本文主要谈论如何向用户推广你的产品，无论产品是书籍、游戏、电影脚本还是交易，宣传都是非常重要的技能，掌握如何进行操作，你将能够在激烈的竞争中脱颖而出。

在谈及推广的首个要素前，我们先来看看下列若干基本法则。

1. 你并不总是处于“表现状态”。开发者面临的一大问题是，尤其是新开发者，他们觉得当有人问他们现在做什么时，他们需要呈现那些反复演练，略显生硬的内容，接二连三地比划着无形的幻灯片。你不要这样做，千万不要这样做。

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把握你是需要呈现正式描述，还是仅仅是向好友解释一些轻松的话题，这一点非常重要。想要更好判定自己是否处于演示状态，先自问两个问题：

a）此情境的结果是否能够让我的产品离发布更近一步，或者这只是闲聊？

b）此情境的出现是否专门瞄准我的产品，还是我们只是通过谈话延伸到产品？

若上述问题若有一个的答案是肯定的，那么你就处在演示状态。若不是，大可保持冷静和放松，以更轻松的方式进行谈论。

2. 没有所谓的“完美”，只有“持续向前”。很多人一谈到自己的产品都会变得有些生硬，因为他们通常都会就所听到的问题给予“完美”答案，但事实上根本没有所谓的完美答案。这种想法只会极大损害你的事业。

他们并不是因为想测试你有多“完美”才向你提出问题——大家会问你问题是因为书籍/游戏/脚本吸引用户的眼球。

这些时候你所要做的就是将对话向前推进。就像打情骂俏，或工作面试，或者是你排队时遇到的古怪对话。将沟通向前推进，保持进展势头。

你的答案只要具有积极意义或建设性，你就能够将对话向前推进。就有可能再次被提问，就有可能扩展到访问者事前没有准备的问题。此过程最好要和会话一样具有组织性。

这带入第3条宣传原则。

3. 这是会话，而不是什么复杂科学。处理得当的是交谈，把握不当的就会陷入沉默。好的会话是沟通。糟糕的会话则会带来沉默。愉快的时光是交谈，糟糕的时刻则是沉默。是否把握这里的要点？若你保持交流，那你就处理得很好。只需要保持交流。

有时确实如此，我们站着、坐着或在房前交谈，但只需确保对话持续进行。你不需要计算Martian航天探测器的重返速度，你无需在Fort Knox地下室解除炸弹。你交谈的内容是你感兴趣且有所了解的话题。

请将这3条规则收入脑中，然后完全消化，经常运用。

这就是推广理念。从技术角度说，这就是我的推广理念，我希望这也能够变成你的理念。这能够通过进行若干实践达成。

后半部分，我们将谈论进行宣传陈述时能够运用到的实际词汇。大家面临的第二个障碍是要说什么。

严格来说，这就是你大脑中想到的内容。我知道你手心会冒汗，胃部会抽搐。

但记住：若不确定，就只谈项目的闪光点。

“闪光点”让你的游戏变得别具一格。这些也许体现在你所运用的机制，也许是你的情节，或者是你分送副本的方式。

现在，这意味着你需要找到自己的闪光点。下面是发现闪光点的问卷调查：

1. 当被问及产品时，你最想要讨论的是什么？

2. 你觉得开发过程中最杰出的部分是什么？

3. 你在哪里遇到障碍，你最终如何解决？（游戏邦注：克服的部分非常关键）

4. 你对产品的下步计划是什么？

5. 列举游戏/书籍/脚本存在的3个让你颇感自豪的内容/场景/时刻。

写下所有答案，试着将这些组合成句子，但若你没法做到，短语也可以。

这些问题的答案被称作“特别卖点”（游戏邦注：Unique Selling Points，以下简称USP）。

你定会想要陈述系列特别卖点。但不要重复信息，这些无需是模式一样的内容。下面是些USP：

* 我发明此委婉说法：收藏盒

* 你会看到两个飞贼抢劫小猫。

* 你将和主角Jared尽情享受周末90分钟。

* 这是有关贩毒者的电影，本身不具有种族主义倾向。

USP是你为说服用户购买产品所投入的货币。你给予用户USP，他们给予你货币。这是非常奇妙的经济形态。

我强烈建议你尽量多采用USP开发模式，至少坚持到耗尽自己所有的闪光资源为止。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Pitch 101: Step 1 – The Mindset & Selling Points

What follows is the start of a series on how to pitch your product to other people. It doesn’t matter if that product is a book, a game, a film script or your business, pitching is a critical skill and knowing how to do it can easily separate you from the rest of the competition.

Before we get into the first component of Pitching, there are some ground rules. Not many, don’t panic.

I. You’re not always ‘on’. One of the big hurdles for people, especially when they’re new, is that they think anytime someone asks about what they’re doing, they have to launch into some well-rehearsed and stiffly-acted presentation, with broad gestures to invisible powerpoint slides. You don’t. You don’t. I repeat: You don’t.

There is a valuable skill in knowing when you have to give a formal description, and when you’re just explaining your material over a burrito to a bunch of friends. To better determine when you have to be on, ask yourself two questions:

a.) Do the results of this situation lead my product one step closer toward publication, or is this just chat?

b.) Did this situation arise because it’s organized to be about my product, or did we come to the topic of my product through conversation?

If you answered “yes” to the first half of either question, then you’re on. If not, be cool and relax, and talk in more relaxed ways.

II. There isn’t a ‘perfect’, just ‘moving forward’. Many people freeze when they think about talking about their product because they often want to give the ‘perfect’ answer to whatever question they just heard, as answers are like Highlander or the One Ring and there’s a definite top to some pyramid. There isn’t. And every time you think so, you’re hurting your own cause in major way.

You didn’t get asked questions because people are testing your sense of perfection – you got asked questions because the book/game/script/whatever interests someone else.

All you have to do in those moments is move the conversation forward. Just like flirting. Just like a job interview. Just like the weird conversations you have waiting in lines. Move things forward, keep the momentum alive.

Each of your answers, as long as it’s positive and/or constructive in somewhat about the question, moves things along. Hopefully to the next question. Hopefully forward to other questions that maybe the interviewer didn’t prepare in advance. It should be, at its best, organic, just like conversation.

Which leads to the third rule of pitching.

III. It’s a conversation, not rocket science. A good pitch is talking. A bad pitch is silence. A good conversation is talking. A bad conversation is silence. A good time is talking. A bad time is silence. See the point I’m making here? If you’re still talking, you’re doing it right. And it’s only ever talking.

Sometimes yes, it’s talking while standing or while sitting or while in front of a room, but it’s only ever talking. They’re not going to ask you to describe a part of your product while performing brain surgery using celery and a spatula. You aren’t going to have to calculate re-entry velocities for a Martian space probe, you won’t have to defuse a bomb in the basement of Fort Knox. You’re having a conversation about something you’re passionate and knowledgeable about.

Load those three rules into your brain, digest them completely and practice them often. Yes, often. At whatever stage of development you’re at. Just started writing today? Then this is what you have to look forward to. Did you just write ‘The End’ on it? Then this is the next step.

This is the Pitch Mindset. Well, technically, this is my pitch mindset and I’m hoping it becomes your pitch mindset too. It can be, with some practice. Not always easy practice, if you’re like me and you catch yourself kicking your own ass or you go into a situation with the expectation of epic failure, but with practice, you can change that, and lubricate those creative ideas in this special I-can-do-it-sauce.

Just like GI Joe, this was half the battle.

For the next half, we better take a look at some of the actual words you can use, unless you’re pitching telepathically. (If you are, we should talk, or mind meld or use the Force or whatever) The other stumbling block for people is what to actually say.

Seriously, it’s like the words evaporate from the folds of your brain or something. I know. Your palms get all sweaty and your stomach gets all queasy, just like that time in eighth grade when you saw Karen in Home Ec (I may have said too much there), and then when you try to talk, your brain makes the jump to lightspeed and you end up runningallthewordstogetherlikeyou’regoingtorunoutofairortimeorsomething. And then you stand there exhausted and panting like you just performed in a bad musical.

Remember this sentence –

When in doubt, talk about the shiny.

The “shiny” is what makes your game unique. It could be mechanics you use (no one else uses seven-sided die like this), it could be your plot (epic battle as a robot version of Duran Duran!) or it could be the way you’re going to distribute copies (When you buy a six pack of Suddso Beer, you get a free download!)

Now, this means you have to find your shiny. So break out the legal pad, and let’s get to work. Here’s the Shiny Detection Questionnaire:

1. What are you most excited to talk about when you’re asked about your product?

2. What do you think is the best part (so far) of the development process?

3. Where did you struggle, and how did you overcome it? (The overcoming part is CRITICAL)

4. What are you excited to do next with your product?

5. Name up to 3 things/scenes/beats/moments your game/book/script has that you’re proud of.

Write down all your answers. Try to get them into sentences, but if you can’t, phrases are good too.

The answers to those questions are called “Unique Selling Points” (USPs), and you can reward yourself for receiving the same amount of knowledge as one semester of marketing in college! Hooray college credit!

You’re going to want to cobble together a TON of Unique Selling Points. You shouldn’t repeat information, but they don’t always need to be cookie cutter sentences. Here are some USPs for a script I wrote last year.

* I coined the euphemism “cunty deposit box”

* You actually meet two cat burglars who burgle cats.

* For ninety minutes, you practically drown in a weekend with the main character, Jared.

* It’s a movie about drug dealers that isn’t inherently racist.

USPs are the currency you spend in your pitch to entice people to buy your product. You give them USPs, they give you currency. It’s a wonderful economy.

I strongly strongly recommend you practice USP development as often as possible, at least until you exhaust all your shiny resources (go back to your Feel Document and Note Cards, don’t forget). Strip mine the idea…because you never know when the little scribble you had on the bottom of a card is going to turn into the big hook for a consumer.

Before I end this post, let me just tell you, remind you, and convince you that you can do this. It’s just talking about what you love. Throw on some blinders until you soak that idea into your genes. No, don’t start telling me some bullshit about how this proves you’re successful, don’t be silly – you were successful the minute you started the product. Don’t you dare tell me this is too complicated – it’s just a conversation and all you have to do is move it forward.（Source：writernextdoor）