Choosing a PR firm or a publisher?

Get a good publisher!
If you don't have marketing expertise, it's gonna be very difficult to self publish

 

I'd agree. I do think it's worth pointing out that you will need to have released your game and at least tried before most publishers will even look at your game. The market is so wildly unpredictable it's almost impossible to pick a winner.

Release the game, promote it for free as much as you can, make sure you're collection stats on your game. If you can get your retention rate high and earn good money per install, a publisher may be willing to invest in it.

For this reason, don't just spam your game around to dev forums. They'll install it and play for 5 mins and uninstall causing your retention numbers to look like a nightmare. You're looking to aim for 40% of your players to play the day after they install. That'd be considered a strong performer!

 

That's a super nice advice not to post to dev groups, Sam.
Haha, I've never thought of that.

 

We've hired a few "indie friendly" PR firms over time. They seemed to get stuff done, but it never really paid for itself. You'll be amazed how few new downloads you'll get from a review, even a good one.

Better to build up buzz yourself and find engaged players to do your talking for you. They are more interested, are not tainted as being paid to speak, and best of all they don't cost anything beyond giving them good support.

Short version: If you need to ask about this, you're in the small indie camp along with most of us. That means you have time but not money. Find a marketing route that costs time but not money, that way you can afford it.

 

I'm in the same boat. Although I've already decided I'm doing all the marketing myself, unless a well known publisher knocks on the door.

Just search a lot for marketing articles on the internet about (mobile)games. It will help a lot. Create a folder for all your website bookmarks and start creating a marketing plan & strategy.

 

Rubicon's comment is spot on. "It never really paid for itself".
I've tried such indie PR services before. They did help creating a proper press release, and sending it to news agencies (in the thousands, according to them). However end results (downloads) are not as expected. Not many news agencies responded with free reviews, most of the responds are asking for extra $$$ to get paid reviews.

 

One resource I find useful is the App Marketing Podcast by Steve Young.

He runs a P.R. firm and has interviewed many successful people in the app world about their experiences.
He also writes a lot about various marketing strategies.

I'm not a client and am not affiliated with him in any way. I'm just impressed with the amount of helpful information he gives away for free.

 

Sam's got the point. You'll have to release it yourself before any publisher knocks on the door. In my experience, the game has to be of a certain quality so that publishers would like to publish it. It's not a service as long as you have cash to offer, in my opinion.

Not much experience on PR. Paid reviews didn't go well in my case. I think most of the sites which charge for a review are not popular at first place. So the ideal strategy to me is to get free exposure as much as possible to spread it out, since it doesn't cost anything, doesn't matter if they leads to how many downloads. And try to get attention of real POPULAR review sites/youtubers. Make the best of game videos/screenshots/stories etc. And send out e-mails. If they would like to do a review, brilliant, you made it. If they're showing interest but would like to charge, brilliant as well. Cuz you successfully caught their attention.

 

I have worked with some really great PR firm in the past (they are not cheap). Sure they are great, and it can even score you a lot of reviews/short write-up on notable websites that you don't normally get reply from. But there's only so much you can do with good PR in the app industry. You can have 10 popular sites writing about your game but if they don't get picked up by players or go viral on their own, it's good as nothing.

Most publisher can get you some of that press release (not as good as what a PR firm can do) and at the same time you can leverage on their experience on how to market the product. Some will come up with marketing capital for your games (putting up ads, doing UA) and while others have existing cross promotional networks that might help you kick start your game.

Bottom line, if its your first games ever? Go with a publisher and you might be able to pick up a marketing skill or two. Once you have learnt enough, go for it. Explore yourself, build your own brand. Otherwise there are guys out there that love making awesome games and like to get as many people as possible playing their games but never like the marketing bit ever. For that publishing is clearly the path for them.