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Simple Gamification Ideas for Your Brand Strategy
How does a bank get its customers to trade their free checking accounts for checking
accounts that charge a monthly fee? According to the Chicago Tribune, it turns the
process of switching accounts into a game.
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That’s what Extraco Banks in Waco, Texas discovered
when they decided to phase out their free checking
accounts. Extraco sent a postcard to their customers
with a link to a game that guided them through the
process of switching accounts and gave them some
pointers on how they could avoid monthly fees, score
free cash, and ultimately win the game.
In the end, Extraco was able to get 14% of its customers
with free checking accounts to switch to premium
accounts. This kind of conversion rate is unheard of
in the banking industry in similar situations. People
are, needless to say, very unlikely to give up their free
checking accounts.
Companies have been puzzling for years about how to
get Millennials interested in what they have to offer.
Suddenly, it appears as though major businesses,
including MTV, have learned the secret: gamification.
According to brand strategists at MTV, young adults
have been playing games their whole lives, and they’re
always up for a challenge, even if it involves spending a
little bit of money. And that’s part of why gamification
works so well for companies who are trying to target
a young adult audience. If you want to reach recent
college grads and their fun-loving parents, here are a
few gamification ideas for your brand strategy:
1. Let customers earn points, badges, and
rewards
Airline companies have been building brand loyalty for
years by allowing their customers to earn points when
they fly that will ultimately allow them to take trips for
free in the future, once they’ve accrued enough points.
This is a gamification strategy, and it works. So, let your
customers earn points each time they do business with
you or use one of your services. Additionally, you can
benefit from offering them badges and rewards like
free shipping or gifts once they’ve accrued a certain
number of points.
2. Use progress bars
Progress bars let your customers know how close they
are to receiving an award. For instance, LinkedIn uses
a progress bar to encourage its users to completely fill
out their profiles. Once their profiles are 100% filled out,
they receive some of the benefits of having a premium
LinkedIn account. Likewise, you can use progress
bars to keep customers engaged. For instance, if you
would like your customers to become members of your
rewards club, you can use a progress bar on your online
rewards club form to encourage customers to fill it out
completely. Once they’ve filled it out completely, you
can provide them with some kind of savings or free
item.
3. Try out leaderboards
If you want to add an element of competition
into your overall gamification strategy, you’ll love
leaderboards. This strategy motivates customers to
vie for a prominently displayed spot at the top of the
leaderboard on your site. You can use a point system
to calculate who makes the cut on your leaderboard.
Receiving public recognition in the form of a
conspicuous spot on your leaderboard is definitely an
incentive for many people to keep doing business with
you and earn more points.
The gamification ideas mentioned above are some of
the most commonly implemented. If you want to learn
more about what you can do with gamification, there
are a number of TED Talks and a few online tutorials
on the subject that will further help you start using
gamification to your brand’s benefit. Gamification is
a relatively new phenomenon, and it’s still evolving
as businesses learn more about what works and what
doesn’t. So, stay educated and informed, and keep your
customers engaged with gamification!
http://www.theengagingbrand.com/2012/06/gamification.html
Anna Farmery