A row of folks playing PC video games in a green room

10 Marketing Tips to Engage Geeks

10 Marketing Tips to Engage Geeks

We could spend hours debating the differences between nerds, geeks, dweebs, and dorks (and we have), but today, we want to talk about how your business can engage the literal billions of us to collect loyal advocates for your nerdy business.

Your business will have many unique audiences including newbies to your hobby, people buying for the geeks in their life, and even reporters who might want to share your business in the media. But there is a special audience who will become your BFF, the true blue fanatics, the folks who want to subscribe to your email lists, visit your store just to see what new products you have, attend events, and tell all their friends about how cool you are.

Here are 10 ways to connect with your customers and convert them to raving fans, not just of the books, games, and puzzles you sell, but of your business too.

    1. It’s okay to use publishing jargon and gaming slang in your communications with your customers and prospects. While it’s not something you should do all the time, using more technical language can demonstrate your expertise for these extreme enthusiasts. This is your permission to break out the deep-cut references to specific comic issues, the latest #Booktok drama, or an OP crunchy game strat.
    2. Understand your audience and its multitudes. Minecraft merch might mostly be for kids (or people buying for kids). Children’s books are the same way, in that you need the stock to appeal to kiddos, but also to parents who are making the purchase. The type of person who is going to go into a game store and buy a physical copy of Tears of the Kingdom is more of a collector than the customer who buys a game online but wants a Leafeon FunkoPOP! to display on their desk. Learn what products to recommend based on a couple key questions and treat each customer like an individual.
    3. Find out where your customers are hanging out, both physically and digitally. Go there and also hang out. Otherwise you’re just yelling into the deep space far, far away. That may be obvious places like r/gaming on Reddit, or #bookstagram on Instagram, where you should post general messaging blasts or event invitations. But it’s also a good idea to niche down. If you’re getting the latest Warhammer 40,000 minis in stock, you should be posting in r/warhammer40k and maybe your local geek subreddits. The same is true about the latest romance releases or author signings.
    4. Whatever other channels you decide are right for your business, be that Facebook, TikTok, Threads, or whatever else comes down the road, it’s important to follow major product brands, but also key customers, competitors and peers, and influencers related to your business. Beyond simply following these folks, you should also be engaging with their content. Like, comment, save, and share it all the time. There are so many authentic ways to connect with creators. One example is to keep up to date with any tours or travel they do and offer your store as a meet-and-greet location for their fans, or even just a quick lunch stop if they need a break while on the road.

Here are a few ideas in case you don’t already follow these creators from your business accounts:

      1. Video game content creators: Video Game History Foundation, Jaiden Animations, and Game Grumps
      2. Anime content creators: SungWon Cho, Mónica Rial
      3. Comic book content creators: Comics Explained, Comicstorian
      4. RPG content creators: The Adventure Zone, Not Another D&D Podcast
      5. Board game content creators: 1 Minute Board Games, Dani Standring, Tabletop Family
      6. Nonfiction book content creators: Schizophrenic Reads, Nonfiction Queer, K4fia
      7. Fiction book content creators: Tomes and Textiles, Books with Allison, Books with Lee, My Name Is Marines
      8. Library content creators: Columbus Library, Fowlerville Library
      9. Puzzle content creators: Karen Puzzles, Yvonne Feucht

5. In addition to building relationships with peer businesses, influencers, customers, and vendor partners, you should also be engaging with reporters, journalists, podcasters, and other media who cover your industries and regions. Well before you want your business talked about, you can be commenting on their posts and sharing their articles and episodes. Build a relationship so when you have something important to share, they are primed to spread the word with you.

6. Join other creators’ and peers’ Discord servers to peek behind the curtains of what other successful businesses are doing, connect with fans and influencers, and be a good member of the gamer or reader communities. You may also find value in creating your own Discord. This can be a ton of work and need daily or even hourly attention to help it blossom into a tight-knit, engaged community. But when it works, it really works to activate loyal fans for whatever your goals are: event attendance, product presales, and more.

7. Be timely with your messages. With Tuesdays being patch day for video games and release day for new books and issues of comics, it’s likely a good idea to set aside some time early in the week to connect with your customers to talk about the new content. Perhaps they came in for the latest Martha Wells novel but also might browse your puzzle selection (hi, it’s me, Jessica). Or they might come in for the latest D&D books, but they’ll likely also browse that case of expensive Magic: The Gathering cards you’ve been aching to sell. Or maybe you can entice them to try Flesh and Blood as a way to mix up their weekend a bit.

8. Host events and demos in store to get people excited about new products and meeting new people who share their hobby. You can even stream these demos on Twitch and build a community of followers there. Post the videos to YouTube after and then cut them up to share short snippets on TikTok and as reels on Instagram.

9. An easy retention marketing idea we know works is some sort of subscription. Book clubs, Battle Passes, sandwich punch cards. However you want to spin it, give people a reason to come back every month. The more creativity, the better!

10. Most of all, the very best thing you can do to engage your nerdy customers is to make them feel welcome. Every single time someone walks in the door, greet them and ask them a question. Invite them to participate in whatever you have going on. Explain the rules of the game you are playing. Remind them of the staff picks section. Your store should be their home, inclusive of every type of nerd, geek, dweeb, and dork.

In case it wasn’t obvious, we have so much fun coming up with marketing ideas and retention strategies because we ARE your audience! If you’re feeling stuck with not enough time, budget, or creativity to grow your bookstore, comic book store, board game bar, used video game store, library, local con, etc., we’d freaking love to help! You know where to find us.

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