Marketers know that their main goal is to attract new prospects to their business with the hopes of making a sale. While there are lots of different approaches to effective marketing, a strategy that’s growing in popularity is known as gamification. Learn more about what marketing gamification is and how you can use it to build your brand and attract new customers.
What is Marketing Gamification?
You’ve probably encountered brands using gamification more than you realize. In it’s most simple terms, gamification is the process of incorporating fun competition into your marketing strategy. Gamification can really work for any brand or business no matter your size, even if you only have a few fans or followers. If you’ve seen a brand post something on Facebook that says “like and share this post for a chance to win,” that’s an example of gamification. Or maybe you’ve signed up for a service that rewards you with points for participating in certain activities or used an app sponsored by a brand like NikeFuel, where users compete against one another, keeping track of their daily physical activity. These are all examples of gamification at work.
What makes gamification work so well is the emotional connection it can make with your audience. It engages potential customers, connects them with your brand, and spreads awareness about who you are. It also taps into people’s natural desire to compete and win. Contests, free product giveaways, and games can really rev up your audience and make them want to get involved. The chance to be rewarded is motivating and fun and ends up creating more loyal customers in the long run.
Globally, the gamification industry will be valued at $11.1 billion by 2020, growing from $1.65 billion in 2015. With this in mind, now is a great time to integrate gamification into your marketing strategy.
How To Integrate Marketing Gamification
If you’re ready to get started with gamification, there are a few great tips you can implement right away. First, you want to start by rewarding participation. You can award points every time someone takes action, give bonuses for participation, or start contests that encourage customers to get engaged with your brand. It’s important to make it social, so it’s easy for people to share your content with their friends. People also like being recognized, so you can use social media to show off your top players and encourage more competition.
Next, it’s important to remember that people are more likely to take action when it’s simple to do so. Make sure your instructions are clear, and people know what they need to do to get involved. And be sure to define specifically define what needs to be done to win the reward. At the same time, don’t make it so easy to earn points or win prizes that the element of challenge or competition is lost. Gamification thrives when it creates a sense of achievement in your audience, and friendly competition is likely to spark discussions and forge new connections.
Ultimately, you want to surprise and delight your audience. Maybe you can reward random points or a freebie now and then if it seems like engagement is down. Gamification can help you retain customers in the long run, and drive the behaviors that you want your customers to take. It can give you an edge over your competition by boosting brand awareness and helping to spread the word about what you have to offer.
If you’d like to learn more about how to integrate gamification into your marketing strategy, contact New Perspectives. Research games are our specialty.