Have you ever used gamification in your marketing?
Do you even know what it is?
Let me explain to those that don’t know what it is.
Gamification can be used in various situations in life such as – business, learning, training in personal growth and of course… eCommerce!
It’s the process of using reward and achievement to encourage someone to take a desired action.
One problem with marketing to our consumers online is that they have WAAAYYY too much choice. The “problem of plenty” you might say. How on earth are you supposed to garner your customers attention.
Having too many options as a consumer can lead to paralysis on decision making. One strategy that can help your customers make a decision is through gamification.
Why Gamification Works
Gamification marketing is effective because it engages your audience. Engagement is the keyword here. Your gamification marketing tactics need to be such that they inspire participation and conversation.
Studies have shown that engagement and customer experience matters so much that 88% of customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.
There are numerous methods to set up engagement with your prospects and customers. Using Gamification strategies in your marketing and sales funnel elicits strong emotions as it taps into the drive to strive, compete and improve.
Evoking these emotions is beneficial to your brand as it results in repeat engagements driven by the game. Games are fun and a little fun is all good right?
Let’s dive in and take a look at some gamification strategies and methods you can introduce into your marketing & sales process.
Ready?
Product Quizzes
First up on the list is the use of a Product Quiz. Quizzes in general are considered fun and offer plenty of engagement.
Why not create fun puzzles based on products for your website?
These puzzles can be linked to product purchase pages or a points system which again can be redeemed for cash.
An example of a product quiz I came across recently, was designed to help users choose the perfect pair of sunglasses for participants. You simply answered a few questions and the quiz would result in some options for you at the end, based on how you answered the quiz.
Pretty cool?
You can also create quizzes to improve product awareness. Not only are you delivering product awareness to potential buyers, but you are creating positive associations for your brand & product with a fun, engaging experience.
Referrals and Loyalty
Another gamification method and perhaps the most common is to use a Referral based discounts system for your eCom store. Simply put… If a customer sends new customers to your store, they get a reward.
Using Loyalty as a gamification method involves using a points-based system. This is also considered a very effective way of engagement and encourages a buyers decision making.
It’s very effective because It gives a customer an increased sense of value. When your customer is achieving points for nothing other than spending money, those points feel like part of their previous purchases.
These points become valuable, which leads the customer to become more attached to them and wishes to use them wisely. Loyalty points increase sales because consumers get attached to collecting points, which results in added value provided they collect enough of them.
As humans, we have a desire to close open loops. Meaning if it’s going to take 100 points to receive a reward… we’ll spend (within reason) in order to complete the collection of 100 points from our purchases in order to receive our reward.
The more points we collect, the more progress we make towards achieving an end goal. This feeling of progression, enhances our self worth and accomplishment. Even if the reward at the end is a simple 20% off coupon code, it nudges us towards feeling better about ourselves after receiving the reward.
If you work with Shopify and want to incorporate a loyalty program on your store, take a look at some of these solutions below –
- Smile: Rewards and Loyalty
- Bold Loyalty Points & Rewards
- Loyalty rewards and referrals
Create Your Own Game
Why not create a fun activity involving your brand?
In the form of a scavenger hunt.
Providing a memorable experience is the first step towards setting up a purchase.
For example…
The website Topcashback.com does this very well during busy shopping periods like the run upto Halloween, Christmas and Easter.
They inform their web traffic that there is a scavenger hunt in process. They offer clues on the site as to where their web visitors can find the collectible item on the site. When people figure out the clues, they visit a particular store page and find the reward.
Once the reward is clicked, it’s saved into a virtual holding place. When the user collects a certain amount of this particular type of virtual collectible, they are then offered a tangible reward.
There are various virtual collectibles on offer throughout the game that present different types of rewards. It’s a fantastic game as it keeps their users highly engaged and makes the whole experience of participating fun and of course rewarding. The tangible rewards bring with them a surge in purchases and revenue increases from stores throughout the platform.
Pretty smart gamification going on right there 👌✅
Giveaways
Last on the list is the use of Giveaways. Done the right way, this method of gamification can be very useful in terms of building brand awareness, increasing the number of people subscribing to your email list and sales on your store.
Done the wrong way…
And they can fill your email list with junk leads that won’t convert into sales for your business. 🤦♂️
Making a giveaway work for your business involves two things –
- An Irresistible offer
- Attracting the right type of target audience
Your irresistible offer should be something mega! A prize that your target audience would run through a brick wall for. Something very desirable that will want them to participate in and engage with to the point where they’d be willing to earn extra points that generate more chances of winning the prize.
I like to run my giveaways with a mega prize as well as multiple runner up prizes. From experience, this makes the entire giveaway more attractive as it’s not just one prize winner. I tend to find more of my target audience engaging in these types of giveaways. Referral rates to the giveaway go up along with social media engagement and following counts.
It’s just imperative that you get the offer and target audience right in order to make this work. At the end of each giveaway, I will email the list of participants and confirm the winners. I also add a shopping incentive such as a coupon code for those that didn’t win, so they can purchase a winning prize at a discount.
So everyone who gets involved in the giveaway leaves with something of value.
Some of the tools you can use to implement your own giveaway for your store are –
- Vyper ✅
- Gleam (My personal favourite) ✅
- Upviral ✅
Conclusion
Gamification can be a great way for businesses to differentiate themselves in a fun, fresh & unique way from the traditional methods we see online.
The gamification methods mentioned above can offer small eCommerce businesses very creative ways to engage and persuade their target audiences to align with their brands and become customers.
Have you tried using a gamification method to build your ecom business? I’d love to hear in the comments below
