Let me describe two workplaces for you.
The first is a marketing/PR company representing a video game client. Maybe they specialise in the field, maybe games companies are just one of many they work with, it doesn't really matter. That company's job is to get the word out about a game, and so to reach what's left of video games media they rely on the oldest outreach method in the book: sending a press release to that outlet's email address. That company might send out 2-4 emails that day to every site and streamer on their books, having meticulously crafted every all-caps subject line, and think yeah, that's good stuff, mission accomplished.
Now imagine one of those remaining websites--let's say it's this one--starting work in the morning. We, like many sites, have some shared Gmail inboxes, which means that when you send an email to our general addresses, like inbox@ or mail@, they end up on the same screen as our personal addresses (luke@, etc). Now imagine that, during a working day where you're also communicating with sources, providers, contacts and just each other, you're having to navigate an inbox where you're receiving a press release every four minutes.
Look at this! Look at the timestamps! This is yesterday. Every single one of these is a press release, nearly all of them for some kind of indie Steam game, because while one company might think 2-4 emails per day are OK, there are a lot of companies sending 2-4 emails per day.
I'm not pointing this out just to be a dick and complain about something relatively harmless. I mean, I am complaining, but what I want to do here is use Inside Baseball Week as an opportunity to explore why exactly this is so frustrating, and what games marketing can do to help alleviate the problem. Because this is just what our inbox looks like, as a tiny little independent outlet; I imagine sites with a readership in the millions have it so much worse.
So, why does this suck? Let's break it down!
- It makes our jobs harder. Email is very important to a business, and having to hack through your inbox every day like you're taking a machete to a jungle path is a laborious waste of time when, as people trying to run a business and publish a website, we're already short on time!
- It cheapens the value of email as a form of communication. Have you ever seen those photos of the inflation-era Weimar Republic, when people are having to carry around wheelbarrows full of banknotes just to buy a loaf of bread because each individual note is worth almost nothing? That's what this volume of emails is doing to how we look at our emails.
- It's grossly ineffective. I honestly cannot remember the last time I opened one of these emails, let alone stopped to read the whole subject line, because see above: instead of reading these I try to read between them while looking for actual, substantive emails.
It's important to note that the vast majority of press release emails we get aren't even from major platform holders or even the companies publishing the games; they're from third-party PR companies that smaller teams pay to handle stuff like marketing.
I can understand the muscle memory at play here, that companies doing this are simply trying to do the same thing they've always done, and cover as many bases as possible while doing their jobs. But to me, someone who has been in the trenches for two decades now, when I see this volume of emails pouring in while the games industry looks the way it does, I think the people sending them either fail to understand their clients, fail to understand the state of media or are just generally oblivious to what's going on outside.
There are too many games! Every time I open Steam I'm overwhelmed, every time I see a "here's how many games are out this week" social media post I get dizzy. Signing up more and more games to your roster or platform (so you're sending out more and more emails!) doesn't help more games get more exposure, it simply means the firehose pointed at a publication's face gets moved a little closer each passing month.
How can we improve this? We have options!
- Marketing teams could take the time to assess the size and flavour of the sites (and individual writers) they're reaching out to. Some of my "favourite" (in a professional sense) reps are my favourites because they do just that: they'll leave me in peace most days but also know what I'll be more interested in, so if a city-builder or Napoleonic tactics game comes along, they'll politely let me know.
- Since that's unlikely to happen, a more effective option might be for indie teams who are signing up to these kind of companies and platforms to understand that, if a portion of the services being provided is "outreach to games media and streamers!", and that outreach consists of them firing off worthless press releases, then you're wasting your money. As callous as this sounds, we are not reading those emails, they are sliding straight off the front page of our inbox unread. We're not being "reached", we're being annoyed.
Like I've said, I know this looks like a relatively harmless problem from the outside, but in the spirit of Inside Baseball Week this is actually a growing issue for us, a team covering video games, and for the fledgling studios trying to gain exposure in this flooded market as well. The current deluge might not be hurting anyone, but it's not helping anyone either.
Welcome to Inside Baseball Week, our annual excuse to explore topics so niche and weeds-y that no other video game website would touch them.
We're also having a sale, so if you're yet to make the jump to helping support independent games media, there's never been a better time!
