How to Pick the Best Game Influencer Marketing Strategy for Your Gaming Studio

Brands across many industries, including gaming, have understood influencer marketing and seen the results for themselves, and now they’re ready to commit. Influencer marketing is now a default technique for gaming companies wanting to reach larger player groups. 

Consumers often turn to influencers for the latest trends, entertainment, and recommendations in an age of fake news and untrustworthy sources. Marketers know that, so they’re increasingly moving their budgets toward influencer marketing.

And with this tactic so crucial in today’s landscape, your gaming studio will fall behind if it doesn’t have an effective strategy. That’s where this article comes in. Here’s what you need to know to develop an effective plan for your company.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is any marketing campaign in which a company works with a social personality and their channel. These personalities come in different shapes and sizes, from pop culture icons like the Jenners and Kardashians to micro-influencers like book bloggers or expert mycologists. We call these people influencers because they have a certain amount of sway over their peers. 

Brands turn to this strategy for a variety of reasons. They can benefit by being associated with someone perceived as an expert. They can also reach a large, tightly-defined target audience by tapping into the influencer’s pre-existing followers.

There’s also social proof, in which we trust what other people say about brands more than what they say about themselves. That’s why we read reviews of books and movies and ask our friends for music and restaurant recommendations. 

Why are influencers dominating the marketing world?

There are a few reasons for this. The first is that there are many influencers to choose from, specializing in different things. If you manufacture chalk for snooker cues, for example, there are big names in the sport like Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan, but there are also smaller influencers like the YouTube channel Break from Life, with 85,000 subscribers.

Very few companies can work with the top celebrities, and the chances are that unless you’re a gaming company that’s a household name or has a huge budget, you won’t get to work with Markiplier or Shroud. And until social networking and blogging changed the game, that was the end of influencers.

Now, there are plenty of influencers and micro-influencers to choose from, and they’re also more accessible than ever to reach out to through their websites and Twitter feeds. Plus, you don’t have to shell out millions for Kylie Jenner to upload a single post on Instagram when you work with one.

Creating the best influencer marketing strategy for your business

Now that you know why developing these strategies is a good idea, the next step is for you to learn how to do it. Here are the five key steps we recommend following at our game marketing agency.

1. Think about your goals and what you want to achieve

There’s no point in creating an influencer marketing strategy if you don’t have an end goal. The same is true of social media marketing as a whole. Everything should be done for a reason.

Different goals require different approaches. For example, you might want to run a competition to boost engagement around your game. If you’re looking for direct sales, consider providing influencers with a discount code and a referral fee for their followers.

Remember that your goal will also impact which influencers you choose to work with. If you want to improve your game’s reputation, you might not want to risk working with someone dramatic or offensive. To secure direct sales, you must find someone charismatic enough to convince people to part with their money.

2. Consider your image and the type of influencer who matches it

One important thing to remember is that social media influencers are people, and people are fallible. So many social media influencers have made embarrassing mistakes that it’s no longer news when something happens. As a society, we’re used to it – and we’re also used to brands moving their advertising dollars.

That’s why it’s crucial that, as part of your digital marketing strategy, you ensure that any influencers you work with are a good fit for your game. If you work in a traditionally “safe” industry such as finance, you probably don’t want to work with controversial figures like Jake Paul or PewDiePie.

There’s an art and a science to choosing the best influencer for your business. And, because it takes a lot of time and effort to find influencers who are the best fit, it’s a good idea to build relationships with them over time. While it’s tempting to continually reach out to new influencers to tap into new target players, it’s much better to focus your attention on a handful of core partnerships.

Find out more about how to pick the best personality for your game in our blog over at Atisfyreach: How to Choose the Best Influencer for Your Business.

3. Determine the price range that will give you the best ROI

Influencers charge varying amounts for their work, so it’s a good idea to look for multiple people to determine what you can expect to pay and receive in return.

Influencer marketing is like all other forms of marketing in that you should aim to establish a good return on investment (ROI). In other words, for every dollar you spend on marketing, you should seek to receive at least a dollar in return.

Spending more money on a campaign is acceptable if you achieve a higher ROI. It’s all about weighing what you’ll pay versus what you’ll get. Once you’ve done that, deciding which influencer is best for you to work with becomes much more manageable.

4. Understand your players

Knowing your audience helps you achieve the holy grail of marketing: reaching the right person in the right place with the right message at the right time. When working with influencers, you must understand the players you’re trying to reach and the people the influencer caters to.

Once you understand your players, you can think about who they’re likely to follow and what content they react well to. This will inform your outreach strategy and help you shortlist which influencers to contact.

Note that the group you want to contact may differ from your audience. For example, let’s say your company markets predominantly to women but is trying to increase its market share among men. Instead of reaching out to influencers who cater to that existing audience of women, it may make more sense to work with one who’s followed mostly by men. This also comes back to understanding your goals.

5. Determine the right kind of influencer

The final step is determining what kind of influencers you want to work with. The previous factors will determine this and your budget. In other words, if cash is tight and you’re just dipping your toes in the water, working with a smaller influencer makes more sense than a larger one.

Different people think about influencers in different ways, but here’s how we tend to break them down:

• Nano-influencers: These are the smallest type of influencers, typically with only a thousand or so followers consisting mostly of family and friends. They’re typically too small for companies to bother with, but they do come in useful when it comes to word of mouth.
• Micro-influencers: These weigh in towards the middle of the spectrum, usually with around 10,000-100,000 followers. They’re usually specialists in their field, and they’ve earned their following through the consistent creation of high quality content.
• Macro-influencers: These are the biggest influencers with millions of followers. Many of these are either traditional celebrities or the biggest, most famous superstars of new media. However, their large and highly engaged audience will come at a high cost.

And remember, if you can’t afford a macro influencer, perhaps it’s time to focus on more affordable micro and nano-influencers.

PC personalities, console creators, mobile gaming influencers, and more!

If your marketing strategy doesn’t include influencer marketing, you’re losing opportunities to convert. But if you don’t have the expertise, then you won’t be able to make your influencer strategy succeed. Get everything you need to know about video game influencer marketing in our ultimate guide here: The Definitive Guide to Influencer Marketing!

Developing, deploying, and managing an influencer marketing strategy can be difficult and time-consuming, which is why many companies work with specialist marketing agencies. This doesn't force you to hire salaried workers who don't have the same skillset.

Still, the influencer marketing strategies we've shared today should be enough to get you off to a solid start. But if you want to get serious about your game marketing strategies, our platform, AtisfyReach, is here to help. Driven by AI and machine learning, we analyze thousands — if not millions — of influencer profiles to match you with the right people in a fraction of a second.

Want to redefine your influencer campaigns? Sign up today!