Youtube Marketing - An Elegant Tool To Create A Relevant Channel List For A More Civilized Age

Hello there my gamedev brothers in arms!

Youtube outreach was one of the things we did right during our KS push with Pigsodus. We ended up with ~100 videos of our demo and a social proof that we are worth covering.

I've decided to share my handy youtube channel list creator script with you along with some tips and tricks. Let's go!

Part I - Creating The List 

Believe it or not - when I was a kid I wrote a scraper for a local politician to add people as friends on an ancient, now-nonexistent social media site. It turned out quite well and I had earned my pocket money writing scripts like this during my highschool years. It was a no brainer for me to use this approach in the marketing of my own game. 

Here's my script : https://github.com/piotrlipert/PalantirTube.

Let me walk you through how to install and use it.

Disclaimer: It has no UI whatsoever and you will have to edit code to use it.  The script does not gather emails, only channel URLs and channel relevant data. You will have to type the captcha and copy the email for each channel from the about page (results are guaranteed to have an email though).

A) Install necessary stuff

Python: https://www.python.org/download/releases/2.7.8/

Selenium: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/selenium/2.7.0

Chromedriver: https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/downloads

B) Edit code:

Download the scripts from the repo, put them in a cosy folder. Put chromedriver.exe in the same directory.

1. Edit palantir.py.

gamelist = ["\"indie games\"","\"dwarf fortress\"","adom","enter the gungeon","broforce"]

#gamelist = gamelist + ["full throttle", "psychonauts 2","deponia", "botanicula"]
#gamelist = gamelist + ["loom game", "the whispered world","flight of the amazon queen"]
#gamelist = gamelist + ["armikrog", "the last express game","raymen origins"]
#gamelist = gamelist + ["shantae and the pirate curse", "trine","raymen legends"]
#gamelist = gamelist + ["alladin game", "cave story","karoshii game"]
#gamelist = gamelist + ["undertale", "stardew valley","earthworm jim"]
#gamelist = gamelist + ["super meat boy", "braid","earthworm jim"]
#gamelist = gamelist + ["undertale", "stardew valley","bad mojo redux"]
#gamelist = gamelist + ["sanitarium game", "amnesia game"]

Here you see a list containing keywords that will be searched for.

Add game names of games that are similar to yours. (how to operate on a python list)

You can see my example list here (# is comment in python for those who are not familiar). 

2. Run palantir.py. It will take some time (probably a lot since we are using browser automation) but in the end you will get a list of prospects in YoutubeChannels.Oink in the data folder.

3. Now edit palantir_browse.py.

def hasEmail(self):
        if self.s.driver.page_source.find(u"View email address") != -1:
            return "has email"
        return "no email"

Here you have to edit "View email address" if you see youtube in a different language than English. Go to about section of any channel that has the button to see an email address and copy the string from there to palantir_browse.py. 

Palantir browse will get you some additional information about the channels - social media links, whether it has an email on about page or not and so on. 

4. Run palantir_browse.py.

Again this will take some time. After it's done you'll have a full csv list in data/YoutubeChannelsParsed.Oink. Import it and continue on to:

Part II - What To Do With The Data?

So we have a neat list now. What is not on the list? Emails. You need to complete a captcha to see an email so unfortunately this is a task that has to be done manually. So get your friends, buy a pizza and get those emails.

After you're done sort the list by subscriber count. What follows is my personal tactic so it is by no means objective or perfectly optimal in any way. 

1. Write a personalised email to big youtubers.

Take some time to make research, whether they are a cat or dog person, if they like merry-go-round and what is their favorite colour. These people are BUSY. They will never respond to a boring message.

2. Optionally send bulk email to smaller channels.

This is totally up for discussion but I found that it works pretty well and benefits all. Smaller youtubers, who don't have that much subscribers will probably be thrilled that they are offered the opportunity to play the demo of your game. It will boost their views, if they make a good video you can put it on your social media accounts. They in turn give you coverage, better SEO, and may even buy your game. 
Many people I know try to reach big names only - but neglecting the majority of channel population is a mistake in my opinion. Many people don't like bulk email - but I see no harm done here. 

3. Do the above EARLY. Making a cool video is not an easy task and you're probably not in front of the queue. 

4. Optionally send a reminder via twitter or facebook after a week. 

That's all folks! Good luck with marketing on Youtube! If you find this useful please support my studio on Patreon, or at least play the demo of Balthazar's Dream and give me some tips on how to make my game better.

P.S If something is not working, comment here I'll be there for you. I know I was supposed to post this script week earlier but I am crazy busy with the development of my game - I KNOW you understand. Also someone asked for raw email data - I haven't done this either due to lack of time (I have to cut personal data from 80+ emails and ask permission from some devs who wrote a personal story).