How to Use Social Proof In Your Game Marketing Strategy

There is no point in having a gaming studio if you’re not bringing in players. You want your audience to convert, and you need to market in a way that does this.

You can invest in search and social media ads, content marketing, and more to promote your brand. However, you must also remember that word of mouth is an essential and powerful marketing technique you can and should harness.

Recommendations from your players or collaborations with others can be some of the strongest marketing strategies your studio can rely on. But why does word of mouth work so well? This can be explained by a psychological concept called social proof.

What is social proof and why is it important?

Robert Cialdini first mentioned social proof in his 1984 book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. It explains the phenomenon in which people copy the actions and behaviors of others in an attempt to replicate the correct behavior in a given situation.

In simpler terms, people typically see a behavior as being “more correct” when they see it performed in a specific situation by others. And the marketing world primarily revolves around this.

Advertisements, recommendations, and endorsements affect how we choose our shopping habits. Gaming studios rely on their players to reflect positively on them to encourage more people to spend their money there. Whether or not you’re aware of it, many of your and your players’ purchases are swayed by others’ opinions. People will often choose products or services others say are better or appropriate in certain situations. This conformity is key to much of your marketing, and it is essential to pull in conversions.

With the era of online marketing well in swing, we have more opportunities than ever to compare companies with each other. If you’re relying on digital marketing, your audience usually won’t have the chance to try out your products or services and will have to rely on what their peers say about you. Famous personalities favorably reviewing and featuring your brand can also influence their choices.

This means that you're more likely to miss out on a player even if they like what you’re offering if others have rated your company poorly or you’re not associating yourself with people your audience trusts.

Three ways to use social proof to improve your marketing strategy

Influencers

Influencer marketing is the endorsement of products or services by personalities with loyal audiences, and is a classic example of the effect of social proof on your audience’s likelihood to invest in your brand. Many people use influencer recommendations when choosing to purchase products or services. This is an example of expert social proof, as it relies on someone your audience perceives as an expert in their niche to promote your brand.

In an influencer marketing strategy, you’re aiming for an influencer’s audience to see someone they trust working with your brand. If done naturally, the collaboration should appear authentic, and should communicate to the audience that you are a trusted brand that they should invest in.

For example, you might be a gaming chair company who wants to target your new pink chair to female gamers. You could collaborate with an Instagram influencer who specializes in cute clothing and culture, and give them one of the chairs to promote and review. By asking them to associate it with the lifestyle they portray, you are able to communicate to the audience that your chair is the ideal choice for someone interested in pursuing something similar. If your audience is interested in this kind of lifestyle, and the review makes your chair seem like the perfect accessory, then it is likely that they will consider your brand.

The connection between the influencer’s lifestyle and the audience’s interest in replicating it is how social proof works here. The audience sees your product as part of an ideal lifestyle, and attempts to replicate that behavior.

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Reviews

You don’t need to rely on professionals to promote your game. Whether you realize it or not, the way your game is being reviewed by its players impacts how people choose to interact with you.

BrightLocal found that the average customer reads ten reviews before they feel they can trust the business. They also found that 91% of consumers mentioned that positive reviews make them more likely to use a company. This makes sense - you wouldn’t go to a restaurant with bad ratings, would you?

Let’s look at an example. You want more information about buying sunscreen that will be good for your upcoming trip. You research two that you’ve heard of before and find that one has a lot of good reviews and another that has mixed ratings. If these are your only options, which one would you purchase? If you’re like most people, you’ll pick the sunscreen that is best rated. After all, if the first sunscreen was a good product, it would have better reviews, right?

These reviews can be precious for your game. BrightLocal’s statistics show that people are probably researching you before deciding to become a customer, so you need to use these reviews to market yourself.

Use any positive reviews you have for social proof in your marketing. Try featuring reviews that paint you in a positive light on your website, or give them a shout-out on social media. Don’t forget that your responses to any reviews will also affect how potential players perceive your game and company, as a high 97% of consumers also read businesses’ replies.

You want an attractive brand image, so use what you’ve got to your advantage and work to paint yourself in a positive light.

Awards

Trust is essential to get people to invest in your brand. But sometimes, you need to prove that you’re worth investing in. Awards are a fantastic form of social proof, as they show that you’re a recognized company within your industry.

If you’ve received an award that is a seal of approval within your industry, then it is a valuable addition to list on your platforms that your audience visits. It reveals that there is a group with high authority who believes in your brand and can be more potent than reviews by players alone.

Also, consider mentioning brands you have collaborated with on your platforms to demonstrate your level of trust amongst other well-known platforms.

Social media marketing is your key to success!

With the right strategy, social media can make your brand stand out among the masses and help you grow into a leading figure in your industry. Get all the tips you need to know in our ultimate guide here: Your Must-Have Guide for Social Media Marketing!

Let an expert social media marketing agency handle it for you!

Using the power of recommendations can be incredibly strong to communicate to your audience that you are a trusted brand worth investing in. Social proof proves that people are likelier to follow what the crowd is saying about a brand, and you should use this to your advantage.

It can be difficult to generate positive recommendations, especially if you are a small gaming studio. As we mentioned, you should use any positive reviews or awards you've already received to encourage your audience's trust. Let the marketing strategy experts at Game Marketing Genie handle your marketing needs while you focus on your game.

Want to know more? Contact us today!