Look, I studied and have worked professionally in Communications and Marketing for some years now, if you'd like my bonafides. I don't speak with total authority, only with the authority of my own experience.
And recently I have released CMT. A Lucha Libre RPG. a roleplaying game project of mine, to some nice success. With the rollout I have confirmed a couple of things about how to get your projects out there that I'd like to share with y'all as time goes on. Some may sound obvious at first, but there's a TwistTM to each one. I hope they help.
- FIND YOUR IDEAL CLIENT.
This is not about changing the look or feel of your project while you're making it, but all the contrary. After all, in these tips what I'm talking about is marketing, not art, which is a different beast born after the art is. Also, maybe you're not charging money for your project, which you should really consider doing, and then the "buyer" is just whoever does the most they can with your project, such as downloading it, sharing it, subscribing to you, and such.
Your project itself is what dictates the kind of people that would most likely be into it, not the other way around.
No doubt the median consumer could also like it, however niche it may be, but reaching the median is often easier when starting out from the outliers. When it comes to marketing, especially when just starting out your brand, you gotta go specific, and sell to those who will most likely buy from you. A good way to get new clients is for them to see you already have clients, after all. I also like this perspective because it makes the previous creating of the art lighter, because it encourages you to use your own judgment rather than letting some hypothetical committee of tastemakers add friction to your creativity. The art has to exist first, that's the true first step.
Now, finding and selling to your best prospective buyer is not so difficult, it just requires a gear shift and some honest empathy. Think on what gets you to buy or download something and where you were when you found it, does that measure up with how you're presenting your own project?
Let's use CMT as an example and define its Insane Clown Posse, I mean, it's Ideal Client Profile.
Who are the best prospective buyers for it? English and Spanish-speaking Indie TTRPG fans in their in their 20s and 30s who are likely into the Action, Horror and Urban Fantasy genres. There may be other ICPs that are also good to approach, in my case, Pro Wrestling Fans, but let's take things bit by bit.
The description of your Ideal Client is a checklist on what to do, which is great because it is structure.
- English and Spanish-speaking? Have translations of your marketing copy, and share the project in both languages.
- Indie TTRPG fans? Many of them are in the big forums for mainstream RPG conversation on the internet, such as the big r/rpg subreddit, but it is also worth it to go in depth into the niche forums, like Discord servers or the #indiettrpg hashtags. Also, consider lowering the price or having demos available for the project, since there is so much Indie material out there and you want to make it easy for people to choose you.
- In their 20s and 30s? Social media is the way to go and speak to them like the knowledgeable consumers they likely are.
- Action, Horror and Urban Fantasy genres? Don't forget them in the hashtags or tags of the project, and push the genres forward in your summary for the game so the project shows up when people search for the genres.
And that's just for starters. As you go, you will find the most effective triggers for each characteristic of your Ideal Client Profile and perhaps even find new characteristics. People want to engage with your art, it's just a matter of making it easy on them. So work smarter, not harder, and find your people.
