How to promote an indie game with low-budget

Developing your own game is a complex process, and truly challenging times arise when it's time to introduce your work to the world and attract those initial enthusiasts to your game. This challenge becomes even more formidable if you're an independent developer without a substantial advertising budget and need a dedicated marketing department. With your inaugural release, you're faced with the task of determining which avenues to pursue and how to effectively promote your indie game. This article can help you with that - 'User funnel in video game promo'.

We've gathered essential tips for you, which will help promote your indie game through your efforts, even if you need more experience in this area.

Research gaming promo landscape

So, your indie game marketing plan starts with research, which will help you set the right goals and establish a sequence of steps to achieve them. You can read more about this step HERE. And here's some work you must do to prepare perfectly for advertising your indie game.

Begin by exploring similar games within your genre: what have the top players already accomplished? Study and select those games that you believe have succeeded in their promotion. It doesn't necessarily have to be the most outstanding game in the genre, as sometimes gems only emerge a few years after release. What you need is someone who has managed to capture players' attention right now. Next, delve into media coverage of these games, observe how they manage their social media presence, and engage with users. Assess the activity level in thematic fan communities and draw inspiration from practical ideas. Also, check if influencers are talking about them, and if so, what aspects they are highlighting.

At this stage, we also recommend choosing one or two games that are outside your genre but of which you're well-informed (especially if you haven't played them but are knowledgeable about them). Take a look at their best advertising cases as well.

Here are a few sites that can help you with research:

• Streamscharts - database of live streaming stats and analytics
• SteamDB - is a database of everything on Steam
• Vginsights - Access to prices, sales estimates, ratings, genres, and much more for over 50,000 Steam games!
• Statista - this platform has statistical research for different purposes. And they have information about the gaming market as well. For example, here is their overview of Indie Games Ground in 2022.

Marketing plan for indie game

After you collected information and learned what the bests doing, time to create a marketing plan for your indie game.

First, let's move on to defining your own goals. Remember that these goals will vary at different stages of game development. Are you preparing for a release and aiming to generate interest? In this case, you need to share information about the game, showcase artwork, teasers, and gather an audience within a community (from which you can receive initial feedback) while motivating them to add the game to their Steam wishlists. Don't overlook any available promotional methods during the game's development phase; investing a little time and effort is better than not doing it at all. You might think it's best to focus on this task during the release when you can immediately convert interest into sales. However, players are likelier to reach for credit cards if the game is already in their informational bubble.

Players might not convert right away, but once they enter your funnel, they will inevitably contribute to promoting your game if they've heard about it through discussions with friends, on gaming forums, or in Steam conversations.

Now, let's do the math. You're aware of your game's cost and objectives at each stage of the conversion process. You'll have to make a few assumptions and calculate how much you can allocate to paid marketing, your projected sales, and the resulting profits.

Indeed, this will never be a 100% accurate estimate, and you'll have to adjust your plan once you observe the initial outcomes. This is why it's crucial, to begin with small tests across various channels and determine what yields the best results tailored to your game.

Example of indie game promo

Now, let's delve into actual instances of successful promotions for indie games. The key lies in blending multiple channels and strategies to discover the optimal combination.

By this point, you should be familiar with several approaches from your research, and we've also touched upon promotional ideas HERE.

Moving on to actual examples, we'd like to share a story of a successful promotional campaign for the game "Project Astra Dominium," which only cost them $200.

With such a budget, it's best not to spread thin across multiple sources but rather focus on those that offer maximum reach and allow you to reuse results in the future. Additionally, it's beneficial for the content not to fade into obscurity after a few weeks but to remain easily discoverable even after an extended period. The developers of Project Astra Dominium took a clever approach by setting up a campaign on Drope.me with a $200 budget. They tasked streamers with two main objectives: live-streaming the game on Twitch and creating videos for their YouTube channels. Importantly, their campaign coincided with a Steam sale.

As a result, streamers showcased the game on Twitch, while YouTubers crafted videos. This collaboration between the two channels amplified the impact. The game not only garnered views but also generated content with authentic feedback. This content not only remained relevant in feeds beyond a couple of weeks but could also be repurposed for various purposes, including creating custom edits for their own social media platforms.

We also want to showcase what we consider to be the ideal solution for promoting a new indie game on a minimal budget, utilizing a campaign setup on Drope.me.

Let's start with the influencer actions: "Stream a game on Twitch" and "Post TikTok Video." These actions will attract creators from various platforms and simplify the promotion of actions tied to conversions.

Next, let's add target actions for the audience. In our case, this involves purchasing the game. In this case, we'll use the action "Add to Steam Wishlist" to ensure our viewers remember the game and also encourage them to buy it - through "Own this game on Steam". Summing up, we have a $200 campaign where five different streamers will showcase our game, and we'll receive five TikTok videos with recommendations to buy your game because it's awesome. If purchasing immediately isn't possible, the videos will encourage viewers to add it to their wishlist to keep it on their radar.

The content generated by the streamers can be repurposed in your own social media channels, and the number of completed community actions will likely be even higher. Not everyone will manage to complete the tasks for rewards on the platform, but as mentioned earlier, these actions will already be in your marketing funnel.

In conclusion, we want to emphasize the importance of setting priorities correctly during promotion. If your budget is limited and extensive testing isn't feasible, consider using specialized solutions that remove the routine and guarantee results. Read the article on 'How to set up a campaign on Drope.me' and get quality promotion from streamers.