Marketing for Tabletop Games
Throughout my 10+ years of Ecommerce, I’ve worked to elevate companies in the gaming space. My work experience as a full-time employee at Osmo and consulting for various gaming companies around the world has revealed several themes your average entrepreneur may not think to consider when growing the business.
Customer vs End User. Just because someone purchased your game, doesn’t mean that exact person will be playing it. This is especially true when you see a surge in customers in Q4 who are buying for the Holidays and are intending to gift it to friends and family. Your Customer may not be your End User, and understanding this distinction has an impact on how you market.
In the gaming space, your Customer are likely either a game player or someone who is gifting your product. If they are purchasing for their own use, then your marketing around “how to play” and customer ratings and reviews will be essential to convincing them to play. For a Customer looking to gift, “how to play” is less relevant. They want to know facts that match the person they are gifting and if they can trust your business and your game. Customers looking to gift are more interested in age and topic appropriateness, as well as the usual customer ratings and reviews.
It’s important you stay in-tune with your product and focus not only on the Customer but also the End User, and this can be especially difficult if your End User is a minor or if your game does not require online registration. If your End User is a minor, it’ll be difficult to target them for upselling or cross-selling, and growing the Customer Lifetime Value. You run the risk of losing relevance in the mind of the End User. If your game does not require any online registration, you also lose contact and record of your End User. You won’t be able to track how engaged they were in the game and their satisfaction with your product.
Given these limitations with End Users, I always recommend trying to get the user to join a “VIP Program” or “Register the product” with your direct-to-consumer website. This gives you an opportunity to not only service their needs but remarket to them for upsell and cross-sell opportunities. I also recommend sending out customer surveys that identify whether the customer is the End User or not. Identifying your End Users allows you to inquire about their feedback on your game.
Discounting vs Stability. The most well-known Tabletop Games typically have a price ceiling. They never go above a manufacturer’s set price, but they typically go on sale periodically. Compare that to a Rolex Luxury Watch whose prices never get marked down. Some may think sticking to a steady price establishes brand superiority (and retains margins), but that runs counter to how some of the top gaming companies perform.
The Tabletop Gaming space is all about brand awareness. The more people know about your game, the more they’ll play it with their friends and family. If your game is of quality, playing the game convinces family and friends to purchase the game themselves and continue the snowball effect. Tabletop games is not only a social tool, but also social revenue driver for your business.
To get more people to play your game, and realize how much fun can be had, especially for a start-up company, discounting during key promotional periods is necessary. Those initial ratings and reviews will have a continuous positive impact on your business and will lead to more sales. Remember, you’re playing the long game and as long as you’re putting out a quality game, more and more people will share your game with friends and family.
Story-telling vs Selling. If you’re a game developer, you’re a storyteller. You had an idea about an interesting problem or premise, and you wanted to take players through the journey with you. Do not lose sight of that storytelling talent once you get to selling your product! Your website, social media, email marketing, and paid ads exist to help you tell your game’s story. Your website should describe the world that gamers can expect to transport themselves into. Telling that story will do a majority of the work converting shoppers.
Focusing on selling your product without story-telling makes your products exist in a vacuum. Shoppers aren’t convinced to buy your product just because it exist on your website and can be bought. They need to understand the value they’ll get from playing your game.
Conclusion. Tabletop Gaming exist in a very unique space where your End-User, Discounting, and Story-Telling are all important aspects to your business. If you need any help growing and marketing your Tabletop Game, schedule a consultation with us!
