This article is an introduction to gamification. At the end of the reading, you will have a clear idea of what gamification is and how can make your business grow.
WHAT DOES GAMIFICATION MEAN? – Gamification (or human focused design) is the application of games and video games mechanics in order to encourage users activity. In early stages gamification techniques were very basic, they were only about points, levels and leaderboards but nowadays, thanks to the “Digital” and “Social media”, can become complex, powerful and pervasive. Gamification has been applied in wide range fields (e-commerce, education, HR development and business workflow, military training) and the only one limit is in our fantasy. You could say, “good talk but… How can I use it”?
GAMIFICATION EXAMPLE – One of the easiest starting point is typical marketing campaigns and special offers. Let’s think at the last one you’ve created, probably you sent an email, SMS, push notification or maybe a Facebook AD Campaign, approaching with a “20% discount on your next purchase” message. Regardless timing and your creative skills (we are sure you are the best!), this is the usual and probably boring approach because users are getting dozens of similar campaigns every day. Now let’s think how gamification can transform it in a new interesting and engaging game. Let us rephrase the message: “Complete our amazing game! If you pass the ultimate level you will get a 20% of discount on your next purchase”. It is totally different! Isn’t?
HOW GAMIFICATION CAN IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS – Starting from the example above, these are the results we can expect (notice how two are directly measurable with simple KPI):
1) More clicks and more traffic on your website, app or platform.
2) Involvement and engagement about your brand given by a gamified experience… Users usually do not forget about games.
3) Greater conversion rate. At the end of the game, users will receive discount or a special bonus as prize, and they will feel gratification thanks to the effort that it took them to earn it. For the users, it will not be a simple discount campaign, it will be an achievement. Thanks to gamification, that 20% discount will be more valuable.
Over the years lots of studies have been focused on gamification analysis and there are lots of interesting theories. In the upcoming articles, we will try to dig deeply among gamification technics available.