How to create an innovative loyalty program with gamification?

Games are an excellent way to?increase the level of engagement with a community and naturally encourage participation from clients?in all loyalty programmes. Their entertainment and accessibility make gamification a great asset to integrate into your loyalty programme.?Game mechanisms promote consumers’ engagement with your products whilst solidifying their relationship with your brand.

Use gamification in your loyalty strategies to stand out from your competitors and offer your clients a more creative and innovative reward programme. Here are 7 pieces of advice for creating an innovative loyalty programme thanks to gamification.

1. Establish clear objectives and know your clients

Before adopting any marketing strategy, you should first ask yourself a simple question: what is the goal? Is my loyalty programme aimed at existing clients or am I looking to broaden my target audience? To do this you must?listen to and analyse your clientele to gain a better understanding of them and respond to their wishes. Customising your gamified programme will be much easier and will allow you to offer tailored solutions which will generate strong engagement from your clients.

An expert’s advice!

• If you are targeting existing clients, opt for a loyalty programme that is only accessible when they have logged into their online or mobile customer account. This encourages them to sign into your platform and potentially leads to purchases.
• If you are targeting a wider group, then you can ensure there is a simplified version of the game available to the general public which will invite them to sign in to their customer account (or create one!) to access the full experience and potentially win gifts or better rewards. In this way you can fulfil your acquisition and, most importantly, conversion objectives!

Determining which game mechanisms to use is an important step in ensuring your loyalty programme is successful. The rewards must also be clearly defined according to your target audience and the objectives you hope to achieve.

2. Develop a programme with numerous reward games for your clients

It is important to find a happy medium between an overly-complicated and an overly-simple marketing game to keep the experience enjoyable and valuable for the client. Setting up?a?programme with numerous accessible and intuitive games will make people want to participate?and come back for more if they feel they have a chance of winning something. To achieve this the rules must be simple and easy for everyone to understand.

To make your loyalty programme appealing, also consider?instant prizes to reward your new clients?from their very first purchase or your loyal customers, for example. A purchasing experience which offers instant rewards is effective in quickly securing your buyer’s loyalty, but it also helps you to draw clients in to participate more in the competitions you are running.

3. Create a format suitable for mobiles and other devices

Launching a loyalty programme that can be accessed on mobile phones is crucial. Today, nobody?goes anywhere without their phone and?more and more consumers use their smartphone to make purchases,?whether that is through an app or a search engine.

There is therefore significant value in your loyalty programme?being accessible on a mobile to attract more attention. Client engagement will be much stronger if the loyalty programmes and rewards are adapted to mobiles. Developing a game-based mobile marketing programme or competition provides ease of purchase and convenience to your clients.

4. Use social media to share your idea and your game

Social media is an excellent tool for?creating an active community and encouraging the sharing of your marketing game. Circulating your game programme on social media platforms is notably beneficial in rejuvenating your target audience, but also expanding prospective clients. The impact of word-of-mouth should not be underestimated. Players can share their score and make others within their social group want to take part.

Beyond simple loyalty, competitions are also an effective way to bring your social media to life and boost visibility. You set up an interaction with clients by responding to questions or comments which encourages them to interact with your different gamified loyalty programmes.

5. Display and keep track of progress

It is important to?allow your clients to see their progress and development in your loyalty programme. They must be kept up to date on their progression and particularly how far away they are from their next reward.

Think about explaining to your clients what they have to do to reach the remaining levels. If the programme is available on their customer account, you can display their progress on their profile, or have a space dedicated to the gamification programme with a progress summary sheet.

It could be as simple as sending personalised emails which update your loyalty programme clients and members on their progress. You can also come up with a badge system which gives clients a visual representation of their progress. All of?these details gamify the client experience and give extra motivation?to move to the next level of loyalty.

6. Collect and analyse the data

Regularly updated customer data is the key to a successful loyalty programme. The information collected from the loyalty card and creation of a customer account can be combined with the information you will receive thanks to your marketing game. You will get additional information, especially on your potential prospective clients.

Next, analyse this data to make the most of your gamified loyalty programme by adapting it to your clientele. This information helps to improve your programme,?adapt the rewards based on your clients’ preferences?and?measure customer satisfaction. Knowing your audience better not only allows you to improve their customer experience, but also to increase their loyalty and expand your target audience.

7. Save one final surprise for last

Another component that you can bring to your loyalty programme is the element of surprise. Random rewards are also part of gamification and are important to?encourage clients to take advantage of your offers and take part in your programme.

A trick that works very well if you use?Dynamic Path??is to ensure that users accumulate points throughout the loyalty experience, and that those points can be converted into a voucher or promo code. For example, if a user has accumulated 10,000 points at the end of the year, they can convert those points into a $10 voucher to be used on your online shop or in store.

Consumers and clients like surprises and unexpected gifts. They will always be pleasantly surprised to receive a reward which they didn’t know about in advance. From the earliest design stages of your loyalty programme,?think about creating?instant winner mini-games. Surprise is a very powerful and effective tool for offering clients unique experiences.

Work with the gamification experts to create your tailor-made loyalty programme. Drimify’s team of experts support you in the creation of your loyalty programme to add a new dimension to your project thanks to gamification.

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