Marketing - kako stvoriti veci community
· Mar 24, 2005, 8:27 AM
#4438
Evo sam morao c&p jer stvarno.. bed mi je ako ovako nesto samo ja znam a informacije u danasnje doba vrijede vise nego bilo sta drugo! osim ljubavi 
Savjet za savjetom, neznas koji je bolji.. odusevljen sam!
Black Hydra wrote:Seeing as I started the thread I'll answer some questions
1) I started this thread more as a brainstorming. I didn't list any particular answers, in part, because I don't really have any. This was to get everyone thinking.
2) I didn't say give away free games, did I?
No. Lots of free games suck. Lots of shareware games suck. The problem is that investing time into a freeware product to serve as a customer draw, is that it is risky. It may or may not increase sales, and anything it does provide is long-term. So as a result many people make crappy freeware games. These aren't popular at all, despite being free, so they are ignored.
Nexic posted a thread about making a freeware content-based game and then offering a shareware game as a sequel. I'd like to not replicate that thread, but that is one way you can utilize my previously mentioned "Serve first, Ask Later" marketting strategy.
You could give away free articles, information, or any other service you feel would benefit consumers.
3) DEMO'S are not consumer builders. That would be like saying an advertisment is a service companies provide us. Yeah, demos are fun, but most of them serve as an advertisement for the full game. Players don't feel like there being serviced because they are constantly reminded that this is a demo. A demo is too direct to be considered in my listing.
4) The reason portals limit there time demo's is NOT because they want to spite people who aren't going to buy it. As I have learned from other great marketing wizards, if there is no urgency connected to the purchase people will never buy it. When people see there time running down they get to a very high point at which they wish to buy it. This is opposed to the gentle nag that comes with incomplete games. The portals don't do it because they figure that if you haven't bought it already we aren't going to let you play. They do it because it can generate far more money.
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What I am trying to illustrate, however, is that WE often think of our needs before the customer. We think of what WE want to make, what WE want to sell. Now, ultimately you ARE thinking about yourself, however, customers want to feel like you are trying to benefit them. If they feel like your just another online salesperson with a hand out then they will get scared off.
I'm not saying its easy. Our main resource to provide IS games. Making games is hard work and as indies we cannot simply be giving it away for free. So maybe now is the time to brainstorm what services we can offer to build a customer base.
I'll start.
- Articles: We could offer game reviews, articles about gaming, or even just blog's
- Game Making Info: Now this may not be suitable for some of us, as the people this would attract may not be potential customers, however, this is probably something we all know very well. How do you know who Steve Pavlina is?
- Forums: This is a tricky issue. Forums are often just extensions to the game itself, which therefore isn't a free service. However, if you could make the forums a popular visiting place for players of any games, then more people may flock to it and use it.
Try to think of what the customer wants. Serve them and they will come to you. You will gain a good reputation. Put your hand out right away and they will not come to you, even if they are willing to pay.
Pkeod wrote:- Multimedia: Screen Savers, Backgrounds, Web Cartoons, Sound Tracks, Icons
Not only do people dig free multimedia, but it's great paraphernalia for word of mouth marketing.
- Community: It's fun to be in a community IndieGamer is a community that I love. The hard part is to get people to participate, the point of a community is not to lurk but to participate. Like Black Hydra forums are a great way to start, but community is very hard to help mature into a self sufficient entity. Very hard but worth it. I think Hammu has done a great job with building community so look to him for examples on how his lives and breaths.
- Lots o' Free Stuff: Don't give your game away for free... give a high quality strategy guide away for free. Give short stories about the characters away for free. Like the articles BH mentioned give away a load of text content for curious browsers to crawl through and consume. Not everyone is super busy all the time. Sure people can get bored while reading a lot of text, but if it is something interesting that is well presented people who have nothing better to do will enjoy it. A thing to consider is you want people to come back to your website again so don't give everything away at once, but let them know more stuff will be back for them when they come again!
-- Look to websites that are super great, that have no ads, and don't sell anything for ways to really serve people and make them happy. These webmasters make people happy without making money, and people come back again, and again.. hmm...
Black Hydra wrote:One thing that goes along with this policy of 'not having your hand out' is that you don't want to make what you are asking as big as what your giving.
You see, if I put in HUGE letters on my screen BUY NOW! it only serves to think that you are asking something of the visitors.
However if I put FREE GAME! or FREE LEVEL! and put easy access to buying the game lower down on the site then more people are inclined to pay attention.
You want it to be easy for people to buy, but you also want to give people the impression that your there to entertain them, give them a good time, not to take there money away.
Savjet za savjetom, neznas koji je bolji.. odusevljen sam!