Blog

If you are not (yet) involved in this, then it is time to start experimenting with gamification in your marketing campaigns. But how to start? Good question, because adding just a game is not enough. You can read how to use gamification successfully in this article.

1. Define the main marketing or sales objectives

Gamification is the principle to reach your marketing or sales objectives with more speed and higher conversion than traditional tools. It also makes regular marketing and social campaigns more fun and engaging for your audiance. But using the right gamification techniques is only possible if you have a clear objective.

So before you start, think carefully about what problem you want to solve. Maybe you want to add email addresses to your newsletter subscriptions? Or you want to engage consumers to try your new products? Whatever your objective is, gamification will help you achieve it.

2. Determine the primary drivers of your target audience

According to gamification expert Yu-Kai Chou , every person has 8 primary motivations to act. Games can be used to stimulate these motivations:

1. Meaning: In other words, adding a definition to everyting.
2. Empowerment: If we can improve ourselves, we would like to go the extra mile.
3. Social Pressure: Think of the urge to compete, but also the pursuit of a common goal.
4. Curiosity: Humans are curious creatures, we have a craving for new experiences.
5. Scarcity: Everyone wants to be special.
6. Avoidance: Prevention is better than cure and this is how we prefer to prevent disasters (big or small).
7. Ownership: Being in control is a great asset!
8. Accomplishment: We want to see progress and preferably also be rewarded the progress.

We know that not all gamification techniques can be used for every motivation. That is why it is important that you think in advance what drives your target group. When the motivation is to add meaning, you will get a completely different approach than if your motivation is Social Pressure.

3. Tell the right story

When you have insight in the main objective(s) and the primary motivation your target group has, it's time to wrap up the story. Make sure it's very clear to your target audience why they should play your game. The "why?" is essential. Is the story what the participant expects from your brand? Does the story helps you in achieving your marketing goals? Why should the participant leave their personal data and how is the participant rewarded for that. Have clear goals, rules and options, just like a real game.

4. Choose the right gamification technique

If you have read the first three points, choosing the right gamification technique seems like a piece of cake. True and false. When a certain gamification technique is chosen before doing proper research, it can result in low conversion ratio's. While the game may be great, it actually does not fit the motivations of the target group. That is why it is important to always check the choice of the gamification technique against the motivations of the target group and the objectives of the campaign.

5. Find the right balance in the game level

Our Gamification concepts are usually used as 'snackable content'. Which means that the game is a short moment of fun and distraction for the participant. The time to play the game often does not have to be more than 2 to 3 minutes. The game should above all be accessible to all people in the target audiance. The game should be easy to go through, but it should certainly not be too easy. When a game is too easy, we see that many participants stop before the end because there is no challenge and engagement. If a game is too difficult, we also see many dropouts because it is no longer satisfying to participate.

If you have a very broad target group, determining the level of difficulty can be a challenge. But for that challenge creative solutions can be found. For example, we can add levels based on, for example, age. This way you can make the game fun and challenging for everyone and that provides a boost to conversion!