One of the best ways to learn about online marketing is to get out there and see what’s already working — and not working — for established brands in various industries. To start with, take notes on the types of content that are being created, where they’re being created, how they meet their audiences’ needs, and how their audience engages with them.
For now, let’s take a closer look at one specific industry: the gaming industry. There’s a lot that gaming brands can teach us about online marketing. Below are some of the most important takeaways to keep in mind when coming up with your brand’s own marketing strategy.
User-Friendly Design Is Key
For gaming brands, this goes for everything from playing a video game (How easy is it to figure out the basics?), to navigating a website (Can you find what you’re looking for quickly?), to engaging with the brand (Are they helpful?). Your product, service, and marketing strategy should always be designed with user-friendliness in mind, otherwise, they will quickly be rejected by your audience. In other words, your audience will move onto a brand that already has what they’re looking for.
Create a Lot of Content
One of the best ways to reach a wide variety of customers is by creating a wide variety of content. This goes beyond the products and services that your brand offers while still allowing customers to engage with your brand. For example, sites like PokerStars don’t just offer casino games; they also have helpful guides, global event news, and blog posts — anything that their audience might be interested in.
Produce Valuable, Relevant Content
Your brand shouldn’t be focused on just rapidly churning out random content. You need to produce content that is relevant and valuable. This means that you not only create content on topics that interest your audience, but also that you deliver that content in a way that will reach them. Find out which social media sites your audience is most active on and find out which types of content they’re most likely to engage (like, comment, share) with.
Make More Video Content
Right now, video is king — it is often heralded as the future of content marketing. You can utilize it on your blog, on social media, and beyond. Professional gamers are even making a living from sharing tips and tricks, news, and gameplay videos. In a more obvious way, the video also helps to show off previews for game releases or major events. Because of its highly stimulating visual nature, video can be a far more effective way to reach your audience than a blog post, so it’s definitely something your brand should be taking advantage of.
Know What Your Audience Wants
To create good content, you need to know what your audience wants. Gaming brands know that their audience doesn’t just want to play the game — they also want news, tips and tricks, strategies, and a place to engage with other fans. For example, the eSports industry is huge right now, and it’s continuously growing. It’s so huge that it’s starting to rival real-life sports. That means that eSports fans are also starting to resemble sports fans. They want eSports guides, tips, analysis, statistics, commentary, tournament news, and so on. Deliver what your audience wants and you’ll see improved engagement as a result.
Make It Social
Part of the reason that gaming has seen so much success online is that it’s become more social. Gamers can interact with fans from all over the world, playing them in tournaments or discussing the best strategies. Naturally, people love to bond with others who love the same things as them. That’s why social platforms like Facebook and Instagram have billions of users — it’s offered people a place to bond with others over what they’re interested in.
Whether it’s amping up your social media game, hosting more online (or in person) events, or hosting message boards on your site, there are many ways to make things more social for your brand. And that’ll make both your fans and your brand very happy.
