Utilizing Free Content for Board Game Publishers

Tags

Asmodee Games, Board Games, Club Fantasci, David Lowry, Le Phantom de L' Opera, Marketing, Publishers, reviews, Social Media

The board game industry is all about the “Cult of the New” now. The next big game, next exciting Kickstarter, that is what is driving companies these days. It’s new content and a constant driving sales force and we as board game lovers fall in line and buy all that we can as it comes out. We forget about the games that came out before as the new games make it to the table five or six times before the next hot thing arrives for us to drool over. For years great games came out at a much slower pace before Kickstarter started launching what seems to be 50 new games a week.

With all the new people coming to gaming now, they don’t know about the
“old” games (anything over a year old it seems) as all the scuttlebutt is what is hot now or coming out. This is why I started the “Revisiting the Classics” reviews for Club Fantasci. There are so many great games that people forget about or have never discovered and that is a shame as many of past years games are just as good or better than todays games. How can we tackle this problem?

Well, first of all publishers have to learn to market their past games as well as their new games. Learning how to drive traffic to your website is key in any marketing strategy and then having the content there that is on the FRONT page is where it is at to successfully sell your whole catalog. You can do this in rotation so as not the over clutter your home page.

Recently I wrote a quick review for Le Phantome de L’ Opera for Asmodee Games. They put it on their front page of their site a couple months ago now and I still get hits on this review from their site. Is it selling games? I don’t know, all I know is people read this review everyday. That should help sell games if it’s a good review.

Mayfair Games posts reviews on the games direct page on their site but many of the publishers ignore this content or only post it on their Facebook page or twitter. While this makes your social media strategy easy as you always have new content (although many still don’t use this) it isn’t helping make the sale on your webpage.

Many may not agree with me, but I am a firm believer in leveraging your resources and board games reviewers are the publishers most power free resource their is. So publishers, when a review comes out, if you feel that is a great piece to help sell your game, use it. Don’t just use your favorite reviewers, you will alienate the other ones. Judge the review on it’s own merit and use that. Help the reviewer out as they are helping you out.

Maximize your online sales strategy with smart, efficient and effective marketing and watch your sales grow. Take care of your reviewers and they will take care of you. Most of all let’s do it for the love of spreading our love of this amazing hobby and the great games from before.

Best of luck!

Board Game Publishers Help a Board Game Reviewer Out

Tags

Artwork, Bloggers, Board Games, Branding, Marketing, News Outlets, PR, Publishers, Reviewers, RPG, Social Media

One of the most frustrating things I find in trying to review new games of any kind actually is not having good imagery to work with. It completely surprises me that a good amount of the board game publishers out there don’t have good artwork to be used for bloggers to use to promote their games. This should be absolutely STANDARD fare for any company so let me give a few tips from a marketing guy in the entertainment industry.

1. When launching a new product especially on Kickstarter and you want people to blog about it, make sure you have the box cover art available as an image on your Kickstarter page or at least your main web page. I am sure you many of you know that this helps with SEO when we can appropriately use text in images let alone having a good featured image to use when we post on social media such as Facebook. This helps the review always put out great content on your behalf as well. It makes them look good and your are the Hero because of it.

2. ALWAYS have your new launch on your main web page. This should be your current news and should be posted at the same time as your kickstarter. Get is started and save it as a draft until ready to launch. Once your Kickstarter is up, post the link in it. The main goal of any business is to drive traffic to their business page. This will not only help you look professional, up to date and busy but also allow people who may not know about your other products a chance to check them out and either purchase or put on their wish list.

3. All board games that you publish should have it’s own page on your website. I have seen a rash of this lately where publishers have no content what so ever for a game that has recently come out. This is completely dumbfounding to me as I don’t understand why you would put out a product and not have it on your site showcased. I know most of the publishers may be one person operations and time is very tight, but marketing and branding is absolutely crucial to your success as a business. If you need help keeping up your website, social media, marketing, PR etc…. Let me know, my business can help 🙂

4. Make sure you have a list of bloggers, news outlets and reviewers set up so you can email all of your updates. Don’t rely on them to see your subscribe button. Take it upon your self to do the research and make a list. It will take you one day to do it. Ask for help if you need to. It is on your shoulders to be successful and get the news out. Make it easy for the people who are providing your free PR about your new games.

5. Social media is key to marketing these days and yet so few have really learned to used it in a way that reaches out to new reviewers, bloggers or news outlets. Again use the tools available to you to find new sources of PR. The use of hash tags is very important and gives you a very easy way to mine for information and people who will help promote your product. Don’t just tweet to the people you know or like. Answer all tweets if possible and build relationships!

6. Make sure your imagery in on http://www.boardgamegeek.com and available for use for reviewers to put in their reviews of your board games. This only makes your game look better than people having to use crappy pictures they have to take with poor lighting, camera’s or cell phones. Always make sure, you are able to put YOUR best foot forward with marketing and that means making sure everyone has access with rights to use your artwork for reviews.

It doesn’t take much to frustrate people who love what you do and want to help you. You should be facilitating these relationships and making it very easy for them to help you since it is FREE. You aren’t sending free games to everyone that reviews your product as a matter of fact you send very few games in comparison to the reviews that come out so make sure you are utilizing, maximizing and capitalizing on what is available to you and the awesome people in this hobby that want to support what you do!

If you have any questions or want to consult with us. Please let us now!

Looking forward to the great games your bring us to play!

David Lowry