Keeping modern customers engaged has never been easy. While the competition in eCommerce continues to grow, brands have to be more and more creative to stay connected to their audiences. Gamification marketing is one of the most effective ways to do it. That’s why in this article, we decided to discover the essence of gamification in digital marketing, take a look at its winning strategies, and find out how you can add a touch of gamification to your marketing content using Yespo omnichannel Customer Data Platform (CDP).

What is Gamification in Marketing

Gamification in marketing means using game-inspired approaches and design elements in customer communication. With the help of such gamification mechanics, like quizzes, polls, challenges, and rewards, brands can influence their target audiences, encouraging them to make a target action and receive more memorable customer experiences. In essence, gamification adds an element of fun and motivation to the marketing process, turning ordinary interactions into fun and rewarding engagements.

Benefits of Gamification in Marketing

When developed right, gamification strategies deliver the next business benefits:

• Increased engagement. Gamified experiences are inherently more engaging. They capture and maintain customer attention, making them come back for another interesting experience.
• Enhanced brand loyalty. Rewarding users with points, badges, or discounts fosters a sense of loyalty and encourages repeat purchases, improving overall user satisfaction.
• Triggering necessary customer behavior. Gamification motivates users to complete tasks, achieve goals, and take desired actions by offering rewards or recognition. In this way, it influences customer behavior, making them perform a targeted action at each stage of the sales funnel.
• Data collection. With the help of gamification marketing strategies, businesses can collect customer data, getting an insight into their preferences, opinions, and desires. With this data in mind, companies can develop and deliver more personalized content.
• Boosted social sharing. To some extent, gamification can work as social media advertising since the majority of users tend to share their achievements, like participating in leaderboards and challenges. As a result, social media gamification increases brand visibility.
• Increased conversions. Gamification can lead to higher conversion rates as users are more likely to take desired actions, such as making a purchase.
• Better customer retention. Gamified loyalty programs and retention tactics can reduce churn and keep customers engaged over the long term.
• Alignment with mobile commerce trends. As eCommerce goes mobile, gamification helps brands stay competitive and engage their users not only on the website but also in mobile apps.

Main Principles of Gamification

• Achievable task. Quiz, wheel spinning, puzzle, matching – whatever task you offer to solve, it shouldn’t be too complicated so that anyone can solve it.
• Clear goal. The rules and conditions should be simple and understandable for everyone. If the challenge is complicated and takes too much time, people will quit without completing it.
• Engaging design. Whatever element of gamification you use, it should have a recognizable design and shouldn’t copy the ideas of your competitors. For example, when using a website quiz, support the questions with corresponding images or GIFs: people perceive short pieces of text better when they’re intermixed with some dynamic elements.
• Fun process. Nobody likes boring games. Of course, people would spend their time expecting some incentive at the end, but the gaming routine should be fun as well.
• Reward. Don’t unlock the exact prize, it would kill the excitement. However, people should know there is something for them at the end.

Popular Gamification Strategies in Digital Marketing

One of the best things about gamification in business is that there is no limit to marketing creativity. What’s more, you can come up with diverse gamification strategies, leveraging them across different communication channels. Let’s take a look at the best gamification examples that modern brands use on their websites, in mobile apps, email newsletters, and instant messaging campaigns.

On-site Gamification Examples

• Interactive quizzes. Those stores offering the same products but in different designs, like smartwatches or glasses, can use interactive quizzes to help users decide on the product they need and make the right choice. For example, see how FitBit does it. As for another option, you can create quizzes that test users' knowledge about your products, industry trends, or your brand's history. Offer rewards for high scores.

• Treasure hunts. Treasure hunts are another gamification marketing idea to keep your users engaged on your site. Just hide virtual treasures or clues throughout your website that users can discover by navigating different pages and reward those who find all the items.
• Leaderboards and progress bars. Since competition is at the heart of any gamification tactic, you can consider implementing leaderboards and progress bars to encourage your customers to compete with each other in a friendly way. This is an especially winning approach for companies from the sports or education industries since, in this case, competition aligns naturally with the core interests of these niches.

• Virtual currency. Earning virtual currency is another gamification example that eCommerce brands frequently opt for. For example, Starbucks offers its customers to collect points that can then be redeemed for products in online or offline stores.
• Product customization games. If your product allows for customization according to the users’ preferences (for example, adding a custom print on a T-shirt), turn it into an engaging game for your users and then offer discounts for completed designs. This is a win-win idea to keep your customers satisfied with both the product and its price.

• Wheel of Fortune. As the name suggests, Wheel of Fortune is an interactive game that allows users to spin the wheel and get an instant prize, for example, a discount or free shipping. It is an effective tactic to quickly turn new users into subscribers and then first-time customers – just make sure there is no opportunity to lose in your game. For your loyal customers, a wheel of fortune may appear as an instant popup, while for those visiting you for the first time, it can be integrated with a subscription form using widgets.

For example, Modoza, one of the biggest Ukrainian retailers selling Italian brands, created three different types of widgets using Yespo CDP. The first one encouraged customers to subscribe and choose a mystery gift; the second came with the Wheel of Fortune game, and the last one was the standard widget with 5% off for the subscription. The Wheel of Fortune widget delivered almost a 7% conversion rate, while this indicator for the two remaining forms was 2-4%.

Email Gamification Ideas

• Email challenges. You can send gamified challenges via email, like puzzles or riddles, with rewards for those who solve them correctly. It is a good idea to get in touch with the customers who haven’t made a purchase for some time and get them back to the website with a prize.

• Scratch-and-win emails. A scratch-and-win email works like a wheel of fortune. The only difference is that the users receive an email with an opportunity to scratch a virtual badge and get their prize.

• Progress emails. In addition to the progress bars that you can share on your website or in a mobile app, you can also send periodic progress updates on a user's engagement with your brand, showcasing their achievements and offering rewards for milestones.

Gamification Examples with Web and Mobile Push

• Daily challenges. With the help of web or mobile push, you can send daily pushes with fun challenges or tasks and reward users who complete them within a specific time frame. For example, if you have a health and fitness app, you can encourage your users to take part in a daily workout challenge. If you have a closing store mobile app, invite your users to create custom outfits using your new arrivals and share their ideas on social media with your brand tag.

• Notification roulette. Like the wheel of fortune and scratch-and-win email, you can also randomly send web push notifications that contain surprise offers or discounts, creating an element of excitement.

• Geolocation-based challenges. In addition, you are welcome to utilize location-based notifications to deliver gamified challenges or offers when users are near your physical stores or events.

Marketing Gamification Ideas with In-App Messages

• Achievement badges and progress trackers. Achievement badges are virtual awards that users earn for completing specific tasks within your app. Progress trackers, in turn, visualize their journey, while both can be used as strong motivators for the users. Consider sharing badges and trackers by sending an in-app message so that the users can get back to them at any moment.

• In-App contests. In-app contests are interactive competitions that users can participate in directly within your app. These contests can be based on user-generated content, skills, or specific tasks, encouraging users to showcase their talents and engage with your app in a unique way. For example, if you have a food delivery app, you can encourage your users to order from restaurants they have never tried before and get a half-price visit to any of them after the contest is over.

Gamification Strategies Using Viber

• Chatbot games. To engage your customers in Viber, you can develop interactive games or quizzes within Viber chatbots, where users can play and win prizes directly within the messaging app. For example, you may provide them with a certain amount of virtual currency and invite them to build a wishlist of your products staying within this budget. To drive participation, hint at special discounts and limited-time offers for chosen items.
• Exclusive Viber offers. If your audience is quite active on Viber, you can send them Viber-only offers sharing exclusive discounts or other bonuses and encouraging them to engage with your brand via the messaging app.

• Polls and contests. In addition to chatbot games and exclusive offers shared in Viber, you can also host polls, contests, or surveys using this channel. Viber-based contests help drive user participation with the chance to win rewards, while polls and surveys are the must-use tools for gathering customer feedback.

How to Create a Gamification Marketing Campaign

One of the best things about gamification marketing is that it creates an unlimited space for marketing creativity. However, you still need to think strategically and choose the effective toolset to make your gamified marketing ideas work. Let’s discover how to create such campaigns step by step.

Define Your Goals and Channels

As seen from the marketing gamification examples above, this strategy allows for achieving different goals - from growing conversion rate and increasing user loyalty to improving brand awareness and gathering customer feedback. So, get started by identifying your goal since it will be decisive for the audience you target and channels you use. For example, if you want to grow your contact base, implementing a subscription widget with Wheel of Fortune games makes most sense.

Segment Your Audience

Depending on the goal, segment your audience. As followed from the example above, segmenting them into new users and loyal customers is the simplest approach. However, if you want to create more personalized strategies, it is necessary to segment your audience in a more advanced way. For instance, with the help of Yespo Customer Data Platform (CDP), you can segment your audience based on their behavior, preferences, and engagement levels.

Choose Communication Channels

Depending on your campaign's goals and target audience segment, choose the communication channels. Logically, subscription widgets make most sense for converting new visitors into leads. Email newsletters are equally suitable for any target audience segments. Web and mobile pushes are good for engaging both new and loyal customers with gamified incentives, special discounts and bonuses.

Using Yespo omnichannel CDP you can communicate to your users in a game-like way, including but not limited to your website and mobile app, web and mobile push, in-app messages, widgets, and Viber. At the next step, diverse gamification elements can be added to any marketing campaign across the channels to offer tailored and gamified experiences at once.

Develop Game Mechanics

After you have selected a communication channel, proceed with creating your game mechanics. Since the general goal of any gamified campaign is to engage the audience, the game itself should be simple and enjoyable, requiring no more than several steps from the user. Further, you can test your game ideas and discover what marketing gamification ideas work best for your audience. In Yespo, gathered insights can be analyzed with the help of campaign-based, sales-based, and channel-based reports.

Gamify Your Marketing Campaigns with Yespo

Gamification is a dynamic and powerful marketing approach that can be perfectly aligned with diverse business goals - from growing a conversion rate to gathering user feedback. In this article, we have explored different marketing gamification tactics that you can leverage on your website, in email newsletters, and using push or app-inbox notifications.

With the help of Yespo CDP, you can try them in practice, adding a touch of gamification to your marketing campaigns across these channels.  We offer a comprehensive solution for businesses looking to create interactive and personalized marketing experiences. Get in touch with our representatives and let's create your first gamified campaign together!

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