作者：Brent Decker

像《侠盗猎车手V》或《战地4》等任何一款百万发行的电子游戏来说都值得受到巨大的关注。所以你该如何确保自己的新游戏能够突破重重竞争对手？

好消息是，一个关键的决策能够抵消巨大的市场营销预算。如果你制定了计划，做好了准备，删除了障碍，并为购买提供了更多诱因（混合于巧妙的推广中），你便能够将游戏推向众人面前而无需落得倾家荡产的下场。以下是我们需要考虑的3个主要原因：

gta5-wallpaper(from gamingirresponsibly)

产品策略

决定该向消费者提供什么，何时进行提供能够在游戏发行前强化它的吸引力，并在发行后继续延伸这股势头。产业统计资料表明前期准备能够推动30%的在线游戏销量，而另外的15%是源自实际发行。随着在发行当天或之前会有将近一半的在线收益涌现过来，明智的前期准备计划显得更加重要。请从制定你的产品策略开始。决定你将提供哪些游戏变量—-标准，限制和收集者的版本，直接销售等等，当你将提供它们时，每个选择都可能创造出重要的增量收入。

收集者的版本经常能够生成15%的总订购数以及超过20%的总在线收益。考虑推广这些让人垂涎的版本去推动你的前期准备活动。例如，让你的粉丝知道当公司收到了更多收集者版本的前期准备时，你便能够添加更多好东西（如此更多消费者便会更加期待你的发行）。

如果你不确定自己的粉丝想要什么，那就通过社交媒体进行调查。你将会惊讶于自己收到的有关可能的动机，奖励，内容，甚至是定价等有用的反馈。

购买流程

为了确保积极的消费者体验以及最大的收益影响，你需要站在消费者的角度进行思考。为什么我现在要买这款游戏？谁拥有更合理的价钱？我该如何在发行当天得到游戏？网上是否有些优惠券？

在你的电子商务网站上，让消费者可以更轻松地买到你的游戏。优化付钱的步骤数。研究表明，删除不必要的页面和步骤能够提高两位数的转换率。

购物车设计的最佳实践包括让“继续购物”按键比“结账”按键不引人注意。一旦玩家开始结账，创造能够指示购物者的进行过程的内容以及可分解的促销代码进入领域能够减少他们抛弃购物车中的商品的情况，同时也能推动着购物者去寻找更多的优惠券。

最重要的一个在线策略便是使用购买条款作为奖励去完成销售。如果可能的话设定免费的标准发行，并伴随着为付费发行支付额外费用的选择（为了“在发行当天获得它”）。关于前期准备，你必须确保在产品发行前自己不会从玩家的信用卡上扣钱。（提供一个前期准备的“价格匹配保证”也很明智，以防价格下降）。

最后，创造一个巧妙的发行日程表。在发行前14天回顾所有的订单和地址，并确保库存能在10天内到达仓库。在发行前发行为期两天的订单和标准订单；基于这种方式，更高档的包装将能够即时到达，并且免费发行的订单也能在发行1至3天内到达目的地。

流量驱动

显然，基于授权的游戏名字拥有一个优势，因为它们可以将推广努力推向已建立起来的网站。当结合一个有效的SEO活动时，授权游戏便能够从这2个组件中生成超过50的销量。

然而任何游戏都能通过合理的延伸生成较大的流量。如果你正投标于一个付费检索项目，投标于你那最高调的品牌和商业条款，你便能够创造带有直白的广告文案的目标购买页面而最大化付费搜索利益。消费者并不喜欢被混淆；所以我们必须确保他们能够轻松地进行购买。

如果你购买了在线呈现广告，你必须确保能从网站重新定位开始。这能够保证你的网站访问者在离开你的网站后也能在其它网站上看到你的产品广告。像这样的提醒广告能够提升10%的销量。

像电子邮件和社交媒体等其它延伸服务能够让你的粉丝随时了解最新信息并获得乐趣。关于电子邮件，它总是包含一个明确的行动号召功能，并会提供你的购买页面的链接。而像YouTube这样的社交媒体将提供多媒体机遇。

当然了，如果不去分析结果，任何一家游戏发行公司也就不再完整。回顾授权网站的效能，跨渠道性能，广告点击，以及其它市场营销参数能够帮助你创造自己的活动规则。通过为自己成功做到的完善与识别评估区域，你可以磨练自己的发行技能—-让每个产品介绍都像游戏本身那样让人兴奋。

（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）

How to maximize your online game launch

Brent Decker

For every video game megalaunch like Grand Theft Auto V or Battlefield 4, hundreds more – including yours – are worthy of attention. So how can you ensure your latest title breaks through the noise?

The good news is strong decision-making can trump a strong marketing budget. If you plan, prepare, remove barriers, and provide as many inducements for purchase as possible — and mix in smart promotions — you can push your game out the door without breaking the bank. Here are three major areas to consider:

Product strategy

Determining what to offer consumers, and when to offer it, can strengthen your game’s appeal before launch and provide continued momentum long after launch day. Industry statistics show that preorders drive 30 percent of all online game sales and another 15 percent comes from the actual launch. With nearly half of all online revenues coming at or before launch day, good preorder planning is essential. Start by mapping out your product strategy. Determine which variations of your game — Standard, Limited and Collector’s Editions, direct sale — you will offer and when you will offer them — each option can produce important incremental revenue.

Collector’s Editions often generate up to 15 percent of total orders and more than 20 percent of total online revenues. Consider promoting these coveted editions to boost your preorder campaign. For example, let your fans know that the more Collector’s Edition preorders the company receives, the more goodies you will add (and more customers that will become engaged in your launch).

And if you’re unsure what your fans are looking for, poll your players via social media. You’ll be surprised at the useful feedback you receive about possible incentives, bonuses, and content — even pricing.

Purchase flow

To ensure a positive consumer experience as well as maximum revenue impact, think like your customer. Why should I buy now? Who will have the best deal? How can I get my hands on the game by launch day? Is there a coupon online?

On your e-commerce site, make it easy for your customer to buy from you. Optimize the number of steps in your checkout flow. Research shows, for instance, that shows that removing unneeded pages and steps can create double-digit conversion increases.

Best practices in shopping-cart design include making the “continue shopping” button less attention-grabbing than the one for “checkout.” Once the buyer is into the checkout, create bread crumbs that indicate where shoppers are in the process as well as collapsible promo-code entry fields to reduce cart abandonment while shoppers search for coupons.

One of the most important online strategies is to use purchase terms as incentives to complete sales. Make standard shipping free if at all possible, with an option to pay extra for premium shipping in order to “get it on launch day.” For preorders, make it clear that you won’t charge the buyer’s credit card until the product ships. (It’s wise to offer a pre-order “price match guarantee” as well, in the event the price drops).

Finally, develop a smart shipping calendar. Review all orders and addresses 14 days before launch and ensure that inventory reaches the warehouse 10 days out. Ship both two-day and standard orders two days before your launch; that way, the higher-class packages will arrive on time, with the free shipping orders reaching their destinations within one to three days of launch.

Traffic drivers

Game titles based on a franchise license clearly have an advantage because they can drive their promotional efforts to an established website. When combined with an effective SEO campaign, licensed games can generate over 50 percent of sales from just these two components.

Yet any game can generate excellent traffic with the right outreach. If you’re bidding on paid search terms, bid on your most high-profile brand and commerce terms—and maximize the benefits of paid search by creating targeted purchase pages with straightforward ad copy. Customers don’t like to be confused; it’s important to make it as easy as possible for them to buy.

If you purchase online display advertising, be sure to start with site retargeting. This ensures that your site visitors see your product ads on other sites after they leave your site. Reminder ads like these can create sales lifts of 10 percent.

Other outreach such as email and social media keeps your fans updated and generates excitement. For email, always include a clear call-to-action and link to your purchase page “above the fold.” As for social media, remember outlets like YouTube that provide multimedia opportunities.

Of course, no game launch campaign is complete without analyzing the results. A review of franchise site effectiveness, cross-channel performance, advertising clickthroughs, and other marketing metrics can help you develop your campaign regimen. By assessing areas for improvement and identifying where you succeeded, you can sharpen your launch skills—and make every product introduction as exciting as the game itself.(source:venturebeat)