23/10/2016
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Of course Mario and Nintendo are well known brands. They have their fans and do not need much marketing to sell.
Simple indie developers like us on the other hand will need to do a lot more effort to sell and market their games.
This is part 3 of my Conversion Rate Optimization posts. In the 2 previous posts I explained the theory behind NLP, sales techniques and CRO. Now it's time to put everything into practise.
WHAT IS CONVERSION?
What are our goals?
Before we start designing we need to deside what conversion is to us and how we will measure it.
Conversion to us is:
buying the premium version
inviting friends to get a discount on the premium version
Conversion is calculated as followed:
Number of conversions of the unique customers that installed the game on day X
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Number of unique customers that installed the game on day X
You can't take the number of conversion of day X / number of unique customers of day X.
This calculation isn't accurate because players that installed the game on day X can still convert a few days later.
Another few things I want to know about our customers:
How did they found our game?
What is there meta program?
What do they think of our six factors of conversion: value proposition, relevance, clarity, anxiety, distraction and urgency?
What image do they have of our company?
These questions can only be ansered with surveys.
VALUE PROPOSITION
What do we offer?
Our game starts as a more "traditional" F2P game.
People really need to try your game before they buy it. Going the "traditional Premium way" is very hard these days.
So we offer a premium version inside the game and give them 3 extra trail periodes of 30 minutes so they can see the difference between the F2P and the Premium version.
The premium version is $3 and offers:
All characters of the basic game are unlockable (X hours of extra gameplay)
All levels available for the basic game (X hours of extra gameplay)
Local Co-op multiplayer (Practicle unlimited gameplay)
We offer a lot more for just $3. I hope we can earn enough money so we can make more content for the players, increasing our value proposition even more.
Another important detail is that the premium version is unlocked inside the game itself. This way we have more control over the buying process.
TYPES OF CUSTOMERS
If we want to sell our game then we have to look at the type of customers and not at the type of gamers. Looking at all the kind of meta programs in NLP and I decided that it was impossible to segment our customers in that many parts. My little survey from months ago revealed that there are 3 main types of customers based on the fact if people are willing to pay for a video game:
women that are willing to pay for games
women that are not willing to pay for games
It is still uncertain if the segmentation of our customers is correct. More testing and conducting more surveys will give us more ansers to that question.
At the start of the first playing session we will ask the players 3/4 questions that will tell us a lot about the players. We will use this info to approach each player more personally in hopes to increase the conversion rate.
Each player will get to see this window with all the information of the premium version.
The window contains buttons that expand when clicked on. The collapsed window on the left is shorter and easier to scroll through. This way players will have less trouble finding the information they want.
For now, all the information on the expanded version on (the right) is the same. (It's very important to know that all the text is based on NLP. So what you write and how you show it can have a great impact on conversion.) The only difference between the types of customers is the consecution of the buttons and the type of commercial shown later in the game. The buttons on the top of the window will most likely get more clicks then the others. So customers that are more influenced by what others do will see this button at the top of the window.
THE IDEAL FUNNEL
This is the most ideal funnel that a customer can go through.
It starts with awareness. Where do people hear from us for the first time?
When someone is interested he/she will search for our game in the app store. SEO!
Engagement is mostly made out of the actual game experience.
If you look at the number 6 and 9 you will see that we show 2 commercials to explain and promote our own premium version.
Why show players the commercial? Why don't you just show them the window with all the information?
Imagine that you are going to a shop. You've heard some things about it but you don't know what's it all about and who the owner is.
When you arrive at the shop the owner approaches you to ask if you like a little tour. If you say no the owner will let you explore the shop on your own. If you say yes the owner will explain who he is and what he has to offer.
It's more or less the same as in a restaurant where the waiter guides you to a table and makes a suggestion for a menu.
This experience builds trust which is very important for building a brand and for conversion.
The desicion phase takes place in the show menu. Again showing the right information to the right customer is crucial for conversion.
The conversion itself or actually buying the game is arranged by the app stores.Apple seems to do better at this then any other app store.
Feel free to download the image.
The whole monetization model isn't perfect. It never will be. That's why we need to improve it. CRO is an never ending process to improve conversion. But what should we test / track first?
The first thing we need to analyse is the thing closest to making money. That's why the window with the premium offer is so important. Testing different variations for each type of customer will be the first thing we do.
The next 2 things we need to do is to check the customer segmentation and locate hurdles in our funnel. We need to evaluate these things, make hypothesis and test different variations.
Another thing we need to keep an eye on is the value proposition. We had such a small budget that there was no room for more content. I have the feeling that all levels look the same. If we only had the money to make the board in different shapes, make more obstacles to place on the board, add more special items, add new characters, make cutscenes to tell the story, ...
Download the wireframe of the monetization model here.
4 In a blow is made by G-aim and monkube. Test the latest build here.
4 In a blow facebook page.
CRO part 1: What is conversion rate optimization?
CRO part 2: Mind games
