When users post tournaments for their first time we should provide them with some marketing tips. I received a really nice automated email from BattleFy's support team and I think we should create one of our won as well.
Here is the full transcript:
Distributing and promoting your tournaments is key to not only getting players to join your events, but also to grow your organization’s brand and community. Below, we’ve listed a few tips and best practices you may be able to implement yourself.
Understand who you’re going after, and where they’re already at
It’s important to identify who you’re targeting when you’re promoting your tournaments, and it’s equally as important to identify where that group of people is already engaging with one another. For instance, one game’s community might be super active on Twitter, and another game’s community might be super active on Discord. Before you go all out on your tournament promotion, make sure you understand where that game’s community is already spending their time so you know where to focus your efforts.
Messaging
Are you promoting a tournament? Or are you promoting the opportunity for players to engage in an experience with other members of their community, and to possibly win prizes and glory? There’s a difference in how both messages are perceived. Depending on the context of your game’s community, you may want to test what type of messaging works best to get players attracted to your tournaments. Get creative with the type of messaging and content you use to engage players, and keep iterating on what you find works best.
Schedule Posts
Use social media management tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck to schedule posts to save you time. At a minimum, our suggested post times are two weeks before, one week before, three days before, 24 hours before, and one hour before the start time of your event.
Reddit
Nearly all games have an active community on Reddit. Try posting about your tournament on your game’s official subreddit and see what type of attention it gets. Remember to test different types of messaging to see what people react best to.
Discord
There are numerous Discord servers filled with players passionate about certain games. If you’re able to join one of these servers, you should take advantage of the opportunity to bring value to that community as an organization offering tournaments for players to join. In a lot of Discord servers, there are “announcement” or even sometimes “tournament” channels where it’s appropriate for you to promote your tournament. We also suggest getting in touch with the moderators of each Discord server you promote your tournaments in, to see if there are ways you can work together.
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Although very different, we group these three platforms together because to be successful in promoting your tournaments on any of them, you should follow similar principles for each. And, if you know your game’s community is active on one more than the other two, we suggest putting more of your effort into that one platform. On each of these platforms, you publish a post from your page, and hope people see and engage with it. Below, we’ve listed a few platform-specific tips…
Use hashtags in every tweet (e.g. #esports, #LeagueofLegends, #Hearthstone, etc.)
If you include a picture in your tweet, make sure to tag popular accounts for your game in that picture (up to 10), in hopes of them seeing it and possibly retweeting
Search for Facebook Groups to join where your game’s community is active, and try promoting your events there
Use hashtags on every Instagram post (e.g. #esports, #LeagueofLegends, #Hearthstone, #gaming, etc.)
On Facebook and Twitter, utilize the “pin” feature to stick your post to the top of your page so that’s the first post people see when they visit your profile
Tag Battlefy in each of your posts on every platform so we can engage with and help share your tournaments as well
Also, you can “boost” or “sponsor” posts on all of these platforms, where you pay money to have your posts seen by targeted audiences. If you have the money, we suggest testing this on your preferred platform.
In-Game Promotion
In building your player base you need to consider every option, including your game’s communication channels. Of course, this method isn’t feasible for every game, but for those in which there are channels to communicate your tournaments through, such as a forum, be sure to take advantage of it. More often than not there are hordes of players looking for events but unable to scout them out.
If you have any questions or want to talk further about the best way to promote your tournaments, let us know!
When users post tournaments for their first time we should provide them with some marketing tips. I received a really nice automated email from BattleFy's support team and I think we should create one of our won as well.
Here is the full transcript:
Distributing and promoting your tournaments is key to not only getting players to join your events, but also to grow your organization’s brand and community. Below, we’ve listed a few tips and best practices you may be able to implement yourself.
Understand who you’re going after, and where they’re already at
It’s important to identify who you’re targeting when you’re promoting your tournaments, and it’s equally as important to identify where that group of people is already engaging with one another. For instance, one game’s community might be super active on Twitter, and another game’s community might be super active on Discord. Before you go all out on your tournament promotion, make sure you understand where that game’s community is already spending their time so you know where to focus your efforts.
Messaging
Are you promoting a tournament? Or are you promoting the opportunity for players to engage in an experience with other members of their community, and to possibly win prizes and glory? There’s a difference in how both messages are perceived. Depending on the context of your game’s community, you may want to test what type of messaging works best to get players attracted to your tournaments. Get creative with the type of messaging and content you use to engage players, and keep iterating on what you find works best.
Schedule Posts
Use social media management tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck to schedule posts to save you time. At a minimum, our suggested post times are two weeks before, one week before, three days before, 24 hours before, and one hour before the start time of your event.
Reddit
Nearly all games have an active community on Reddit. Try posting about your tournament on your game’s official subreddit and see what type of attention it gets. Remember to test different types of messaging to see what people react best to.
Discord
There are numerous Discord servers filled with players passionate about certain games. If you’re able to join one of these servers, you should take advantage of the opportunity to bring value to that community as an organization offering tournaments for players to join. In a lot of Discord servers, there are “announcement” or even sometimes “tournament” channels where it’s appropriate for you to promote your tournament. We also suggest getting in touch with the moderators of each Discord server you promote your tournaments in, to see if there are ways you can work together.
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
Although very different, we group these three platforms together because to be successful in promoting your tournaments on any of them, you should follow similar principles for each. And, if you know your game’s community is active on one more than the other two, we suggest putting more of your effort into that one platform. On each of these platforms, you publish a post from your page, and hope people see and engage with it. Below, we’ve listed a few platform-specific tips…
Use hashtags in every tweet (e.g. #esports, #LeagueofLegends, #Hearthstone, etc.)
If you include a picture in your tweet, make sure to tag popular accounts for your game in that picture (up to 10), in hopes of them seeing it and possibly retweeting
Search for Facebook Groups to join where your game’s community is active, and try promoting your events there
Use hashtags on every Instagram post (e.g. #esports, #LeagueofLegends, #Hearthstone, #gaming, etc.)
On Facebook and Twitter, utilize the “pin” feature to stick your post to the top of your page so that’s the first post people see when they visit your profile
Tag Battlefy in each of your posts on every platform so we can engage with and help share your tournaments as well
Also, you can “boost” or “sponsor” posts on all of these platforms, where you pay money to have your posts seen by targeted audiences. If you have the money, we suggest testing this on your preferred platform.
In-Game Promotion
In building your player base you need to consider every option, including your game’s communication channels. Of course, this method isn’t feasible for every game, but for those in which there are channels to communicate your tournaments through, such as a forum, be sure to take advantage of it. More often than not there are hordes of players looking for events but unable to scout them out.
If you have any questions or want to talk further about the best way to promote your tournaments, let us know!