With over 7 million subscribers at roughly $15 per month, World of Warcraft constantly pulls in some big money and they’ve been doing so for ten years. While you may not think of video games when you’re planning out your next marketing campaign, there are actually quite a few things that any marketer can learn from WOW and its players.
There’s always more you can do
You’re never really done in WOW, as there’s always better gear, more achievements, and more craftables to work on. The same is true for marketing a business online. No matter how well you’re doing or what you’ve mastered, there’s always something you can do to further your success.
Mastered Facebook and have a steadily growing fan base? That’s awesome. But don’t stop there. Things change. One big turn in the road and you could end up back at square one. For example, with Facebook constantly changing the way they choose what to show in NewsFeeds, you have to be on your toes. A post that people stop and spend time reading may bump a photo that got thousands of likes right out of the newsfeed – even if that post didn’t get very many likes or shares. Just another reason to create content that’s helpful, entertaining or in some way grabs and keeps a user’s attention.
And why settle for just Facebook? There are tons of places potential customers are hanging out online that you probably aren’t even aware of. Which one will likely depend on your type of business and what your customers are like. You might want to get active with Twitter or if your products are visual then Instagram or Pinterest.
Image Infographic: https://www.salesforce.com/content/dam/blogs/ca/Blog%20Posts/learn-from-your-competitors-001.jpg
Better yet, go learn IFTT (If This Then That). The sky is the limit as to what you can accomplish with creative use of IFTT. You can automatically have an RSS feed within reach listing any new links that point to your competitors (If they link to them, there’s a good chance they would link to you too). Check out Seer Interactive’s amazing list of IFTT “recipes” for marketers for more ideas.
There’s always someone better than you
Just when you think you’re the PVP master that no one can touch, you get schooled. As a marketer or business owner, complacency will be the trigger for your downfall. You may be rockin’ it, but there’s always going to be someone doing something better than you that you can and should learn from. But how do you find them and what do you do after you find them?
Something as simple as subscribing to a successful competitors newsletter can give you insight to what’s working for them. But there are plenty of online tools that can help too, whether you want to see what type of ads they’re’ placing and where they’re placing them (What Runs Where), orget notified by email when a competitor or topic is mentioned online (Google Alerts)
There’s a reason for “omw” “noob” and other terms
Players in WOW sometimes seem to have their own language. These short terms and acronyms make it easier and quicker to communicate, which is something every marketer should remember for any marketing campaign, especially online. Skip long drawn out explanations and big, fancy words.
You have to learn how to break down even the most complicated message into something readers and customers can easily understand and connect with. Cut the jargon and don’t try to impress them with the biggest words you can come up with.
Not sure if your marketing material is easy to read or not? There’s a quick, simple way to find out. Just open up Microsoft Word. It can tell you both the Flesch Reading Ease score and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of your content. These scores will tell you in an instant just how easy or difficult it is to read.
The Flesch Reading Ease score will grade your content with a number score. A 60 or higher is a good score to shoot for. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level tells you what level of education readers would need to easily understand your material. Most agree that you should writer at the 6th grade level.
Here’s how to use Word to get these scores or you can use this free online tool.
There’s a reason why some players and guilds are avoided like the plague
Leeroy Jenkinnnnnnssss! In a raid video, a player completely ruins an attempt to take down a boss NPC and became an internet phenomenon. While funny now, it wasn’t so funny in the moment. His reputation got the better of him, as can easily happen to any player or guild. And if you aren’t proactive about your reputation online, you’ll be toast too.
Today your customers depend on the internet to decide which businesses they’ll use. According to Brigh Local’s survey, nearly 90 percent will factor in online reviews when deciding whether to buy from you and over 70 percent will trust you more if you have good reviews. So are you monitoring reviews and what’s being said about you on the internet? If not, you need to.
Bad reviews don’t have to mean the end of the world, though. If handled properly, you can turn it into something positive. If customers see that you (politely) replied to a bad review or negative comment on Twitter and fixed the problem, they’ll see that you care about your customers and take care of them. Orange Fox has a good guide that goes into detail about handling online reviews. Use Google Alerts or sites like Brand Mentions to instantly know when someone mentions your business on the internet.
About Brandon Leibowitz
