Networking Online With Publishers Without Spending Money

COVID-19 has resulted in a lot of event cancellations. Game developers around the globe have to find ways to conduct business without being able to meet face-to-face. This guide explains how to network online with publishers without spending money.

You don’t need events to network with publishers.

I know what you are thinking:

What a weird statement coming from someone who is part of the organization who organizes INDIGO; a game business & showcasing event in the Netherlands.

But it’s the truth.

Sure, events make networking a lot easier. Events are designed by their organizers in a way that makes it easier for you to meet new people. Plus they are organized all over the world, making it easier to connect directly with publishers in a place somewhere close to you.

But what if you are on a shoestring budget and can’t afford the cost of travel? What if you are not even allowed to travel to a country where a certain event is organized? Or, what if a worldwide pandemic requires us all to stay inside?

Well, if you have access to the internet — you really don’t need events at all. Nor do you need money. All you need is time, effort, and the willingness to do some good old fashioned grunt work.

Networking with publishers without spending money

Here is how it works.

1. Write down your goal

In order to make networking less stressful, more productive for both parties, and enjoyable, it’s necessary to set a goal. Having a goal will help to create focus, and allows you to decide what actions will serve that goal, and what actions won’t.

If you are reading this, chances are you are looking for a publisher that can help you to bring your game to market. You might want help with public relations, marketing, porting, or funding. Maybe you are looking for help on all these fronts, or maybe you aren’t sure what you need and you’d like to talk to publishers to see what they can do for you. All of these are great goals to have, but make sure you know what you need and write it down.

2. Prospecting

In this phase, you are going to look for publishers who fit your game, your company, and your goal.

Start out by going through Steam, Epic, and other store pages to find games you like or games that are similar to yours. Check if these games have a publisher listed on their page and if so, write down their name. If a platform doesn’t mention a publisher, use IGDB to double-check. Find as many publishers that fit your game and goal as you can.

After you’ve created a list of publishers, go visit their websites. Check to see if these publishers offer the kind of services you are looking for and if the games they publish fit your own game.

If it’s not clear, don’t worry. This is something you can discuss with them once you get them in a meeting.

Note: If you want to save time, click here. The Powell Group and Indie Game Business have put together a list with over 650 PC, Mobile, and Console publishers. You will receive this list by leaving your email address. You would still have to check if these publishers match with your own goal, but it does save you a lot of initial grunt work.

3. Finding the (right) people to talk to on LinkedIn

Now that you’ve created a list of publishers, it’s time to find people at these companies you can talk to.

LinkedIn is incredibly helpful for finding and connecting with people you would like to meet. If you don’t have an account: register and set-up your entire profile properly. LinkedIn really should be part of your online presence.

Keep in mind, LinkedIn is like a virtual business card. It should look professional since people will get a notification that you’ve visited their profile and might visit your profile in return.

Make sure you are connected with your current network; former classmates, current colleagues, or people you’ve met at events or gatherings before. Family members can be added, but do remember this is a business platform. Not Facebook.

It’s also a great idea to add some content to your virtual business card. Share your gameplay trailer, write a short article, or share anything related to your game, your studio, or to your personal achievements.

Once you have all of this set up, search for the publishers you have put on your list at step 2. Once you’ve found them, click on the ‘People’ tab. This should show you who is working there. Try to find someone in the business development department or someone with publishing/scout in their role description. Write down their name and/or save the URL to their profile.

Note: Your first instinct might be to write down the name of the company CEO, but chances are you won’t get a reaction. Most CEOs are extremely busy and usually not involved in the initial process of scouting new projects.

4. Finding an email address

LinkedIn doesn’t show you the email address of the person you’d like to reach. Luckily, there are tools out there that will help out with that.

I can highly recommend GetProspect. This tool has a Google Chrome extension which allows you to discover email addresses directly from people’s LinkedIn profiles and it’s free for up to 100 email addresses per month.

It might happen that GetProspect can’t find the email address you are looking for. If that happens, I like to use Hunter to discover a company email pattern and TrueMail to check if a certain email address is being used.

Hunter is free up to 50 searches per month, and TrueMail allows you 2000 free searches after signing up.

You might wonder why I recommend to finding their email addresses, instead of using LinkedIn to connect and sending messages. I’ve noticed that people don’t look at LinkedIn messages as frequently as they look at their emails, so it saved me time to use email instead. However, you could always try using both and seeing what you prefer.

5. Prepare for a great first impression

Networking is the first step in building a professional relationship with someone.

Under normal circumstances, it only takes a few seconds for someone to form their first opinion about you, based on appearance, demeanour, mannerisms, the way you talk, and how you are dressed.

But since networking face-to-face is out of the question, the first point of contact with you, your company, and your game will be through your email. That’s why one of the worst things you could do, is sending out an email that feels like a copy-paste job.

It is really important to send a personal email to everyone you want to reach out to and that’s why you should do some homework.

Google the person and company you’re contacting and read everything from pages 1 to 5 on Google. What games does the company publish? Do they specify what they are looking for? Can you find articles about what they would like to see in a pitch?

This might feel strange, but by doing this you can give your email a personal element and you let the person who you are contacting know that this isn’t just a shotgun blasted email that you copy-pasted, but that it is meaningful and personal and that you respect their time.

Secondly, prepare all the materials you like to send over (prototype, GIFS, gameplay trailer, etc). Make sure your materials communicate exactly what you want them to communicate and check if attachments are email-sized before sending it over.

You can use Google Drive (or something similar) to upload big files such as prototypes or large documents, and YouTube or Vimeo to upload your gameplay trailer.

Preparing this in advance will save you time and effort in the next phase.

6. Reaching out

It might have taken you several days or a couple of weeks, but you’ve now completed the grunt work. You have formulated your networking goal, identified potential publishers, found email addresses of your contact persons, did your homework, and prepared all materials you’d like to send over.

Time to start sending your emails.

Keep in mind that you want to make a great first impression. That means, introducing yourself and your team, pitching your game, sending your materials, and working towards your goal.

I’ve made an example mail which can be found here.

Please note, this is a generic email. Make it personal and applicable to your own situation and goal.

There is no one-size-fits-all template, and there can never be one. Every publisher likes to see something in a different way, and every goal asks for a different approach. Don’t copy-paste.

7. Follow up

Some people receive up to hundreds of emails, messages, and requests a week (especially publishers). Chances are that they won’t respond to your request within a week. Don’t worry, this is perfectly normal and you shouldn’t take it personally.

The key to a follow up is doing so in a friendly manner. If you’ve waited a week, it’s perfectly fine to send a tasteful reminder every two or three days, I’d say you’re safe of being annoying up until 4–5 reminders after your initial mail.

If you do send them a reminder, ask them simple questions: “I understand that you are busy, but I was wondering if you’ve had any questions I can help you with?”.

Let them know that you are respectful of their limited amount of time and that you’d like to make things easier for them.

It will happen that someone still hasn’t responded after 4 or 5 reminders. At that point, you should move on. You have an entire list of potential publishers to talk to, and this specific one didn’t work out. Better luck next time.

8. Closing

The purpose of each step is to move closer and closer to the ultimate end goal, which in this case, would be an online meeting.

If publishers are interested, chances are they have some follow-up questions or would like to see some extra materials. Now it’s time for you to convince them to jump into an online call with you.

Just make sure you never end your email with “what time works for you?”. You want to be as specific as possible. I would suggest ending your email with 3 possible times so the person you are talking to can simply say yes to one and not have to search their calendar for a free space.

9. (Preparing for) Your online meeting

Before you jump into your meeting, please make sure you’ve prepared everything you need.

Execute a few test runs to see if your audio and webcam work correctly. Don’t forget to check if your online meeting provider has certain limitations (the free version of Zoom only allows you to have a 40-minute meeting for example).

Practice your pitch a couple of times to friends and family, to make sure you have it ready.

Prepare all your materials on the background so that you can easily pull them up with screen share when needed.

Also, having a call with a publisher is not only a great moment to answer their questions, but also a great moment for them to answer yours. Look back at the goal you formulated during step one, and write down any questions you might have.

Now you are ready to have your meeting.

10. Success!

You’ve just had your first meeting, you answered their questions, and they answered yours.

Hopefully, you’ve had a great meeting. In any case, reflect on it. What went great? What didn’t? What would you change next time? Write this down and execute it during your next meeting.

Think about the next steps. What are they? Have you promised to send over more materials? Have they promised to get back to you? Make sure you track what needs to be done after every call, and note down any appointments in your calendar.

Look back at your goal, did you achieve it? If so, great! If not, why not? What has to be done?

You now have the first building blocks of a professional relationship and just like with any relationship, you need to maintain it. Don’t be afraid to check-in, to ask for updates, to follow up, or even to ask how they are doing.

If a publisher turns you down at this moment in time, remember that you can always get back to them at a later date. A no doesn’t have to be a no for the entirety of your development cycle. You can always update them on your progress and newer (more advanced) builds, or newer versions of your pitch (deck).

Don’t forget to kindly ask the publisher to explain why they turned you down. This will help you with your strategy going forward.

It could be that your game doesn’t fit their portfolio, that it is too early in development, or that your budget is too much. It can be due to a number of reasons, but it helps to know.

And please remember: even if certain publishers aren’t a match, you’ve initiated a professional relationship that might come in handy in the future.

Final thoughts

This article shows you that networking without a budget is possible and that there is no reason not to network. However, it does require a significant time investment since you need to create your own opportunities from scratch.

Of course, if you do have a little money to spare, you can also attend an online event. At an online event, a big chunk of the work is already done for you. You can use filters to search for a good match, and you know for sure that the attending publishers and investors are looking to have meetings and are definitely on the lookout for new games.

Even if you normally can’t go to events because of the costs or other restrictions, online events are an affordable option since tickets are often cheaper and you don’t have to spend money on your stay, travel, and food.

If you are interested in joining online events but don’t know where to start: click here. It’s a list made by the Slovak Game Developers Association and contains almost every online game industry event out there.

If you’d like to chat with me, send me a request on LinkedIn or a DM on Twitter. Or, search for my email using the steps above 😉.