Karolina Petraškienė
Content Marketing Manager
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Think about the last time you won something. How did it make you feel?
People look for gaming pleasure for years–it taps into our competitive human nature. Unexpected entertainment and winning something makes people feel good, increases their engagement, and makes the occasion more memorable. That’s why gamification in marketing is so effective and businesses are constantly searching for ways to include this element in their strategies.
What is gamification in marketing?
Gamification takes the essence of what makes games so alluring and integrates it into unexpected, non-game, online, and offline experiences.
But marketing gamification can vary in its scope and budget. Big brands like Nike and McDonald’s can spend thousands on developing new games, viral videos, or apps, but small business managers can rarely spend that much on these kinds of programs.
Luckily, there are other ways to add a gaming element to your marketing toolkit without the need to rob a bank. Today, we will focus on easier-to-adopt marketing gamification methods that marketers can implement themselves and see immediate results with.
Emails with gamification elements get 74% better engagement.
Ask the Right Questions, Choose the Right ESP!
Old, mid-aged people, youngsters–all find gaming experience exciting. Especially, if you target young people, gaming is synonymous for them. Gamified content is exactly what Gen Z is used to–easily-consumable, visual, and highly-addictive.
Augmented reality tricks, old-school lottery, or gamified loyalty programs can help you to get customers’ attention and have them perceive your brand with long-term positive feelings, resulting in better engagement and additional sales.
60% of consumers said they would be more likely to buy from a brand if they enjoyed playing a game with it.
With time, cutting through the ecommerce noise and collecting customers’ information for future marketing messages is becoming a challenge for marketers. Moreover, with anti-spam policies and GDPR regulations in action, merchants can’t send messages to people without having their consent.
Fun, gamified sign-up forms can help businesses build their lists more effectively. According to Omnisend yearly reports, an interactive Wheel of Fortune outperforms pop-ups and other usual sign-up forms by three times. That’s definitely something worth considering when planning list-building campaigns.
Gamification in marketing provides an opportunity to reward customers for their loyalty and engagement, and share the brand’s message in a fun and compelling manner.
When you think about gamification techniques, the following examples shouldn’t slip out of your mind:
The initial purpose of gamification is to provide a memorable experience that makes an appealing connection with customers, rather than increasing sales directly. However, positive feelings help the brand stay on top of customers’ minds, leading to increased customer retention, and additional sales.
Whether it’s a wheel of fortune, scratch-off card, or loyalty program, know your audience. You should segment it and offer benefits that would be relevant for that customer in particular. Remember, even giveaways and gifts can be perceived differently. What motivates one person can be boring or unimportant for others.
Read more about Customer Retention with Lifecycle-Based Segmentation.
As with every new marketing activity, a gamification marketing campaign should have a goal. Set it before taking any action. It will help you to segment and determine your audience, length of the campaign, benefits you offer, etc.
Answering the following questions will give you a clear campaign direction:
Create dedicated campaigns that have one purpose, such as attracting new customers, retaining current ones, and winning-back lapsed buyers. This will enable you to draft laser-focused messaging and offer the ideal benefits for specific target audience needs.
Participating in your game should be entertaining and not require too much thought to figure out how it works. Look for easy ways to add gamification to your marketing and prepare easily-multiplied prizes. If the chance to win is meager or submitting the entry too complicated, your gamification efforts won’t generate the engagement and results you expect.
At Omnisend, we have three marketing gamification options that our customers love:
You can try them for free with our free 14-days trial. Now let’s look at them, and how other brands use them to reach their business goals.
Apart from gamified email campaigns and sign-up forms, ecommerce marketers find value in launching loyalty reward programs. Most of them are gamified by their nature.
Tools like Smile.io or LoyaltyLion might help you implement your ideas when thinking of a gamification strategy.
So it’s definitely worth trying for any kind of ecommerce business.
People love games. An unexpected, playful approach to an ordinary discount, invitation to sign up, or refer a friend can positively
Sign up to Omnisend for a 14-day trial today and try our gamification marketing campaigns for free.
