Marketing sucks.

No one likes doing it, really.  We all have that mental image of a sleazy, overly chipper, dishonest shill who pushes sales at the expense of integrity and quality.  But, you’re a creator, and more than that, you’re a creator who wants to earn income on your craft and you don’t want to sacrifice your earnest feelings or jockey with others to get your product to the right audience.  I’m right there with you- and so are many indie creators in all disciplines.  You can make commercially viable products and you can sell a quality product without being fake or saying things you’re uncomfortable saying.  This goes 100% for really introverted and neurodivergent folks too (two things which apply to me very much lol).  Talking to others and putting your work out there is intimidating and uncomfortable sometimes, but the fact of the matter is that pushing your art/product/skills is simply a learned skill, one you can get better at with planning and practice.  In fact, you'd be surprised how open people can be to hearing about your art/product/skillset if you've done your homework in making sure you're connecting to the right audience.  On top of that, that vast majority of people prefer the honesty and integrity of your natural voice and can smell the bullshit coming from a random shill a mile away.  Marketing can definitely suck, but it doesn't have to be a terrible ordeal.

Figuring out how to approach your marketing needs will be a lot easier if you have a clear idea of what your goals are.  You'll need to assess beforehand how much energy/effort you can put into this- you need time to create your Thing and you'll have to sink time into various growth strategies.  The earlier you can get a handle on this the better, but it’s never too late to take a second to organize your wants/needs.

So!  The first question: do you really need to market your game/art/voice acting/etc?

A lot of indies make games simply because they want to.  They’re passion projects, more or less, and the creator doesn’t rely on outside funds to complete them.  Or they simply work on their project as a hobby and perhaps aren’t tremendously concerned with finishing something.  If this is you, you don’t need to get deep into marketing.  Growing a community around what you do can be fun, but it’s up to you to decide if investing time and energy into cultivating that community is worth it.

Understand what your project needs.

Does your project or portfolio need marketing?  

Probably.  

How much?  

That depends on your goals- are you looking to recoup costs, or maybe pick up clients via commissions/networking?  Or are you working on a passion project that doesn’t have major costs associated or require a large audience for you to consider successful?   You’d be surprised, however, by how many creatives  (especially game devs) get kinda stuck at this junction, not really knowing what they want or what the project needs.  In TCM’s case, I wanted to make a commercially viable game so that I could hopefully transition to game dev and writing as a day job.  On top of that, I have a hardworking artist to pay.  TCM needs to make money, and therefore, I knew pretty early that getting the game in front of a wide audience and building a long-term community were going to be necessary for the project’s overall health and success.   

Next: mentally prepare yourself!

You don’t need to be a gross shill to reach out to potentially interested audiences, and trying to get eyes on your work doesn’t make you a soulless ghoul.  

The first roadblock is usually our own discomfort at the idea of putting our stuff out there and asking for a fair price or attention for our work.  I think what helped me was recognizing that it was less marketing that was making me uncomfortable and more taking something I had really poured myself into and the vulnerability needed to ask people to look at it honestly.  Also stemming from intense social anxiety, introversion, and various other neurodivergences, I was really deeply, physically scared of public rejection and ridicule.   I was really uncomfortable with the concept of reaching out to audiences cold and putting my work out there but I had to accept that was my fear of being vulnerable, and not necessarily a fear of asking to connect with a potential audience.  In the end, I embraced how uncomfortable it was at first and slowly began to grow a little stronger/more confident in putting myself out there- AND picking the right audience who would be most receptive to my content.  Additionally, seeing people legitimately invested in TCM and the encouragement from a growing community every step of the way has reaffirmed to me that I was doing something right and that advocating for my game wasn’t the awful song and dance I had first imagined.

Reconcile the fact that you need to pitch products to sell them and that selling your work makes you a craftsman- not a used car salesman trying to pass off lemons.  Is there bad, sleazy marketing?  Of course there is, we’ve all run across it, but that’s not you or your project so be sure to keep an objective viewpoint of your marketing strategies as you delve deeper to make sure you’re staying on a path you feel comfortable with!  

Getting Going

Set Goals

What does your project need?  Are you publishing a portfolio and looking for clients?  Are you looking to build a robust community or fandom?  Are you looking to close sales on a product like a game or digital resource?  This seems like a no-brainer, but knowing what call to action you need to focus on and then how to drive numbers to that action is what all of your marketing efforts will essentially boil down to.  Cutting out all the other extraneous noise will ensure that you’re putting your limited resources to the best use possible. 

Only worry about the metrics that matter

Here’s the first crunchy part of marketing: understanding what numbers you need to focus on.  If you’re aiming for sales, you’re going to want to focus on directing people to whatever platform you’re selling on and keeping track of how you’re directing traffic there vs what sales are actually being made.  If you’re getting a lot of visits from social media and decent sales, you’ll want to focus on maintaining and improving that pathway.  If you’re not getting a lot of social media traffic and your sales are coming from the platform itself, focus on attracting more eyes to that platform as a primary goal and maybe worry about socials second.

For example, if you’re selling a game on Itch.io and you notice that a LOT of your traffic is coming from places like Twitter or Instagram, you’ll want to invest time in those socials to grow that audience.

Conversely, if you’re putting a lot of time and effort into your Twitter but ultimately not driving a lot of traffic to your Itch.io or Etsy shop, you may want to move your focus somewhere else.  

Platforms like Itch.io, Steam, Gamejolt, Twitch, OnlyFans, etc come with their own built-in communities too, so if you’re having a hard time driving traffic from other sites, focusing on building a community right where your product is offered may be the ticket to getting those sales.

If you’re looking to build an audience, you’re going to need to pay attention to follows and more importantly, the degree of engagement on your chosen socials.  If you’re not getting comments or back and forth with your followers, or not gaining new followers at a reasonably steady rate, you may need to assess what you’re doing and how to up interest.  How will you encourage your community to interact with each other and with you- real convos and comments are more valuable than likes, so it's important to really consider what you ultimately want out of this.

The good news is that this is generally pretty easy to figure out, even if nailing your overall goals can be a constant work in progress.  

Planning and keeping your eyes on the big picture are gonna be your best strategies.  You have an extremely limited pool of both time and energy, and you should be using as much of that as possible to create.  Always being cognizant of where your time is going and how to cut out marketing that doesn’t help will make sure you’re maximizing what you have.

Budget, budget, budget 

Sometimes, you'll pay for advertising.  Figure out what you’re willing to spend on paid marketing before you get into this.  Preplanning this will keep you from stretching your budget even further and help you focus on whatever marketing delivers the most results for you.  

In my case, TCM is an 18+ game, and that SEVERELY limits what platforms are willing to let me run ads.  

Right now, Tumblr lets me run ads so long as I keep the graphics from being too suggestive.  Their terminology is “blazing” posts, and you can choose from four different price points and corresponding impression quantities.  I’ve experimented with all their price points, and I seem to get the best impressions-to-clicks ratio in their mid tiers, and pairing that with applicable tags.  By signing up for Tumblr Premium, I get one free low-level blaze per month at a cheaper overall total than buying them individually.

Tumblr is a semi-worthwhile paid platform in my case because TCM appeals to a large cross-section of their audience.

There are many things to consider when buying ads, and I think the first is to really ascertain whether the platform and your content mesh well.  Are people on XYZ website typically interested in stuff that looks like yours?  

I had issues marketing TCM on Reddit’s r/visualnovel and r/otomegames because TCM is a little weirder than the popular titles found on there.  Not being a distinctly anime-looking title, not having a locked-down female MC, providing gender neutral or gay MC options, and lacking pretty bishounen love interests set it apart, and the average user of these boards wasn’t interested.  Of course, I’m not saying this as a negative thing; these boards simply have their tastes, and while TCM would appeal to some of them, it would be a fringe faction.  The majority rules when you’re paying for ads.  Don’t spend money marketing to the edges of a larger population; save that for your cost-free endeavors.

That being said I do make occasional posts on those boards about game development etc, but I’ve ruled out paid advertising there as what I offer and what they’re interested in doesn’t line up as closely as it could.

Manage your energy + make each post count

Social media- more than anything else- is a time sink.  It's designed to be.  What’s important is finding a comfortable balance between making posts /interacting with your community and doing what you do best- your project.  In my experience, consistency is key.  You don’t need to post new art, thoughts, WIPs every hour of every day, but keeping a consistent update schedule (even if it's only a couple times a month) will keep you fresh in your fans’ minds.

So you know how often you want to share content but what is content?  What qualifies as engaging?  Well, honestly, basically anything but I see a lot of people- especially artists- get trapped in the idea that they must have a full rendered and polished piece to show their socials and that anything less is a waste of time.  The truth is that people love seeing process sketches, rough drafts, and even things like what products/tools you love (or hate).  Don’t save your most polished portfolio pieces for social media, you’ll burn out before it can do you much good.

Free Marketing is Your #1 Tool

Of course there are TONS of places you can talk about your project but here are some basic options you'll want to be sure not to overlook:

• Social Media (X, Instagram, Bluesky, Reddit, Facebook) + engaging with followers
• Fandom-geared Spaces like Discord Servers, Tumblr, and certain subreddits.
• Connecting with other fans of similar content at events, meetups, or other fandom adjacent spaces both on and offline
• Reaching out to Streamers, VTubers, Podcasters
• Submitting to news blogs that cover your area (new indie games, random patreon artist spotlights, genre artist blogs, etc)
• Invest in your community.  Make posts about your process or experience to help other people in your sphere or make resource packs/tools for others to use.
• Treat other creators as your friends and allies, not competition.  Internalize this: you aren’t competing with other indie devs, artists, etc.  Reach out often with enthusiasm regarding their projects.  Help and collaborate when you can.  This is a great rule for community building anyway but this is also a good way to build up a positive reputation in your sphere.

Some Do's and Don'ts in Summation

Social Media (Twitter, Bluesky, Reddit, Instagram, etc)

1. DO pick a few of your most actively engaged socials to focus on
2. DON’T feel compelled to make accounts everywhere and attempt to keep up with them, you’ll burn out.
3. DO consistently evaluate the returns on your efforts.
4. DO drop platforms that aren’t helping you 
5. DO post consistently but!
6. DON’T post bullshit/low effort content.  People can tell you’re not feeling it.
7. DON'T be afraid to be earnest and let your personality show through your words.  People like knowing you're a real person behind the avatar

Metrics & Traffic

1. DO keep your game/website/portfolio easy to access (one direct link, if possible) and somewhere obvious like your header or pinned post.
2. DO make a discord or tumblr for your product/art to direct people to, especially if you’re interacting with other similar spaces.  You will likely pick up fans from bigger media who find your work similar.
3. DON’T make someone look for more than a couple seconds to find your Product.
4. DO utilize UTM/Link tracking where applicable (Google Analytics, etc)
5. DO understand what interactions you want and target those behaviors

Money

1. DO try to keep at least 1 method of payment acceptance open at all time if you’re not selling a product.  Set up a tip jar on your art blog, a Patreon with your process work, etc, just so that generous appreciators always have a method to tip you.
2. DON’T worry about pumping you Patreon/Ko-Fi with every post, people will find it if they want it, just make sure they can find it easily.

General

1. DO be courteous about feedback.  Especially on places like Reddit, the difference between discussing a product or endeavor and marketing can be hard to see clearly.  If you receive pushback for being there, simply accept it and adjust.
2. DO be polite as much as possible.  Of course, I don’t advise taking straight up abuse from rude people but you’ll gain community respect by handling push back or criticism in a mature, thoughtful manner.  EVEN if you don’t agree with the person coming at you.
3. DO have fun engaging with people.
4. DO practice having convos with people about your Product that aren’t necessarily a pitch
5. DO be patient and courteous.
6. DON'T give in to the voices in your head that demand you keep to yourself.  You have made/are making something and that should be shared and celebrated, whether it's a commercial project or not.

SO!!  Thank you very much for reading this long winded treastise on what I've learned over the four-ish years I've been working on TCM.  This is absolutely not a One Size Fits All Solution and is more just a long collection of things I've learned first hand in my own experiences.  I also intended this to be as product-agnostic as possible- I'm writing it as a game developer but I feel confident the same strategies and knowledge would benefit an artist creating a commissions portfolio or patreon, a writer making a webcomic or novel, or even someone trying to get off the ground with voice acting.  So with all that being said, I DO hope that you found this useful or at least motivating in some way.  Fighting off the Introversion and Social Ineptitude Demons that live in my brain has been a constant battle and I often wonder if it's this hard for everyone... And while I'm still not quite sure the answer to that, this experience has taught me that it 1) is possible, even for ND peeps and 2) gets a lot easier the more you do it and 3) benefits your art/project.