Are you looking to promote your video or board game website, but not quite sure how to start? We’ve compiled the most important aspects to look for when promoting and marketing. Added are some real world campaign examples and statistics to show you how successful your website can be.
Here are the top 8 top tips to promote a board game or video game website.
- Ads
Paying for ads can add an extra cost but you’ll certainly get more visibility. Social media ads like Facebook and Instagram allow you to reach new audiences and build brand awareness. An average Facebook user clicks on 12 ads per a month, from a marketing point of view this shows that social media users still pay attention to ads. One of these clicks could be your website.
- Social Media
Your presence on social media extends past just having ads. To effectively promote your site you’ll need to build and link multiple networks such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. A study commissioned by Google showed that 43% of businesses don’t have unified cross-platforms, thus losing audiences and lowering customer experience. Fortunately there are many social media analytical tools that help your posting schedule, monitor trends and record user data.
Using social media can be a way to connect with your audience personally, boosting positive brand awareness. A popular game manufacturer, Madebygpi, uses their social media to post enjoyable content, including holiday references and fun trivia. Although not game related, a prime example of a spike in positive brand to audience engagement is Popeye’s.
- SEO
As of the end of 2021, there are over 1.9 billion websites on the internet. Only having your site live doesn’t cut it anymore. SEO (search engine optimization) helps to improve your sites ranking, improving visibility. There’s both on-page and off-page SEO. Although both are important, 57% of marketing experts say that on-page content is the most effective. On-page SEO includes keywords, internal links, content, headings etc.
An example of the purpose and importance of working on your website’s SEO is the success of Kids Klub Dentistry. Working with an SEO firm, they developed a campaign to increase SERP (search engine results page). In just a year their ranking increased by over 84 positions.
- Blogs
Keep audiences up to date and engaged with a blog, using in house and guest bloggers. Publishing new blog posts on a consistent basis will help to keep your site fresh. By developing a blog strategy, you can build content around specific topics helping to become an authority in that topic. The posts will also allow you to target a wider set of keywords within a topic, so you can start to rank for more longtail buying keywords.
- Site retention
Sure, you could attract an audience but can you keep them interested? A study by Qubit showed that 1% of a retail website’s visitors are responsible for 40% of a site’s revenue, showing just how important it is to focus on repeat visitors. Luckily you can avoid or improve these stats through many avenues. Firstly, content, content, content. This plays a key role in keeping audience retention. Blogging gaming reviews, making sure email marketing is optimized, and pushing notifications are all ways you can keep an audience’s retention, but ensure all content is fresh and unique.
Legacy games are a fantastic choice for game website retention. They are quite different to a normal board game, where you play and then pack it away. Legacy games are designed to build your character’s legacy, continuing through each and every time you play. This format of play is a brilliant way to keep players interested and engaged in the game as well as your website for long periods of time.
- Gaming costs
Buyer statistics show that it’s incredibly important to monitor trends and the economy around you. In 2020, the top 2% of mobile board games fell between $53 and $101. But, in December it plummeted to $25 dollars. Keeping an eye on the average revenue will help to know when to push products and marketing.
- Visual Optimization
It may seem obvious but making sure you’ve designed your product and/ or website to optimize the audiences experience is incredibly important. Creativity is key but assuring all is presentable and clear is a necessity. Important aspects to consider are the visuals, titles, icons, typography, layouts, and colors. The psychology of colors is important to consider when marketing. The color palette you choose affects a customer’s mood. For example, red adds a sense of urgency while blue is the preferred color by men.
A prime example of the importance of color affecting customers is Gator Golf. Although this game is almost 30 years old since first released, Goliath, the toy company, hasn’t changed the design and packaging. Rather they are focusing on the nostalgia the original packaging and colors bring to potential customers.
It is recommend having a fully tested beta site before launching so here aren’t any glitches or aesthetic changes needed to be done. It also gives you the opportunity to receive feedback on whether your site is presentable and enticing.
- Customer service
Customer service is very important to ensure customers can reach you directly. A positive customer service experience can lead to multiple purchases. Building trust with your audience is a very important factor. A 2019 Edelman Brand Trust survey reported that an increase to 81% of customers said that brand trust heavily affects their decision. This shows that brand trust is more important than ever.
Although video games and board games are fun and exciting in their own right, promoting them and drawing interest to your target audience can also be a rewarding experience. When running a website, we can see just how important it is to reach as many people as possible, and keep them engaged. Hopefully these tips, tricks and statistics have helped show you just how important promoting your site is, and how you can reap the benefits by considering a variety of marketing tactics.
