October 4, 2023
Gamification (noun): the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g., point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service.
Once you discover the principle of gamification in marketing your business, you’re never going to look back. Gamification is taking the marketing world by storm due to its amazing customer engagement-boosting powers.
It’s nothing new – companies have been using gamification to boost customer engagement for years in other forms. Sweepstakes, point systems, rewards programs, and contests have been set up by most major brands at some point or another.
But the increasing role of importance of the internet is changing the gamification landscape. Small businesses are better able to take advantage of the customer engagement-boosting properties of bringing fun games or competitions into a cohesive marketing strategy.
Gamification increases customer engagement by telling more people about your company, keeping visitors on your website for a longer period of time, and associating your brand with fun and a sense of accomplishment. Here are 3 gamification ideas that boost customer engagement. Give one or all a try – and remember to have fun!
3 Gamification Ideas to Boost Engagement
Digital scavenger hunt
Want more people to visit your website or a certain social media profile you’re trying to build engagement on? There’s no better way than by hosting a digital scavenger hunt. This can take so many different forms.
You can “hide” images, clues, etc. on your website and have visitors hunt to find their location (think of the extra time visitors will spend on your site), give clues online to local spots and areas for people to go out and find, or ask your audience to screenshot specific things from your social media page. A digital scavenger hunt is one of our favorite gamification ideas because it’s easily customize-able and fun for everyone involved.
Create a rewards app
It’s simple to create an app to help your customers track their rewards at your company. You don’t even need coding knowledge! There are tons of programs that design apps and allow you to customize the way you want your app to appear and function.
Design your own app with:
Host a social contest
Hosting a contest on social media is one of the easiest gamification ideas! You just need a contest idea to get started. There are a multitude of ways to run a contest on social media. Hashtag contests ask participants to use a certain hashtag to enter. You’ll just track the hashtag to keep up with entries. Photo contests ask participants to snap pics of certain scenarios or items while tagging a company. You could run a voting or likes contest where different entries are decided upon by your social audience.
There’s no right or wrong way to run a social contest – keep your audiences’ interests in mind and you’re sure to see heightened engagement!
These are our 3 gamification ideas that boost customer engagement. How have you incorporated gamification into your business’ marketing strategy? We’d love to see some examples of companies that are engaging customers with creative game play!
