How to Publicize Your Store, Your Game or Yourself

 

WOTC has been doing a pretty good job of weekly disseminating both basic and novel ideas used by other stores to keep their customers coming back and making customers feel special. However,  even though it is far easier to generate additional sales from existing customers, at some point you need to get your name out in front of new potential customers and get them into the store. Without a flow of new customers, a store will eventually tap out its existing customer base and see flatlined sales. I wanted to suggest three ways to get your name in front of new customers. As a savvy store owner (or publisher) you are likely already but just in case you’re not:

1.       Social Media—the great thing about social media is that it is free, to start. Set up an account on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, maybe even Vine, Snapchap and Instagram.  Unfortunately, due to the ways in which the various social media sources have tweaked their software, you now really do have to spend money in order to get your name and posts out in front of potential customers. The great thing about social media it that you start out for as little as 5 bucks to boost a Facebook post and have a lot more control over who will see it than you would with advertising in traditional formats. Facebook, and other forms of social media, allow you to have friends and friends of friends see your boosted posts or you can keep them from seeing them and spend your money to reach a targeted market that’s not already familiar with your company. I know stores spending 4 figures just on monthly boosting of social media.

2.       Join Civic Organizations—Become a member of organizations like your local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club or Kiwanis or Jaycees or Main Street. Not only do they work to better the community, and he better your community is doing , the better your business will do, but becoming a member allows you to take advantage of the services the organization offers. For example, as a member of our local Chamber of Commerce, I can send out promotions and notices to all other Chamber members , many of whom would have no idea what the store sells. Also,  if you have some sort of negative event take place, a position as a recognized member of the local community  helps mitigate the effects of bad publicity.

3.       Press Releases—The local media is always looking for local news and your store (or company) is newsworthy, whether you are hosting an event, are hiring new staff or even have a list of the top 5 games in your community for the year. This last one is one we sent out and we got a spot on local TV as well as mentions in two local papers, all for about half an hour’s work and another 5 minutes or so emailing them to the local media. Remember, you may not follow local news much but there are a lot of people that do, people who may not know you exist but have money to spend on what you are selling. Don’t know how to write a press release? Search for “sample press release” on the interwebs or hire a local journalism student to write one for you.

How to Get Your Company or Game Name "Out There"

WOTC has been doing a pretty good job of weekly disseminating both basic and novel ideas used by other stores to keep their customers coming back and making customers feel special. However,  even though it is far easier to generate additional sales from existing customers, at some point you need to get your name out in front of new potential customers and get them into the store. Without a flow of new customers, a store will eventually tap out its existing customer base and see flatlined sales. I wanted to suggest three ways to get your name in front of new customers. As a savvy store owner (or publisher) you are likely already but just in case you’re not:

1.       Social Media—the great thing about social media is that it is free, to start. Set up an account on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, maybe even Vine, Snapchap and Instagram.  Unfortunately, due to the ways in which the various social media sources have tweaked their software, you now really do have to spend money in order to get your name and posts out in front of potential customers. The great thing about social media it that you start out for as little as 5 bucks to boost a Facebook post and have a lot more control over who will see it than you would with advertising in traditional formats. Facebook, and other forms of social media, allow you to have friends and friends of friends see your boosted posts or you can keep them from seeing them and spend your money to reach a targeted market that’s not already familiar with your company. I know stores spending 4 figures just on monthly boosting of social media.

2.       Join Civic Organizations—Become a member of organizations like your local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club or Kiwanis or Jaycees or Main Street. Not only do they work to better the community, and he better your community is doing , the better your business will do, but becoming a member allows you to take advantage of the services the organization offers. For example, as a member of our local Chamber of Commerce, I can send out promotions and notices to all other Chamber members , many of whom would have no idea what the store sells. Also,  if you have some sort of negative event take place, a position as a recognized member of the local community  helps mitigate the effects of bad publicity.

3.       Press Releases—The local media is always looking for local news and your store (or company) is newsworthy, whether you are hosting an event, are hiring new staff or even have a list of the top 5 games in your community for the year. This last one is one we sent out and we got a spot on local TV as well as mentions in two local papers, all for about half an hour’s work and another 5 minutes or so emailing them to the local media. Remember, you may not follow local news much but there are a lot of people that do, people who may not know you exist but have money to spend on what you are selling. Don’t know how to write a press release? Search for “sample press release” on the interwebs or hire a local journalism student to write one for you.

There are plenty of other ways to get your name out there, so if you have a good idea that worked, and would like to share it, send it to icv2.com and I will gladly put it in a future column.

Three Ways to Publicize Your Game

WOTC has been doing a pretty good job of weekly disseminating both basic and novel ideas used by other stores to keep their customers coming back and making customers feel special. However,  even though it is far easier to generate additional sales from existing customers, at some point you need to get your name out in front of new potential customers and get them into the store. Without a flow of new customers, a store will eventually tap out its existing customer base and see flatlined sales. I wanted to suggest three ways to get your name in front of new customers. As a savvy store owner (or publisher) you are likely already but just in case you’re not:

1.       Social Media—the great thing about social media is that it is free, to start. Set up an account on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, maybe even Snapchap and Instagram.  Unfortunately, due to the ways in which the various social media sources have tweaked their software, you now really do have to spend money in order to get your name and posts out in front of potential customers. The great thing about social media it that you start out for as little as 5 bucks to boost a Facebook post and have a lot more control over who will see it than you would with advertising in traditional formats. Facebook, and other forms of social media, allow you to have friends and friends of friends see your boosted posts or you can keep them from seeing them and spend your money to reach a targeted market that’s not already familiar with your company. I know stores spending 4 figures just on monthly boosting of social media.

2.       Join Civic Organizations—Become a member of organizations like your local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club or Kiwanis or Jaycees or Main Street. Not only do they work to better the community, and he better your community is doing , the better your business will do, but becoming a member allows you to take advantage of the services the organization offers. For example, as a member of our local Chamber of Commerce, I can send out promotions and notices to all other Chamber members , many of whom would have no idea what the store sells. Also,  if you have some sort of negative event take place, a position as a recognized member of the local community  helps mitigate the effects of bad publicity.

3.       Press Releases—The local media is always looking for local news and your store (or company) is newsworthy, whether you are hosting an event, are hiring new staff or even have a list of the top 5 games in your community for the year. This last one is one we sent out and we got a spot on local TV as well as mentions in two local papers, all for about half an hour’s work and another 5 minutes or so emailing them to the local media. Remember, you may not follow local news much but there are a lot of people that do, people who may not know you exist but have money to spend on what you are selling. Don’t know how to write a press release? Search for “sample press release” on the interwebs or hire a local journalism student to write one for you.

There are plenty of other ways to get your name out there, so if you have a good idea that worked, and would like to share it, send it to castleperilousgames@gmail.com and I will include it in a future post

The Power of Publicity

The hobby or specialty game industry is a comparatively small market. I would be willing to bet that the entire industry’s annual sales only amount to a small percentage of Wal-mart’s or Amazon’s sales, meaning that news in our industry does not matter much to those who don’t play hobby games. The trick, in order to get people in the greater market and the news media to pay attention to your news is to tie it to their interests or to tie it to a more “newsworthy” event, and unfortunately, while the release of Battle for Zendikar and the Zendikar Expeditions cards were very important to those within our industry, it caused barely a ripple in the wider world.

This means looking for events that the general public has an interest in and finding a novel way to tie your product or business to it. I have managed to get invited to appear on the local morning news twice this year but not because of any of the games or comics that we sell. Heck even Free Comic Book Day and Free RPG Day didn’t warrant a mention in the local news, except in the event listings of the local entertainment paper. What did get attention was our embrace of National Pi Day (March 14)with an offer of free pie to customers coming in and our Haunted Carbondale tours in October. Both were only tangential to the store focus but they did get the store’s name out there and brought in a number of customers. Publicity works, unfortunately moreso than advertising in today’s market.

Snake Oil Elixer and The Power of PR

After last week's post on the lack of retailer buy-ins for Out of the Box's Kickstarter campaign for the Snake Oil Elixir launch, I received a call from Out of the Box president Al Waller.  We spent the next 25 minutes discussing the column, the Kickstarter Campaign and Out of the Box's plans for Snake Oil.  It turns out my guesses about the reasons for the Kickstarter were pretty close to correct.

The first thing Waller wanted to make clear was that the company did have plans for retailer levels for the Kickstarter campaign but due to oversight and the rush in getting OOTB's first crowdfunding campaign off the ground, they were not included.  Two retailer levels are now included, one at a five copy buy-in and one at 10 copies.  Both include demo copies of the assorted Snake Oil games as well as other OOTB games at the higher level.

He also confirmed that promotion for Snake Oil Elixir was one of the two major reasons for using Kickstarter.  Much like North Star Games and Popcorn Press, Out of the Box has noticed the attention those games that successfully fund on Kickstarter receive and chose to use it as a promotional tool for the company.  The plan is, over the next few years, to make Snake Oil into a brand strong enough to support several extensions, such as Settlers of Catan or even Apples to Apples (once owned by Out of the Box but sold to Mattel in 2007) are able to support.

The other reason, Waller said, was to get the game into print more quickly.  While many people in the industry view Out of the Box as a comparatively large publisher in the gaming field, they are actually a very small operation with only a few people on staff.  The recession of 2007-2008 hit them quite hard, as they went from 5,000 outlets selling their products to roughly 1,500.

Out of the Box, based on the sales of the previous Snake Oil games and the awards the game has received, believesa market exists for Snake Oil Elixir.  However, showing off the prototype at last spring's Toy Fair, the largest trade show for the toy and game industry, did not generate enough orders from retailers to justify a production run.  Jump forward to Gen Con where showing the game off generated much more enthusiasm from the gamers attending the show, enough that Waller felt much more comfortable going ahead with a production run.  The question then became:  when to launch the game?  If Out of the Box relied solely on its own capital to produce a 5000 copy run (OOTB’s usual print run for the first printing of a game), it appeared Snake Oil Elixir would not hit distribution until late 2015 or the first quarter of 2016.  By crowdfunding the first print run, the game could move into distribution by April or May of 2015, having it available for sale by Origins and Gen Con.

So now I have a better understanding of why OOTB opted to use crowdfunding and two retailer options for participation in the Kickstarter.  Is it perfect?  Of course not.  Ideally, Elixir would launch in April with no crowdfunding, but that's not happening.  At least now, those retailers that wish to have the option of participating.

Speaking of perfection both Wizards of the Coast and AEG are launching products for release on Black Friday:  the 5th Edition Dungeon Masters Guide from WotC and the Holiday Black Box from AEG.  For participating retailers, both companies have the products scheduled to arrive the Wednesday before Thanksgiving with instructions to hold them until Friday.  Here's hoping shipping works out as planned because this is cutting deliveries too close to release date for my taste.