Last week, @thepeoplesguild put out a challenge to the community for ideas to improve the new user experience.
We are already seeing a lot of really cool ideas, and I think players would love almost any of these things to happen:
- Player achievements, new games, new guild features (here, here, here and here)
- Reworking free and lower league gameplay and tutorials (here, here, here, here, here, here and here)
- New market features to make card ownership more accessible (here)
Honestly, I love all the creative ideas that we've come up with, and I hope they can happen!
These are all amazing ways to increase the enjoyment of the game and I'm not going to try to compete with any of them!
I'm going to suggest something completely different.
For me, with the current state of the game, I'm really focusing on SIX key objectives:
- Don't spend more money than we need to
- Quick fix, with minimal work needed by developers
- Leverage the things we already have, and align with our existing priorities
- Help new players get more enjoyment faster
- Increase new player conversion and retention
- Don't interfere with other development projects in the works
As you can see, this is a pretty short list.
But it's powerfully streamlined.
Before I tell you the proposal, let me tell you why.
The Splinterlands team is running lean. They are dead focused.
NPE is the dragon and we are throwing everything we've got at it, so we are ready for the big "Marketing Push."
Well, this idea is dead simple.
No overlap with other tech projects!
It can reduce confusion and frustration for new players!
It can reduce abandonment and increase sales conversion!
You can easily automate it with mass market tools, or even do it manually!
It's using the cheapest tech around, and we already use it!
We already have everything we need to get started!
So, you ready for the secret ingredient?
Think about this:
The first action from every new user is to create their free-to-play account with an email address.
Let that sink in just a second.
Wait, what? so... email? ... that's boring.
Yes. Boring. But deadly effective, amazingly affordable, and super easy to implement.
IN SHORT:
Send every new signup a daily email with curated "Lessons", once a day for 12 days.
Every day should include a different "Call to Action" challenge
(ideally a free one, related to the daily lesson)
WHY IT WILL WORK:
- They get a daily reminder to log in, learn the new thing, and try a new challenge
- They get reassurance that, if it seems complicated, don't worry - you'll understand soon!
- Over two weeks they can learn a lot slowly get deeper and we can tailor the message.
- You get a much longer sales window than just a few demo battles they may just lose
Think about it...
How many of us get emails every day from other games saying "haven't seen you in a while?"
How many of us have seen online retailers emailing "You left this in your cart!"
Haven't you ever gone back and sent the order after that helpful reminder?
This is basic sales.
Why aren't we doing this already?
The only difference I'm suggesting is to include a lesson plan.
I've started to put together a sample plan, which I'm calling "Mage Academy". Feel free to use it, or create a new one.
TPG - thanks for the soapbox - love what you do!