Journalists and media as a whole is something you should always consider when you are about to launch your game. Whatever platform you are targeting, you should always prepare a good game press release. By sending it to media outlets, many new people will hear about your game. That will increase your chance of success. It is important because as you already know, the video games market is a busy one, especially on mobile. In this guide, we will talk about how to prepare an effective press release as a journalist while sharing tips from experts. In other words, we won’t discuss how to write one, but how to prepare a great one.
First, what is a press release and when should you write one?
Press releases are something that you (the developer or publisher) write to promote your game. It’s usually one or two pages long. You write it in third person and cover the description and all key features of your project. Journalists are usually looking for new content and by sending a press release, you provide them with new content while marketing your game.
You write a press release when you announce your new game or when you release it or when you do something special like in-game events or when you partner with someone and such. You might also write one when you hire new important people or when something good or bad happens to your studio. As a conclusion, you write a press release when you want to share something with the community and players.
Make it interesting and easy for journalists
Having an interesting clear headline is what will make journalists click on your press release. After the headline, you must provide brief information about this press release so journalists know what this is really about. In short, make your headline clear but not boring. These two things are extremely important. After writing the date of the press release and the information you want to announce, give something special like a quote, and don’t forget to talk about your studio or company.
Timing plays a big role
Even if you prepared a good game press release, things don’t end there. If you are targeting one specific country, send it at good timing when media outlets are looking for news. I reached out to Mohamad Tarek Hakim, who is working as Communications Executive and handling PR for different companies such as Blizzard ME. He said that timing is the most important thing when it comes to sending press releases. He gave great advice about how to prepare a good game press release which you read below:
There are many things to consider when sending a press release or a media alert to journalists. The most important one in my opinion is timing. Many companies in the industry share their announcements in parallel with the US, which means that they arrive pretty late for those in Europe and Middle East. It is always better to pre-brief trusted journalists ahead of time with an embargo, rather than sending it in the middle of the night and expecting to see coverage first thing in the morning. It is also important to consider that you send the right article to the right contact, if you’re blasting an email to everyone on your list you’re only going to force some of them to unsubscribe or ask you to stop contacting them, which will really hurt your coverage in the future.
Give something in return
Let’s say you did everything we talked about above, is it enough? It is, but it also not. Try to give something to these journalists who will write about your project. Batuhan Avucan, Mobidictum’s Managing Director said the following about this topic:
Always try to provide value. This can be, first of all monetary, or something else. What are your options? Can you give something in-game, a gift coupon, game code, early-access anything that the media can take you into account? Don’t send ready template emails to every contact that you found. Try to understand who is in charge of the content creation, make a connection with that person. Make sure their time will be compensated by your support as well. Especially if the website that you reached out is not big. Share the content they’ve written for you, follow their social channels, let them know they wrote the content for nothing. Why someone should bother to give you coverage if you won’t even share by yourself?
Other tips about how to prepare a good game press release
What we talked about above is going to make your game press release effective for sure. However, there are other tips we want to share. Websites usually care about SEO, which means there’s a format they follow. Also, this means that pictures shouldn’t be big in size. Usually, journalists will compress the media materials you sent so if you made it easier on them, they might work on your press release first. Furthermore, don’t forget to link your press kit and website too.
Hopefully this guide about “how to prepare a good press release” helped you. Don’t forget to send your press releases to Mobidictum too, we’ll be sure to cover it.
