Gamification Strategies to Boost Digital Marketing

Gamification is a stellar technique that can power up your marketing efforts.

The gamification industry, in fact, is expected to witness a whopping 30.1% growth rate by 2025, so now is a good time to incorporate it in your 2022 marketing plan.

Brands like Nike, Starbucks, McDonalds, etc have created amazing gamification campaigns that have performed well to keep users engaged.

So, if you want to connect with your audience, gamification marketing campaigns can be an interesting exploration.

This blog post explains the top gamification marketing strategies that can help you promote your business. We also take a look at its benefits for digital marketing.

Let’s get started!

Top 4 Gamification Marketing Strategies

Keep Campaigns Simple

Your gamification marketing should be simple and fun for your users.

Start by building a story around your website visitor’s journey from start (interacting with your business) to finish (completing a purchase).

For instance, Pizza Tracker, a revolutionary customer tool launched by Domino’s is an interesting story telling example.

The customers see a horizontal bar that lights up red when a step is completed – from ordering the pizza to it being prepared and boxed and then being placed in a Domino’s HeatWave bag.

Know Your Target Audience

Understanding your target audience well is crucial for effective gamification.

You should know what will attract your audience, what they would relate to, and create a gamification campaign that can answer those questions.

This can help ensure engagement and conversions since the audience will be receptive to it.

Reward Your Users

Offering your audience opportunities and rewards will make your gamification campaign successful.

Gamified reward programs not only provide users a feeling of accomplishment but also benefit your brand for creating a fun and interactive experience. You can even invest in a loyalty program software that helps you reward customers for non-transactional behavior.

For instance, you can give some loyalty points to customers who give you a social media mention or send referrals.

The idea is to get the users hooked and get excited for what’s in store for them in the future.

Incorporate Play Dynamics

Embracing gamification enables you to include certain activities within your marketing strategy that’ll capture the attention of your audience. Here are some examples –

a. Wheel of Fortune is a great gamification element that revives curiosity among visitors and gives them a sense of accomplishment.

b. Quizzes can help you learn about your visitors’ preferences.

c. Badge systems, membership rewards are great loyalty programmes to help you maintain a committed customer base.

What are the Benefits of Gamification in Digital Marketing?

1. Improve Customer Engagement

Gamification techniques are a favorite among 93% of marketers since it’s an interactive form of entertainment.

Making engaging marketing campaigns and activities a part of your business can help you boost customer engagement.

Eventually, users learn more about your brand and are more interested in reading your marketing messages, emails, blog posts, etc.

After the launch of a pretzel-flavored candy version, M&M posted an eye-spy game on their Facebook page.

They challenged their followers to find a tiny ‘pretzel guy’ hidden among the candies. The game went viral in no time and M&M received more than 25,000 likes, 10,000 comments, and 6,000 shares.

2. Rise in Conversions

While gamification majorly improves engagement, it also impacts your conversion rates, but only if done properly.

The conversion rates of websites with interactive content are nearly six times higher than those without it.

Unique gaming techniques add to conversions since users are intrigued and it doesn’t seem like marketing to them. Furthermore, attaching rewards puts a positive impact on your audience, therefore driving conversions.

3. Cost-Effective Marketing

Creative gamification techniques might seem expensive to some marketers but it is quite the opposite.

M&M’s ‘Eye-Spy Pretzel’ strategy mentioned above, for instance, was pretty simple and inexpensive. Their Facebook campaign went up and running and they received massive engagement. Therefore, gamification allows you to save costs as compared to a traditional marketing campaign.

4. Increase in Customer Interaction

Gamification encourages customer interaction. How? Whenever a user receives rewards for a comment on your blog post or for sharing a social media post, you gain better business presence.

This will also give the user a reason to come back to your brand.

Just follow a simple technique that attracts users to interact with your brand. Send them a reward for their actions, like a sticker or some loyalty points. Drop a reminder to customers who have been inactive.

In an attempt to provide customers a chance to interact with the brand, Chipotle launched a memory game based on their short film ‘A Love Story’.

This allowed the customers to match real ingredients whilst preventing the use of added flavors. The players in return receive a buy one get one free coupon for any food item.

The reward gives the customers encouragement to stay connected with the brand while also reinforcing the brand’s message of using healthy ingredients.

Key Takeaway

The purpose of businesses using gamification in the digital world is to encourage your customers to take action and increase interaction. Gameplay creates a unique and interactive space for businesses to connect with the customers, therefore, it’s definitely an interesting form of marketing.

Tell us in the comments section how you plan to create an innovative gamification experience for your customers.

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