Hi All,
after a very long slog we're about to release our first game into the world and are currently planing the marketing stategy. Could anyone recommend a site that specializes in sending out press releases for online games or do most people use a general service such as DP directory and fill in the blanks themselves? I suppose what I'm asking is, whats the best way to get maximum coverage (in the right areas) for minimum work?

Thanks

Well, if you want to spend 130 dollars, sure you can save a lot of time. Me, personally, I created my own database for press releases.

Its important to note that a press release is an ok way to get a little traffic, in the end you will find that there is a lot more to marketing than a press release or two.

In the end the automated press release services, I feel, are a lot like publishing your game with real-arcade; in that with real arcade you are sacrificing direct contact with your customers. Here you are sacrificing direct contact with media personel. From press releases I have had 1, maybe 2, people get in touch with me for followup things, such as an interview or review in 1 year and about 6 press releases. From my own 'go out there and get my hands dirty' I have had about a half-dozen.

The other problem is with automated press releases, sure it out to 1000 people, but how targetted are they? Does a radio station really care about your indy game? Does a PC website who is dedicated almost entirely to hardware care? Hell, does a site dedicated to SOFTWARE care?

Uh, anyway, I dont know that there is a real easy way to market. I sure hope there isn't, I would be out of a job :-)

Joseph Lieberman

Our problem is that time is a very limited resource, this is why we're looking for an automated press release service. No doubt direct contact is much more effective but there's no way we can get around to covering the same amount of ground as an automated service can.


how targetted are they?

If we could get a service that specialised in games then this would be ideal, especially one where we could choose from their database which contacts to include and exclude for the automated release. This way we could personally deal with the more promising contacts.

I dont know that there is a real easy way to market

dang :)

We used DP-Directory to do our "Digby's Donuts wins contest" press release (you can see it at http://www.hipsoft.com/press.html)

One nice thing about using DP is that Al gave us some great feedback on tweaking the press release (we wrote the original draft, but he had a few small, but really important, tweaks that we made).

Although DP-Directory sent it out to a bunch of press contacts, we also manually sent it out to a few dozen contacts of our own.

In the end, it was very helpful because we got a few newspaper articles which then led to some phone calls that turned into new business partnerships for us.

So, although DP-Directory may not give you direct contact, you can still get some good coverage and you can always do direct contact for a smaller target group of your own contacts. Al will also help you fine-tune your press release wording. And, IMO, you can't beat the price! :)

Hope this info helps,
-Scorpio

Thanks for the feedback guys. We're new to marketing but you've got to start sometime.

@Scorpio - Does DL-Directory send a list of contacts they've mailed your press release to?

Al will also help you fine-tune your press release wording Sounds good since we wrote it ourselves.

edit: I think this was in the wrong thread, ignore me.

The first thing to do is make sure your press release is well written. It has to be newsworthy, and written in the style of a web news article. This makes it easy for the lazy journalists to cut and paste. If you have some interesting angle, make sure you make it the focus of the release. Consider what distinguishes your game. The key information has really got to be in the first sentence, with reinforcing explanation in the first paragraph. Make sure your contact information is prominent at the start.

Funnily enough, I have just spent all yesterday writing a press release, and all today distributing them. The writing part was painful - I went through several iterations before we were happy. I didn't use a bulk mail system - mostly individually done, and individually tailored where necessary. The reason I do this is because it is beneficial to build a relationship with journalists where you can.

we got a very quick response from gamerspulse (see http://www.gamerspulse.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=4468) and saw an immediate jump in our trial registrations and sales from this one article.

Sometimes you can be surprised by the response you get, and where it comes from. Laser Squad was featured in one of penny-arcades comic strips last year, and we got a huge deluge of visitors to our site. Now we have a great deal of respect for penny-arcade.

Here's a corrolary question: many gaming websites such as Avault announce new game screenshots, videos, and other minor content. I wouldn't think that these are sent to editors in Press Release format -- there's simply not enough information to justify a full release. How do you get the word out on these items?