Guest Blog: WHY GAMIFIED PROMOTIONS ARE EFFECTIVE

Mika Coles

WHY GAMIFIED PROMOTIONS ARE EFFECTIVE
Today’s online shopper is increasingly busy and easily distracted.
To activate visitors on your web shop, to secure conversion and to avoid drop off, online merchants should be looking for new solutions to capture the attention of the busy shopper. Including promotions in your conversion tactics pays off in many ways, and can actually play a huge role: 60% of adults change their shopping habits due to promotions, according to UK consumer study.
Gamification is a modern approach to online promotions that creates brand engagement and encourages customers to purchase — and the stats show it works.
Gamification in eCommerce context doesn’t always mean complex video-game style games, or intricate loyalty programs. It can be something much simpler that’s cost effective to build, easy to deliver to potential customers, and doesn’t take much brainpower or time to play.

Wheel_Of_Fortune2

Interaction with a reward

This means fun and smart gamified promotions like interactive scratch cards that reveal one of the pre-programmed coupon codes to complete the purchase right now, or a spin-the-wheel-to-win-a-prize game that engages casual browsers and turns them into loyal customers.
Think of gamification as the proverbial carrot to incentivize your customer to complete the actions you want them to complete. It’s an interaction to gently nudge your potential customer into the right direction to your purchase funnel, in a fun and engaging way. The carrot is the not the interaction, but it’s the reward you’ll offer in return from the participation.

The Why: Earned, Personal and Focused

One of the reasons gamified smart promotions are so effective is they combined interactive gamification with your specific brand experience. They incentivize your customers and in return, you’ll learn what makes your customers buy. It’s really all about basic human psychology.

  1. You’ve earned it!

When you cast your vote in an image voting, and in return, get a personal voucher code for free home delivery, you feel like you’ve earned it. It’s a reward for your action, even if the action was just a click, and that makes you value it more, remember it better, and to redeem it more likely.

  1. It’s personal

When you spin the digital wheel of fortune, and land on a nice price like a free sample, it feels very personal. You won it! It’s something just for you, not shown to every visitor on the site, and it makes you feel a bit more special – even when you know you’re probably not the only one getting the price.

  1. You pay more attention

An interactive element; whether it’s a pop-up overlay or embedded piece of content to capture your customers’ attention. Your customers are likely to compare prizes, shop around and have other stuff going on at the same time. A fun, interactive, intriguing promotion will help to get focus on the shopping at hand.

Resulting in 10X More Effective Promotions

We at RapidCampaign have been developing solutions for gamification of promotions through pop-ups and embedded dynamic content.
Using smart promotions in the right steps of the purchase funnel, targeted at the right users and with relevant rewards will help you reduce the drop offs significantly and eventually, drive more sales.
The results with our customers are amazing: doubling the conversion and reaching 3x improved conversion. Here are some of the key results achieved with our promotions:

  • Gamified and interactive promotions are up to 10 times more effective in engaging customers than static promotions, with participation rate at 30-50%
  • On average, gamified promotions deliver 5-10% conversion
  • And they deliver on average up to 10-15% more sales

Some of you may be saying that gamification may sound far-fetched at first sight. At the end of the day, it’s about making shopping more fun for your customers and making your online shop convert more. A real win-win if you ask me.

About the writer:
Mika Coles works as the Channel Partner Director for RapidCampaign. Mika has over 15 years international experience in mobile solution marketing and sales. He is inspired by adding customer business value through partnerships and collaboration.
RapidCampaign is marketing technology provider for eCommerce, owned by NearMe Services, specializing in solutions for gamified promotions. They are based in Finland, and serve online merchants in USA, UK, Australia, and Scandinavia.
LinkedIn profile: https://fi.linkedin.com/in/mikacoles
Email: mika@rapidcampaign.com

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