This article is about how we get to know more people and potential clients via blogging here on Gamasutra. I hope it could give some lights to our fellow service providers.
First of all, I hope this post doesn’t offend the good people who run this blog, but it’s the fact that we owe our breads to Gamasutra blog.
Once upon a time, I feel blog marketing might be useful to our company, that I write an article about how we create art works for casual games, and I post it on a few blogs. I send the link to my friend Maria, a producer of Total Eclipse Games, she asks me why I don’t post it on Gamasutra, that more people could see it. Then I create an account and start my Gamasutra blogging.
At the beginning, I regularly come up with an article each week. I post it in many places, and also a copy on Gamasutra (Now exclusively on Gamasutra and Linked-in Pulse). Later Gamasutra gives me a big surprise, it actually generates many business leads and deals!
I take it that, marketing is about to let as more as possible relevant people know what you’re doing, and further more, to build trust, to let those people know you are good at it.
For service providers in the game industry: art vendors, music studios, and development houses, Gamasutra serves this purpose perfectly well. If you do the blogging properly, you will harvest unexpected fruit.
One thing we should avoid is to make blatant promotions in the posts. You offer people great contents, and in turn they would be interested in knowing who you are, what you do, that’s enough. I would write “my company is doing blah blah” only if the idea of the article needs the identification of our role. However, this is also a type of soft marketing.
Be original, don’t copy & paste things from else where, there are already way too many pages of those things, people won’t be interested in your posts, even those are breaking news.
If you’re doing some business in the industry, you would share lots of common experiences with your fellow guys in this field, and have your own unique feelings. Write down what you know about the business, your solutions, and your experiences, these would be good textbook for many people, and interesting readings for your peers. Don’t be shy to write things which you think are commonplace enough. For example, I have posted many articles of how we create 2D art works for hidden object games. I think there’s nothing new in them, all the people in this business should know all the points I have covered. But still, some HOG developers contact me for commission, they say from my posts, they know I’m the guy who really know how to do the job.
Besides working experiences, I know lots of industry stories in my country, I try to write them in a way entertaining. If I tell this story in this way to my friends, would them listen attentively, is it interesting? I ask myself this question while writing every story.
And you can also look into the featured posts here in this blog, see what people post.
About how popular is Gamasutra, if you’re interested in data, you can go to this site:
I can’t give you much data, however I can share a few anecdote of mine with you.
I would ask every potential clients who comes to me the question: How do you find me? The answers would help to re-balance our marketing efforts. Lots of people would say: I know you from Gamasutra;
After I finish a post, if I feel it’s good, I would email the link to my friends, many of them are executives. I can’t recall for how many times I get this reply: ”Already read it on Gamasutra, good stuff!”
One of my clients tells me, his friend has recommended him to see a guy’s “great stuffs ” on Gamasutra, and then he replies his friend: “I’m doing business with this guy now.”
If you’re an expert blogger, everything you post, which is not disapproved by the editors, would run to the top. This is a great benefit for marketers.
You can be promoted from a Gamasutra member to expert blogger only by the editor. I take it that if you’re a celebrity in the industry, say, the boss of Rovio, and you post something about your business even for the first time, you would be instantly made an expert blogger.
For you and me are not those big guys yet, there’re still ways to earn this status:
Post quality articles;
Post often;
Make friends with the editors. You can find the email of the editors on this site, you can tell them about your thoughts, give thanks to them when they help you to correct grammar errors, but don’t spam them with irrelevant contents!
Months before, my sole purpose to do Gamasutra blogging is to gain more exposure for my business. I couldn’t have imagined that I would help and entertain so many people, that above leads and deals, I gain happiness.
More of my articles about games & art production:
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