Written by: Calvin Kammer

The Power of Word of Mouth.

Or how I learned to stop worrying and accept not all forms of marketing are equal.

From my experience with my escape room, the vast majority of our players check us out because one of their friends told them about us. We don’t offer referrals and don’t have an ambassador program yet people still are talking about us.

When those players talk about how much fun they had celebrating their birthday at the escape room, they encourage others to do the same. It’s a great benefit to us that players have a good time, but it’s even better when they go out of their way to promote us to their friends.

How do you do do word of mouth marketing for a board game company?

Truth is, most people won’t recognize it when it happens. True word of mouth comes from friends that go out of their way to inform you about a game (or product).

Word of mouth is not “hey I know this person is really into board games, I should ask them what to buy.” It can happen, but it doesn’t happen all of the time. These kind of interactions are few and far between and in my experience unreliable.

When people get excited about a game, they will want to tell their friends all about it.

People trust each other, not brands. Which is why testimonials and reviews are found on online retailer sites. Seeing other people engage with the product gives social proof, validating that other people do in fact play this game, and they enjoy it!

Getting your game into players hands is the best way to have them start talking about it, and to start talking about it with their friends.

Thanks for reading! If you found this to be engaging please engage in the conversation by commenting or sharing this post. I'm always open to feedback, and am looking forward to continuing expanding on Blurbs from the Bloated Toad. -Calvin