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Marketing Basics

How to think about timing when time doesn’t matter anymore

One of the biggest challenges for any marketer this year in COVID-world has been timing.

Timing is everything. Or it was, before time didn’t really exist anymore.

Timing Is Everything Quotes: Why Not Take the Chance - EnkiQuotes

Why has timing been so important?

Think about things in your personal life. Like…one of the most important times when timing mattered for me was the timing of when I got on Match.com roughly five years ago.

I had been on Match for a few months. My now-husband joined for a week. The algorithm matched us up. We started talking and we were both available to talk and I’ve been a thorn in his side ever since. <3

It’s still terrifying, in retrospect, how slim that window of timing was for me to have the happy life I have now. What if I had discontinued Match before he joined? What if I had been gone on vacation and he never showed up in my feed? What if he joined the next week, when I had decided I was going to give up on dating again for a while?

So that’s a very dramatic and really life-changing matter of timing. But now – think about in terms of marketing.

Timing and location have always been important when it comes to marketing.

Primetime (before Amazon took over mind-space for the word “prime”) has always been a very real thing. Primetime TV spots for ads have always been elevated due to the fact that previously, most people watched TV when they were done with work for the day and that’s when more eyeballs were on screens.

Radio spots tend to be pricier for some stations around meal times because that timing is critical – how to get the idea of a specific, delicious food in someone’s brain right before or right when they’re hungry.

Think about email automations – if you send a follow-up after someone has reviewed a product too soon and they haven’t even gotten their delivery yet, well, there’s a squandered opportunity. Too late, and they may have already forgotten about the product.

Not saying that timing is a perfect science. There’s definitely an art and a lot of guesstimation to it. But previously we (marketers) were all working on heuristics and baseline experience as to what goes and what doesn’t in the normal world of the US. All audiences are different, for sure – a social post at 10 pm ET on a Friday night might be the right time to reach gamers but a lot of parents are most likely asleep and shut down for the night, even in COVID-world.

So what do we do now?

Welp, with all of our benchmarks out the windows, my proposal is now for consistency.

It used to be that sending a B2B email on a weekend was a non-starter. Or even on a Friday or a Monday could result in fewer opens or clicks.

But what do weekends even matter anymore when people can’t travel or leave their homes? The game’s totally changed.

Consistency is where it needs to be now when it comes to marketing efforts. Consistency being the key because if you can become consistent and your audience begins to expect that consistency or blogs, emails, specific messages – whatever it may be at certain times, that can help create routine and familiarity at a time when we’ve lost sight of both in the world.

That and some frickin’ empathy. Empathy has always been important but as countless people are dealing with sickness, depression and more challenges than ever this year – well, maybe that “vacation giveaway extravaganza” campaign you were about to launch isn’t such a good idea right now. I’m just sayin’.

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Marketing Basics

How to network while socially distanced

A typical networking event would be an enjoyable prospect. Pack up your team and some demos, fly to a nice city, meet some partners, meet some vendors, fly home, and PROFIT.

Now, in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, networking in 2020 has become a very different place. No exciting events, no free swag, and how do I even find the right background for my webcam?!?

Many see this as a time of frustration with businesses becoming more isolated than ever but with the right approach you can come out with this period with new contacts, new opportunities, and a brighter future.

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Marketing Basics

Setting a marketing ethics guideline for your business

There has been a ton of pressure on businesses and brands in 2020 to serve as moral arbiters this year. Or for brands to at least take the appearance of having a moral stance on issues.

Plenty of brands began pushing away from Facebook because of the “site’s failure to stop the spread of hate,” according to CNN. It definitely has, y’know, nothing to do with the fact that returns on Facebook’s advertising platform have been plummeting during a pandemic and a recession that’s rapidly snowballing into a depression, I’m sure.

My argument to businesses: make a marketing ethics guideline. Before you desperately need it. Then, here’s a thought….actually follow through on it.

Categories
Esports Website

How to Design and Structure an Esports Website

Why the need for an Esports Website?

Every business needs a website. If you want your esports organization to be financially successful, you have to start treating your esport organization as a business rather than a hobby. So I want to breakdown how your esports website can look and give you examples of great websites within the esports industry.

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Esports Influencer Marketing

Esports Organizations + Content Creators

100 Thieves welcomed CouRageJD to its content creator team
100 Thieves announce CouRageJD to join its content creator team.

Have you ever noticed that esport organizations sign players that do not play on their esport rosters? For example, 2019 Content Creator of the Year finalist Jack “CouRage” Dunlop does not play on a professional roster for 100 Thieves. However, as of May 28th, 2019, 100 Thieves welcomed CouRageJD to its content creator team. So, why would an organization like 100 Thieves want to sign someone that will never win them a League of Legends World Championship?

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Marketing Basics Marketing We Love

GamesBeat 2020 Wrap-up

I was privileged enough in terms of money and time to be able to attend the digital GamesBeat summit last week. Mainly because I was curious. But also because I’ve been trapped at home for over a month and while my husband is my favorite person (and Leo is more coherent these days), talking to new people was crazy neat.

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Marketing Basics Video

Indie game video basics for teasers, trailers and gifs

One of the most powerful assets in video game marketing is the use of videos. Seems intuitive, no? It’s in the freaking name of the hobby.

Here’s how to put the video back into video games for your marketing efforts.

Please note: this is NOT a guide on the technical aspect of actual video creation – we tend to leave that up to the videographers either on-staff or who we contract in to help with this piece of the marketing puzzle.

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Marketing Basics

Can I do my own marketing for my game?

I get this question pretty regularly – can I do my own marketing for my video game? Or my games-industry adjacent organization?

Mainly this comes from smaller indie dev teams (with fewer than 10 people) but occasionally from larger groups.

The short answer: yes, of course.

The long answer: yes but you may not want to and here’s why (with a follow-up at the end – I know, this is biased, but I’ll try to be fair.)

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Marketing Basics

Maintenance over innovation in marketing

It can be good to be ambitious. But I’m going to try to convince you that maintenance, not innovation, is one of the biggest things that can help marketing succeed.

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Influencer Marketing Marketing Basics

How to get started with influencer marketing in video games

In my last blog, I wrote about the effectiveness of Influencer Marketing in Video Games, but it will not be useful for your business if you do not approach it correctly. I want to use this blog to help you implement Influencer Marketing into your strategy.