34 Ways To Market & Grow Your Game Store Business [2024]

Pat Walls

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Updated: January 20th, 2022

Wondering how to market your game store?

Marketing your game store is certainly not easy, but there are many ways to promote and advertise your game store.

We put together a list of the best marketing ideas for your game store, so you can get your small business out there.

Here’s the list:

1. Affiliate Program: Launch An Affiliate Program

Affiliate marketing is a great way to bring in a new revenue stream, especially when you don't sell products or services.

Simply put, an affiliate program is an agreement where a business pays another business or influencer ("the affiliate") a commission for sending traffic and/or sales their way.

The affiliate typically gets a unique link where clicks and conversions can be tracked.

Topic: Affiliate
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Low - $50-$500
Result: Lead Generation

Check out our full guide on affiliate program ➜

2. Word of mouth: Generate Word Of Mouth Marketing

Word of mouth is when a consumers reflects their interest in a company’s product or service in their daily dialogues.

Therefore, word of mouth advertising is essentially a free advertising triggered by the customers experience.

According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.

Therefore, in today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation through a word of mouth can have a huge impact to your business.

Topic: Word Of Mouth
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Free - Happy customers will spread the word at no cost to your business.
Result: Brand Awareness

Check out our full guide on word of mouth ➜

3. Pay Per Click Advertising: Set Up A Pay Per Click Campaign

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a performance-based marketing method that allows you to show specific ads for services or products oriented to a very defined target, with the goal that the user visits your website or landing page.

Topic: Affiliate
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Low - Average is typically $1 per click
Result: Brand Exposure

4. Referral Program: Launch A Referral Program

A referral program is the type of marketing where you state an offer to your existing customers for the act of creating a word-of-mouth referral that converts.

According to SEMrush, word-of-mouth is considered to be one of the top traffic sources for small businesses that practice affiliate marketing.

Launching a referral program is a great marketing strategy for growing a small business. An effective referral program enables startups to increase lead generation and an active audience.

Topic: Word Of Mouth
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Low - $10-$100
Result: Brand Exposure

Check out our full guide on referral program ➜

5. SEO Strategy: Create An Effective SEO Strategy

An SEO strategy is the process of planning, optimizing, and organizing your website to help it rank better in search results.

A good SEO strategy helps you match users' search intent such that you drive traffic that is more credible and quality leads to your website.

Therefore, invest in SEO to help your business grow online.

Topic: SEO
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Medium - SEO costs for a monthly retainer plan range from $750 to $5000 per month.
Result: SEO

Check out our full guide on seo strategy ➜

6. Product expansion: Expand Your Product Line

Product line expansion simply refers to a way of focusing on your customer's requirements and offering them variants of the current products that they already love.

Before undertaking the product line expansion strategy, consider listening to customers' feedback. Focus on understanding their current pain points and look at ways to make your products appeal to a broader market.

It's important to note that adding new products and diversifying may not be in the cards for you right this moment, and that's okay. You can always consider it down the road.

Topic: Buzz
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Medium - $100-$2,000
Result: Brand Exposure

Check out our full guide on product expansion ➜

7. Competitor analysis: Conduct A Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis refers to a report analyzing your competitors' strengths and weaknesses relative to those of your own business.

For startups trying to break into the market, a well-researched competition analysis gives you the tools to reach strategic decisions.

A competitor analysis should be included in your marketing plan, your business plan, and all aspects of your high-level business and pricing strategy.

Topic: Sales
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Low - $0-$300
Result: Product Quality

Check out our full guide on competitor analysis ➜

8. Leverage Third Party Platforms: Leverage Third Party Platforms (Amazon, Etsy, etc)

Running a successful startup requires wearing a variety of hats at all times.

According to Forbes Report, startups should leverage third-party platforms to thrive.

Simply put, third-party platforms involve startups using an existing infrastructure and expertise built by the third-party platform to market and reach your customers.

Amazon, Etsy and Shopify are all examples of third-party platforms.

Startups that choose to leverage third-party platforms save an enormous amount of resources involved in hiring, training, and retaining in-house experts.

Topic: Sales
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Low - $0-$100
Result: Brand Exposure

Check out our full guide on leverage third party platforms ➜

9. Pinterest (organic): Generate Organic Pinterest Traffic

Pinterest organic traffic refers to visitors that land on your website after using Pinterest without a referral from a paid advertisement.

Pinterest can be an amazing source of traffic so long as you create visually appealing content in a relevant niche.

Getting organic Pinterest traffic is simple once you understand it.

Topic: Social Media (Organic)
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free - Pinterest generates Organic traffic for you for free
Result: Brand Exposure

Check out our full guide on pinterest (organic) ➜

10. Pinterest ads: Pinterest Advertising

Pinterest Advertising is a fast-pass ticket to increasing your social media reach by targeting more than 450 million active pinterest users every month.

By running promoted pins, marketers can drive traffic, increase conversions, and boost brand awareness effectively.

For startups, Pinterest Advertising is a great way to boost your business.

Topic: Social Media - (Paid)
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Low - $.10-$1.50
Result: Brand Exposure

Check out our full guide on pinterest ads ➜

11. Networking Event: Attend A Networking Event

Networking event refers to social or economic activity where entrepreneurs meet with intention of forming business relationships, recognizing, creating, or acting upon business opportunities.

As an entrepreneur, creating connections and putting your brand out there is critical to the success of your business.

Attending a networking event you will meet like-minded people, exchange a business idea or two, and leave knowing you brought your brand some exposure.

Networking events could provide you a once in lifetime opportunity or connection that could take your business to the next level.

Topic: Events
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Low - $0-$150
Result: Brand Awareness

Check out our full guide on networking event ➜

12. Webinar: Launch A Webinar

A webinar is an event held virtually and attended exclusively by an online audience. Therefore, a webinar can reach a wide range of audiences from different locations.

Webinars are a great way to build your existing audience and create new customers. Webinars can also help with promotions, establishing clout and credibility with customers, and can help build your email list.

Webinars are a particularly effective marketing tool because they allow brands to connect with their customers.

Topic: Events
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Medium - $100-$1,500
Result: Trust & Credibility

Check out our full guide on webinar ➜

13. Guest Blogging: Start Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a content marketing strategy that involves writing and publishing a blog post on another company’s website.

Guest posts include your byline and are highlighted by the editor of that website as being written by a guest author or contributor

Guest posts attract a new audience and ultimately boost brand credibility and awareness.

Topic: Content
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Low - $0-$300
Result: Brand Exposure

Check out our full guide on guest blogging ➜

14. Quora: Write Viral Answers On Quora

Quora is a platform where you can contribute and obtain knowledge. It's a place to ask questions and connect with others who offer insights and answers to specific questions.

By contributing answers on Quora, you can promote your business and drive organic traffic to your site.

Topic: Content
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free - -
Result: Brand Exposure

Check out our full guide on quora ➜

15. Corporate gifts: Corporate Gifting

Corporate gifting is the practice of creating a touchpoint with your existing clients and prospects through the use of a gift.

Giving gifts is one of the worlds oldest traditions. Why? Because it works.

According to Destination CRM:

Businesses that send highly personalized and modern gifts at key moments in the customer journey see a far better outcome—particularly with small and midsize businesses, whose customer relationships are crucial.

Topic: Sales
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Low - $20-$500
Result: Brand Loyalty

Check out our full guide on corporate gifts ➜

16. Trade Show: Attend A Trade Show

Tradeshows refer to an exhibition where companies in a specific industry display and demonstrate their products or services.

Although this tactic may seem traditional, tradeshows remain an effective and important marketing strategy in business today.

With attending a tradeshow, startups can reach their target audienceand also attract new customers.

Topic: Events
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Medium - $200-$5,000
Result: Lead Generation

Check out our full guide on trade show ➜

17. Search engine marketing (SEM): Create A SEM Marketing Campagin

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to an advertising strategy that generates ads in search engines to position brands among the top results.

Unlike SEO, SEM strategy works through paying for keywords so that your content appears in the top position in search.

SEM can be effective in driving traffic to your website and improving conversion rates.

Topic: Social Media - (Paid)
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Cost: High - On average, SMBs spend $9K to $10K per month on SEM, which includes ad spend and management costs
Result: Lead Generation

Check out our full guide on search engine marketing (sem) ➜

18. Press Release: Get A Press Release Published

A press release is a marketing strategy that involves sending out a newsworthy bulletin.

Targeting journalists and potential customers, the press release provides a popular approach for getting immediate brand exposure.

For startups, getting more press is an attractive approach to gain traction, so that target customers know who you are, and what you are offering them.

Topic: Buzz
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Medium - $0-$2,000
Result: Brand Exposure

Check out our full guide on press release ➜

19. Geographic Expansion: Develop a Geographic Expansion Strategy

Geographic expansion is a market strategy where an enterprise grows by expanding from its original location to additional geographic regions.

Geographic expansion is one of the preferred business growth strategies.

According to Frost & Sullivan, geographic expansion can help enterprises gain access to new markets and talent pools.

Topic: Buzz
Level of Difficulty: Hard
Cost: High - $5,000-$20,000
Result: Brand Exposure

Check out our full guide on geographic expansion ➜

20. Online Community: Build An Online Community

An online community is a community whose members interact primarily via the internet. Members share common interests, opinions, and goals.

Building a community is a great way to make prospective customers familiar with the brand and build a stronger relationship with current customers.

There are different ways of building an online community. This post covers ideas and the best practices for building an online community.

Topic: Word Of Mouth
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Medium - The costs vary greatly depending on many factors and how you choose to go about it.
Result: Brand Exposure

Check out our full guide on online community ➜

21. Direct Mail Campaign: Design A Successful Direct Mail Campaign

Marketing through direct mail is a process where a business sends print advertising to their customer using the mail system.

Although this may seem like an old school way of doing marketing, it's proven to create brand awareness and convert customers.

This form of marketing can be done through various different methods, such as brochures, letters, postcards, flyers and much more.

Topic: Print + Traditional
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Low - $.50-$3.00 per piece of mail
Result: Brand Awareness

Check out our full guide on direct mail campaign ➜

22. Checklist Content: Create A Checklist For Your Blog

Checklists provide readers with a concise list of tasks for how to solve a specific problem.

This type of content typically drives your customer to download, use, and share your content - all great ways to improve your SEO and brand exposure.

Topic: Content
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free - There is no cost to create a checklist.
Result: Brand Exposure

Check out our full guide on checklist content ➜

23. Lead Nurturing Sequence: Create an Email Lead Magnet Nurturing Sequence

Nurturing emails are a series of emails that that suit the needs of your customers based on where they are at in their buyer journey.

These emails are typically full of useful content and information and can be designed to promote a number of different offerings - such as marketing materials, website content, discounted deals, etc.

By creating targeted, segmented emails, you show your customer that you are aware of their interests which can help with conversions.

Topic: Email
Level of Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Free - No cost
Result: Lead Generation

Check out our full guide on lead nurturing sequence ➜

24. Repurpose TikTok Content: Repurpose Existing Content On Tik Tok

Repurposing TikTok content simply means taking existing content (posted on Tiktok or another platform) and reusing it on Tiktok.

Often referred to as content recycling, repurposing content makes TikTok engagement much easier and allows your content to get in front of a completely new audience.

To successfully repurpose TikTok content, it helps to produce content with repurposing in mind. Therefore, you can slice and dice the content into different formats or add different scenes to create meaningful TikTok content.

Topic: Social Media (Organic)
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Low - If you have existing content, You just need to repurpose it and post
Result: Brand Exposure

Check out our full guide on repurpose tiktok content ➜

25. Caption Contest: Run A Caption Contest

A caption contest giveaway is when brands share an image on social media and ask their audience to come up with a description for it.

Typically, whoever creates the best caption is chosen and rewarded with a gift or prize.

Not only can this engage your audience, but the results are often so clever that they can be used for future marketing material. You could even use the best entries to create a hilarious meme for your business. The opportunities are endless.

Topic: Social Media (Organic)
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Low - $10-$500. Depending on the giveaway prize, the cost may vary.
Result: Engagement

Check out our full guide on caption contest ➜

26. Product Feedback Emails: Ask For Product Feedback By Email

Product feedback emails are emails used to collect reviews and feedback on a specific product or service.

Your product feedback email should have a clean design and a clear call to action.

Topic: Email
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free - Asking for feedback should not cost you anything.
Result: Product Quality

Check out our full guide on product feedback emails ➜

27. Direct Mail QR Codes: Add A QR Code To Your Direct Mail Campaign

A QR Code (Quick Response code) is a 2-D barcode that allows your direct mail audience to perform actions like calling you back, redeem a coupon, subscribing to a newsletter, pay bills, or booking to attend an event.

Placing the QR code on direct mail enables you to track the user location, time, and date of the scan. Besides, you can determine marketing campaign efficiency by looking at data sets that relate to email engagement, scan rates, and even payments.

In a nutshell, Placing QR codes on direct mail enables you to gather valuable analytics you may not be able to calculate with direct mail campaigns.

Topic: Print + Traditional
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free - You can use free QR code generator available online
Result: Lead Generation

Check out our full guide on direct mail qr codes ➜

28. Brand Story Email: Create A Brand Story Email Campaign

A brand story email narrates the story of how and why your business was started and expresses how that narrative is still apart of you today.

Emails that explain your brand story can be a very effective way to connect with your customer.

Topic: Email
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free - -
Result: Lead Generation

Check out our full guide on brand story email ➜

UGC is a way to get your customer involved in your marketing process - often times, without them even realizing it!

Any time your customer has an opportunity to share your product/service, they are generating content for your business.

When others see this, they are more likely to become interested in your brand as they saw it from a friend, a colleague, or someone they follow.

Topic: Word Of Mouth
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free - The best part about UGC is that it's completely free. Your users are creating content for you and you get to then share that with the world.
Result: Brand Exposure

Check out our full guide on user generated content (ugc) ➜

Social media engagement refers to responding to comments, likes, and shares by social media users.

Through social media engagement, a brand can measure how consumers perceive their products, respond to complaints and amplify positive comments about the brand.

Engaging social media users is a great approach to measure whether the content you are creating is resonating with your audience.

Topic: Social Media (Organic)
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Low - On average, you can expect to pay $6.35 per 1000 views for boosted posts
Result: Engagement

Check out our full guide on social media engagement ➜

Twitter videos are the best engaging visual format and hold more attention compared to text tweets.

A report published on Twitter shows that people watch videos to find insightful talks, see entertaining outtakes, and get an inside look at what is happening.

Thus, by sharing videos to your audience, you are able to successfully promote your product/service and connect with your followers at the same time.

Topic: Social Media (Organic)
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Low - When you run a video views campaign, you'll only be charged for the video views
Result: Engagement

Check out our full guide on twitter videos ➜

32. Twitter Polls: Conduct Twitter Polls

Twitter Polls are native surveys designed to collect feedback and give people the chance to weigh in on questions.

One great way to increase engagement is conducting Twitter polls.

Not only are these fun for your followers to interact with, but they can also be used to conduct market research and gain constructive feedback for your brand or industry.

Topic: Social Media (Organic)
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free - Twitter does not charge you to run a Twitter Poll
Result: Engagement

Check out our full guide on twitter polls ➜

33. A/B Test Email Campaigns: A/B Test Your Email Campaigns: Button, Color, Design, and Subjects

Email Campaign A/B testing involves sending two or more variations in your email marketing campaign to determine which version attains a higher open rate or conversion rate compared to the others.

In email A/B testing, you may want to compare how different email subject lines, CTA button color or images perform in terms of attracting conversions.

Ideally, A/B testing in the context of email campaigns involves a 50/50 split meaning half of your audience will receive variation A while the remaining half gets variation B.

Topic: Email
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Low - A/B testing email campaigns is easy and cost effective.
Result: Engagement

Check out our full guide on a/b test email campaigns ➜

34. Free Sample Marketing : Give Away Free Samples To College Students On Campus

Free sample marketing is the act of giving products and services to prospective customers at no cost to them.

Giving out free samples means you effectively get your products or services into the hands of just the people who are most likely to want what you are selling. Therefore, it is a quick and efficient way of gaining customers.

In addition, getting free stuff makes the prospects feel valued and happy. In that regard, free sample marketing creates loyal customers.

Topic: Sales
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Low - You need to cater for the cost of production or the cost of offering the free services.
Result: Lead Generation

Check out our full guide on free sample marketing ➜

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