PlayFab is a backend platform for game developers. The developers can build their games on PlayFab. I’m not sure exactly how that works. It looks like there are a bunch of features and seems like the developers get all the things they want in a core platform and can customize on top of it.
It seems really cool. I’m not a gamer so that part is a little above my head. I’m thinking that it’s something like building a website using WordPress where PlayFab kind of acts like WordPress. Not sure if that’s correct or not.
But anyway, PlayFab has been getting some good press lately. Some big time games are using the platform and they have a lot of good reviews. So they’re obviously doing something right.
For our purposes, we’re going to look at what they’re doing with their business blog. They’ve been keeping it up-to-date so I’m excited to dig a little deeper.
1. Dealing With Different Audiences
One of the big things with business blogging is understanding your target audience. At Ghost Blog Writers, with out clients, we like to focus on who the target audience is and the questions they’re asking in relation to what the industry.
So in the case of PlayFab, the audience is probably someone at a company that develops games. It’s a guess, but probably the developers themselves would be the ones interested in PlayFab. For smaller developers, it might be the founders.
The latest post on the PlayFab blog is an interesting one. I like the format of the post for a few reasons.
First, it can get tricky when you have different audiences. In this case, it’s important that PlayFab develops relationships with developers that aren’t clients. PlayFab has a developer community that builds add-ons for their platform. I think similar to the plugin process for WordPress.
So this post focuses on what those folks have been doing that PlayFab really finds cool. The target clients of PlayFab can see what is being developed in the add-on community.
And other potential developers for the add-on community can be inspired to create something.
So it’s a win-win situation in terms of a blog post. And I’d guess that there is crossover with the two different audiences.
The point here is that PlayFab found a great way to write a post that focuses on providing value for their different audiences.
2. Creating Different Forms Of Content
This is a unique post that PlayFab did. They created a full glossary of terms and acronyms used in their industry. It’s on point with the target audience. Even when you’ve been in an industry for a while, like a developer could be with the gaming industry, you still hear acronyms that you haven’t heard before.
A glossary like this can be a great tool. The glossary is on its own standalone page. Then PlayFab used their blog to help get the word out that it exists.
That’s a good strategy. With the post, PlayFab provides some background on why they created the piece of content and then the content can be on its own as a resource.
I see this strategy from time to time with business blogs and I think it’s a good one. Anytime you have content like a glossary, video, webinar, etc. it’s good to use your other platforms like a blog, email newsletter, social media and more to help promote the content you’ve created.
3. Sponsorships, Partnerships & More
In this post, PlayFab announced that they are the sponsor of an industry event. Sponsorships are a great way for businesses to expand and grow. And using the blog to help promote the fact that you’re sponsoring something is a great way to get the word out.
The event, in this instance, likely loves that PlayFab has blogged about their involvement. All the information a reader would want to know about the event is right there in the post. A follower of PlayFab, like a developer, could see this information and signup for the event. Maybe they didn’t know the event existed or maybe time passed by and the signup deadline caught up with them.
This type of blog post is good for several reasons. They’re value to the target audience. Now developers know about the event and can see that PlayFab is involved.
The post also shows a little bit of what PlayFab stands for and what the people at the company care about. They care about this community and this type of event.
And it’s a great way to show some love to the event.
Sponsorships are one way to do something like this, but you can do the same thing with other types of business partnerships as well.
4. Writing About Audience Concerns
PlayFab does a really good job of addressing the concerns their target readers have. Here is one example of a recent post on how games can thrive in saturated and even oversaturated markets.
It’s easy to see how a game developer could have a great idea for a game, but that the game would be in an incredibly saturated marketplace within the gaming industry. So that’s a big question or concern that the developer or game founder would have.
PlayFab is deeply involved in the game industry. They see all kinds of things that go on including how other game developers and founders have succeeded in situations like this. So with this post they provide the insight the reader wants so they can succeed and address this concern.
PlayFab does this with a number of posts and it’s a great blog strategy on its own. If you’re looking for a place to start with a business blog then focus on the concerns and questions your target client has and provide the best answer you can provide.
5. Blogging Schedule
I just wanted to comment on the blogging schedule or frequency that PlayFab has with their blog. They published 21 posts in October 2015. That’s just under one post per day, which is pretty amazing for a business blog.
Some months have similar numbers in posts and other months have fewer. That’s not uncommon with business blogs.
In general, the more content you can provide the more help you can provide your target readers and the more traffic you’ll get and the more leads and customers you’ll get for your business. In general.
What we’ve seen is that it can be challenging to maintain multiple posts per week on a business blog. It can be done and some do it really well. You can see that PlayFab has done it in some months.
A good way to ensure that frequency can be kept up is to implement a steady schedule of posts. Say weekly posts where you answer a common concern or question. You brainstorm 10-15 of these at a time and put them on a schedule. Then you write one each week.
And you also work in the other types of posts like the sponsorship posts, webinars posts, announcements and more. Then you’ll always have at last one post per week and that will build over time and you can still work in posts along the way.
Final Thought
PlayFab is really doing some great things with their business blog. They have one of the highest frequencies I’ve seen. And they seem to understand many different types of posts that can work for their industry. They have a key understanding of who their target reader is and that’s a big step to having a successful blog.
If you’re looking at starting a business blog for your company then examining what PlayFab is doing is a great place to start.