Now that we are two and a half days into the contest on Board Game Geek, I would like to share with you some of my thoughts. It has been a rapid learning experience about a number of things; the power of the internet, good advertising dollars, and marketing to people.
My Thanks Thus Far and Surprise
I am very grateful for the candor and over all honesty of the response that has been received. When I asked for feedback on the video that I originally shot, people were not afraid to request a re-shoot. I knew that the noise of my children watching a movie in the background would be distracting, but I am glad that you made it known to me just HOW distracting it was. Since I am used to it, I barely even noticed the noise. When I redid the intros, I was incredibly tired and felt like a drone. I should probably reshoot that as well.
The best thing about the honesty and candor is the knowledge that I can take other feedback at face value. I know as a group that I am getting honest feedback. So when I see a plethora of responses on the Board Game Geek contest and numerous emails talking about the promise of the games and desire to play the games… Well, I am glad to know that the efforts of Tasty Minstrel Games (i.e. Me and Seth) are well received. It makes me wonder why I didn’t jump into this earlier.
So thank you for the positive feedback, and of course I appreciate anything and everything that is being done to contribute to the success of Tasty Minstrel Games.
The Power of the Internet
The power of the Internet is amazing. Reducing the cost of communication to almost nothing is an incredibly valuable boost. If Tasty Minstrel Games was started 4 years ago like I was planning, then I would certainly have missed many opportunities. The Internet has helped me with the following things so far:
- Finding and communicating with a suitable game manufacturer
- Learning how to attract an audience and prepare for Internet marketing
- Communicating with game designers about potential future games to bring to market
- Opening opportunities that I would not have thought of, or that I felt I did not have time for [through people emailing me specifically about the opportunities]
- Consistently communicating with potential customers and future fans
- Communicating with and getting artwork and graphic design done by individuals who live thousands of miles away
In addition, I expect that through continual use of the Internet, and building upon previous successes, that I will also be able to accomplish the following:
- Reduce capital risk when releasing future games
- Help people who may be considering starting their own game publishing company
- Reach a sufficient number of people similar to myself that I can make a living publishing board games
- Get positive results through the combined efforts of mu audience/fans
For example, right now I do not have a typical sales sheet to provide to distributors who then solicit purchases from retailers. I am not familiar with how to make one, and I feel my efforts are better served reaching out directly to consumers. Whereas a simple request to 1,000 people to let their favorite local game store know about Terra Prime and Homesteaders would go a long way toward kickstarting sales through my distribution channel. The theory being that a percentage of the initial request will mention it to retailers, a percentage of those retailers will ask distributors about it, and when the account manager at a distributor receives 20+ inquiries about a specific game, then they will look specifically to carry it. Basic pull marketing.
Good Advertising Dollars
There are a lot of factors that differentiate the value of advertising dollars. People who are experts in this field make tons of money as big shots at advertising agencies. They can be seen as the person that will subliminally, emotionally, or intellectually force somebody to buy the advertised products. My own terms for some things I consider include:
- Demographics
- Audience self-selection (Board Game Geek is a self-selected audience of hardcore board gamers)
- Cost
- Conversion Potential
- Evangelical Potential
- Attention Span
- Scamdar / Purchase Resistance
While considering all of things in advance make it clear that advertising directly on a site like Board Game News or Purple Pawn for a board game giveaway is likely to be more cost effective than advertising on television for people to buy games for gamers. Also considering all of this in advance will help you make decision about what advertising dollars you should test. If you think ad “X” is likely to perform well, then test it out and see what the results are. For example, I thought that running a contest on BGG would provide a good return on investment (ROI). We are currently 2.5 days out of 14 days into that contest, and I already have a positive return.
One additional beauty of the Internet is the generally low cost of advertising when compared to traditional media. Sure, an article in the entertainment section of USA Today or The New York Times would reach a large audience, I am very unlikely to get such coverage. In addition to the low cost, there is an extremely low cost to track results on the Internet. Google provides free analytics tools that are quite powerful. Currently, I am measuring the following to determine success of the Board Game Geek contest:
- Pre-Order Sales
- Email Signups
- Clickthrough Web Traffic
- Popularity of Homesteaders and Terra Prime on “The Hotness” scale from BGG
- Number of thumbs up and comments on the contest
- Content of the comments on the contest
- Content of personal email I have received
It is important to be prepared in advance of spending advertising money.
Marketing To People
One of the downsides of the Internet is the anonymity and distance you create in relation to people. It is very tempting to say something like, “I have 1,338 people subscribed to my email list… I need to get more because I can expect 10% of them to make a purchase, and if I want to make my sales number of 1,000, then I need 10,000 subscribers”. Abstracting a group of individuals into a certain number of sales feels wrong. If I behaved like that, then subscribers would know it.
Think of your banking relationship. Other than the friendly face of the teller, are you just an account number to a giant institution? It often feels like it. When it come time to get a loan, do you want to deal with the faceless institution that disrespects you, or do you want to deal with the friendly bank down the street? Always remember that you are marketing to people. You are not marketing to a large group of people, a percentage of which will make a purchase.
This begs the question, how should you go about marketing to people? Easy… Just imagine the offer you are making. Attempt to remove all of your prior knowledge about the offer. Assume that you know nothing about your company, nothing about your product, etc. Now, ask yourself what you like about the offer and what worries you. I will take the exceptionally well priced offer currently available on Terra Prime and Homesteaders as an example. I like the following:
- Price
- Free Shipping
- Helping a new publisher
- Visually appealing nature of the games
I am worried about the following:
- Buying games I won’t like
- Ordering from a new and unknown publisher
- Buying games my friends won’t want to play
- The offer seems too good to be true
To address the worries, I prepared solutions or reassurances available to the potential customer. The rules are provided online so that you will not have to worry as much about liking a game. The demo video helps you to identify with myself as the publisher and see the games in their physical state. All of these are meant to help you as the consumer make a decision about purchasing or not purchasing. It is important to remember that you are marketing to individual people. I do not want people to be disappointed with their decision to buy my games. I am however fine with people being disappointed with a decision not to buy my games. 
When marketing to people as opposed to the shotgun approach of X% will buy, it pays to be prepared to address their concerns. It is also beneficial if you can develop a relationship with that person and obtain a method for future communication. 1,300 people is a lot of people. I was at a Strategicon convention recently which had approximately 1,000 attendees. The hotel seemed to be consistently crawling with gamers.
Related posts:
- How I Started Publishing Board Games – Learn How To Make Your Own Board Game
- $125 in MySpace Ads Coupons and Deals Good Until Friday
- Questions From The Classroom
- Attracting and Developing an Audience
- Co-Op Publishing – Thinking Out Loud – Please Comment!
- Solving The Dilemma Of Party Game Design
- Fact or Fiction… Publishing Board Games Is Good Finance?
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