The role of your game’s store page varies depending on the stage of your marketing campaign you are in at the moment. While at early stages it mainly serves the purpose of building the awareness of your title and its discoverability, soon enough it will help you with creating the community and finally generating sales.
So, regardless of whether you are just starting to promote your game, getting ready for the big launch, or already managing a product that exists on the market — the role of the product page cannot be overestimated.
While the overall structure and the range of presented content are primarily imposed by the layout and tools offered by the platform, as creator, you have a bit of space for improvements to get from generic product presentation space to efficient marketing tool.
Your game page is where your potential customer will decide if your game is worth spending money on, or not. What is important though, is that at the moment of this decision, ones actual knowledge about your game can vary, depending on where he came from and what initially brought him here.
Some of your visitors will come intentionally after reading a preview or review, watching a stream or maybe due to a recommendation form a friend. Many of them will visit just because they have clicked on a thumbnail while browsing through Steam or 'misclicked' on one of your display banners. The sources of traffic may significantly vary.
No matter the intention and the initial awareness of your visitor, one should be able to make a conscious, well-educated purchase decision based solely on your product page content.
So, here are a few things that while sometimes basic, turned out to be surprisingly crucial regarding the overall efficiency of the games’ product pages. At least from my experience as both the customer and the marketer.
1. GAME’S DESCRIPTION
When it comes to your on-page copy — treat it as a perfect pitch of yours. As if you were an up and coming movie star trying to convince Hollywood fat-shark to put money into your dream project. He does not want to listen. He is too busy, feels too important and way too deep into enjoying his expensive Cuban cigar to be bothered. To win his heart then, your description has to be correctly formatted and divided into short, clear blocks to improve its overall readability and decrease the threshold.
Also, it is good to edit it ‘top-down’, starting with the absolutely crucial information: main premise or essential elevator pitch, followed by a short list of key features just to end up with all the supplementary, but still valuable information.
Working on your game’s description, ask yourself:
What impression would one get after reading the first paragraph only? Some of them won’t do anything else.
What will learn ones that got distracted in the middle of your description? That is going to be a significant part of your community.
What about the ones gliding through the headlines only?
These are simple, yet essential questions, worth answering while working on your final copy. A well-crafted, hierarchic structure of your description can get you surprisingly far.
Well-designed visual headlines and mid-text separators help as well. The same goes for the visual representations of key features. Remember that while some users will read provided text thoroughly, many more will watch well-animated GIF, explaining the gameplay and nicely underlining your game’s looks or important features.
Speaking of peoples’ soft spot for nice looking things, let’s proceed to…
2. SCREENSHOTS
You may think that putting few well-looking in-game captures is all that is needed, but the truth is that there is more to the subject that one would think.
Of course, the quality matters and using anything less than the best you’ve got wouldn't make much sense. No less critical though is the story told by each of your assets. Think of them as a narrative tool.
If one was to see only one picture from your gallery, what would one learn about your game?
Do your screenshots sell your game well, on their own?
Do they present the moment to moment experience or hint on your key features? They should.
It takes a bit of back and forth, but once you finally have your carefully selected pack of assets — it becomes a valuable marketing tool, efficiently pitching your game.
As with the description, the order also matters. Not all users will browse through the whole gallery, so try to keep the best and most important screenshots at the front by default.
3. TESTIMONIALS & AWARDS
‘Vox populi, vox Dei’ — now more than ever. Due to that, testimonials work well, adding to your credibility and prestige. If you have good quotes by well known ‘influencers’ or leading media outlets — use them. Lacking any of these, turn your head towards valid opinions from your regular backers, current gamers, members of your community, you name it.
Whichever option you choose, feature them high on your page so they would be visible at first glance. This is how they work best. Same goes for the awards and review scores by influential media outlets. The more you have them, the better for you. Unless you’re promoting ‘The Witcher,’ then try to pick few most important trophies from the never-ending list.
4. THUMBNAILS & CAPSULES
Proper miniatures should not only look good but also be as informative as possible.
Their primary role is to serve as a ‘healthy’ clickbait, but they also sell the premise of the game. At least they should. You don’t need 'misclicks'. Luring people with no potential interested in your game won’t get you far. What you need is the attention of gamers with at least a spark of sympathy for the genre, type, or any other important aspect of your title.
What is also worth noting, it is good to change your thumbnails/capsules once yo
