A Proven Game Launch Strategy: Key Steps to a Successful Release
Two things can happen whenever you launch a new game. It can soar and be successful, garnering momentum and thousands of users to be a great hit. Or it can crash and burn, proving to be a waste of time and financial resources. To ensure the former is the case, you need to put your game face on. And that means putting together a proven game launch strategy that will propel you to success. But that is often easier said than done. This is why we’ll dive into the nitty gritty of what makes a great launch strategy to improve your chances of success. Take a look.
1. Start with the Basics – set a launch
This is the fairly easy part, and it’s the first thing you should do before you move ahead with your game launch strategy. You’ll want to put a clear timeline on it, which is important because it will help create urgency that drives progress for your project.
Additionally setting a deadline is also important because it will help you plan out pre-launch activities. You can distribute time more evenly and ensure you make even minute counts, down to the last hour.
When setting your launch date, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Make it realistic
- Make it specific
- Stick to it
- Have a clear deadline
2. Do Your Research
Research isn’t always fun, but it’s necessary. If you’re to make a killer mobile game strategy, doing homework is vital because it helps you get into the mind of your target audience. It allows you to figure out who and where they are in addition to why they do what they do. So it takes guesswork out of the equation, to ensure data-driven decision-making that results in better outcomes.
So you’ll start by first defining a target audience. You could characterize them by location, gender, and age, which are usually the first basics to begin with. But you’ll want to go further. Much, much further. This entails thinking about why your end user might want to play your game. For example, some may play a game as a way to express themselves and unlock the freedom of an alternate reality. Others, on the other hand, are driven by the competitive urge to be better than everyone else.
All in all, you really need to figure out what makes your audience tick and the primary motivation that they might have for playing a game like yours.
3. Take a look at the Competitive
How can you win a race when you know nothing of your rivals? That’s where competitor intelligence comes in. You probably have competitors who’ve put out a game like yours and been successful. You want to take a look at these brands so that you can figure out what you’re up against and also uncover inspiration for your own launch strategy.
One way you can gather information about your competitors is through ad intelligence. There are a ton of free tools you can use for this purpose. However, one that we recommend includes the Facebook Ad Library. If you’re on the hunt for paid ad intelligence tools, then SensorTower might be the better option.
Other competitive intelligence tools that you can also use include:
- Semrush
- Owler
- Visualping
- Similarweb
4. Build an Online Presence
Do you have a website for your game launch? No? You need to create one as soon as possible. This can be a great place to create a digital home for your new game. It can also serve as a place where you can provide early access, get an online community going, and build anticipation about your game.
Your website doesn’t need to be over the top. Expressive artwork that captures the personality of your game might just be all that you need. It may be prudent to work with a mobile app marketing agency that can help you come up with an enthralling website for your gamers.
That said, here are a couple of things that you should include on your website, particularly on the landing page:
- Social media buttons to help you get more shares
- Screenshots
- Game trailer
- High converting Copy
- A description of your game
- A CTA to sign up for a waitlist or newsletter
- Announcement of the launch date
Once you’ve launched your game, you’ll come back to this website. Then, you’ll update your CTAs to include app store links and copy that urges your audience to try out your game.
5. Get on Social Media
Many gamers hang out online across different platforms. So these are a great place to consider to help generate attention for your upcoming launch. But what social media networks specifically? Well, the most popular include X, Instagram, TikTok, and, of course, Facebook.
TikTok, in particular, is frequented by young Gen Z gamers, because it’s a fairly new social media platform. So this is a great option to target. Additionally, being a video-centric platform is one of the best avenues for showcasing your upcoming game.
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6. Create Waves in Gaming Communities
Social media aside, you’ll also want to join gaming communities. This can be even more of a bigger hit than social media because you’ll get an audience with a specific and strong interest in gaming. So, what gaming community platforms should you explore? Here are our recommendations:
- Discord
- Quora, etc.
That said, remember that each of these platforms has strict rules about self-promotion. For example, Reddit has a 1:10 ratio for self-promotion. So you want to put out a lot of useful and practical gaming content with a little bit of promotion sandwiched in between.
Whatever forums you use, you’ll want to ensure to join a gaming community. Better yet, join one with an interest in the genre of your game. This also applies to social media gaming communities.
7. Build your email lists
Email still has one of the highest ROI of any digital marketing strategy so you can’t overlook it. You’ll want to collect a healthy email list so that you can create newsletters that can keep potential players excited ahead of the launch.
Whatever you do, do not buy your email lists. Instead, you’ll want to use lead magnets and generally ensure that users consent to joining your email list. This will ensure that you have many high-quality leads who are market-relevant.
8. Test Drive with a Soft Launch
A soft launch is basically like a test for your ultimate launch. Here, you’ll want to double-check everything to ensure that you’ve left nothing up to chance. This means that you’ll split test things such as:
- Marketing strategies
- Monetization Tactics
- Game design and so on.
That said, it’s called a soft launch for a reason. You’ll want to keep the test small scale and on an audience that’s very similar to your own. However, you don’t want to spend all your budget here and have nothing left over for the hard launch.
During this phase, you’ll collect feedback from preliminary users. This will help you identify and improve certain problem areas so that your game goes into the final phase without an issue.
9. Move on to a Hard Launch
It’s D-day! This is the final part of your game launch strategy. By this point, you have everything lined up, fixed the issues, and you now have a product that you can put out to your market.
That said, here are the steps for creating your hard launch:
- Announce It Everywhere – From your email list and website to social media pages and everything else in between, you’ll want to spread the news everywhere to build hype. Of course, don’t forget to include a CTA wherever you make the announcement.
- Draft a Press Kit – This could be a press release that includes important details about your game. You can include this press list on your website so bloggers can easily link to it.
- Reach Out to the Press and Bloggers – Pitch your game to review sites such as AppBrain, Appolicous, and others to increase awareness for your game.
- Leverage Paid Ads – You can then draft paid ad campaigns to help get your new game in front of new eyeballs quickly
A Game Launch Strategy Success
Very few games make it without an excellent launch strategy. This is why it’s important to ensure you have all the right pieces in place before you move ahead with your launch. Now, you have a great idea of how to build a killer game launch strategy. But even with this knowledge, building a launch strategy can still be complex and time-intensive. This is why you need an app marketing agency like Dot Com Infoway in your corner. Reach out to us today and get a proven game launch formula that can help increase the success of your application.
