As you know, being an indie developer is not easy. You got to do all the work by yourself and compete in a very crowded market. With so many mobile games in the app stores, it’s hard to get noticed and get people to play your game. Furthermore, big companies, powered by big budgets, are mercilessly stepping over indie developers and pushing them out. The game is ruthless, my friends.
So how do you promote your mobile game by yourself with no marketing budget at all? Can you even compete with big game publishers?
Although it might seem impossible, you actually can. We live in a time where you don’t need a lot of money or a big company behind you to do successful mobile game marketing. It is possible to do it all by yourself with a $0 budget. You just need to learn some basic indie mobile game marketing strategies. And, of course, put some time and effort into executing them.
To make your life easier, I have created a simple guide that will teach you the basics of indie mobile game marketing. Use these strategies to win and make your mobile game a huge hit.
Get an Early Start
You might think the time to start promoting your mobile game is after you release it. And you would be wrong. Yes, you should go full throttle during the game release. But you should start promoting a lot earlier than that. The key is to build a community around your game and create a buzz long before the release. Trust me, it will make things easier later on.
Make a Website for Your Indie Mobile Game
One of the first steps of indie mobile game marketing is creating a landing page for your game. This is where you put all the important game info in one place.
If you don’t have the budget for a website, a social media page is a good free alternative.
What to Include in Your Indie Mobile Game Landing Page?
- App Store/Google Play links
- Game trailer
- Social media links
- Call to action button
- Screenshots
- Game reviews
- News and updates
A couple of great examples are Monument Valley, Limbo, and Alto’s Adventure websites. All have beautifully designed landing pages and content that makes you want to play the game. And that’s the main purpose of creating a website for your mobile game.
Create Eye-Catching Creatives for Your Indie Mobile Game
It’s time to get creative. To make your mobile game appealing to gamers, you need some eye-catching creatives. This is the content you will add to your website and use to promote your game on social media.
Create a Mind-blowing Game Trailer
A kick-ass game trailer is crucial for getting people to download your game. It’s what sells it to gamers and makes them want to play it right this second.
Make sure you tell your game’s story in the trailer. Give a glimpse into the world and characters of your mobile game. Include a lot of gameplay because that’s what people want to see the most. Make it exciting, enticing, and attention-grabbing.
Lastly, make it unique. Gamers have seen hundreds of trailers. They’re not impressed easily. You won’t make them excited about your mobile game with a half-assed mediocre trailer. Think about what you can do to make it stand out. Is there a way to make it more unique and thrilling? Experiment and don’t be afraid to do things differently. It pays off.
Capture Attention-Grabbing Screenshots
Other visual materials you need to excite users to play your mobile game are screenshots. Make sure the screenshots are high-quality and represent your mobile game really well. Don’t forget to add them to your game’s landing page.
Apart from screenshots, you can also make gifs, icons, and other graphics. All of it will be very useful when promoting your game on social media.
Use Social Media to Your Advantage
With more than 3.5 billion users all over the world, you can’t ignore social media. Love it or hate it, it’s the most effective way to market your indie mobile game. Did I mention it’s free? So no more excuses, it’s time to get smart with social media.
You should have a couple of active social media profiles on the main platforms. Use them to promote your mobile game and build a community around it. It’s the place to post your game trailer, gameplay videos, screenshots, gifs, user-generated content, etc. Basically, anything that will showcase your mobile game and excite the users.
What’s even more important than posting content is communicating with people. That includes answering user comments and questions, starting conversations with followers, and being active on other people’s social media profiles. You should also be a part of different Facebook groups or even create your own. This is not the time or place to be an introvert. It’s called social media for a reason. Once you build a strong community on social media, it gets much easier to generate pre-release hype or get everyone excited about the new update.
When you’re omnipresent and engage in conversations, people begin to notice you and talk about your game. They start sharing your posts and get you more players. You might even go viral. Anything is possible.
Engage with Indie Mobile Game Communities
Besides social media, you should also be active in indie mobile game communities. You’ll find fellow developers and gamers on different online forums so make sure to build those relationships. These are the people who might want to test your game or give you a review.
However, as you probably know, these communities can be ruthless. You will get brutally honest opinions on your mobile game so be prepared for that. If you’re game sucks, they will make it clear to you it sucks. However, that’s way more useful than your family and friends telling you how amazingly great your game is. Use the criticism to improve your game and make it more appealing to gamers.
List of Online Indie Mobile Game Communities
- Reddit (r/gaming, r/gamedev, r/IndieGaming, r/indiegameswap, r/playmygame, etc.)
- Indie Hackers
- Growth Hackers
- Dev
- GameDev
- DevMaster
- Unity Forums
- Indie Game Developers Facebook Group
- Mobile Entrepreneurs Facebook Group
Don’t Forget About App Store Optimization
According to Statista, there are more than 300,000 games just in the Google Play store. So how do you get noticed among such crazy competition? That’s where app store optimization comes in. It should be a key part of your indie mobile game strategy. ASO helps you improve the visibility of your mobile game and ultimately get more downloads.
Ranking high in app stores is similar to being among top Google search results. However, the strategy is slightly different.
Choose Mobile Game Name Carefully
The name of your mobile game is a huge ranking factor. So make sure it includes a relevant keyword. According to Tune, mobile games that have a relevant keyword in the title rank 10% higher than those that don’t.
Captivate Users with Exciting Game Description
The game description is another important factor when it comes to app store optimization. You want to make it short, but interesting enough to capture users’ attention. Include relevant keywords in the description, but don’t do it just for the sake of it. The sentences should be natural and readable.
Other important ASO steps are indexing your mobile game, adding screenshots and videos, including relevant keywords, localization, and adding an eye-catching icon. According to TheTool, the 3 most important ASO factors are localized product page, app name, and rankings.
If you want to learn more about app store optimization, check out our in-depth ASO guide.
A Summary of Indie Mobile Game Marketing Strategies for 2020
As you can see, there are many different indie mobile game marketing strategies you can try. So don’t get discouraged. It would be such a shame to spend weeks developing your awesome new mobile game and then make no effort to promote it.
Yes, being an indie developer has its disadvantages and it would be great to have a marketing budget like the giants Supercell or Tencent. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t promote your mobile game successfully and make it a huge hit.
Get creative, be persistent and I guarantee you’ll achieve great results.
What is the most challenging part of indie mobile game marketing for you? Tell us how we can help you in the comments below!
Read More About Mobile Game Marketing
- The Art of ASO: App Store Optimization for Mobile Games (iOS & Google Play)
- Who is a modern mobile gamer? (shifts of the ‘gamer’ demographics)
- What are the “mobile game whales” & how to find them
- Top 15 mobile ad networks to acquire game players
- Mobile Marketing Glossary: A Comprehensive List of Terms You Need to Know
About Udonis:
In 2018 & 2019, Udonis Inc. served over 14.1 billion ads & acquired over 50 million users for mobile apps & games. We’re recognized as a leading mobile marketing agency by 5 major marketing review firms. We helped over 20 mobile apps & games reach the top charts. Want to know how we make it look so effortless? Meet us to find out.
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