10 things to promote your indie game… – Part 2 : gaming media and emailing for outreach

(6 minute read)

 

Here’s part 2 of this 4 parts article, delving through gaming media, and how to write a perfect email to them and content creators. I’m guiding you through 10 marketing actions you can use to promote your indie game, ranging from super effective and trendy to less effective, wishlists and sales wise (but they have other qualities).

 

Part 1 (Steam next fest, festivals & content creators)

Part 2 (this article)

Part 3 (Social media)

 

Have a good read, and I’m here if you need a marketing professional to promote your indie game, we’ll get back to that.

 

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DISCLAIMER: This is marketing 101, for those who have almost no idea on how to market a game. If you’re advanced in marketing, this article might be boring. If you’re average, you may learn a couple of things there. And if you’re an absolute beginner, you will learn a lot.

 

 

Thing to promote your indie game #4 : Biiiiiiiig gaming media

 

By biiiiiiiig gaming media, I mean IGN, PC Gamer, Eurogamer etc. Or you name your local leading gaming website with lots of readers. They are hard to reach, their journalists will rarely answer your requests, but I got one article there for a student project, so your full-blown-state-of-the-art game has its chances. Here’s a 4 step plan to get your game featured there.

 

Note : these people are really busy, over solicited and you’re (probably) not Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft or Nintendo. So what you want here is to prepare yourself to put on your craftsperson shoes, if not those of a jeweler. Just like you do with your game.

 

 

1. Identify gaming media titles first

 

There are many ways to find gaming media, known or not known. Sometimes underrated press websites might be a good start to improve your craft and cheer you up in this spooky adventure where you seem to be a ghost no one wants to answer to. Google is, as often, your best friend, and the titles which come first for “gaming news” are probably the most popular (or with the best SEO manager, but that’s another debate).

 

Aside from google, reddit, or discord as usual, some gaming unions sometimes have statistics on gaming news websites. At least, we did in France until 2021 and maybe in your country too. If you don’t, please email your local union to do so. If you don’t do it for you, do it for the team. I’m craving for fresh data.

 

If you achieve that, or the classification already exists, send me the link and I’ll have a special surprise for you 😉

 

 

2. Spot indie / genre specific journalists

 

Now that you have your somewhat big list of gaming media, let’s dig a little deeper. First, look for “Indie” or “independent” in the search bar of said media. If you don’t have relevant results, look for any famous indie game. If still no results, it’s probably a dead end. (or the search bar is broken and you need to use your google skills, I don’t have time to teach you about that but there’s a way). Now, if you have some results, look for a famous indie game in your genre and continue until you find one. When done, write the name of the journalist somewhere (in your PR spreadsheet if you have one yet. And if you don’t, create one) and… Stalk them, professionally speaking.

 

Wait. I’m not telling you to find their physical address, knock at their door and yell at them “WRITE ABOUT MY GAME ! PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE !”, because that would be awkward and you might end up in the newspapers, but for bad reasons (and also, prison, for good ones).

 

No, look for their professional email addresses (great, you might use hunter.io), their professional social media accounts (ie Linkedin, good), and if you don’t find anything stop there and look for someone else.

 

Some might even tell you Linkedin is going a step too far, I don’t, and these ones won’t answer you, it’s their choice and drop it there. But I had meaningful and constructive discussions with journalists that way so I can only invite you to do so.

 

Just don’t cross the line and be a creep by going further though, contacting them on personal facebook profiles or so, please. Their exposition is a burden enough for you to stomp on private lines on the top of that. Except if the link is clearly displayed on their gaming website profile.

 

If you don’t find any of this, send your email through the contact form or generic email address like everyone and use “To *journalist*” in the object as a way to stand out from the crowd. But don’t do like most people: don’t send a copy pasted marketing slur to them. Send a love letter masterpiece instead.

 

 

3. Craft your release and email like an artist

 

Now, about being a gentleman or a lady, how to contact gaming media journalists. There’s a lot on the internet about press releases, so I’ll focus here on the email that goes with it.

 

I told you earlier (like 20 seconds ago) to send a love letter. It’s not exactly that. You should praise said journalist about their job on their article, but don’t go “this is the best article I’ve ever read”. You know it’s not true, they know it’s not true, hell, even Donald Trump knows it’s not true, and this guy has a relatively not good appreciation of what is true or not. Be subtle. Mention details. Of things you genuinely liked. But start by this, because it’s always good to hear our job was good.

 

Then comes the pitch. It’s an email, so be very direct and catchy. “Game 1 meets game 2” might work, but it’s been used over and over. Try something new, like “If Slay the spire and Xcom played catch in the far west era, that would be Baseball tactical cowboy deckbuilder”

 

(I just made up this game title and now all I want is someone to make it).

 

If your game doesn’t fit this type of elevator pitch, it doesn’t have to be super fancy but to fully represent what the game is. If you claim your game is the deepest city builder ever and all you have are 3 types of buildings and no population management, chances are the person testing the game will feel flawed. But if it’s catchy AND representative, you’re the king/queen of the world.

 

Example of a representative and not that fancy pitch : Sweet city has only 3 buildings but each of them can be customized and it’s one of the coziest city builder you can find on the market.

 

Final advice: add a visual and a key or a link to your build directly in the email. The visual can be a beautiful screenshot or a gif, to tease the person you send the email to. The key or build is for them to enjoy your game as soon as they want. You can check if they activated your key or not in the steam interface, or track the link using bitly (wonderful link shortener website for data oriented people). That’s it for emails!

 

 

4. Watch the internet, send a follow up email, then…

 

I’m not saying you should check all the gaming media you’ve contacted every day to see if your article is out. Use google alerts instead. It allows you to be warned every time your game title gets out on the internet. That way you can thank the journalist that wrote the paper as soon as it is out and share it on your social media when you’re done. If you don’t see anything published after two weeks, you can send a follow up email or message once, but stop there. They might have bigger fishes, or don’t like your game, or your emails might have just been lost in a flow of uninterrupted “IT’S THE BEST GAME OF THE WORLD”. You tried your luck, better luck next time.

 

This is my personal technique to get your game more covered. I got an article in IGN France and several other minor websites thanks to that. I also tried bulk emails and it worked, but way less effectively than this. The major downside is that it takes tons of time, but if it gets you more coverage, it might be worth the shot.

 

Also, don’t forget games press, keymailer and such. This article is too long and you’ll find resources about that elsewhere. If not, contact me and I’ll write a blog about it someday.

 

Again:

Part 1 (Steam next fest, festivals & content creators)

Part 2 (this article)

Part 3 (Social media)

Stay tuned for Part 4 : Crowdfunding and minor actions (wishlists and sales wise)!

 

Good luck have fun (with marketing),

 

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I’m Valentin Thomas, and I’ve been a gamer since I was 5. I started my freelancer marketing career in 2014, and switched from “every project that wants my help no matter the industry, but preferably games” to “only good indie games I can promote” around 2020. I worked with studios, marketing agencies and even associations needing help to promote indie games one way or another. You can join me here for a free marketing plan, a thorough collaboration or just a marketing question. See you soon !