How to Create a Successful Game Marketing Funnel

What is the secret to a successful game marketing campaign? Truthfully, there are many secrets, but one of the best is a good marketing funnel that notes where your players are, how likely they are to get your game, and what you need to do to encourage them to convert.

This article will tell you what a marketing funnel is and highlight the strategies you need to optimize the different marketing funnel stages to ensure you convert your leads into loyal customers.

What is a marketing funnel?

Marketing funnel definition: A marketing funnel is a conceptual model that describes the journey potential customers take from discovering your brand all the way to buying your products on a regular basis. It visualizes how players move through a series of “stages” before becoming loyal followers of your business or game. A well-configured funnel will let you know which of these stages lose the most users, whether your conversion paths are properly optimized, and if players are progressing through their buyer's journey as intended.

A digital marketing funnel looks like an inverted pyramid, wider at the top than the bottom. At the top of the funnel, there are many potential leads who could become customers for your game. As users get to know about your brand, some realize that your game isn’t meant for them and leave the trail. The rest continue to checkout and eventually become loyal fans of your brand.

The goal of a marketing funnel is to create an automated system that’s measurable at any stage of the customer’s journey to ensure you convert most of the leads that come across your game.

Why is it important?

Here are the reasons why you need a marketing funnel to grow your business.

Connect with your audience at every stage of the buyer’s journey

A marketing funnel is a powerful tool for connecting with your customers at every stage of the buyer's journey. It clarifies what should be done to effectively engage with customers at every stage and push them further down the sales funnel.

Build trust and authority – which is essential in the gaming industry

Players will only download your game if they trust your brand. Once you identify the sales funnel position of a customer, you can target them with appropriate content that provides them with value. This will help you earn their trust and prove your authority in the industry.

Nurture leads to purchase and download your game

A marketing funnel guides you on the activities you need to do to nurture leads to the point where they are actively considering downloading your game. You will know how to relate to customers and drive more of them to the decision section.

Increase customer lifetime value

The ultimate goal of a funnel is to convert leads into loyal customers. Your passionate fans will make more in-game purchases over time, thus increasing their lifetime value. They will also be on the lookout for new game releases from your brand and be the first to subscribe to your content.

What are the stages you need to know?

Here are the five main stages of the marketing funnel and the video game marketing strategies you will use to optimize each stage.

Awareness

This is the first phase of the marketing funnel, and it's also known as top of the funnel (TOFU). The audience at this stage doesn't know that your video game exists, and your objective here is to spread the good word about your game far and wide so that more players get to know about it.

Gamers spend most of their time online, making it essential to use digital media to foster familiarity with your game. Publish great content to give your target users the information and guidance they need about important issues in their lives. A content marketing plan also positions you as a trusted figure in your industry, and this will help you earn the player's trust.

Don’t forget to chat with players on social media. Share gaming content, tips, and offers that add value to your audience. Connect with relevant streamers and ask them to cover your game. All these activities will help you get noticed and add a high volume of quality leads to your marketing funnel.

Interest

Once people know about your game, you need to turn this awareness into interest. Audience members need to know how your game solves their needs. They are definitely looking to be entertained, and you need to assure them that this is what they will get when they download your game.

Your content marketing efforts will provide you with the email addresses of interested clients. Add these people to your email campaign, where they receive updates about your game and other important company news.

Our blog, Why Email Marketing Is Key for Your Game’s Content Marketing Strategy, explains how to make your email channel vibrant and customer-centered for years to come.

Customer success stories also come in handy at this stage of the funnel. Share your top game reviews with those who have shown an interest in your game. You can also give a detailed game review to encourage interested leads to learn more about your game. Ask a relevant streamer to review your game and explain its important features.

Consideration

As potential leads move out of the interest phase, they enter a period of consideration. At this stage, you strengthen the relationship with your audience and make them fall in love with your game.

The customer has developed a specific desire to know about your game and your brand. Use different channels to give them the history of its development and who you are as a brand. They want to know how your game benefits them, and you can use your dev blog to provide this information. By sharing valuable content and inviting readers to leave feedback, you will learn more about your customers, enabling you to offer targeted solutions and content that explains what your product could do for them.

Use video content, blog posts, and infographics to show your game in action. Post to a subreddit that's specific to your game to reach a highly targeted audience. Start Twitch and YouTube development streams to provide leads with all the information they need to know about your game. Lastly, offer a free demo to give players a chance to experience the game firsthand. Applying these video game marketing strategies diligently will make it easy for you to move your customers from consideration to conversion.

Decision

When you convince a potential customer that your game is worth having, it’s time to get them to make a decision. It’s at this stage of the marketing funnel that you make it clear to your customers why buying your game is the best option and how easy it is to buy it from your website or other online platforms.

You may have convinced the prospects that a certain type of game will benefit them, and this stage is all about tying them down to your brand. You need them to choose you over the competition, and you get to do this by highlighting what makes your game special. Is your price lower than what your competitors charge for their games? Are there incentives for downloading your game?

These are some of the issues that influence whether a player will BUY or PASS. Make sure the value your game provides is clear to get more people to go for your product. Remove obstacles from the buyer’s path to make the buying process as seamless as possible.

Retention

When a lead finally becomes a customer, you need a plan for retaining their services for the long term. Acquiring a customer is very expensive, and you want to add paid customers to your gaming community to keep them coming back for more.

Besides paying for your game, you want customers to purchase in-game items and pay for the upcoming titles you're working on. A proper retention plan will help you stay in touch with your customers and build their loyalty. Add them to a mailing list after purchasing to ensure they are the first to receive offers for your gaming content. Start a loyalty program where customers earn points they can redeem for special deals for gaming content.

Invite customers to forums hosted on your website or Steam. Ask them to share their experiences with other users on social media. This act will help you earn the social proof you need to thrive in the digital marketplace and attract more users to your game. Sit down with a gaming marketing agency to discuss the best retention strategies that will help you build a thriving online community for your game.

The ultimate guide to game marketing

Hope you enjoyed this article! For more insider game marketing information, check out The Ultimate Guide to Game Marketing: Everything You Need to Know.

Players move through these stages before they become loyal fans of your game. You need specific strategies for each stage to ensure a majority of your leads convert into paying customers. The team at Game Marketing Genie can help. We are a full-service gaming marketing agency, and we'll help you deploy the best tactics to drive more players towards your desired goal.

Are you converting enough leads into paying customers? Use these marketing tips to optimize your sales funnel for more conversions.