You may have heard the term ‘gamification’ thrown about the digital marketing industry, but what does it mean?
Gamification in marketing is when the typical ‘game’ playing elements like point scoring, competitions and playing by rules are applied as an online marketing technique. This technique works to both promote and value to your product and/or service; as a matter of fact some of you have probably already used gamification in your marketing strategy without even knowing it!
The aim is to increase participation, engagement and loyalty amongst your audience. So how can we incorporate this into our marketing strategy? We can use many avenues including:
- holding competitions
- rewards badges
- incentivising activities
- leaderboards
There are many more, you are not limimted to the examples mentioned above.
Let’s take a look at ‘rewards badges’, what was the last brand you engaged with that included rewards badges? For example Snapchat allows you to access certain emojis when you achieve a milestonen on the app; if you want to access a shooting star emoji then your Snapchat score has to hit 10,000 (meaning you will have had to have sent 10,000 Snaps to people). This benefits Snapchat because it encourages users to utilise the app more, and users feel a sense of achievement when they do. Let’s face it, people like winning!
How about incentivising activities? The first industry that comes to my mind which is notorious for this, is the world of online shopping. Fast- fashion retailers like Missguided and Pretty Little Thing often hold competitions where the reward is ‘x’ amount of money to spend on their products. The ‘rules’ to enter the competition are usually:
“ To enter, you have to:
- Follow us on Instagram
- Like this post
- Tag your bestie….”
If we disect the rules, what the brand hopes to achieve is to increase their follower base (to generate new leads), an increase in enagement and for it to follow a domino effect and be repeated. I mean if your friend tags you in post where there is a prize like this up for grabs you’ll most likely respond and tag another friend, who will then tag another and so forth. Studies have shown that 25.7% of customers have communicated that great deals make them loyal towards a brand.
Studies show that by 2020, the customer experience will overtake the price/product in being a key brand differentiator. Therefore, considering the application of gamification to your strategy can be a ‘game-changer’.
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