The Ultimate Guide to Enhancing Your Loyalty Program With Gamification

Who doesn’t enjoy games? Reward-seeking behavior, a natural competitive spirit, and the classic fear of missing out all contribute to the popularity of gamification elements in loyalty programs. Gamified loyalty programs have the amazing ability to keep experience-driven customers engaged for a long time and to build relationships and communities among participants. Gamification encourages customers to interact with your brand more regularly and purchase more frequently while also providing you the opportunity to collect vital customer data. Let’s see how gamification elements can enhance engagement with your customers in store and online.

Gamified Loyalty Programs and Their Benefits

Game-like elements and mechanics in a non-game context is the definition that best describes gamified loyalty programs. Due to the demand for enriched customer experiences, the global gamification market is projected to reach $40 billion by 2024. Therefore, spicing up your loyalty program with elements of fun can make it much more effective, significantly improve customer engagement and brand awareness, as well as grow customer lifetime value.?

Gamification also adds a more personable touch to your loyalty program, especially helping you target Millennials and Gen Z, who grew up using smart technology. At the same time, this group is said to suffer from a severe lack of attention span, so relying on traditional loyalty features alone most probably will not work for them. Not only is gamification a great way to learn about customers' product references, lifestyle and favorite brands, it can also help you obtain valuable feedback. Plus, it also encourages recurring behavior, incentivizes specific actions, and promotes engagement beyond transactions.

Companies should keep in mind that, in order for the customers to want to participate in their gamified loyalty program, they need to offer enticing rewards in exchange.

How to Apply Gamification Elements to Your Loyalty Program

When adding gamification elements to your loyalty program, there are a few rules you should consider. First of all, you need to set goals. Answer the question of what you are hoping to achieve—what is the “end game”? Then, you need to know who your customers are and what kind of games they are most likely to engage with so you can tailor your gamified loyalty program to them.

If your core customers check their phones frequently, it is a good idea to make the gamified loyalty program available to them in app form as well. Encourage members to engage in social sharing. You can also create badges and leaderboards, as seeing how others are progressing in the program builds a sense of competition among customers. Immerse them in a likes/dislikes quiz or show them a selection of images so they can select the option that is closest to their hearts. All the information gathered through gamification can then be used for segmentation and better targeting, helping you offer more personalized rewards.

Antavo’s Loyalty Management Platform provides a variety of gamification elements and makes it easy for clients to set up their gamified loyalty program.

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