What’s the easiest way to make something boring a little more fun? Turn it into a game. That’s the idea behind gamification, which is the process of adding traditional game elements to non-game processes.
Using gamification in your products and services can be a very effective way to boost your engagement levels. Gamified products use human psychology to motivate users and increase brand loyalty.
Creating a successful gamification strategy for your brand requires you to take a close look at your target audience and your customer journey to find the most engaging and relevant concepts.
In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn how gamification drives customer engagement and how to implement it in your long-term brand marketing strategy.
Note: The brands discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
What is gamification, and how does it work?
Gamification is the process of applying game-like features and concepts to non-game contexts. This could include testing specific knowledge or skill sets, facing new challenges, gathering resources, or progressing through levels.
A popular example of gamification is a tiered customer loyalty program. Customers earn points for each purchase they make, moving up to higher tiers as they earn more points. Customers will unlock unique rewards as they move through each tier. The Starbucks rewards program is one of the most popular examples of this, but many other brands have implemented it over the years.
Note that gamification doesn’t literally turn your product or service into a game. Instead, it takes elements that you’d often see in a board game, video game, or sport and applies them to other scenarios. Many games have multiple levels that players move through to win. Companies build this concept into rewards programs.
Gamification is effective because it uses elements of human psychology. Humans are naturally wired to seek novel experiences, so adding game elements to a product will help increase our motivation to engage with that product. This is because receiving rewards and accomplishing goals causes the brain to release dopamine, which is a chemical that gives us feelings of satisfaction and motivation.
How are gamification and customer experience connected?
Gamifying elements of your brand’s products and services creates a better user experience for your customers. Here are some of the ways that gamification and customer experience are intertwined.
Customer satisfaction
In gamified customer experiences, your customers will work toward specific goals and earn rewards for their achievements. Working toward something and achieving it is a very positive experience, even when it happens on a small scale.
When customers participate in these gamified experiences, they’ll start to associate these feelings of happiness or satisfaction with your products. This leads to a positive overall perception of your brand and what you have to offer.
Another key component of gamification is that it encourages customers to keep coming back to unlock new rewards and experiences. With these repeated interactions, customers foster a deeper emotional connection with your brand. Over time, this results in increased customer satisfaction and happiness. This is particularly true for gamification in loyalty programs.
Personalized customer journeys
Personalization is very important to today’s consumers. In fact, 65% of customers expect brands to adapt to their changing needs and preferences. Gamification can be a very effective way to create a more personalized experience for your customers as they interact with your brand.
When you implement gamification elements in your brand’s products and services, you also have a unique opportunity to observe your customer’s behavior patterns. You can use the data you collect from gamified features to offer more personalized experiences.
For example, you might notice that a customer is most likely to interact with your gamified app in the morning. You can use this information to send them discount offers and advertisements early in the day when they’re most likely to be paying attention.
Real-time feedback
Another huge benefit of implementing gamification is that you can get feedback from your customers whenever you need it. Interactive polls, games, and quizzes are all popular aspects of gamification marketing that can help you collect customer feedback quickly. You can even use this strategy in real life at brick-and-mortar stores or customer experience conferences to see how your audience is feeling.
For example, if you’re interested in hosting an event or launching a special-edition product, you can conduct a poll first to see how many customers would be interested. You can also use quizzes to gauge brand awareness and adjust your marketing strategies accordingly.
To get customers to participate, offer points or other rewards that align with your gamification strategy. Zappos is a brand that has done this very successfully, offering rewards points for customers when they leave online reviews (more on that later).
Biggest benefits of gamification for the customer experience
Gamification creates a better experience for your customers while helping you achieve your business goals. Here are some of the biggest benefits of including gamification in your customer experience.
Increased customer engagement
Successful gamification strategies encourage your customers to interact with your brand repeatedly. Over time, this can significantly boost the customer engagement metrics for your app, website, and social media profiles. Research has found that gamification can increase your engagement levels by 48%.
For example, you can release daily challenges or quests in which customers can complete to unlock exclusive rewards. Since the incentives are only available for a limited time, customers are incentivized to check in with your brand daily.
Enhanced brand loyalty
Gamification rewards customers for interacting with your brand and making purchases. This helps you build reciprocal, two-way relationships with your customers and build brand loyalty.
When customers earn a reward for interacting with your brand, they feel valued and appreciated. Subconsciously, this creates a stronger emotional connection between the customer and your brand. When they need to make a purchase later on, your brand will be top of mind, so customers will be less likely to switch to your competitors.
Improved customer retention
One of the biggest challenges for any brand is reducing customer churn. Gamification can help improve your customer retention rates, resulting in more repeat purchases and loyal customers.
This is because gamification makes your brand feel fresh and interesting to customers, even if they’ve been purchasing from you for years. By continually introducing new rewards, experiences, and challenges, you create a sense of buzz and excitement that incentivizes customers to come back.
Personalized experiences
With gamification, there are endless opportunities to create personalized experiences for your customers. With each user engagement touchpoint, you’ll learn more about your customers’ behaviors, which you can use to provide unique experiences.
For example, you can customize the reward options available to customers based on the products they engage with the most. Personalized experiences are highly valuable for your customers, especially as they move through the sales funnel for the first time.
Accelerated learning and product discovery
Once you’ve built a successful gamification strategy, you can use it to share information about your brand and products quickly. For example, if you’re launching a new product, you can announce it through your gamified content and even give customers exclusive rewards for purchasing it.
Gamification can help you educate your customers on new products and services faster than you would with other marketing strategies. This is because gamification encourages customers to check in with your brand frequently, whereas you can’t always guarantee they’ll see a new product announcement ad.
You can also use gamification to help customers get the most out of your products after purchasing them. For example, you can gamify your product tutorials with interactive quizzes and challenges. This makes learning much more entertaining and introduces customers to product features they might not have found on their own. Gamified tutorials are particularly helpful for software programs or other tech products with complex features.
How to implement gamification in your customer experience strategy
Gamification is not a one-size-fits-all experience. To successfully implement gamification in your marketing strategy, you need a comprehensive understanding of customer expectations, especially when it comes to your product and industry. Here’s how to implement gamification in your customer experience strategy.
Assess your current customer experience
Before you can start building your gamification features, you need to look at your customer journey and learn more about the customer experience. This will help you identify places where gamification could fit naturally into your marketing strategy.
Start by taking a holistic look at your entire sales funnel. How do new customers discover your brand? Once they’ve discovered you, what marketing assets do they typically encounter and interact with before they make a purchase? After they make a purchase, what are you doing to maximize their experience and keep them coming back?
It can be helpful to look at engagement metrics for different points in your sales funnel to see where your customers would most benefit from gamification. For example, you might be getting good social media engagement, but that engagement isn’t translating to website visits or purchases.
In this case, you could implement gamification through your social media to funnel your followers to your website. Bitly short links can help you send users from your social media profiles to your site and track engagement in the process.
Set clear objectives and goals
Once you’ve identified where gamification could fit into your customer experience, the next step is to set goals. Setting goals ahead of time will help you stay focused while creating your gamification strategy.
Examples of goals could include generating more user engagement, boosting sales of a specific product category, or increasing customer retention rates. Opt for goals that you can measure with tools like Bitly Analytics and other marketing tools. If your goals aren’t measurable, it will be difficult to determine when you’re making progress.
You should align your gamification goals with your broader marketing strategies and business goals. For example, if your organization is making a big pivot into a new product type, you can use your gamification strategy to support that.
Design gamification elements
Now it’s time to start putting together the gamification itself. There are many different types of game design elements that you could incorporate into your marketing strategy. These include challenges, quizzes, levels, points, badges, leaderboards, and rewards.
While many brands focus entirely on digital gamification, you can also use in-person gamification in event marketing or in brick-and-mortar stores. Think scavenger hunts and real-world challenges where customers can win prizes. You can also use a blend of digital and in-person gamification where customers can earn digital rewards for completing tasks in real life. Many trade show games and other industry events use these strategies to build excitement.
Your gamification elements should reflect your brand identity. For example, if you use badges as part of your strategy, the colors and styles should match other graphics used in your marketing campaigns. When creating challenges or quizzes, use language that’s reflective of your brand’s overall tone and values.
Integrate technology and platforms
No matter what type of gamification you opt for, technology will play an important role in your strategy. This could involve working with engineers and designers to create an app or add features to your website.
Many gamification concepts involve earning points and rewards. If this is the case for your brand, you’ll need a way to keep track of each customer’s progress. Loyalty program software like Kangaroo, TapMango, or LoyaltyLion can help with that. Platforms like Square and Zoho also have loyalty program features built-in.
You’ll also need to integrate your social media with your gamification strategy. Some gamification strategies may even encourage customers to interact with your social media by liking, commenting, and using branded hashtags. You can use Bitly short links as an easy way to connect your social media profiles with other aspects of your gamification strategy.
If your brand has brick-and-mortar locations, you’ll also need to promote your gamification features in-store. QR Codes are a very efficient way to do this—customers can scan your QR Code with their smartphones to visit your website or download your app.
Monitor and iterate the strategy
Even after you’ve launched your gamification strategy, it’s important to continue monitoring and improving it. Look for progress indicators to see how your real-life performance stacks up against your goals.
For example, if you’re looking to increase customer retention, monitor your previous customers to see if they continue to shop with you after implementing gamification. The easiest way to do this is by having each customer create an account to use your brand’s features.
You may need to adjust your gamification strategy over time based on customer feedback. You can solicit feedback regularly from your customers using online surveys and polls and even use gamification to incentivize them to participate.
Schedule time regularly to reevaluate your gamification strategy and make changes as necessary. You may want to expand features that have been the most successful or eliminate programs that aren’t generating much engagement. You can also adjust your gamification strategy to keep up with new trends and technology. For example, you can launch themed challenges or rewards based on current pop culture.
8 examples of brands that have successfully gamified the customer experience
Looking at case studies of successful gamification can serve as inspiration for your own gamification strategy. We’ve rounded up eight brands with standout gamification strategies to keep your eye on.
1. Duolingo
Duolingo’s bold brand identity has helped the language learning app stand out from other educational tools. The app uses gamification in many different ways to keep users returning day after day to practice their language skills.
To make progress when learning a new language, you need to practice every day. However, keeping up with this habit can be very challenging, especially for people with a busy schedule. Duolingo’s gamification features make language learning fun and accessible.
Users progress through levels as they learn new language concepts, earning XP points and other rewards. There’s also an in-app leaderboard where users compete to earn the highest XP score, as well as a variety of daily challenges and rewards.
Duolingo’s most successful gamification strategy is the concept of the streak. Users need to practice every day to keep their streak alive, and if you miss a day, you start over completely. For many users, having a high Duolingo streak is a point of pride.
Duolingo has inspired many other education apps to take a gamification approach. By using frequent level progression and rewards, Duolingo makes learning a language fun and engaging.
2. Google Pay
Google Pay used innovative gamification strategies to win over India’s competitive fintech market. Customers use the app to make payments at retailers and send money to friends.
In 2019, Google Pay launched Diwali Stamps in India, a gamification strategy based around one of the country’s most beloved holidays. During the two weeks of the celebration, users collected colorful virtual stamps depicting popular symbols of Diwali, such as rangoli and lanterns.
There were several ways to collect stamps. One way was to take pictures of real-life items when you saw them. Google’s image recognition feature would then credit you the appropriate stamp. Users could also earn badges by sending money to friends or making purchases at businesses. Finally, users could gift badges to their friends. This added a fun social element that made the game even more exciting and helped bring in new users.
Users who collected all five stamps won 251 rupees. The financial reward was a very attractive incentive that enticed new users to sign up for Google Pay, but the fun features of the game kept them engaged.
3. KFC
If you’re wondering how to improve restaurant customer experiences, take a look at KFC’s innovative gamification strategies. KFC uses gamification in multiple aspects of its marketing to boost brand engagement.
One simple but effective strategy that KFC uses is its customer loyalty program. Customers earn points when they eat at KFC, which they can redeem for rewards from the Secret Recipe Vault. These rewards are exclusive and rotate frequently, giving customers an incentive to eat at KFC regularly.
In 2020, KFC also launched an online game called Shrimp Attack in Japan to promote a new shrimp menu item. The game was very similar to Fruit Ninja but used flying shrimp instead of flying fruit. The game was free to play on KFC’s website, and players could earn coins that were redeemable for discounts at KFC stores in Japan.
The game was a huge success, causing the shrimp products to completely sell out. KFC stores in Japan were able to boost sales by 106% year-over-year, and 22% of people who played the online game came in to redeem a voucher.
4. Nike
Nike’s gamification strategy goes beyond just selling shoes and athletic wear. The brand uses gamification to help people start running and live a more active lifestyle through the Nike Run Club app.
With Nike Run Club, users can log their runs and share them with friends. Users can also participate in running challenges and even follow guided training plans that help make running a habit. By providing so many helpful resources for runners, Nike creates positive brand perceptions and experiences.
Nike also has a membership program that uses some gamification features. Members earn rewards through the Nike app when shopping and even get access to exclusive products. Members who don’t run can also use the Nike Training Club app. Like Nike Run Club, this app uses gamified workouts and offers wellness tips to foster healthy habits.
5. Fitbit
Fitbit is another company that uses gamification to encourage healthy habits. Fitbit makes wearable fitness trackers that monitor your activity level, heart rate, calorie expenditure, and other health metrics. The tracker connects to an app where users can see their stats and progress.
The Fitbit app uses gamification to encourage users to exercise frequently and practice a variety of other healthy habits. Each user can set personalized fitness goals based on their lifestyle. By working toward these goals, users earn in-app badges and get encouraging notifications.
Fitbit also offers a variety of social gamification elements. Users can connect with their friends who are also using the app and share their accomplishments. They can also start or join fitness challenges for extra motivation.
6. Zapier
Zapier uses gamification somewhere you might not expect it: in the workplace. This B2B software platform helps workers automate digital tasks. There are gamification features built into the platform to help users maximize Zapier throughout their workflow.
As users build automations in Zapier, they’ll progress through different levels within the platform. Zapier has so many potential integrations and features to offer. Breaking up onboarding into levels incentivizes users to explore all the features Zapier has to offer. It also makes the platform feel less overwhelming to new users.
7. Headspace
Headspace is an app that provides free guided meditations, sleep stories, focus playlists, and more. Like many other health habits, meditation is most effective when done every day. Headspace uses gamification to encourage daily meditation and build a large base of daily users.
The Headspace app contains several subtle but effective gamification features. These features are built with the brand in mind—Headspace is all about relaxation and wellness, so there are no stressful challenges or races against the clock here.
Users focus on building a daily streak of positive habits within the app. Headspace also gives users badges for participating in a variety of different wellness activities to help users celebrate their progress.
Headspace also has unique social gamification features. You can connect with friends, but you can’t see exactly what they’re doing on the app or how long their streak is. Instead, users can send a nudge to their friends to encourage them to use the app that day. Since people are often motivated by social support, Headspace offers social rewards. For example, users who complete a 15-session streak earn a free premium subscription for their friends.
8. Zappos
Retailers like Zappos benefit heavily from positive online reviews. Zappos uses gamification and rewards to incentivize customers to share their experiences online. Members can earn 100 Zappos reward points for writing honest, unbiased reviews of the shoes they purchase.
Members will earn points for both positive and negative reviews, which they can redeem for discounts, free shipping, and other rewards. Rewards members will also earn points for making purchases or just logging onto the Zappos website.
Zappos is also known for using gamification as part of its internal operations. When employees log in to the company’s computer system, they play something known as the “Face Game.” Users see a picture of another employee and need to choose their name from a handful of options. While there’s no penalty for a wrong answer, this helps employees get to know each other, which fosters a friendly company culture.
Tips for measuring the success of your customer gamification efforts
Once you’ve launched your gamification strategy, you need a way to track your progress. But how do you determine when your gamification strategy has been successful? Here are some tips for measuring the success of your gamification efforts.
Set clear customer experience metrics to track
When you launch your gamification initiative, decide which CX metrics you want to track. These metrics should be directly relevant to your business goals. You should also be able to track them easily with marketing and e-commerce tools.
For example, if you’re focusing on attracting repeat customers, consider tracking your customer lifetime value and churn rate before and after using gamification features. This will help you identify whether customers are repeatedly interacting with your brand.
If you’re focused more on new customers, consider tracking conversion rates. This will show you the percentage of people who used your gamification features and went on to make a purchase. Customer satisfaction rates are another helpful metric to track. This is easy to do with customer polls and surveys and gives insight into exactly how your customers are feeling.
Bitly Analytics can play an important role in your customer experience tracking. With Bitly Analytics, you can track the performance of the short links and QR Codes used in your gamification strategy, which will give you insights into customer behaviors and preferences.
Track customer experience and engagement through Bitly links
To make the most of your gamification strategy, you’ll need to promote it across multiple platforms. Bitly short links can help you connect the different components of your marketing strategy so visitors can navigate from your social media platforms to your app to your website with ease. You can even use mobile deep links to connect users to specific pages in your app.
Bitly Analytics gives you valuable customer insight so you can learn more about who’s clicking on your links and how they’re responding to your gamification strategy. Within the platform, you can see clicks over time for each link, as well as information about the geographic location and device that each click comes from.
Analyze your campaign performance
After you’ve launched your gamification efforts, carefully analyze your campaign performance with your marketing analytics tools. Look for trends and patterns in customer behavior—this is valuable information that you can use to improve your campaign performance.
For example, Bitly Analytics might indicate that most of the clicks in your Bitly Campaigns are coming from a specific city or country. With that information, you can do a deep dive into your marketing strategies in that location and identify which strategies are working so well. You also might notice that you’re generating more engagement around specific holidays or seasons. This could inspire future seasonal or holiday campaigns to keep engagement up.
You should monitor your gamification strategy regularly for changes in engagement patterns. Consumer behavior changes as trends change, so you will likely need to adjust your gamification strategy to keep your audience’s interest.
Take advantage of A/B testing
One of the most efficient ways to fine-tune your gamification strategy is through A/B testing. With A/B testing, you’ll test two different features of your gamified content with different groups of users. For example, you might test two different fonts, layouts, color schemes, or even game mechanisms.
With A/B testing, you can see which features generate the most engagement. You can even pair A/B testing with surveys to get more detailed feedback from users. Implementing this strategy will help you build a gamification strategy that users are highly responsive to.
Technology and tools to consider to make gamified customer experiences a success
Successful gamification requires the right technology. Here are some of the tech tools you’ll need to make your gamified experiences a success.
Gamification platforms
With the growing popularity of gamification as a marketing strategy, there are many software platforms that are specifically designed to help you build a gamification strategy. These platforms can help you create challenges, manage badges and points, and keep track of rewards. Some popular gamification platforms include Gametize, EdApp, and Kahoot!
Analytics tools
Marketing analytics tools will help you track the performance of your gamification strategy and related marketing assets. Opt for tools that integrate with gamification systems and other aspects of your marketing strategy to make data management easier. Analytics tools help you track a wide range of marketing and performance metrics in one place.
For example, Bitly Analytics has over 800 integrations, so you can connect it with tools you’re already using through the Apps and Integration Marketplace. Bitly Analytics tracks the performance of your short links and QR Codes across your entire marketing strategy. Other helpful analytics tools to consider include Google Analytics and Hubspot for ad campaign tracking, Hootsuite or Sprout Social for social media, and Hotjar for e-commerce.
CRM integration
There’s a good chance your organization is already using a customer relationship management (CRM) platform to keep track of sales leads. Top CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho are known for their integration options.
Integrating your CRM with your gamification strategy will help you nurture and manage any leads you generate. You can also use CRMs to keep track of existing customers as they interact with your brand. This information can help you calculate important customer experience metrics. You can also use it to provide more personalized experiences for your customers.
Mobile app development software
Some of the most successful gamification strategies involve developing your own mobile app. You can also add gamification features to your existing app. Gamifying your app is a very effective way to make it more attractive to your audience.
If you’re using a mobile app as part of your gamification strategy, you’ll need development software to bring your ideas to life. There are many platforms today that allow you to build apps with little to no coding. Some popular choices include Softr, FlutterFlow, Draftbit, and Appery.io.
Future trends to know in gamification and customer experience
To keep your gamification strategy relevant, it’s important to stay on the pulse of current consumer preferences. Here are some top trends to watch in gamification marketing.
Artificial intelligence
AI technology has been one of the most disruptive trends to hit the market over the past few years, and it has plenty of potential applications in gamification. Generative AI tools could help brands create more personalized gamification strategies for customers.
AI engines can assess and respond to consumer behavior in real time. This means you could update your gamification strategy instantly, creating new challenges and rewards for each customer based on their actions and preferences.
Augmented and virtual reality experiences
Augmented reality tools combine digital content with real-world environments, while virtual reality immerses users in a completely digital environment. Both of these technologies are becoming increasingly accessible to the average consumer. Many smartphones have AR capabilities, and VR headsets are becoming more accessible as well. This means that brands could use AR and VR content as part of their broader gamification strategies.
Voice activation features
For many people, voice-activated assistants like Siri and Alexa are an important part of daily life. Many brands are also creating their own voice assistants for customer service purposes. In the future, we could see voice activation features as part of gamification strategies. For example, customers could earn rewards for completing voice-activated challenges in a mobile app.
Integration with IoT
The Internet of Things is a broad category of interconnected smart devices. Smart cars and smart home systems have become particularly popular, and there is potential for gamifying them in the future. One possibility is using gamification with smart home systems to encourage sustainable behaviors. For example, users could earn points or rewards for reducing their energy or water use.
Unlock new dimensions of customer experience with Bitly’s help
By adding gamified features to your products and marketing strategy, you create a more exciting and engaging experience for your customers. Implementing this trend in your marketing strategy can help you differentiate yourself from competitors and build strong relationships with your long-term customers.
Bitly can help you build and track a powerful gamification strategy. Including short links and QR Codes in your gamification strategy creates a seamless experience for users, while Bitly Analytics ensures that you never miss important insights.
Get started with Bitly today to see how we can help you build a powerful gamification strategy that works.
