I'd like to kick this marketing thing in the junk and get it moving again. There are several items that I'd like to address:

1) Intro page visibility (Kastellyn or web admin)
There were two (or three?) intro pages generated awhile back, with links to a tab-based "Welcome to Carrion Fields" style tutorial. That is pretty handy for new or potential players - why do we hide it so? I'd propose that we should link the tutorial to the front page, between DONATIONS and SEARCH. Call it "Tutorial" or "New to CF?" or whatever you like. Remember, right now, content > design. We don't need to expand the swirly dragon or anything. A simple link with the same (or similar) font would suffice.

2) Ad feedback and data (Lyristeon?)
How is the google ad project coming along? What ads led to which intro pages, and what kind of response did they result in? What can we do to tweak the intro pages, or do we need to put together some all-new ones to cover another market segment?

3) Idea Brainstorming (All)
We've had some good ideas come through this forum, but things have gotten slow in the past six months or so. Are there other ways to advertise CF? 4th edition D&D was just released - can we exploit the renewed interest in pen-and-paper roleplaying to draw in new players? I'm sure we can't hope to convince a publisher like Bantham to put a CF ad in the back of a fantasy novel (not within our budget anyway). What about a basket of CF bookmarks at the local Barnes and Noble, Half-Price Books, or comic book store? I'd like to see some additional brochures easily accessible for the community to print and post, but dammit Jim, I'm an engineer, not an artist! And what about other distribution methods? Personalized CF playing cards, free at the student union, or a college bookstore?

4) Marketing budget (Kastellyn?)
There was talk about a marketing budget. Do we have one? Are we going to try to make one? Do we even need one?

I had a few other thoughts, but they were eaten by the forum. I'd like to jump start the strategic plan post of Kastellyn's also...

The last page of comic books for years was a D&D ad. Anybody have any idea what it would cost to do a last page ad in Marvel or DC? I will email the Nodwick online comic guy, and maybe PVP and see if they will just do a short plug for us in their weekly blog.

As far as I know this hasn't really gone anywhere, but, I've also been CF AWOL for a while until recently.

As far as I'm concerned, run with this, and if you need something, let me know.

Anybody official thought of posting a "We're back up!" post on TMS? Not that a million people would magically flock here, but if somebody tried it out in the week it was down, and found both game and message boards dead...they probably wouldn't look again.

From Kastellyn's Marketing Plan:

5. We need to follow up with ALL of our players. My thought: a quarterly email to all www.carrionfields.com registered users that summarizes the in-game changes (i.e., shifter revamp, edges for druids, new areas, etc.) from the past three months and gives a few easily gathered statistics and other relevant information (i.e., list of current Cabal leaders, average players over the last week/month, etc.) Something to try to draw former players back into the game and make newcomers feel like they're a part of the community.


Has any progress been made here? I think open communications are really important, and a quarterly "state-of-the-game" newsletter is a good way to keep people informed. On the statistics side, you could also provide information such as race popularity, class popularity, cabal popularity, and cabal wars - it may be too much info, or it might draw more folks in to playing that underdog combo that they've always wanted to try.

It should also be straightforward to summarize any imm-run quests. I know I'd certainly love to hear more about stuff that goes on when I'm not logged on - what started it, what happened, who participated, what was the outcome?

I can put the newsletter together, but gathering the information will require a little help from some of you implementationator types.

I also don't know how the logistics of distribution would work out. I think there's a lot of potential here, but I don't think I have enough information to get started just now.

>I can put the newsletter together, but gathering the
>information will require a little help from some of you
>implementationator types.
>
>I also don't know how the logistics of distribution would work
>out. I think there's a lot of potential here, but I don't
>think I have enough information to get started just now.

This has been the theme song for CF marketing thus far. I hope to see you guys overcome this stopping point.