Any tips for basic marketing? Preferably not anything that is annoying for others ^^
I'm not really sure what you're asking for here. If we're talking "as a whole", then it's usually a two or three pronged approach to things.
1. Getting as many eyes on the product as possible.
2. Making the product as desirable as possible.
3. Putting the product within reach.
If you wanted to discuss a particular branch of Marketing here, then you might want to narrow it down. If you want to talk about all three of those branches, then I'll leave my post that way.
1. Social Media, YouTube, and other platforms are typically a good way to get started. What you usually need is someone to start the "word of mouth" on your product. Word of Mouth is the most powerful marketing tool in existence. If your friend says a game is awesome and to try it, you are more likely to buy it and try it. If a YouTuber you trust and respect says the same thing... same response. You can typically target the groups of people you want to advertise to fairly easily and often cheaply. Well, not all the time. But, usually. You can even request certain people do a review of your game and put it out and they might for a price (make no mistake that this MIGHT be advertising for you, but you are effectively CREATING CONTENT for someone else, so a review may or may not be useful to you depending on a multitude of factors which includes quality of your game and popularity of the content creator).
If people know your game exists, they can seek out more information on it. This is a good thing.
2. This is part of the "Packaging" of your game. What you tell people is in it and how that's displayed to them is going to be important. If you talk about a feature, you should show how that works or explain how it works. List anything positive you can of it. Maybe make a "vertical slice" demo of your game for free and make sure that the gameplay within is compelling or addictive in some way.
Be careful here, though, too. Part of "Packaging" is also your reputation. If you are unknown, you are less likely to make sales just because you're untested. Which means, you need to do an
amazing job on your feature packaging to get people in the door. Likewise, if you have a bad reputation, it will negatively impact the desirability of your game as well.
3. A product "within reach" means all sorts of things. From price you sell it for to the platforms its available on. A game exclusive to Xbox will only garner an audience from Xbox, after all. A game that costs $70 excludes anyone who doesn't have $70 to give you. This is a balancing act as you probably don't want to "give the game away", but you don't want to put it "out of reach" of your target audience.
There are costs associating with this one. It costs to host things in certain places, so you need to make that money back. There is costs associated with your labor, so you want to make money back equivalent to the effort you put forth. Costs associated with advertising and sometimes packaging.
This is usually the "hardest part" for most new businesspeople. Justifying "within reach" against their pocketbook.
I always suggest drawing up a budget for this portion. Work within the budget, do not over-extend. Profit is either put back into the game or put away for the next game, and not into your own pocket for spending. Set a "true profit" point where you begin adding that money to your actual accounts for spending, rather than using it to "start the next game" or "improve the current game".
While I've never done this before (so take it with a grain of salt), my "true profit" point on my current game was estimated at the "$25,000" mark. As in, I will dump $25,000 into a future game or improvement of current game, and any amount earned over that will go directly into my accounts for personal spending.
Also, how did you determine the price of your product? (I already have mine but curious of how others did it)
Current pricing model that I've decided on is "free", but with "options to donate". So, if a player feels like it was worth their time and wants to see more, they can drop some coin in my hat. But, I personally don't feel good with "charging for my first game". Especially when I know I am pretty garbage with the engine
