A lot of people have conversations with friends about how much money they make from their career, or what kind of income they expect to earn in the future. More and more employers are asking potential candidates if there is any way to improve their professional image by including some sort of LinkedIn profile picture or bio that features their profession.
There’s no denying it — making a living off your creative skills can be pretty fun! But for every successful artist, writer, musician, etc., there were years (sometimes decades) spent struggling financially while educating themselves about marketing and business strategies.
Many artists never really marketed themselves due to not knowing where to start and being too shy to do so. Others gave up because they didn’t think they had enough talent to warrant spending time and resources promoting themselves.
And even those who did invest time in marketing still received very little revenue due to poor sales and/or marketing practices. It is totally normal to feel discouraged when you spend all this effort on something that doesn’t pay back very well.
It’s tough out there for entrepreneurs these days. Business owners everywhere struggle with limited resources and slow growth.
Next, you need to calculate how much you are earning
At this stage, you will want to add up all of your marketing expenses and calculations. This includes things like salaries for employees, production costs, shipping and packaging materials, website design fees, etc.
You should also include any profit or revenue that video games earn during their shelf life which is typically around a month before they are sold or re-sold. This is because most game companies offer early access to new games through their systems and services such as Xbox Live or PlayStation Plus.
By including this in your calculation, you get credit for both the item being marketed and the person who received it. For example, if someone buys an action figure at a comic book store, the company selling the action figures gets credited with the sale even though they did not physically market the product.
This is why most companies have team members that handle different aspects of marketing, producing and distributing products. There are many ways to track these types of revenues and profits, so make sure to check out your game’s promotional page to see what details they provide.
If you are spending a lot of money on marketing, you may want to consider lowering your marketing budget
Many game companies spend large amounts of money to market their games!
They put in expensive advertisements, launch big events, and invest in online media to spread their name. All of these things can add up quickly!
Mostly, this is done to increase exposure for their products which makes sense, but it comes with an unexpected cost – debt.
Game companies that have over invested in advertising eventually find themselves with no revenue coming in because people have become desensitized or even tuned out due to all the ads.
This is why most big publishers need what’s called a ‘lull between campaigns’- they must wait until everything has slowed down before they start advertising again.
It’s like when you’ve got a house project – you don’t pull out the vacuum every few minutes, you let it run once a week so it doesn’t damage the walls. It gives your house a chance to breathe and recuperate.
You may also consider creating your own video game marketing campaigns
A well-known brand that uses limited video content to advertise their product can have incredible results. They are known for using entertaining videos with fun products aimed at eliciting reactions or purchases from watchers.
This isn’t too far off from what many brands already do, but it is more structured and planned out. Creating your own advertising campaign comes with its own set of limitations, however.
You cannot use up all of the company’s allotted resources, so you will not get as much exposure for your product. Your budget won’t be limitless either, which means there is a cap on how much money you can spend on ads.
But if you make your own advertisements, then you hold onto the copyright! This gives you some legal protections in case someone tries to take down your advert or plagiarize parts of it. You can even sell this exclusive right yourself later on.
You may also consider outsourcing your marketing campaigns
A growing number of game companies are finding success by doing more than just developing their games, they are investing in video marketing to promote them as well.
Game developers will often hire professional marketers or advertising agencies to help spread their brand name through social media sites, YouTube videos, advertisements, and other mediums.
This is typically done at around 10-20% of the total cost of the game! Even if you are already putting in effort into creating content for your game, it is worth it to outsource this work.
Businesses have been outsourcing these services for years, now it seems like every company has to do it. It is totally possible to find people that can help you market your game for a good price.
There are many ways vendors can help you with your business, not all of which are related to gaming. Some of the things they can offer you are logo design, website development, influencer marketing, etc.
Heck, some even manage entire Facebook pages for you! All of these service providers have free versions that give you limited access, but most allow you to create accounts so you can test their quality.
Many gamers’ favorite brands use third party software to produce content so there is an abundant amount of material to blend and mix together.
Finally, you could try social media marketing or paid advertising campaigns
Social media sites like Facebook and YouTube offer up ways to make money through advertisements. Companies pay to have their product featured in a way that people can see (sponsored posts) as well as to promote a service or product.
You could start creating videos related to your business or just about anything else! If it’s something interesting then chances are someone else out there will want to watch it.
Your audience may not be familiar with your company, but if you’re clever with your marketing strategies they’ll find you!
That’s what happened for me when I made my first sponsored video. I’m sure of success since I’ve already written this article about how to make money online doing what I love.
There are many different factors that go into how much video game marketing pays
Running a successful YouTube channel is not easy, nor does it pay well. It takes time to find an audience, you gots to invest in toys to promote your channel, and then there’s the hard work of creating content!
If you’re reading this article, chances are you already have some form of social media presence, such as Facebook or Twitter. By now, you’ve probably noticed that gaming related videos are getting more views than ever.
This is because people enjoy watching others play games, so why wouldn’t you start doing it if you love videogames?
However, even though gaming videos can earn you money, it takes a lot of effort to see results. And, most gamers don’t do enough marketing to make much profit.
It’s true! A small group of content creators get paid very well for their efforts, while the rest of us struggle to turn a profit. This isn’t fair- most gamers spend lots of money on gadgets and merchandise, and they should be able to reap the benefits too.
You should also consider the type of game and the target market
Running a video marketing campaign for games is definitely not free! In fact, it can be very expensive depending on what type of game you are advertising, who your audience is, and how much budget you have.
There are several ways to advertise in gaming media such as YouTube videos, Twitch streaming, Facebook ads, and more. Each one costs money, so you will want to know how much money each one has cost your company.
YouTube advertisements are some of the most common types of advertisements used in videogames. Because there are so many users online at any given time, having a channel with lots of followers is an excellent way to get exposure for your product.
By adding sponsors, you can make extra income by promoting products related to your brand or genre. This is done through advertisement slots that you fill and earn per view, usually via PayPal or direct deposit.
The price of commercials on YouTube start at around $10 per 1000 views which is a great deal if you are able to reach that goal.
Finally, consider the company you are working with
A lot of people talk about how much money video games make their employers or sponsors make, but they fail to mention what kind of marketing effort it takes to achieve that success.
In fact, a large part of the video game industry doesn’t even pay its employees! They’re sponsored by various companies instead. This is very common in the technology field, where there are always several big corporations around.
These businesses help fund the operations of the business, and in return get all sorts of advertising exposure in exchange for branding the other products or services as theirs.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing since it creates an opportunity for those businesses to be known, but it also helps create a situation where the workers at the sponsoring business don’t feel like they deserve full compensation because everything else gets paid more than them.
