The gaming industry is one of the hottest topics for marketers in 2023. According to statista, there are around 3.1 billion gamers worldwide. In 2022, the global esports market was valued at just over 1.38 billion (USD). Additionally, the esports industry’s global market revenue was forecast to grow to as much as 1.87 billion (USD) in 2025.
In this blog post, we’ll share 4 tips to help you expand your gaming platform and reach a wider audience;
- Which Platform Should You Use to Communicate With Your Audience?
- How To Interact With Users In Your Space
- Build Professional Connections
- Good Things Take Time
- Example of Growing Gaming Platform using UI and UX
Which Platform Should You Use to Communicate With Your Audience?
A good place to start is researching two of the major gaming platforms, Reddit and Discord. You should be aware of the different platforms, what they offer and decide which one fits your business best.
Reddit and Discord are similar in that they both allow users to create communities and share information, but they have different features and use cases. Both platforms have their own unique strengths and communities.
Reddit is a social media platform and online community where registered users can participate in discussions, share content, and interact with one another. It’s organised into a vast array of subreddits, which are individual communities centred around specific topics, interests, or themes. Users can submit text posts, links, images, and videos to these subreddits, and other users can upvote or downvote these submissions to determine their visibility on the platform.
Reddit is known for its diverse user base and wide range of topics, making it a place where people can find and discuss information on virtually any subject imaginable. It’s often used for sharing news, seeking advice, and participating in debates. Each subreddit has its own set of rules and guidelines, enforced by moderators, to ensure that discussions remain civil and on-topic. Users can also create personalised feeds based on their interests, making it a versatile platform for both casual browsing and in-depth discussions.
Discord
Discord was originally created for gamers to facilitate voice and text communication while playing video games, but it has since expanded to serve a broader range of interests and purposes. The vast majority of servers are private, invite-only spaces for groups of friends and communities to stay in touch and spend time together. There are also larger, more open communities, generally centred around specific topics such as popular games like Minecraft and Fortnite. Users have control over whom they interact with and what their experience on Discord is.
Interact With Users In Your Space
Building a fan base for your platform doesn’t happen instantly, it requires convincing your users to give your platform a chance by establishing multiple touch points. In the marketing world, most businesses follow the ‘marketing rule of seven’, b2b marketing explains that ‘That it takes an average of seven interactions with your brand before a purchase will take place’. This is achieved by building a rapport and trust with your audience, offering valuable insights and gradually inviting them to engage.
Creating High-Quality Content
Creating high-quality content within your gaming platform involves several key steps and considerations. Whether you’re a game developer, streamer, or content creator, here are some tips to help you achieve this;
Know your audience: Understand your target audience, their interests, and preferences and tailor your content to cater to the specific tastes and needs of your audience.
Consistency: Stick to a consistent schedule for content release whether that’s daily, weekly or monthly. Consistency helps build an audience that knows when to expect your content.
Engagement: Interact with your viewers of players through live chars or comments and respond to questions, comments and feedback to build a community.
Promotion: Promote your content through social media, gaming forums and other relevant platforms, also consider collaborating with other creators or influencers in the gaming community. According to Smart Insights, 80% of marketers find influencer marketing to be an effective strategy. Incorporating influencers into your community growth plan will help you reach more audience groups.
Transparency and Communication: Maintain transparent communication with users. Share updates, news, and changes to the platform regularly, addressing any concerns or issues promptly.
Remember that creating content is an ongoing process that requires dedication and a genuine connection with your audience. Continuously refine your skills and content strategy to meet the evolving needs of your viewers and the gaming community.
Accessibility and Inclusivity
By making your gaming platform accessible and inclusive, you are not only reaching more players who might otherwise be excluded or frustrated by barriers, but also improving your platform with different perspectives, cultures, and identities.
Challengermode who are an esports and competitive gaming platform, and are a team of gamers, nerds, techies, athletes, creators and dreamers are making it their mission to make esports truly accessible, they believe it is crucial for esports to become the world’s biggest sport.
To improve your gaming platform accessibility and inclusivity, it is important to seek feedback from diverse and representative users, testers, experts, and communities. Additionally, you should use analytics and metrics to measure the usage and impact of your platform accessibility and inclusivity features and solutions, as well as update and refine these features based on new technologies, standards, trends, and user demands.
Build Professional Connections
The first step to building your network in the gaming industry is to identify your niche and focus on it. Gaming is a great way for people to connect in meaningful ways. Whether that’s through cooperative play or competitive tournaments, games allow us to build relationships with others who share our interests and passions. Focusing on esports, this area is broad and diverse, with many different genres, regions and communities. Something you need to consider is what your users and potential investors care about and how you can add value to them.
Some examples of how you can build connections are;
Connecting with industry professionals: Identify and connect with industry professionals, including game developers, designers, and esport organisers. Building relationships with those in the industry can lead to opportunities for your platform.
Participate in industry events: Attend gaming industry events, conferences and webinars. These gatherings provide networking opportunities and a chance to connect with industry leaders.
Share industry insights: Share your knowledge and insights about the gaming industry through articles and blog posts.
Use online platforms and tools: You can use social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or Reddit/Discord to follow, interact and engage with people who are relevant and niche, role or interest.
Good Things Take Time
It’s crucial to understand that “good things take time” in this context means that successful platform growth is a gradual process. Developing high-quality products, building a loyal player community, establishing trust, adapting to industry changes, and measuring success all require patience and a long-term perspective. Achieving meaningful growth involves a series of achievements and continuous dedication to delivering quality gaming experiences and maintaining a positive reputation.
Understanding the gaming communities and providing a reason for them to follow your platform. The amount of work you put into growing your community will reflect on how big you can grow, and putting extra time into your content marketing will certainly pay off.
Example of a Growing Gaming Platform using UI and UX: Grid Finder.
Grid Finder is more than just racing, its aim is to provide an opportunity where drivers can find and join sim racing leagues. With a library of over 2,000 leagues across various platforms, sim titles and disciplines, Grid Finder is the perfect place to satisfy your sim racing needs.
Mattix provides full product design services including UI and UX to allow Grid Finder’s various user groups to interact and engage with the platform in ways relevant to them. For example, drivers need to be able to browse sim racing leagues for specific games, platforms, days of the week and regions. League managers on the other hand need to have an extremely efficient way to create and manage their leagues, championships, events, drivers and results. Implementing an Agile process with the development team allows the UI/UX design to play a pivotal role by utilising regular user data and insights to constantly enhance the user flow.
Some examples of what Grid Finder does to update their community is post about their patch note updates. When updating their community they speak about the new features that the users can look forward to seeing. Some of these new features include game support which has been added, bug fixes and minor changes as well as snippets of the management systems which have been tested and added to the website. These patch note updates allow Grid Finder to speak to their community, show that they are listening to their users, updating their website and fixing any issues that occur.
Another way Grid Finder communicates to their audience is with their podcast, Sim Sundays. Their podcasts consist of guests from around sim racing, pro esports sim racers, hardware manufacturers and content creators. Within each episode Grid Finder ends with a bit of sim racing and an opportunity for the viewers to join in.
An element which is unique to Grid Finder is they don’t just target sim racers, they want to create a place for broadcasters and commentators to be involved, utilising overlays, camera transitions and adding more excitement to your races, they want to make their platform more than just racing.
The Grid Finder team also travels to various events and expos such as the Sim Racing Expo which is happening from the 13th – 15th October hosted in Dortmund, Germany. This helps to interact with professionals in the esports industry as well as connect with potential investors. Travelling globally and locally they push to get their name and platform into the right hands and allow the platform to grow along with their communities.