How to promote your game’s Black Friday discount on social media

by James Gallagher, Social Media Manager, Player Support
www.linkedin.com/in/jallagher

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are great opportunities for gamers to grab a bargain.

Even though we're just into the month of November, many retailers have been quick to promote deals and discounts and on November 1, Wired published its list of 29 Best Early Black Friday Deals for technology products and games.

This year's Black Friday will take place on Friday, November 26 and, if you're a game developer or publisher, it can be an ideal time of year to grow your player base with a time-limited discount on your game, DLC or in-game purchases.

It's one thing to offer your players a discount - you also need to promote it, otherwise, how are they going to know where to sign up?

But what's the best way to do you do this? And how do you cut through all the noise?

Well, there are some tried and trusted techniques to help ensure you take advantage. Here, we outline our top tips for spreading the word about your Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

The Rule of 3s

Plan and create three sets of social media posts.

1. Announce the sale.

You've got an awesome deal and your audience needs to know about it. Give them a chance to put some cash aside to buy your game.

This first post can be published one week to 10 days prior to the sale date.

2. Remind your audience of the sale.

Be sure that your audience knows about this and that they remember it. Put out another post about your discount three to four days prior to the sale date.

3. Give a "last chance" for people to buy your game before the sale ends.

Up to 24 hours before the sale ends, let your audience know that it's their last chance to grab your game with a discount. Clearly state the discount and be precise about when the sale ends (is your audience spread across different time zones?).

2 limited-edition hardware bundles are arriving just in time for #BlackFriday! Get a #NintendoSwitch with #MarioKart 8 Deluxe for $299.99, or pick up a Nintendo #2DS with #SuperMarioMaker for $79.99! And hopefully you've got a friend like @MissGandaKris to help with the wrapping! pic.twitter.com/WAxMHtvLWQ

- Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) November 13, 2018

Tips: Be sure to adjust the copy of your posts so that it's best suited to the channel on which it's being published.

Don't forget to use sale-related hashtags on Twitter and Instagram.

Make optimal use of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter stories to get your message across.

Timing

Check your social channels' insights and figure out when your audience is online. Schedule your posts for those peak times to be sure that as many people as possible will see your posts.

It is also recommended that you try to post on Fridays when people are looking for something to play over the weekend.

Visuals

Update the cover images on your social channels to reflect the sale. It can be a full-fledged graphic with the sale announcement or just a sticker addition at the corner of your current graphic.

Facebook Ads are particularly effective at driving people to Steam or App purchases when there's a discount. Update your ad graphic to clearly display the discount and use a strong CTA for people to grab the discount.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Infanto Games (@infantogames)

Other networks

You've created your posts for your main channels (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), you've got your stories planned out and your ads ready to go, but you're not quite done yet.

If you want to reach a target audience that may not be present on those channels, you need to get to them in other ways.

Post about your game discount on Reddit and other similar subreddits and don't forget to mention it on your Discord server or any other active forums.

Bonus: Here are some hashtags to use in your #BlackFriday posts.

#BlackFriday2021 #BlackFridayDeal #BlackFridayWeekend #BlackFridaySale #Sale #VideoGameDeals #GameDeal #CheapAssGamer

If this feels like too much work on top of your game development duties, let us help you with it.

At Keywords Player Support we have dedicated Community Management and Social Media Management teams who can plan and execute a strategy for your game, based on your specific needs.

Visit Keywords Player Support to find out more about our Social Media and Community Management services.

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