Gamification: an essential strategy for digital marketing

Why should marketing companies, and especially digital marketing companies, be interested in gamification and gamified content? The answer is simple: humans love games. That means customers and target users love games. We play games, we watch other people play games, and we want to compete and interact with our friends and families. This is a universal trait in human beings and in nature. The playing of games sprung up around the world throughout history as frequently and ubiquitously as the building of structures and the forming of social groups. Even animals learn to hunt and fend for themselves by playing with their brothers and sisters.

That’s why gamification has become a powerful tool for brand strategy in digital marketing – it’s ingrained in the most primal and inalienable parts of our minds. It’s also ingrained in the most primal and inalienable parts of the minds of your target audience, whatever sector you may be marketing to. You can use this ingrained desire for play for all sorts of marketing purposes.

First of all, what is gamification?

Gamification is the use of game elements and mechanisms, particularly from video games, in areas that were not originally playful. It can be applied to all types of content or applications, from marketing, to education and training. Gamification makes activities and actions more fun and engaging, which boosts the motivation and engagement of users and audiences of all ages, and in turn gives better business results.

There are examples of gamification in all industries and across all business functions, but really, any area which might benefit from greater user engagement is ripe to be gamified for better results. You find the fun in a task, or a way to appeal to the competitive spirit of a user, or their thirst for discovery or progress, and you can more effectively motivate them towards desired behaviours or outcomes.

Think about how heated a family game of monopoly can get? Think about the usual suspects who ruin it for everyone else? Think about how much everyone must care, at least a little, about the game to be bothered about 1 or 2 players taking things too seriously. Imagine if you could get that kind of passion and attention from your target audience on your marketing content? You don’t want people to look, scroll on by, and maybe remember, maybe not, you want to captivate your audience. Gamification – that invitation to play, to participate, and to experience, is the most effective digital marketing tool to try to captivate your audience and inspire passion.

Gamification strategies used in digital marketing

Digital marketing is the process of using digital tools and strategies to promote a product or service. It is a form of advertising that uses the internet, social networks, mobile devices, online advertising, and other electronic channels to reach the customer. And it is now an essential part of the modern business landscape.

Gamification is now as accessible as it is powerful

If your business is not yet using gamification or gamified content, you are missing out on one of the most powerful digital marketing tools available. Gamification has become a highly accessible and highly versatile element of digital marketing strategies because it can be applied to many aspects of a website or app to achieve a variety of business goals.

While back in the early 2000s gamified marketing content was the reserve of powerful multinationals with budgets to build gamification experiences from scratch, games creation platforms like Drimify now allows companies to customise tried-and-tested game engines to professional standards far more efficiently – both from a technical standpoint, and an economic view. The Drimify platform can be used in self-service mode with its intuitive interface, but also has a range of agency services as add-ons, so businesses can get as much or as little help as they need or want with their projects.

Game mechanics applied to marketing

Game mechanics in interactive content can be used to provide users with an enjoyable digital experience that promotes lead conversion, increases brand loyalty, and fosters customer satisfaction. The effectiveness of gamification has been proven many times over by businesses gamifying their marketing and subsequently delivering on pre-determined key performance indicators (KPIs), and it can be implemented in nearly infinite ways. Here are some examples:

If you want to increase your company’s online presence and awareness with your content, you could consider running contests and promoting them on social networks. The possibility of a grand prize makes them very sharable, which can generate a lot of engagement not only from your followers and community, but from other people within your demographic who may not necessarily be aware of your brand. The power of social media for businesses lies in that you’re operating in a hyper-connected sphere where if you reach a handful of potential customers, they will be connected to many more potential customers, either through groups, or connections or follows, depending on the specific social network’s vernacular.

In your loyalty programme, you should consider integrating a progress bar and badges. This way you can create a gamified user journey on your website or mobile app with missions to complete to earn points. By reaching new levels, customers will be able to claim new rewards such as promotional codes to incentivise purchasing. By visually demonstrating how much someone’s invested in your loyalty programme with a progress bar (or other game mechanics to indicate progress, like a participant’s level), they’re more likely to stick with your brand because they’ve bought into your programme and your brand – nobody likes to lose a streak or progress. For example, if you’re on the way to a large discount code with a supermarket’s loyalty app, you’re going to stick with them for your big shops.

Turn the customer journey into an experience: from promotion to purchase

You can reward your new customers from their first purchase onwards with exclusive content or special discounts based on their interaction with your brand online. A shopping experience that offers regular incentives and rewards customer loyalty is effective in quickly building buyer loyalty and encouraging long-term customer retention. By creating one-off, personalised events and gaming experiences related to the products and services you offer, you help create a positive feeling and image for your brand.

Gamification utilised as a long term strategy also allows you to collect data from your users – both relating to preferences through customised Surveys, but also in terms of how your marketing games are actually performing. Are players playing them all the way through, or stopping at a specific point in the experience? Are as many people engaging as you expected? This information can be used to qualify your audience in order to improve your future marketing campaigns.

The Drimify gamification platform can help you with your projects

A well-executed gamification strategy can deliver superior user engagement than a traditional marketing campaign. It’s just more effective and more impactful to invite potential customers to participate in an interactive experience than it is to bombard them with text and images.

The Drimify gamification platform makes game creation a quick and easy process for anyone – whether they have some coding knowledge, or are a complete novice and less technically minded. Use our gamification platform in self-service mode with its intuitive interface, or use the various add-on packs for as much or as little help with your marketing projects as you need.

Want to know more?