[Welshrarebit]

Can anyone give me some advice on the most effective way to market an online skill games businesses which is globall? A great team of people have put this together, and the site launches tomorrow, 12 Noon GMT.

The games are skill games e.g. Basket Ball, Pool, Soduko etc, as opposed the Fantasy/Virtual 'shoot em ups', people can challenge others to play and you can win some money.

I'm personally new to marketing on the internet. I've had a nose around, but some of you guys seem pretty experienced. Any suggestions would be most welcome.
Caroline

[dmdelectronics]

Well personally I think the best method is through SEO, getting quality targeted traffic. You can read about it more here: Real Quality Traffic to your site! just $9!! BEST DEAL!

[pentupentropy]

If you read through a lot of my posts, you'll see this trend of opinion I have... Go with offline marketing. It's sooooooooo undervalued. This sounds like something you would want middleclass business/professionals in as a demographic. From there it should filter downward or vertically.

Call around, put a little cash up front and have a contest. Get the word out by making calls and beating down doors. This doesn't literally mean go door to door, but walk the streets in a good market area for your type. make up 5,000 fliers, and promote the contest and pay 5 kids to hand em out.

Find highly visible spots that you could place a poster ad. Someplace that sees 5,000 people pass in a day. Make it grab their attention.

my $0.02

[garysomers]

I also believe in going offline.

Perhaps a cross market promotional product tie-in would suit you well.

Depending on the level of gaming and experience you offer.

You may be able to interest a company like General Mills. Profit sharing and promotion for them from box to web means a lot because it affords them opportunities to find new potential customers and revitalize their brand across multiple demographics and age brackets.

It also allows for your company to have a "fast paced, well placed" strategy that can very easily attract new business for your gaming. As well as other cross promotions, further enabling your overall marketing strategy.

-Gary

[Welshrarebit]

Thanks for the advice guys. Interesting that you all have promoted offline marketing. I wonder why (just curious).
Caroline

[pentupentropy]

There's just far too much going on online. When's the last time you clicked on an ad, text, banner or otherwise? I just think aside from google and yahoo/overture searches, there's not a lot to be said for online ad campaigns. To be honest, email marketing - not spamming - is probably another good idea, but it needs to be truly viral, which is a great, cost efficient thing, but a hard game to play unless you really know the ins and outs.

Getting yourself in front of people by getting someone with a brand that's already a trusted name is far more effective and getting the placement where people can see it these days is easier offline.

[webgal]

Cross promotion is a good thing. I've been in advertising a LONG time. And I think a marketing plan that includes both is beneficial.

I don't know much about this target market since I've not researched it. But if they like games, they like contests. So I think a contest would be a great promotion and you could start with a Google banner/text ad promoting the contest. You could do a site targeted campaign. You will pay for impressions so make sure the ad really focuses on your target market so you get the best click throughs.

One other idea is to test radio locally. Radio really breaks down the target segments and if you know yours, you can really zero in on them. Advertise the contest and you'll see how many log in from that regional location to see how effective it is. This won't work well if you don't have a memorable url and that needs to be repeated at least 3 times.

XM is pricier (and national) but the url is right there on the channel. You also need to zero in on a time when this market would be actively listening which is the hard part. A good radio sales person will try to sell you the slots that he/she has difficulty moving or offer you a run of network which means 3 a.m.

Ad specialities is another idea. Those are the little giveaways with your logo/url imprinted. You can give them away at an event or mail some.

Just some quick thoughts. And like I said, I don't know your market or your budget so the suggestions might not be right on the spot.

It would be helpful if you defined the target.

[pentupentropy]

typically, someone has to see your name about 8 times before they remember it. This obviously doesn't apply to everything, it's an average. I just wanted to point that out because my point about advertising online is that with the exception of search engines, where is someone going to see you 8 times?

For me it helps to think about what I do. I hate to say it, but I'm a smoker. If there weren't so many laws in place, big tobacco could make even more money by putting ads on the back of packs. But it's a good example, so maybe apply it to what your target audience does regularly.

What you said about placement is definitely on the right lines. Games online are for people who enjoy being online, thus are in front of computers a lot. Perhaps mousepads?

[Welshrarebit]

Again, thanks webgal and pentupentropy for your thoughts - all gratefully received. I'm quite new to marketing online, but what you say does make sense. The target market's a little tricky in that not only do people have the chance to play the games (for free) and earn some money by challenging other people (& tournements), they can earn money by referring peple to the web site. However, I shall continue with my offline compaign.

[allysa]

for additional website promotion, try ads, directory submissions, social networking and press release can be good also.

Good luck!

[pentupentropy]

i hate that people can buy online 'press releases" It's just a cheesy way to say "long text ad"

dishonesty bums me out.

Did anyone bring coffee to the boards this morning?