With the latest lockdown announcement looming over everyone, many of us are preparing to enter back into a world of virtual events, Skype calls and Zoom quizzes. As people’s lives are becoming more restricted, it’s important to create positivity and a sense of community wherever possible. One way to do this is through gamification – but what actually is it?
Gamification is essentially the application of gaming elements into a non-gaming context, and includes things such as quizzes, badges and leaderboards. Perhaps the most well-known example of gamification – and one which we’ve all seen the success of first-hand – is McDonald’s Monopoly.
With the consumer experience becoming an increasingly important aspect of B2B marketing, there has been an increase in gamification – but it’s more than just a bit of fun for your customers. According to a report from Demand gen, 93% of marketers say they “love gamification”, and here are 5 benefits to demonstrate why:
- Get noticed
- Lead generation
- Increase conversions
- Build and maintain relationships
- Improve employee performance
Gamification can help improve your online presence and keep your site relevant thanks to the constant interaction between you and your audience. It’s also a great way to get your site noticed, with 81% of marketers agreeing that interactive content is more attention-grabbing than static content, and a further 88% agreeing interactive content helps to differentiate their brand from competitors. Whether you are a startup business looking to get noticed in the industry, or an established brand looking to set yourself apart from the competition, gamification provides users with a unique experience that will help increase brand awareness by offering an engaging and memorable experience.
How many times a day do you find yourself coming across a dull, generic data capture form that gives you no real motivation to want to complete it? Well, gamification is here to change that. By providing your audience with an engaging and enjoyable experience, and creating some form of value for them, you are encouraging them to ‘return the favour’ and give something back to you. Alternatively, gamification can be used to help generate leads by encouraging users to provide their details to unlock ‘exclusive content’. A good example of this would be encouraging users to submit their name and email address to appear on a leaderboard and see how their performance compares against others.
Think about it, would you feel more motivated to commit to something if you were simply asked to, or if you knew you would get a reward for doing so? Gamification motivates users to complete an action by offering an incentive and creating value for them in some way. Agreeing, around 70% of marketers say that interactive content is successful at converting visitors.
Providing your audience with rewards and incentives will not only help you to obtain leads initially, but will encourage your audience to stick around by giving them a reason to keep coming back for more. Think about it, if you receive some form of value every time you visit a company’s website or complete a certain action, it will act as a form of positive reinforcement, thus naturally, you will want to keep returning to receive more value.
We mentioned earlier that gamification helps to increase engagement between you and your audience, and this is hugely important when it comes to building relationships. It allows you to establish a deeper connection with your audience, and helps build trust as opposed to simply just increasing brand awareness. Gamification can also help to increase brand loyalty and trust through the use of user-generated content: for example, through the creation of online communities which use point-scoring systems to encourage interaction – including offering reviews and helpful advice – by rewarding contributors with points and ‘expert’ status.
Whilst we have primarily focused on benefits relating to customers, gamification can also have an impact on internal operations. Aside from helping to train employees more effectively and efficiently – for example, by allowing them to face real-world situations through simulations – gamification can help track employee performance and motivate employees through competition and incentives.
Now you’ve seen how gamification can benefit your business, it’s time to get your head in the game, free yourself from the objectivity trap and add some fun and games into your marketing.
