I see this advice a lot, but I never really understood what the alternative is.
If your product has a specific niche, maybe there are some forums or subreddits dedicated to it, sure. But if it's a game? Some are designed for a niche audience, but most really aren't.
Another thing is that most of the forums/subreddits these days have strict rules against self-promotion.
And I'm not saying that you're wrong - I'm just wondering what do you think is the right way to do things.
There are far less creators than there are people that merely consume/enjoy/use that kind of content/art/product/service
and that
Most people who are creators aren't going to be in your target audience, and hence won't buy/use it.
Hence by marketing to other creators, you end up marketing to a subset of a subset of your product/game's total audience.
As for how you should market?
Well, in a mix of ways. Paid ads, getting journalists/media outlets/influencers to cover your work, posting on social media, doing various attention grabbing marketing campaigns, etc.
Plus using communities that are likely to be interested in the game.
Of course, as you say, the latter have rules against self promotion.
But here's the thing. Those rules are not 100% set in stone absolute.
They're about stopping drive by advertisers, not just anyone with anything to promote at any time in history. That's how the communities I run work for instance, with the assumption being that if someone shows a real interest in the community and subject, we'll allow them to share their work.
So you ideally want to be a longtime contributor on any community you want to market your work on. Have (as they say), less than 10% of your posts as ads for your work.
> I see this advice a lot, but I never really understood what the alternative is.
How obvious the distinction is depends on your product.
Imagine I'm a robot maker making a robot vacuum cleaner. The kind of publicity that can get me into "Hackaday" probably comes to me a lot more naturally than the kind of publicity that gets me into "Good Housekeeping"
But I should be aiming for the latter, assuming my target market is "homeowners" rather than "robot enthusiasts"
Of course, for other products the distinction might be less obvious; if I'm making an IDE my users and my peers are probably fairly similar groups.
> But if it's a game? Some are designed for a niche audience, but most really aren't.
Even if it isn't designed for a niche, you can still start by marketing to one. Or to a demographic, and advertise to media that targets that demographic.
Another thing is that most of the forums/subreddits these days have strict rules against self-promotion.
And I'm not saying that you're wrong - I'm just wondering what do you think is the right way to do things.