Why gamification works in marketing for brands

Gamification is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing marketing strategies in business. The statistics speak for themselves. In 2014, research showed that 70% of the world’s biggest 2,000 companies used at least one gamification strategy to increase their clients base. Even more startling, business owners reported that they saw an increase of between 100% and 150% in client engagement statistics when they used gamification. So what is it and what how does it work? Basically, it is the use of gaming techniques to engage existing customers and attract new ones. It is the process of putting fun and competition in your marketing strategy so as to engage users.

The premise behind gamification is this: users want to buy from you because you are different. If all you do when they contact your business is give them your product or service, you aren’t doing very much to keep them coming back time and time again. This means that your brand is not secure – users could easily turn to your competition. When you gamify your sales you reward customers for buying from you so they come back time and again and they also tell others about you.

Here is an example: Dominos, the pizza chain, decided to make things more interesting by creating a app that users can use when they don’t know what kind of pizza they want. All they need to do is shake their phones and get a selection of toppings that they can choose from. Popchips, the mobile game maker also did something interesting – they partnered with a chip company so that when players got to a certain level in the game they received a free bag of chips. By doing something that simple they motivated players to buy their games rather than those of other game makers.

Gamification is all about making your customers feel that when they engage with your business they are getting something more than just the product or service you provide them. if there is another benefit that has a fun element in it then they are likely to want to come back for more. This way, you become their preferred brand and when they tell their friends, families and colleagues about you, you will see an increased number of clients come through the door. By adding gamification to your marketing strategy you quickly increase not only the number of sales but also brand awareness.

If you don’t have a gamification process in place already it is a high time that you got one. There are gamification experts, consultants who can help you come up with a plan. Alternatively, your marketing team can come up with ways of rewarding clients so that they want to engage with you more. Don’t just dive in headlong – you need to have a plan in place if you want to succeed. Decide on a budget, how long the project will take, what platform it will run on and what you hope to achieve.