In the post-games of many games, the same cliche is often repeated. It comes up in conversations with indie developers. It sounds cliché like this: “Damn consumers! Do they spend five bucks every day on the same tasteless Latte from Starbucks, but they can't allocate the same amount to buy my indie game created with love, graphically beautiful, which I, having invested my soul, developed for three years? Why, why can't people give my game a chance? ”

Yes, the choice seems obvious: either the same roasted coffee or a truly independent creation of thought.

But how it looks from the point of view of the buyer: Starbucks has spent decades and millions of dollars on building relationships with this buyer. The buyer knows the company and knows what to expect for his five bucks.
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The buyer's reluctance to spend five dollars on a strange indie game is due to the fact that he has no idea what she is. Is it well made? How long can you play it? What does this game look like? But more importantly, who made it? In the end, we, indie developers need to overcome a huge obstacle: to establish relationships with our players so that they trust us and buy our games.

Imagine your game is coffee. From the buyer's point of view, it looks like this: he goes to Starbucks and suddenly a minivan stops across the road, the door opens and from there he is told: “Do you want to buy my coffee?”


Anyone would refuse. Who are you? Is your car clean? Do you even know how to make coffee? Where did this coffee come from? People have never seen you before. They do not know what is happening behind the doors of your minivan. But they know that for the last five years at Starbucks they have been getting the same glass of coffee, having the same taste, getting the same pleasure for their five dollars.

The difference (in this respect) between you and Starbucks is that this company gradually created relationships with its customers so that they know what they are getting for their money. Starbucks neatly guided its customers to what is called a “sales funnel.”

What is such a funnel?

Someone explained this principle to me, and I think I will do a useful job by telling you about it. Having understood what a sales funnel is, you completely change your view of marketing and how to give your game the greatest chance of success.

I understand - the term “sales funnel” sounds like the most boring thing in the world. You probably tell yourself that you quit your job nine hours a day, five days a week, so as not to think about things like sales funnels.

Wait a minute I promise that this will actually prove to be a useful concept: it is really interesting and helps to understand why someone wants or does not want to buy your game.

So what is the sales funnel

The sales funnel is simply a model that describes the steps and actions that buyers must go through to learn about you, your game, and your company. She visualizes the transformation of a person who did not know anything about you into an insane admirer.

Here's what the sales funnel looks like.


Funnels help you understand what your marketing mistakes are, what marketing tactics you miss and give you an idea of ​​what type of marketing is worth your time.

If it seems to you that you are throwing dice, choosing random marketing schemes, then it will definitely help you.

Example

The easiest way to explain the principle of the sales funnel is an example.

Let's take a look at this from the point of view of the buyer. I will name him in this example Player 1 . Player 1 used to play Starcraft II and he liked the game. He played at it for many hours, but after that he did not play any RTS.

Also, for example, take the company (I just call it the Company ), which released a new, unremarkable RTS. She is not super-hardcore, but not very casual, something in the middle. The company has never released RTS before, but it is already starting marketing.


This is Player 1. He knows absolutely nothing about the RTS Company.

Every day, Player 1 reads gaming blogs like Kotaku. One day, Kotaku publishes screenshots of the new RTS Company. Player 1 is intrigued, the screenshots look very good. Player 1 does not like any games in the genre except for SC2, but he is intrigued because the screenshots reminded him of this game. Yes, he is intrigued, but if at this stage the Company turned to Player 1 to ask if he wanted to spend $ 20 on this game, he would undoubtedly answer in the negative. He knows nothing about the game. It looks great, but the buyer would not spend $ 20 to find out that the game is bad.


Player 1's attitude has changed. At this stage, he already knows about the game and generally treats it positively, but she is not particularly interested in him.

Player 1 is intrigued enough to enter the Company's website. He sees that the Company has a development diary in which new posts appear regularly. This is interesting, besides, the developers were also big fans of Starcraft II. Player 1 is pleased to know that developers like all aspects of SC2 that he likes, and they don’t like what he himself hates in the game. Developers say they are going to create a game devoid of these shortcomings. The buyer begins to treat the game warmer. But Player 1 still has doubts. He thinks: but will they succeed? RTS is very difficult to do right. If you ask him now, he again will not agree to pay $ 20.


Player 1 now looks like this: he is more than interested and wants to learn more about the game.

He is so interested that he subscribes to the development diary RSS feed. In a blog, the Company announces that it starts streaming to Twitch twice a week. Player 1 subscribes to these streams and watches each episode. In the process of viewing, he remembers units by name and learns how they work. The company demonstrates excellent gameplay and how it translates into very clever combat strategies. Watching the streams, Player 1 learns about the history and personalities of the developers. He learns that they once worked in Blizzard to create Starcraft II. On the way home from work, Player 1 constantly thinks about the game and strategies that he learned from streams on Twitch. He is ready, and he will buy the game.


Now Player 1 is like that. He is at the stage of "shut up and take my money." He knows what he will get when he buys the game, he knows the history and origin of the studio designers.

As the release day approaches, the Company's developers remind their subscribers to add the game to the wishlist on Steam. Player 1 does just that.

On release day, Player 1 watches a round-the-clock developer stream. They say you can buy the game today. Player 1 does this.

They ask to write a review. Player 1 writes a review.

This is a classic example of how a person moves through the funnel and as a result comes to the purchase. It took a few weeks to transform from a person who does not know about the game to a passionate fan. But in the process of becoming more and more interested in the game, you need to use different and more specific types of marketing. A well-functioning sales funnel slowly moves the user to various levels of interest.


Let's look at the types of marketing the Company uses to encourage Player 1 to buy.

• Popular websites publish high-quality screenshots. So the buyer enters the funnel.
• A website with a regularly updated development diary stirs interest.
• Stream on Twitch convinces the user that the game is of high quality and has depth.
• The developers request to add the wishlist game (with the subsequent letter received from Steam) encourages the purchase.

Example 2

Now imagine a completely different person. Let's call him Player 2. He doesn't like RTS. A few years ago, he played Plants vs Zombies on his phone. Like Player 1, Player 2 also reads Kotaku. They both saw the same screenshots, and both are intrigued.

However, when Player 2 comes to the web page, he reads the development diary and notices that this RTS is too hardcore for him. He closes the browser tab and continues to go about his business. He no longer seeks new information. And never buy a game.


In this scenario, Player 2 fell out of the funnel. However, it is important to understand that here the game developers were not mistaken in anything. Player 2 still wouldn't buy their game. A million dollars of additional marketing targeted directly to him would not have convinced Player 2 to make a purchase. He just naturally fell out of the funnel.

From this example you can take a few important lessons:

• Even a well-built funnel is not a magic brainwash scheme. It will not attract 100% of people. You still need to make a good game and a game that has a large enough audience to offset the development costs.
• If someone just found out about your game, it does not mean that he will buy it. Just because your trailer scored 100,000 views does not mean that all 100,000 people will buy the game.

Why "funnel"?

This model is called a funnel because it resembles it: its consumers enter from above and go down. It has this form, because each funnel level represents the percentage of the audience moving on to the next stage. The upper part of the funnel is the level of acquaintance, and it includes 100% of people who have heard something about your product. The percentage drops with each funnel level.

Player 1 completed each level, Player 2 did not. He got to the stage of familiarization, but fell out at the stage of attention, because he realized that the game does not suit him. Therefore, Player 2 has never been part of the population of the “Attention” phase.

In addition, in my previous graphs, the scale is not met. Usually a funnel for games looks like this:



A very small percentage of people will move from the stage of dating to the stage of attention. And even less progress further.

What do we pour into the funnel?

The funnel is useful only when something can be poured into it. In the case of a sales funnel, these are people. That is, when a streamer or blog talks about your game, you can imagine that they are pouring a glass into your funnel of people who are not aware of the game.


Look at these people who do not know about you, I hope you and your funnel are ready for them.

A certain percentage of these fans naturally fall out of the funnel, because the game does not suit them. Again, this is absolutely normal.

However, it is imperative to know that you need a way to collect fans who have gone beyond the dating phase. Usually, game developers offer potential audiences follow them on Twitter. This is normal, but a huge percentage of the potential audience does not use Twitter. If they don't use Twitter, they will drop out of your funnel.

Therefore, it is much better to ask them to register on your mailing list, because everyone has an email address.

If you have no way to contact the fans again, then you have wasted the “water” that was so generously poured into your funnel.


Here’s what the funnel looks like if you don’t give fans a way to subscribe to your updates, or if you don’t provide new juicy content to those who already know about the game.

Leaky funnels

Let's repeat the scenario presented above, but this time we imagine that we are in an alternative universe, where the Company does not have its own funnel, that is, there are no development and streaming diaries. RTS Companies mentioned on Kotaku and Player 1 saw the screenshots.

Player 1 is intrigued and comes to the website. However, he has nowhere to move. On the company's website, he sees the same screenshots as on Kotaku, as well as a small unintelligible stream icon on Youtube / Twitch. He does not click on it, because no one has told him this and said that he will receive it. Therefore, it simply closes the browser tab.

Player 1 is living its own life and having woken up the next day, he already completely forgets about the Company's game. Months later, when a game is released, Player 1 skips the news and does not buy it. Then the version of the Company from the alternative universe writes post-mortem: “We were mentioned in Kotaku and 100,000 visited our website, but our game still failed. Indipocalypse is to blame! ”

Fan temperature

You've probably heard of sales terms “cold call” or “potential (hot) potential customer”. These terms refer to the sales funnel. A cold call is advertising a product to a customer who has not yet reached the level of acquaintance in a funnel (that is, knows absolutely nothing about the product they are trying to sell him). As you know, cold calls are the hardest.

When Kotaku published screenshots of the Company, he demonstrated the Company's game to a “cold” audience. This initial acquaintance has roused some of these people just like a salesman’s call.

Then, when Player 1 began to regularly read the diary of the Company's developers, he “heated up” his interest in the game.

However, as is the case with water, your “warm” fans can cool down if you do not maintain constant contact with them.

How often have you read post-mortem games with a long development cycle, crashed, and said to yourself: “Oh, I remember I heard about this game. She looked interesting, but I completely forgot about her. ” So, you have experienced it for yourself. The developer has allowed you to cool down.

When people move from the stage of dating to the stage of attention, you absolutely must provide them with some way to contact you later (for example, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube or mailing lists). There are too many games in the world and too many distractions. If you do not continue to supply them with updates, you will lose them and waste the chance that a popular blog gave you about your game.

In addition, I often hear the developers say they don’t want to start marketing the game too soon, because if the press covers them, people will forget about them by the time the game is released. Such a statement says that they do not have a good funnel, which allows them to capture and hold fans, “warming up” them.

Why do you need to understand the funnel principle

I love sales funnels because they make the analysis of a marketing plan much more understandable. Having understood the different levels of the funnel, you can apply different potential marketing tactics at each stage. You can also understand at which of the stages something is missing.

And by building your funnel, you can identify problem areas and fix them much long before the game is released.

Examples of good funnels

Blizzard

Probably, this company works best with its funnel. For those who do not know about games, they have excellent art, for hardcore fans - Blizzcon, and for those who are waiting for the next game - detailed developer diaries. Before the release of Heart of the Swarm, I always checked their blog for new units. The company knew that people like me are at the stage of attention, so I always raised a rush around serious changes, so that I always visit the site and learn about them. Here is an example of how they talked about the game in regular updates even before its release.

Tom Francis

The developer of Heat Signature and Gunpoint is an indie who is extremely good at managing his sales funnel. His Youtube channel is updated with religious zeal. He simply records video in which he expresses his thoughts about game design. Here is his channel .

Star citizen

This game with a long development cycle and a constant collection of sponsorship has a sales funnel that has kept fans for several years. If you look at their Youtube channel, you will see videos for all stages of the funnel. They have a video for people at the level of familiarization. For viewers at the attention level, they have excellent trailers about each of the game ships, accompanied by clear, dedicated jokes. I recommend to study what they do. Here is their channel on Youtube .


I do not really understand what is happening in this video, but this is normal, I am not interested in this game. The video was not created for me, it is aimed at people moving deeper into the Star Citizen funnel.

What to do next

So, I showed you an interesting scheme and introduced a catchy marketing term. But you can do a little exercise to understand how your marketing plan is shaped:

1. Create a list of all your planned marketing activities.
2. Determine which funnel layer these tactics belong to.
3. Determine if you have any spaces (you may be missing an area of ​​attention — the majority forgets about it).
4. Determine the actions that people must perform at each stage of the funnel.
5. Make it so that potential buyers can somehow follow you (for example, by subscribing to a newsletter).

Summarize

At the beginning of this article, I told the story of a dubious machine, with which some completely unknown coffee is sold for five bucks. Owners of this car can sell the best coffee in the world, but they are trying to sell it to a “cold” audience.

Many games fail, even when it seems from the outside that they are well covered by the press. But getting many people into the dating phase does not mean that they all buy the game. You need to understand how to turn them from curious to fans who buy the game on the first day of release. You need to build relationships with customers.