Running a good press release is not as easy as it might sound… Here’s our troubled experience with The Tsar's Secret!
Press releases are a good ally when trying to get our game out there. We wanted to have it highlighted to thousands of readers, of course, but also to appear on Google! Sometimes, when I overhear an indie title, it’s hard to find any website or even the Twitter account when googling it. I didn’t want this to happen with The Tsar’s Secret, so… having a bunch of journalists, bloggers, or influencers talking about it sounded like a nice solution.
To succeed (or at least try to) on your press release campaign, these were the steps we followed:
1. Build a personal database
The point here is to research for press, journalists, bloggers, and podcasters that are more likely to write about your game. Remember that you only have a few bullets. Aim at a specific target. This way, it’s easier for people interested in your game to find it.
Some characteristics can give you a hint about the affinity of a journalist/press:
- Genre: some newspapers or journalists like to cover indie games or discover hidden gems in the vast jungle of indie games.
- Similar games: you should reach out to journalists who’ve covered games similar to yours.
- Geographically relevant: think if your audience is local or if your game can be of any interest to a wider audience. The US is the biggest market, so it’s always interesting. If possible, cover all the countries/languages that your game will be available.
In our case, we looked for press covering indie games and writing about stealth titles like Shadow Tactics, Serial Cleaners, and Invisible Ink among others. We didn’t focus on any country in specific, but it is funny how the international media paid more attention to our press release than the Spanish! Where’s the local pride & support?
2. Prepare the materials
It’s time to write down that awesome news you have to share with the world!
First, think about what you want to achieve with this Press Release. What is your goal? Maybe you just want to announce your game, get more wishlists, or get more views on your new trailer. Depending on your goals, you’ll set up a certain Call To Action (CTA) on your press release. Think also about the length. Some news is longer than others, but keep it as short as possible.
Use your hook! Journalists and bloggers receive many emails a day, you have to catch their attention using the hook of your game. Probably, you already defined this for making the store descriptions. Use graphics, art, links to the trailer, etc, and optimize it for web. And build a good Press Kit!
We could not emphasize enough, double-check everything! There’s always a broken link or something wrong. Send a test mail before the real campaign.
3. Timing
The main rule here is to pull the trigger anytime you have a newsworthy statement to make. There are many events worth covering: Playtesting, new patches, DLCs, crowdfunding campaigns, and, of course, the release. You want your game to be alive, and for that, you’ll need to create content. Try to, at least, have 1 announcement per month.
Before a special date, unless you are Kojima or GTA, contact journalists and influencers 7 - 15 days in advance. This will give them enough time to review your Press Release.
4. Sending it!
Even as easy as “sending it!” might sound, you have to keep an eye on this step as well. Research for the best times and dates for each country. Try to avoid sending your press release when another big announcement is happening.
So… This is the theory. And we got a quite good opening rate after our launch campaign. Although, not many people wrote about our title. What worked best for us was focusing on EVEN MORE indie bloggers, contacting them through Twitter, interacting on threads, and so on. Maybe it’s because our game is still “too indie” or maybe because we just launched a demo, and not the full game. We are not Kojima, yeah…
Some Twitter accounts that helped us are: https://twitter.com/IndieBandits, https://twitter.com/IndieGamesWTF, and https://twitter.com/xblpartypodcast go and give them the love they deserve!
