Why using YouTube has become a necessity in this industry and how it works for a small publishing company. I also discuss why people dislike YouTube and how they think it's not necessary.
Marketing isn't always easy, especially when your company is two people. You realize quickly you can't do everything yourself and you need outside help. But where do you look for help? You can try using Twitter which in the end will pay off, Instagram but it may take awhile to build up a following, or YouTube which already has plenty of channels with popular YouTube "celebrities" that cover game collecting or do gameplay videos. These YouTubers may even have a large following, something that could take you personally years to build up. It makes complete sense to use someone with a following to your advantage and "partner" up, doesn't it?
The answer is yes. But there are a lot of stipulations to doing this correctly, there are also a lot of misconceptions about the process. We get a lot of fans angry that we use YouTubers for marketing. Whether it be because they were mad they got a free game, not a fan, or they are confused at why a company called "Limited Run Games" is handing out copies to non-customers. There is also the misconception that a company who prints small runs shouldn't need anymore marketing, but the overall goal is to attract bigger games and to increase our run size. As a company we need to grow, we can't grow if we are selling to the same people every run.
Something fans need to know is, when a company such as ours prints copies of a run, we withhold some from a run in case of damaged shipments, lost and some for marketing or giveaways. We use a few for our small YouTube family in hopes they may do a video on us. We also do not ask that videos be positive by force. We do send copies asking for a video or some kind of promotion, but we always ask them to be honest. If they hate the game or something we are doing, we want to know. A lot of YouTubers offer to buy the games or have bought them in the past. YouTubers that have bought games in the past is a huge plus because it means they are actual fans and believe in what you are doing.
We don't send copies of our games to Instagram users unless they also have a YouTube channel. Our followers on Instagram show it's probably one of our "needs improvement" fronts. But it has started to grow the bigger we've become. 
We tried using Twitch and YouTube ourselves for marketing but it hasn't worked as well as using someone already established. Our subscriber count sits at around 200. But we will continue to use it as we feel we have a strong community that shows up for streams. 
When we first started we reached out to YouTube celebrities that weren't as big as ones we use now but we felt fit our fan base. Now that our Twitter following has reached over 12,000 it's a lot easier to get noticed by some of the bigger names on YouTube. This has shown us proof that succeeding on one marketing front can unlock more opportunities on other fronts.
One particular YouTuber we were fans of that has been a big help has been Metal Jesus Rocks. He does a lot of videos on rare games and video game collections, which was a fan base we were targeting. 
At 286,000 subscribers we felt we could reach a bigger audience. He also has a large network of fellow collectors and other YouTubers. We now have even more connections just from this one connection.
One particular video he did with guest star Kelsey Lewin was an all encompassing video on the Vita. They introduced us on the video and brought up how we are still out there making games for the Vita. This video spread like wild fire. We even had someone who lived nearby our office watch the video and look us up to visit us. This video was well worth sending promo copies for. 
Metal Jesus Rocks followed up awhile later once he had more copies of our Vita games with a video
dedicated to us. It was a very impressive and all encompassing video on us. 
Once again we received even more followers to our twitter and visitors to our website!
YouTube is an important part of marketing now, just like Twitch, Instagram, and Twitter. I personally didn't want to admit unboxing videos or let's play videos were a thing, but they are. Don't be afraid to reach out to YouTubers for marketing, just please remember to be honest. If they ask for money that's on you. I personally don't ally with people who ask me for money, it feels like cheating to me and that they don't truly believe in my product or what I am doing.
Be aggressive in marketing, ask as many people who align with your values as possible! Don't sell yourself short, remember it's a symbiotic relationship you are building with people. You want the people you are working with to have a mutual respect for you, you will get a lot more out of it that way!
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