Unlocking Gaming Industry Growth with Customer Relationship Management

History of the gaming industry and in-app games

The gaming industry has a rich history, dating back to the Atari 2600. It's come a long way since then and continues to evolve as we speak. The video game industry is currently valued at $134 billion worldwide, with mobile gaming making up more than half of this value. Mobile games are also expected to grow by 41% between 2018 and 2022 (Statista).

In-app purchases (IAP) have become an important part of how developers monetize their games. In fact, 60% of all revenue comes from IAPs on iOS devices alone (VentureBeat).

The success of mobile games is not a surprise. Mobile devices offer developers an easy way to reach a large audience. There are over 3 billion smartphone users in the world today, and that number is expected to grow by another 1 billion by 2025 (Statista).

But what does this mean for the future of the game industry? Will mobile gaming remain the dominant force it is today? No matter how you do it, the omnichannel experience is key to building your community.

The importance of storytelling

You can use narrative in marketing automation to create a more personalized experience for your gamers. The characters that gamers interact with are part of the game, but they also send messages as part of the gamer's experience, even when he or she isn't actually playing. This is an important distinction--it means that narratives need to be carefully crafted so they don't seem forced or unnatural. If done correctly, however, these narratives will enhance the overall player experience and keep players engaged over time.

One of the easiest ways is to create a storyline and weave it into your messages. This doesn't have to be complex or heavy on detail--it just needs to be something that sticks in the mind of gamers.

For example, imagine a game where the player has to work their way up from an entry-level job as an engineer. In this situation, engineers are constantly working with new technology and designing new products. If you wanted to use narrative in marketing automation for this scenario, you could weave a story about how the company's newest product is about to launch and needs beta testers. You could then send messages that follow along with this storyline--for example, an email from your fictional engineer asking for help testing out this new product. Eh, wow - right?

Building a community

The gaming community is a valuable commodity to be cultivated. Gaming has always been a social activity, with players sharing their experiences with friends and family through the channel of the gameplay itself. However, the value of this community has only recently begun to be realized by game developers who are looking for ways to grow their business beyond traditional sales channels by engaging with players directly on platforms like Twitch, Discord, or YouTube.

The best way to measure engagement in your gaming community is through analytics software that allows you to track player activity over time and across multiple platforms (for example Steam charts). By identifying trends in player behaviour--such as which games they play most often or what content they watch most often--you can better understand what types of activities will keep them coming back.

Analytics is also a useful tool for identifying your most valuable players. These are the players who spend the most time on your games, and you can use this information to identify content creators who are popular with other players and reach out to them. You can also use analytics software to identify people who have played your game but have not purchased it yet (called “free-to-play”), which allows you to target specific demographics with ads or other marketing efforts.

How to measure communities instead of purchases

Let's say you're interested in understanding how to measure communities instead of purchases. If a gamer is engaged with your game, they will stay with you for a longer time and have a higher CLV, so what do we need to do?

• Measure loyalty
• Loyalty rate is defined as the percentage of active users who return and engage with the product within 30 days after their first session. It can be calculated by dividing the total number of users who returned within 30 days by the total number of active users at any point during that period.

If you want to measure loyalty, then you need to know how many people are actually active users. A user is considered active if they have played the game in the past 7 days. This allows us to calculate the average retention rate for our game by dividing the number of returning users by the total number of active users (including those who didn’t return).