Promoted Tweet Strategy for Tabletop Games


The old saying goes: You're always wasting half your marketing budget, you just never can tell which half. I examined my in-depth analytics about my 2014 sales so I could launch a reasonably geo-targeted twitter campaign promoting the right games in my catalog.

For example, despite large populations, I wasn't selling much in Texas or Florida. Those are territories I can aim for at a later date, after more firmly establishing an audience in strongly burgeoning markets like California, Washington state, and right here in North Carolina. I also set my campaign to run in Japan, since I've heard some buzz about my games there. I launched my first campaign with a very softly worded opener:


The results of that first week were about 25,000 impressions, with 14,000 from Japan alone. Looking at my 2014 sales, profits, and potential for growth, I followed that up with seven days later with this promo for Kigi, which is the first of my games to receive interest from Japanese publishers.


It was then I realized the really firm constraints that come with promoted tweets for tabletop games. I couldn't communicate how the game plays while at the same time expressing the feeling of playing the game. So I decided to reply to that promoted tweet with a simple explanation supported by several photos.


Twitter thankfully keeps replies threaded with their "parent" tweet. So, while viewers wouldn't see that reply in the promo, if they were interested they could expand the conversation and see those photos right away, all without leaving Twitter itself.

With more time and budget, I can easily see the promoted tweets having embedded video tutorials for the game. This is still only the first week of the campaign and firm numbers are a little premature. I'll share the results as they come!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Graphic Design and Typography Tips for your Card Game

Image
Chris Farrell of Illuminating Games just wrote a thorough critique of card games setting their body text to be so small that they cannot be read at arm's length, let alone across the table. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is worth a read for any would-be card game designers out there. (Myself included.) Break out your copy of the base set of Dominion, and look at the Chapel. This has a text box roughly 3.5cm by 4.5cm. It's got a single line of text. That line of text is 1 (one) millimeter high. 1mm! For me, it's only clearly readable at half an arm's length even in the bright light of day. (...) Compare this to a more sane game like Glory to Rome, where the font size is 2-3 times as large (text is 2mm high, keywords 3mm and usually highlighted). I can generally read Glory to Rome cards across the table, and can certainly see the important keywords. To heap insult upon injury, not only does Glory to Rome have far more legible text than Dominion it also has...
Read more

Low-High Dice Game

Image
A dice game inspired by the stock market (and playing lots of Martian Dice). Roll a bunch of dice and choose which sets to keep. Choose your strategy wisely! Stuff You Need Two-to-Six PLAYERS A PENCIL and PAPER to keep score Thirteen standard six-sided DICE How to Play The shortest player takes the first turn. On your turn, first roll all thirteen dice. Several dice will have matching results. These are called SETS. (A single die result is a set, too.) You must choose a set to keep. For example, your first roll results are 111124445555 . The sets are four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, and four 5 s. After keeping a set of dice, lock them up in a row. This is called the GOOD TRACK. For example,  you could keep the set of four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, or four 5 s . You decide to keep the four 1 s and line them up in your good track. After keeping a set, you may end your turn or re-roll the remaining unlocked dice. When you re-roll, immediately set aside any results tha...
Read more

The Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge

Image
UPDATE: The submission period has closed and here are the entries. If you're an entrant, continue sending pics or vids of people playing your game. The first step to a game lasting a thousand years is for people to play it today. UPDATE 2: And here's the winner! To support games designed for longevity – that can be learned, played and shared for hundreds of years – we offer this challenge to any game designers, artists and imaginative people who also share this desire. Challenge Create a game. The game can be of any theme or genre you desire, but there is one restriction: You're creating a "new classic," like Chess, Tag or card games. So, create a game to be enjoyed by generations of players for a thousand years. Prize $1,000 to the winning entrant, to be announced and awarded January 1, 2012. Entry Deadline Entries must be submitted before midnight July August 31st, 2011. ( Update ) Entry Guidelines Enter by posting a comment below with a link ...
Read more