The first things you need to understand are: People talk a lot about finding an “audience” for a launch, but I’ve found that this step is often overlooked or misunderstood. Know Your Audience Like The Back Of Your Handīefore you run off to start marketing, you need to really know your audience if you want to succeed. But rather learn from as many people as possible and pick and choose what works best for you, your game, and your audience. This is not to say that you should copy everything someone else does because every single project is different. In particular, pay attention to aspects such as the way people explain their game, the way a Kickstarter page is laid out, how many rewards are on the page, and what stretch goals are included. Look through everything in your niche and patterns will emerge. As a game designer, it’s your job to see what others have done that was successful and also what has not been so successful. This is actually my super secret way of saying that market research is so important. Those before you have already found the path to success – what works, what doesn’t work, what to side-step, and what to dive straight into. Want to launch a successful zombie-themed game? Someone else has done this before! Want to launch a successful legacy game? Someone else has done this before! Want to launch a successful family card game? Someone else has definitely done this before, too!
No matter what you want to launch, I’m sure that there’s someone else who has done it successfully before you (or at least something similar). I’m a firm believer that success leaves clues. Follow Kickstarter Successes To Find Clues You’ll need to build yourself up as a credible game designer, your publishing company as a legitimate source of games, and then your game as something fun and exciting.Īll of this comes back to being involved in the community, telling your stories, and showcasing your journey. When you get deeper into it, there are various levels of marketing you need to go through. The evolution and changes of the game from its inception on paper to prototype.Choosing between plastic or metal coins, standees or meeples.The different rounds of playtesting you’ve gone through.Looking into different manufacturers and weighing the pros and cons of each.The story behind deciding the final mechanics of the game, via designer diaries.Posting in groups to ask whether people prefer artwork A or artwork B.That’s honestly one of the things I love most about Kickstarter launches: literally everything that you’re doing to build a game is marketing for your launch. When you know you’re going to go all-in on a game and start playtesting it, that’s when your marketing brain should kick into high gear. I talk about this more in the marketing toolkit but basically this is the first and most important foundation for creating a “brand” people love so it isn’t too big of a next step to start talking about your game. Not enough hours in the day…ĭefinitely marketing my friend! It seems like what you’re doing now is the phase of marketing where you build up your credibility as a game designer and your publishing company as a trustworthy one. Until then, just trying to get more people into our Facebook group, continuing to be involved in the community, trying to get more face time with local game groups, and working on a Discord presence.
I’m not sure we’re at the marketing stage yet as we won’t be publishing until some time next year.
In reality, marketing starts much earlier than you think.īelow is a conversation I grabbed directly from my board game marketing group: Or they’re waiting for something written in the stars to tell them that it’s time. Or they wait until they’re just about to launch to start marketing. Many game designers want to wait until their game is “perfect” before they start marketing. Marketing Starts Much Earlier Than You Think
#Board games kickstarter professional#
These board game marketing tips from an industry professional will help you earn raving fans ready to back your Kickstarter on day one.
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