Gamification marketing: Your audience wants to play!

If you’re looking for a powerful and engaging way to get your brand message across to your target audience, look no further. Gamification marketing is just what you need, and in this post I’ll explain how you can use it to achieve your goals at each stage of the customer journey. Because you know what? There’s really no need to pester your audience with pop-up ads and videos that won’t close. You can get them to interact with your brand of their own accord.

And how do I know that gamification marketing is right for you? Because it can be applied to any sector and to any type of company of any size. So read on to discover how to use the power of gamification to benefit your brand.

What is gamification marketing?

Using gamification in marketing consists of applying different aspects and elements of game playing to marketing functions, such as attracting and retaining customers, running a campaign, or generating engagement. The idea is to offer contests, competitions, challenges, and rewards in order to encourage audience participation, which is much easier to do in the digital world.

Gamification marketing is very common in loyalty programs, but it can be applied to any of the phases of the customer journey, whether to attract customers, obtain their data, or close sales. 

So what things do you need to create a digital marketing gamification strategy? We must start by laying out the mechanics of the game, using storytelling techniques to structure all the elements of the game and make it attractive: levels, points, prizes… The more fun, the better. It has to be easy enough to invite people to take part but not too easy; there should be a challenge involved.

The strategy also involves deciding on the channels you’ll use to try to reach your audience and how you will measure your results. All of this is a piece of cake if you use Genially. I’ll tell you all about it later in the post.

Benefits of gamification marketing at each stage of the customer journey

There are many theories that explain the customer journey from the moment they have no relationship with the brand until they become loyal customers, and these theories usually divide this journey into 4 stages. According to inbound marketing, these are: the discovery of the brand or product, the beginning of the relationship with the brand, conversion, and loyalty. 

You can use digital gamification strategies to improve results in any of these phases.

1. The discovery stage

Gamification boosts brand awareness. Wouldn’t it be great if the first time they came into contact with your brand was through a fun game? If the discovery of your brand is associated with positive emotions, engagement will be improved. And, with games and challenges it’s much easier to educate people about your product.

If you create a fun game that your audience likes, you can achieve that word-of-mouth effect brands so desire, and also lead to the equally coveted UGC (User Generated Content). If your game is a hit, people will share it on their social media and create content about your brand. Content generated by the community is invaluable for a brand.

2. The consideration stage

Using gamification helps you gather information about your customers. Beyond contact information such as email addresses, you’ll be able to monitor how they interact with the games. This way you get information about their tastes and preferences, which you can use to fine-tune your marketing strategies.

3. The conversion stage

It’s a proven fact: gamification boosts conversion. A good example of this is Domino’s Pizza, who have managed to make ordering pizza fun with their mobile app Pizza Hero. Since they applied gamification to their ordering process, their profits have gone up by 30%. 

If your audience is enjoying your game, there’s a much better chance that they’ll respond to your CTA than if you hit them with your ad when they’re in the middle of something else. 

What’s more, gamification will make your offers much more attractive. Think like your audience: I’m sure you too are fed up with banners announcing X% discounts but… what if in order to get the discount, you had to win a game? A small challenge can be irresistible to many people.

4. The loyalty stage

Using gamification also boosts engagement. Surprising your potential audience with games is not only useful for capturing their attention. It can also help you get inside your clients’ minds, reactivate your relationship, or get them to fall in love with you. Creating a game is the easiest way to keep people wanting to interact with your brand after the purchase.

How to use Genially to gamify your marketing

When it comes to creating gamification resources, Genially is your greatest ally. It’s an all-in-one tool that’s got everything you need; just add a dash of your creativity. Creating content is much easier than you think, because you don’t have to start from scratch. In Genially, you’ll find:

• Tons of templates for quickly and easily creating quizzes, escape rooms, and games of all kinds. 
• The ability to add interactivity, animation, music, and sound effects and create an immersive environment to make your game more believable, almost like a video game. And all with just a few clicks, no coding required.
• A super easy way to share your creation: you can insert it in your blog or website, in a social media post, send the link in your marketing emails, or share it however and wherever you want.
• The option to monitor your creations and get data on audience interaction.

To make it even easier, here are some gamification marketing examples and ideas.

Ideas and resources for gamified marketing

1. Create a quiz on your brand and offer a discount to anyone who gets all your questions right. For example, you can put a discount code on the last page of your quiz. And if you use a QR, you’ll make it easier to participate.

Here is another example. Which one suits your objective best?

2. How about an escape room? Here’s an idea: try hiding your new product or collection in the last room and entice your community with an exclusive first look. You can even do a giveaway for those who share it on their social media.

3. Branching scenario I’ve always loved ‘choose your own adventure’ games. You too? Well, now you can create your own. Customize this template with your images and story, it’ll look awesome!

4. Competitions: All you need is a game template and a good idea to whip up a contest that’ll entertain your audience no end. The possibilities are endless! Check out these suggestions:

Create your own game show with words related to your topic and offer prizes to those who send you all the answers first.

Another option if you don’t want to have to come up with so many questions is to use a Trivial Pursuits type of game, which is always a winner.

Guess the song games are always super fun. Got a playlist that can be connected to your brand? Fire away!

You can also make a movie quiz, or one about any other topic you can think of.

So, start thinking about what prizes you want to give away in your gamification marketing strategy. Your audience will be blown away!