Humans have an innate desire to compete. It gives them a sense of belonging and something to work toward. It also can evoke a sense of loyalty.
And this makes sense given the common use of gamification within loyalty programs.
To learn more about how the two work together, we reached out to three experts: Andrew Phelps, co-founder and CEO of Incentive Pilot, a gamification tool for enterprise sales contests; David Galownia, CEO of Slingshot, a software and app development company; and Greg Gillman, Chief Revenue Officer at MuteSix, a DTC performance marketing agency.
Here’s what we learned:
The relationship between gamification and loyalty programs
“Gamification is a powerful tool for short-term gratification that drives behavior change. Loyalty programs build and nurture long-term consumer-brand relationships. Combined correctly they are a match made in heaven,” Phelps said.
The short-term gratification Phelps is referring to often comes in the form of a reward or perk that users can cash in on later. Knowing that certain actions could result in even greater earnings can encourage feelings of excitement and anticipation for your brand going forward.
“It’s easier for users to do a task when they’ll get some kind of reward: even if it’s not something ‘real.’ A badge or a level shows that the effort you put in was worth it. Sign up for the newsletter? Purchase a fifth item? Gain experience points, on top of the discount,” Galownia said.
Galownia isn’t the only one who believes gamification can help inspire consumer action. In fact, another expert says it can motivate consumers and directly impact your other marketing goals as well.
“Using more entertaining gamification elements to encourage customers to leave a review or rating after their purchases — or better yet submit UGC — can increase social proof and conversion rates in one fell swoop,” Gillman said. “Whether it is discounts, special offers or points, gamifying your loyalty programs will effectively increase your brand’s credibility and reach, while at the same time, bolstering your sales and even collecting much-needed first-party customer data.”
Because loyalty programs are designed to foster brand advocates, cultivate customer joy and help collect consumer data and insights, they work perfectly with gamification elements.
“Boosting brand engagement is one of the main objectives of any loyalty program, and thus gamification works well when it comes to incentivizing customers to help boost social proof, which is a must,” said Gillman. “Almost 90 percent of customers will read reviews or watch user-generated content (UGC) prior to making a purchase, and studies have shown that nearly three-fourths of them consider it to be the most significant driver in their buying decisions.”
How to add gamification into your loyalty program
Considering your loyalty program is specifically geared toward meeting the needs of its customers, you want to speak directly with them and figure out what they need. Your users are a huge part of your foundation and it’s their thoughts that will tell what gamification strategies will work best with them.
“Get input from users up front on what they would need to be engaged in a gamified loyalty program. You may think you know what your users need, but without asking them, you’ll never be certain,” said Galownia. “See what problem they face with the current loyalty program, and see what features would help them. Don’t build out things your users don’t actually need.”
Along with the types of games your users want, asking for direct input from customers can also help you determine how your user experience should look and feel.
“Like all user experience design, game design starts by asking about the users and designing for them to meet the behavior goals the brand is trying to achieve. In marketing, games should be simple but not boring. Easy to play but hard to master. Most importantly, they should be fun,” said Phelps.
Consumer gamification practices are a force on their own, but they can be even more effective when paired with a loyalty program.
