What is gamification, and how can it potentially benefit your business?
What is Gamification?
Gamification takes something like a website or online community and applies the principles of games to that existing entity. This might include something like a digital driven contest, a loyalty program, social fantasy games, or the use of a token system. The same principles that game designers use to engage their players can be used by business entities to motivate action, participation, loyalty, and engagement with consumers.
What Gaming Principles are Important?
Gamification is not about making your business’ customer interaction about playing games. It is simply using the principles of gaming to achieve certain goals. There are 10 basic principles to take into consideration, including fast feedback, long-term and short-term goals, badges or other evidence of accomplishments, transparency and leaderboards, levels, onboarding, competition, collaboration, community, and a points system.
Is This of Any Proven Use to Businesses?
A new online contest, for example, usually grabs a 34% increase in audience, and a third of contest participants opt to get information from the brand or from its partners. In fact, studies indicate that using gamification strategies often ends up increasing brand engagement by as much as 100% to 150%.
Why Does Gamification Work?
Everyone needs motivation, and nearly everyone performs better or becomes more engaged when there is feedback, evidence of achievement, and reward. Add to that the desire of everyone to be part of something they perceive to be meaningful and to be part of a community, and you understand some of the basics about how gamification works.
What are Some Concrete Examples of Gamification in Business?
There are an abundance of examples, from the utility token to social fantasy programs. Some fitness companies use gamification techniques to create challenges that are endlessly adaptable. This allows users to choose challenges that fit their needs, while also getting a sense of genuine accomplishment. Badges, prizes, and group challenges increase engagement. Other companies reward users with badges and progress achievement for reviewing videos or answering questions from other users. This engages people with a brand in a big way.
Is Gamification Really Necessary?
A 2017 HubSpot State of Inbound report looked at 4,500 marketing professionals and sales reps. A full 63% of them said that generating traffic to their websites and grabbing leads was the top challenge for their company marketing strategy. Gamification is a proven way of engaging traffic and leads, and just running a mobile contest can, according to HubSpot, increase entrant numbers by a factor of eight.
Gaming principles are a key strategy for increasing social engagements, gaining valuable user data insights, and increasing brand awareness and engagement across the board.