Indie Insights: Email Giveaways

I’ve praised the efforts of game developer and indie game marketing guru Chris Zukowski in the past, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I echo his sentiment that email lists are huge for indie game marketing. If you’re looking for a good, interesting breakdown of why email lists matter, I’d highly recommend visiting his website. Today, though, I want to dig a little deeper into a core principle behind using an email list. 

The giveaway. 

If you’re on the Akupara Games mailing list (which you can join by clicking this link,) you’ll have noticed that I love to pair giveaways with my newsletters. It definitely isn’t something that I’m looking to do all the time, but I’ve run several giveaways now and want to go over some of the basic rules that I’ve learned through hard won experience. If you’re planning on doing something similar, I’d recommend following these guidelines! 

It’s the Headliner

Think about how you sort through your emails. Do you glance at each subject line, mentally filing away what goes where and what you’re seeing? If so, you’re behaving like many of us with deep, intricate email inboxes. We condition ourselves to make snap judgments about emails that matter and emails that we can ignore. So, if you’re planning a giveaway, make sure it’s well advertised in your subject! Giveaways are like a shot of adrenaline to your email list. If you’re watching your click through and open rates flounder, give your audience a good reason to open. But, most importantly, make sure that reason is right up top. I tend to avoid the word “giveaway” since it hasn’t performed well for me, but using the phrase “free game” has worked wonders. 

Make it Contingent

The most successful headlines I’ve had don’t just include “free game,” though, but also make it contingent on something. “Play our demo and win a free game!” or “Join our Discord and win a free game!” are powerful subject lines that also make the most of your giveaway. If players are naturally drawn to giveaway emails, don’t just provide a button they can click to pick it up. Asking players to perform a small task like following you on social media, joining your Discord or playing a demo will help cement this interaction in their mind. If you want them to associate your studio with the kind of generosity that giveaways suggest, make the interaction more compelling than that small click of a button. 

Make it Personal

If you’re running an especially big list and don’t have a ton of time on your hands, feel free to ignore this one because it can be a bit of a doozy. That said– I’ve always found personal responses to be the best way to give out your giveaway prizes. In other words, if someone is going to “win” the giveaway, they’re going to email you directly and you’ll respond with a game key rather than an automatic mailer. While it’s possible to set up keygen emails, the point of your mailing list should be to craft personalized relationships with your fans. Sure, they want keys and they want news, but they would much rather have a direct communication with you than an impersonal randomized set of digits and letters. Now, depending on your time commitments and the size of your mailing list, you might have a hard time fulfilling this. There have been days where I just churn through replies to emails hoping they’ve won a key. If you have the time, energy and willingness to go the extra mile, it’s absolutely the way to go. 

Be Generous

Something I’ve seen for giveaways, especially larger giveaways, is a tendency towards throttling the reward. Rather than “do the thing, get a key” it’s “do the thing, have a chance at a key.” As much as I possibly can, I steer clear from this kind of setup. Your audience wants to win prizes, not be turned away, especially if they’re putting in the effort to win something. If you’re going to run a giveaway, try and give everyone a prize. You’ll create a much more positive interaction in their minds. I break this rule only during game launches. There, the value of your keys are so high that it’s very special. Winning a key to a small game from three years ago definitely feels good, but if a new game is coming out, running a giveaway for keys of that game right alongside it is incredibly powerful. And because giveaway emails will be your best performing emails, pairing a “Game is out now!” with “Chance to win a free key!” can be an amazing way to encourage your audience to click through. 

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I’ll probably share more email-related advice in the not too distant future, but in the meantime, let me know if this blog is helpful! I’d love to share more thoughts on the Akupara Games Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Discord!