Marketing with influencers is key to the successful launch of countless video game titles across multiple genres and platforms. When it comes to leveraging opinions, gathering feedback, and promoting a title, influencers have a pre-built audience and reputation that can make a massive difference to final release numbers. However, tapping into this influencer market and learning how to leverage their strengths properly can be challenging for new and veteran publishers alike. Each influencer and audience is different, and the influencer market is filled with countless options available with unknown results.
Despite this, some easy tips can help any game developer or publisher improve their influencer market strategy. By following some basic ideas, leveraging influencers become more manageable, and results start to show sooner. While each game requires a different approach, these essential tips can help launch a title with the help of the influencer market.
Select the right influencers
Influencers come in a variety of sizes, skill sets, and personalities, making it vitally important for companies to select the right influencers for their campaigns. The influencer market can often become a complicated and overpopulated place, but there are several key ways to determine which influencers are right for your brand. Macro, micro, and mini influencers can be useful in a unique way depending on the goals you want to accomplish in your marketing campaign.
This makes selecting the right influencer a very important step. First, a company should assess its brand and pick an influencer that matches its tone and aesthetic. The market that you are advertising towards should match the audience that the influencer appeals to. After an influencer has been selected, it is important to evaluate their potential to succeed at your goals. Finally, look towards their requests for compensation, and if the influencer fits, you have already taken a big first step.
The search function on Lurkit makes selecting influencers a simple task. By setting filters and targeting specific game genres, companies can see which streamers are most likely to play their games. This allows for a focused targeting opportunity that can save time when hunting for the exact right influencer.
Compensate fairly
For influencers, streaming and content creation is a major part of their lives. They dedicate hours upon hours to improve and produce content for their communities. Due to this, it is very important that any company hoping to leverage their influencer market understand the value of the influencer they are working with. Each influencer has a different expectation regarding payment, and while their worth should match the services provided, it will not always match their expectations.
Alternative payment methods can be a viable alternative to a low value. Game keys, promotional swag, and other options can make an influencer feel valued without undermining a companies budget. In addition, a well-compensated influencer will often work higher and produce an increased return on investment to any company that can make them feel appropriately valued.
In the Lurkit library, there are influencers of all sizes. Many of these influencers are willing to work with companies in exchange for game keys. By hosting a game on Lurkit, influencers can seek out developers and volunteer footage in exchange for a game key. This offers a wide variety of content creation opportunities, and
Stay aware of platform trends
Platforms gain a reputation for hosting a certain style of communication. When bringing on an influencer, it is important to understand their role on that platform and their ability to navigate platform trends. From influencer takeovers to streamer ambassadors, it is important to know each platform’s current reputation and the content creators place in those channels. With a proper understanding of platform trends and the right influencers, even smaller titles can grow massive momentum online.
Set direct goals in collaboration with the Influencers
While it is important to have proper KPIs set with your in-house marketing team, looping in the influencer can help amplify results. From the moment an influencer takes the first meeting, it is important to have them involved in the marketing process. Setting direct goals and making sure that the influencer understands them can keep transparency live for both parties. Collaboration is key, and ensuring that they not only agree that the KPI goals are possible but also that they can execute them will make a huge difference in the overall success of the influencer marketing plan.
Engagement, product sales, and impression growth can all be achieved through influencer marketing when the influencer understands the objective at play. Clear, precise, and collaborative objectives will bring any marketing plan to a whole new level.
Build a lasting relationship for future endeavors
The best tip to leverage the influencer market has to do with relationship building. Think of influencers as more than just a service for your company, but as a chance to build a relationship and foster a heavier investment. Building a strong and lasting relationship with an influencer can result in stronger campaigns later on and a good reputation among the content creator community. Even if a campaign goes south, it is important to maintain a positive relationship with the content creator at the end of the campaign.
With the ability to create shortlists and visit creator pages, Lurkit offers the tools needed to build a sustainable relationship. Keep track of your most successful influencers, and invite them to games quickly within the Lurkit ecosystem. Recurring invites, constant communication, and filter-based searching can make looking for similar influencers easy, and a long-lasting relationship can expand into a profitable venture for indie and AAA game companies alike.
Using Lurkit to Leverage Influencers
Lurkit has a unique platform that allows publishers and game developers to search for appropriate influencer connections. As mentioned in the first tip, finding the right influencer is key, and Lurkit’s system offers a convenient way to search through thousands of accounts instantly. Find influencers that match your campaign, watch platform trends shift, and build relationships using a powerful engine built to facilitate relationships.
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