Many developers put their heart and soul into bringing their video game ideas to life. Unfortunately, the sad reality is that many of their games get lost in the shuffle due to a lack of proper promotion for their titles.
These developers have a right to believe their hard work will speak for itself; but without the right eye-catching media, players will turn a blind eye to their games.
The most effective advertising for video games comes in the form of game trailers that show off gameplay, or animated trailers that tease the game’s story.
However, throwing together a game promo video isn’t an easy feat. Developers need to turn to a talented video game trailer company for high-quality game trailer video production.
The video game industry is an ever-growing beast, and the market requires promoting your video game through strong marketing. Following these six simple ideas will give you an edge against other developers and get your game in the hands of more players.
Table of Contents
Content
- Promoting Your Video Game On Social Media.
- Creating A Website And Blog.
- Crowdfunding.
- Create And Foster A Gaming Community.
- Marketing Through Influencers.
Promoting Your Video Game On Social Media
Social media is a powerful tool, with billions of users across different apps and platforms from Facebook to TikTok.
Gaming on TikTok alone has exploded recently, due to gamers uploading everything from hilarious fail clips to spectacular no-scope headshots pulling in billions of views. Other popular social media apps and platforms for uploading video game videos are.
- YouTube
- Snapchat
Gaming companies have already latched onto social media’s growing influence by teasing gameplay through short game promo videos. These videos need to be brief yet impactful, as the average viewer will decide whether they want to continue watching a video within the first couple of seconds.
Gamers on Twitter are some of the most loyal social media users: they attach themselves to niche communities and act as echo chambers to spread the word about video games they feel passionate about.
Game trailer video production companies understand and adapt to the behavior of social media consumers by creating videos that capture the audience’s attention quickly and give them a reason to share it on their personal timelines.
Creating A Website And Blog
Bloggers know how to connect to the deepest reaches of the internet with search engine optimization, metadata, and engaging content. In essence, bloggers know how to reach thousands of viewers through the written word alone.
Engaging blogs need embedded videos, infographics, and other visual pieces of media to enhance the reading experience. If you’re an indie developer or small studio, it might not be within your budget to hire a blogger. However, you can still maintain your own blog on your video game’s website.
It’s no secret that a website adds legitimacy to your studio and is an effective tool for building hype around your game. A blog brings in readers searching for specific keywords who can then view media on your website.
Having an interesting game promo video, screenshots, and other visuals to draw attention to your website will kickstart word of mouth to promote your game.
Crowdfunding
Many indie gaming studios turn to crowdfunding, not only for game monetization but to have another platform for promoting their games. Crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter are known to internally promote projects they feel are of high quality.
When Kickstarter promotes a project, it shows up on its recommended page, which increases traffic to the project. Having game trailers and other interesting information will increase the chances of converting a backer.
Backers are great word of mouth promoters when announcing projects they’ve supported. Other crowdfunding apps and websites include.
- Patreon
- IndieGoGo
- GoFundMe
While crowdfunding isn’t an effective marketing means on its own, it’s another egg to add to your basket of ways to promote your video game.
Create And Foster A Gaming Community
For indie gaming companies on a budget, creating a gaming community is one of the most cost-effective ways of keeping players updated on the development of the game. Players appreciate more transparency from game studios during their development process. That’s why gaming roadmaps are an easy topic of conversation and speculation.
Gaming community platforms such as Discord are some of the strongest means of marketing your video game because of how closely developers can engage with their potential player base.
These passionate gamers are normally a part of multiple Discord servers and will help promote your gaming videos and updates if they feel connected to your studio.
Direct engagement with communities while your game is in development helps you understand what gamers do or don’t want and, if they feel heard, they will take up the mantle of brand ambassadors as they help with organic growth towards a thriving gaming community.
Marketing Through Influencers
The top gaming influencers have millions of followers and, when they attach themselves to a game, they boost its popularity and sales. The best example of this phenomenon is the small indie game, Among Us. When Among Us was released in 2018, it almost fell through the cracks as just another indie game.
However, when big YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch influencers attached themselves to the game, it grew by millions of users almost overnight.
In the case of Among Us, they were really lucky to have some of the top influencers in the world bring traffic to their game. Fortunately, there are smaller influencers itching to prove they have the social media presence to market to their fans. Reaching out to influencers as an avenue for promotion is one of the best ways to spread videos for games.
Before dispersing your eggs into different baskets for promoting your game, it’s important to search for game trailer production companies. These companies will help you create appealing content to post across social media, gaming communities, websites, blogs, and influencers.
Don’t let all your hard work on your video game fall into the void. If you don’t want your video game to get lost in a sea of irrelevance, then promoting your video game with an effective game trailer video production will get your game into the eager hands of potential fans.
