it every day.
@itshannahflynn 4. Capture a gif of a funny bug in your game and Tweet it on a Wednesday with the #indiedevhour hashtag.
@itshannahflynn 5. Look back at your wishlists graph over the past few months. Note where the peaks and troughs are, and figure out what happened on those days to impact your results.
@itshannahflynn 6. Sit down with your production schedule and figure out the next time you can spend a full day on marketing, instead of ten minutes. Mark that day off in your production plan, and stick to it.
@itshannahflynn 7. Put a shout-out on social media and get ten strangers to look at your trailer/store page and give you feedback on their first impressions.
@itshannahflynn 8. Search a games website you like for the five most recent articles written about games like yours. Make a note of the names of the journalists and add them to a list.
@itshannahflynn 9. Find a marketing person on Twitter and send them a DM asking for some quick advice on something you're struggling with. Most will happily oblige. I certainly will.
@itshannahflynn 10. Post a progress update on Steam.
@itshannahflynn 11. Search Metacritic for a game you consider a competitor. Read the best-rated review, the worst-rated review, and one in the middle. Note down what reviewers liked and disliked about that game.
@itshannahflynn 12. Write 100 words about what makes your game awesome. Then edit it to be 50 words. Then 20. Then five. Memorise those five words. Live them. That's your headline USP.
@itshannahflynn 13. Reach out to five mid-sized influencers you like and ask them for their first impressions of your game. Not coverage. Just feedback. You're planting a seed while gaining useful insight.
@itshannahflynn 14. Read a Gamasutra blog about games marketing.
@itshannahflynn 15. Look at your main tags on Steam. Run a search for all games with that same combination of tags. Make a note of the ones released in the past 12 months, then pick one in your next 10-min marketing slot to analyse.
@itshannahflynn 16. Ask @itshannahflynn to review your Steam page on a Wednesday morning.
@itshannahflynn 17. Find a game in your genre that absolutely, catastrophically failed. Search the internet and try to figure out some reasons why.
@itshannahflynn 18. Play the first ten minutes of your game. Would you be happy showing this to a journalist, influencer, or potential fan? If not, carve out time in production to make those ten minutes shine.
@itshannahflynn 19. Indulge in a little critical self-reflection. Make a list of ten things you aren't happy with in your game. Prioritise them top to bottom in terms of how much you think it'll affect the public's perception of what you're making. Work the most important fixes into your plan.
@itshannahflynn 20. Go through your production plan and identify three moments between now and launch where you want to get people talking about your game. Think of a marketing activity you could do around those times, and set a reminder to ping you a month before each one.
@itshannahflynn 21. Schedule five tweets to go live over the next week.
@itshannahflynn 22. Show a stranger your trailer (and nothing but the trailer) and ask them to describe your game back to you. Make a note of what they didn't get quite right, and think of ways to communicate that better in future materials.
@itshannahflynn [Interlude] *Psst, you can do 18 of these marketing activities in the three hours Hannah recommends setting aside each week!*
@itshannahflynn 23. Load up your game and take 20 new screenshots. Stick them in a folder for easy-to-grab social media updates.
@itshannahflynn 24. If you have a small budget (£500?) and you're nearing launch, approach three freelance games journalists and ask them if they'd be interested in writing a 'mock review' of your game, for your eyes only. It'll help you make your game 'review-ready'!
@itshannahflynn 25. Check whatever inbox the contact details on your website lead to, in case a journalist or influencer is trying to get in touch. (If you don't have contact details on your website, good grief, change that now.)
@itshannahflynn 26. Read up on the latest known info on how the Steam/App Store/whatever discovery algorithms work.
@itshannahflynn 27. Imagine you're a journalist. What headline would you write about your game? Search your favourite games site to see if headlines like that are common.
