Have you considered introducing gamification to your marketing strategy?
Using the mechanics of gaming is a clever way to showcase information about your brand or products that drives engagement with your users and creates something both memorable and shareable.
Research shows that adding gamification elements to your marketing can:
- Make customers 60% more likely to buy from a brand they enjoyed playing a game with
- Lead to 13% more comments and 22% more shares on social media content
So, it’s no wonder that the global gamification market is estimated to hit the giddy heights of $38.42 billion by 2026. In this article, we’ll explore how to introduce gamification elements into your marketing content and the many benefits of doing so.
What is gamification?
There’s more to gamification than simply playing games. With regards to marketing content, it involves adding elements of gameplay to encourage people to engage with and have fun with your brand.
Gaming mechanics in a non-gaming context are attention-grabbing, memorable, and spark our innate desire to play. That’s why the following gameplay elements can help your target audience connect with your brand:
- Earning points and rewards for completing desired actions
- Adding a leaderboard to kickstart our competitive nature
- Interactive polls and quizzes about your brand or products
- Interactive challenges, competitions, and giveaways
The benefits of gamification
Gamification can be used to surprise and delight
As games – or gaming elements – are fun activities, adding gamification to your marketing strategy is a sure-fire way to give your customers a happy experience with your brand.
This is because gaming triggers positive emotions linked to rewards and your customers then link the happy experience with your brand and are more likely to want to repeat the experience.
Studies have shown that applying gamification can help to manage emotions during the information-seeking research process and elicit desired feelings to the users of products and services.
Gamification can be used to increase loyalty
Gamification is an effective way to make your brand stand out from the competition. As gaming elements elicit positive feelings, it encourages an emotional connection with your brand that help to bolster brand loyalty and retain customers.
The addictive nature of gaming is another reason why gamification can encourage customers to keep returning to a brand. Businesses that employ gamification techniques can see up to a seven times higher conversion rate than those that don’t.
Gamification can be used to educate
When you want your target audience to learn something about your brand or products, be sure to consider gamification. Whether it’s an interactive video before a product launch or a fun interactive quiz to promote a rebrand, gamification can help new information stick.
In fact, over 90% of marketers agree that interactive content is a more effective way of educating buyers than static content.
Gamification can teach you about your customers
Gamification isn’t only about getting your customers to learn more about you. It’s also a great way to find out more about them. Gamification devices can be an effective way of capturing data that can help you build a clearer picture of your target audiences’ needs.
For example, asking visitors to your site to complete a short log in form before downloading an interactive video or rewarding their continued interactions with badges and a leaderboard can be a persuasive way to encourage them to share their personal data.
Plus, don’t forget that gamification can do all these things at once. In other words, gamification is a great way to ‘level up’ your marketing efforts.
For more advice on how to impress your audience with gamification techniques as part of your marketing strategy, check out our digital marketing page or get in touch for a free marketing consultation.
