Have you ever used your phone or computer to play a game? Was that game associated with a favorite brand? Gamification is a concept that many brands are incorporating into their digital marketing strategy to increase audience engagement and brand exposure.
There’s a reason you feel like games are so addictive. Whether it be the sense of accomplishment or feeling part of something, people love to get their competitive edge on and win! By implementing gamification strategies in your business’ website/app experience, users will also have that same urge for victory with your brand. They’ll come back time after time because they’re always looking for a new game — and who doesn’t want more engagement?
Users become engaged when experiencing these fun adventures which makes them return again and again as well as wanting even more from their favorite brands!
What is Gamification?
Gamification is a way for marketers to create games that are fun, interesting, and easy-to-play. These types of games encourage their audiences to participate in the game by giving them rewards if they choose correct answers or complete tasks on time. People will also want rewards that encourage group participation so they can share it too!
One of the most popular ways to engage people with your product these days is by incorporating games. Mobile apps like IG filter have become ubiquitous in our culture — so much so that you won’t find many social media influencers without at least one photo or video bearing their unmistakable signature look on all of their feeds.
Likewise, augmented reality or AR technology has opened up new avenues for brands seeking creative platforms where they could create virtual products which users would then interact as if they were real life objects right before them (no matter how wild).
Gamification has been around for a while now, but it’s still positioned as the latest marketing trend. And if anything, it is gaining more attention since everyone wants to play games and potentially win something! That’s because playing stimulates our creative spirit that we all have inside of us.
Many marketers are taking advantage of the addictive nature that comes with gamification in order to increase their chances of selling a product or service. It is all about getting people hooked on an emotional high, and then using it as leverage to get them involved further down the line by creating memorable experiences for both themselves and those around them.
Whether it’s a game, app, or an IG filter, there are two ways to increase engagement: time and convenience. Gamification is one way of doing this by making the experience something that people want to spend their free time on. When they see your brand as engaging in addition to not being annoying, consumers will be more likely to purchase from you again because of how much exposure they get through playing games like yours!
Here are some suggestions for integrating gamification into your own marketing approach.
Know your audience.
To establish what style of game would appeal to your customers, always start with your target audience. If you don’t consider this initially, you may not be able to engage them and get the results you want. A younger audience is unlikely to enjoy the same style of gameplay as a 40-something.
Consider your audience’s age if you’re using a quiz or trivia format for your game. If your target audience is more diverse, you can use game features and pertinent questions to appeal to a wider audience.
Do your research.
Try out some additional customer-oriented games to see how they work, what kinds of prizes they offer, and how they involve product placement. Nothing can assist you develop your own gamification strategy like looking at what others have done to see if you can find best practices that meet your marketing goals.
Social sharing, scoring, and prizes are all common features in the finest games. Before deciding what would work best for your brand and demographic, try a variety of quiz, racing, and skill games. Hands-on engagement will help you to gain a better understanding of what was engaging based on your own reactions.
Set up a reward system.
Decide what kind of reward you’d like to give away. It could be a free sample of a new product, discount coupons, or educational content and guidelines. In order for gamification to be successful with your audience, there must be a clear motivation.
Using social media contests to decide what to include in the gamification approach is also a good idea. If you’ve never utilized incentives before, it’s a good idea to look at what others in your field are doing to see what works, or ask your audience what they want from you.
Don’t make things complicated.
Keep things as straightforward as possible. Your audience will be confused by a complicated game or contest. They will leave it if they can’t figure it out soon or if you ask too many of them to get started. Consider keeping each game brief, given people’s short attention spans and the abundance of distractions.
You can use focus groups and user testing sites to figure out the appropriate combination of aspects that make a game simple to learn but tough enough to keep users coming back for more. The feedback you will obtain during focus groups and user testing will help you fine-tune your approach.
Set deadlines.
Define the timeline for creating and launching the gamification strategy, as well as budget constraints. Because it’s most likely new to your marketing plan, you’ll want to collaborate with your creative and technical teams up front to set goals, timelines, and costs before the process becomes too complicated.
It’s a good idea to outsource a gamification expert. This will allow you to work more efficiently and within budget, and their comments will provide insight on aspects of the development process about which you might potentially be confused about.
Set objectives.
Calculate the results of your gamification strategy to see if it’s worth it or if there are any modifications you need to make. You can incorporate analytics tools that provide statistics on user engagement, such as the length of time spent playing the game and user achievement and levels, to determine the audience’s ability and encourage them to return.
If these figures don’t show any signs of improvement, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and make the necessary improvements.
Takeaway
Gamification is a powerful tool that can be used to increase engagement with content and encourage people to take specific actions. By making interactions interactive and entertaining, gamification will help you catch attention for the long-term so your community members feel more connected than ever before.
It has been proven time and again that this method works incredibly well because people love competition (especially if they get rewarded!). Whether its website design or social media marketing — there are so many different ways we can use gamified techniques- which means brands should never stop trying new ideas until something sticks.
