Hi CCP,
As a marketing professional I though I'd just drop a few lines of advice, as it annoys the hell out of me to see how you're wasting potential. And a big thanks for sending us the free gear witch each newsletter. It's a great incentive!
1) It seems everybody agrees that this game isn't all that great yet. It's the POTENTIAL that keeps people interested and playing. Make sure that you stress this to newbies. Communicate that you strive to add new content on a monthly basis, and what you have in store for us players. Refer to this in the notes shown on the game start-up screen.
2) Emails referred to events that have already passed. The same goes for the start-up screen. It's like you've given up on the game already. Keep people enticed with what's to come.
3) Communicate new events well on time. It sucks if you've just purchased $50 worth of Aurum, and then receive an email that you'd have gotten much more if you'd only bought it 2 days later.
4) Not all the links in one of the emails were tagged, giving you lost data in your Google Analytics profiles.
5) Communicate your affiliate opportunities more to players (or do you want to wait until you've reached a certain level of quality?)?
6) Put a more engaging image in the PSN Store. Just the Dust-logo won't entice people to click and try out the game.
7) Stress that you're the guys who brought us Eve and let potential players imagine how awesome this game would be after 10 years of dedicated, continuous development. To put it over the top: entice parents to create accounts for their kids, so they won't be noobs in the game of the decade!
8) Enable players to buy aurum through YOUR website, instead of the PS Store. You'll net more revenue if people can just use their credit card or PayPal, instead of having to go out and buy a PSN card first.
9) Keep communicating your events, and get the word out well in advance. It'll show people something is happening!
10) Be active on this forum: there's a lot of dedicated players, knowledge and experience here. Let them know you care.
11) If in time you want to migrate to the PS4 and/or other platforms, communicate this as well. It'll keep people interested and receiving your updates. As soon as they have a PS4, they'll forget all about Dust if you don't pick up this ball.
12) It seems there's some people leaching on your brand name and URL. Use search advertising to at least protect your own name. Some remarketing among interested potential players wouldn't hurt either. Here's some
remarketing strategies.
Anyway, my 2 cents. Let me know if you need a marketing freelancer! :)