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[Crossable]

Hello all. I'm a long time lurker first time posting here.  I'm about 60% through with a iOS game I'm developing.  I'd love to hear some critiques and tweaks to this pre-launch marketing strategy.

Two months prior to planned launch - open social media accounts across the board and build with Family/Friends/associates. ~400 people and expecting growth through campaign to spread/share. Offer 500 test releases through test flight to friends on social media.

1 month prior to launch. Open 250 test releases to large work related forum community (I'm military). Same time start kickstarter campaign of $3,000 for advertising, polishing, and marketing materials. Push kickstarter to social media and military community. Run for two weeks.

After kickstarter end/2weeks prior to release. Release on PreApps.com using premium services.$$ ~2-3k depending on Kickstarter results. Video, press release, featured spot, guaranteed reviews. Offer 250 test releases to PreApps community.

Release date. Release game for .99 for 1 day then free for two weeks, ad free (trying to get on the app o day radars). After 2 weeks offer 1,000 iTunes gifts to download ad free game free to social media contacts. $~300

Total cost. $3,300 +countless hours of work.

I plan on running this campaign late this summer.

I hope someone finds it useful or worth a discussion. Thank You!

[RaconteurNick]

Hi Crossable,

First time poster here as well! I'm not your typical indie dev -- I'm a business major (focusing on Management) but I did take a few marketing classes. By no means am I any kind of expert, but here's my feedback.

* You plan to offer it paid for the first day, and then switch to free -- I didn't really catch your reasoning behind this. Unless it's to beat some sort of App Store system (admittedly, iOS is not my strength), it seems like a quick way to get angry reviews from people who bought it as paid on the first day.

* Is PreApps guaranteed to provide those overall marketing services for your apps? Trailers, etc.? Is there any additional planning that has to go into it with PreApps, or do they simply charge a fee and handle the rest?

* Your timeline is really optimistic! More power to you! Are you sure you'll get the response you're hoping for with your test releases? I can attest from personal experience that you'll probably only get 30-40% responses. Is that enough data for you?

Not trying to be too critical, just constructive.

I once had the opportunity of job shadowing a AAA executive. In my time with him, I met someone who boiled it down to a simple list: Fantasy, Promise, and Position.

Fantasy is what the game is about, and the world you're offering the player.
Promise is what you're going to be delivering on (mechanics, etc.).
Position is where you stand in the market.

If you get fantasy and promise, then position usually works itself out.

[Crossable]

Nick,
Thank you for the thoughtful reply.  I appreciate your insight and fully welcome the critical eye, that's why I'm here. Hopefully I can generate some more discussion with these replies.

**Getting listed by App O day services.  This is a weak point in knowledge on my part. I don't know what it takes for the services like App-o-Day or AppsGoneFree to list you on their daily free apps lists.  Starting off paid and then offering Free for a limited time is how I assumed they took notice. I've recently learned that reaching out to them directly is part of that game but I am still not fully read up on it. Definitely something I will be tweaking.  Great point about disenfranchising the people that paid for the game previously.  This sort of "buyers remorse" will always be the case for any app that offers a discount for a short period of time.  And really isn't this the nature of a "sale?"  All that being said, I think I will wait more like 1 or 2 weeks before offering the game for free for that reason. 

**The amount of pre planning for PreApps really depends on your level of payment.  At least this is what I can gather from their website and reviews.  I would adjust how much additional planning necessary based on the successful/unsuccessful Kickstarter.  Those estimated costs were for a video, short ad copy, featured spot on their site, and 8 app reviews (not app store reviews, written reviews).  Even with an unsuccessful kickstarter I will be able to fund those costs.  A successful kickstarter would warrant more/better materials provided for a fee. 

**Regarding the timeline, I'm assuming you mean because of the time I am allotting for testers to provide feedback.  I don't intend to execute this until I have done a thorough test of the app.  How many testers does that include?  I don't have a number for that, but I also haven't found much research on what is enough.  I'm open to suggestions.  These pre-releases to friends/community/PreApps are solely meant as an "exclusive access" marketing pitch and not for test purposes.  Though feedback will absolutely be welcome. With that, would you still say the timeline is overly optimistic? 

**I like the construct of Fantasy, promise, and position. I've never heard it before.  Is it a reference to a marketing strategy or business strategy as a whole. Meaning, do you form an ad campaign based on Fantasy and Promise?  Or is it an overall vision for the business. 

Thank you again for the reply.  This is really helping

Adam

[Ooops]

I too think the "paid on day one" then "free for two weeks" is not the best option.

From  what I've read on professional websites like gamasutra.com, more and more people think it is best to launch your game at full price (or nominal discount like 10% or 20%) because most of your hype (and hence revenue) will come at launch.

Personally, I think major discounts are only effective if you have already established basic notoriety for your game. They are good way to give temporary boosts to that tail in your sales graph.

And, like has been said before, you run a major risk of alienating your customers if you give away the game for free so soon.

[RaconteurNick]

Adam --

As for the testing data comment, I would say you should probably do fine (you said your target was about 250ish people, so you'd probably get around 100 responses. That's plenty of data, but don't be like me and get disappointed when that percentage at the end is lower than you anticipated, even if people said they would provide feedback!)

And in regards to fantasy, position, and promise -- nope, not from any established theory/marketing idea. It's basically that person's take on the 4 P's of marketing (product, price, place, and promotion) but more catered toward the gaming medium. You would form an ad campaign indeed based on fantasy and promise, and with luck, the position would work itself out by the response (of course, knowing your niche/who you're targeting certainly helps!).

I'm glad my response helped answer some questions and make you ask some yourself! I also replied to your PM and am not sure if it went through, so please let me know if it didn't.