As a revenue marketer, you know first-hand the constant struggle of creating campaigns that not only entice but sustain engagement over time. Gamification presents a powerful solution to this problem.

This technique applies the same psychological hooks and reward structures that make games habit-forming to your incentive initiatives. Implemented strategically, you can transform typically mundane tasks like completing forms and sharing content into experiences brimming with excitement and anticipation.

Read on to discover:

Equipped with this expertise, you can craft incentive programs with magnetic appeal steering users down precisely the behaviors and paths you intend. 

What is gamification?

Gamification takes the thrilling elements from games and injects them into everyday activities to amp up engagement. Imagine those points, badges, levels, challenges, and rewards you see in games - now, they're part of learning apps, fitness routines, and even workplaces.

Points show how well you're doing, badges give you that 'you're awesome' feeling, levels mark your progress and unlock new challenges, and rewards serve as sweet incentives. 

The point is to make tasks more enjoyable and motivating by tapping into our natural desire for achievement, progression, competition, and acknowledgment. Gamification turns the ordinary into an adventure, making us want to jump in and participate willingly rather than feeling obliged to do so.

The psychology behind gamification

According to the Learning Guild, five psychological principles fuel gamification. Gamification:

  1. Connects to the basic human desires for achievement, self-expression, and competition.
  2. Brings forth a sense of community. 
  3. Builds an emotional connection to your business. 
  4. Reduces cognitive load. 
  5. Keeps people playing/engaged. 

Gamification essentially taps into our innate desire for achievement. Think about what draws us to games or competitions - there's a thrill in having clear goals to strive for, a captivating storyline to dive into, and well-defined rules that show us how to earn rewards. 

These elements spark our interest and provide a sense of progress as we sharpen the skills needed to reach our targets.

It's fascinating how gamification also capitalizes on our natural competitive streak. You've got leaderboards and achievement systems that fuel our drive for recognition and feed into our social instincts. 

By satisfying our desire for status and purpose within a gaming environment, it becomes more than just a task - it becomes an immersive experience. Instead of feeling like we're just ticking boxes, we find ourselves genuinely engaged and motivated. Understanding these psychological factors is crucial when it comes to encouraging the right behaviors in gamified platforms. 

How to gamify your incentive program

When it comes to gamifying your incentive program, there are several key strategies that you can use to significantly enhance engagement and drive towards your business objectives.

Set clear goals and challenges aligned with business objectives

As with any strategy, setting clear goals and challenges that align with your company's aims is crucial. These goals should be specific, attainable, and directly tied to your business objectives. By doing this, your customers will understand what they're striving for, ensuring that their efforts contribute meaningfully to your company's success.

Offer meaningful rewards and recognition for different tiers

Not everyone operates at the same level, so having tiered rewards motivates your customers at various stages of achievement. Create a reward structure that acknowledges and appreciates different levels of participation and success, and this will provide an incentive for everyone to strive for improvement.

Have an intuitive point-tracking system

Users need a clear understanding of how their efforts are translating into points or progress. So, look into incorporating a transparent and easy-to-understand tracking system to help your customers stay engaged and motivated. This way, they can visualize their advancement toward goals.

Use badges and leaderboards for status

Incorporating badges and leaderboards helps to add an extra layer of motivation for your customers. Badges act as visual symbols of accomplishment, driving them to complete tasks to earn recognition. Also, leaderboards create a sense of competition by showcasing top performers, stimulating healthy rivalry, and encouraging others to step up their game.

Balance competition and community

Balancing competition with a sense of community is key. While competition can fuel motivation, fostering a supportive and collaborative environment is equally important. Encouraging teamwork and collaboration ensures that while individuals are striving to excel, they also feel part of a cohesive community working towards a common goal.

Best practices for gamified incentive campaigns

When you're diving into gamified incentive campaigns, some key things can make a big difference. 

Onboarding and training

It’s important to introduce onboarding or training for your game to get everyone on the same page. Making sure everyone understands how the game works and what they're aiming for is essentially giving them a roadmap so they know how to navigate and make the most out of the experience.

Setting challenging but achievable goals

It's all about finding that sweet spot - goals that are tough enough to make you work for them but not so hard that they feel impossible. When goals strike that balance, they keep you motivated to keep pushing forward.

Compelling rewards connected to point milestones

Everybody loves a good reward! Connecting cool prizes or perks to hitting certain points or milestones gives you something exciting to shoot for. Like unlocking levels in an actual game, you want to see what's next.

Ongoing notifications and messaging

Just like how your phone sends you updates, keeping people in the loop about their progress or what's coming up next keeps the excitement going. 

Key examples of effective gamified programs

Salesforce Trailhead

Salesforce Trailhead is an interactive learning platform that gamifies the training process for Salesforce users. It offers a variety of modules, quests, and challenges designed to educate users about Salesforce products and solutions. Users earn badges and points as they complete modules, encouraging continued learning and skill development within the Salesforce ecosystem.

Screengrab taken from the Salesforce site.

Bunchball by BI Worldwide

According to BI Worldwide, “Bunchball Nitro is a cloud-based platform specifically designed to help enterprise-level organizations tap into the power of gamification by taking game techniques we know and love – missions, points, badges and leaderboards – and incorporating them into work environments.”

Duolingo

As a language learning app, Duolingo effectively uses gamification to make the process of learning languages fun and addictive. It employs a system of points, levels, streaks, and rewards to motivate users to continue practicing languages daily. 

Screengrab taken from the Duolingo site.

Measuring the impact and ROI of gamification

Implementing gamification provides valuable data to quantify its effect on key business metrics. Tracking user behavior before and after gamification allows you to analyze its ROI across critical areas:

Engagement

Measuring engagement shows how gamification affects user involvement and activity. Capture key engagement metrics like session duration, visit frequency, and participation in specific game elements. Compare averages over time to identify trends. 

For example, calculate the average session length by dividing the total session time by the number of sessions. Rising durations, more regular logins, and increased interactions with challenges and rewards demonstrate greater engagement.

Conversion rates 

Compare conversion rates pre- and post-gamification to see the impact on user actions. Conversion rate equals total conversions (sign-ups, purchases, task completion) divided by total visitors. If adding gamification boosts conversions, it directly contributes to your bottom line. 

Referrals and sharing 

Track referrals and shares to quantify organic reach driven by excited users. Ensure unique links or codes to accurately count gamified referrals and shares. More social shares and peer referrals show higher user advocacy.

Retention and loyalty

Analyze retention rates over longer periods to measure strengthening loyalty. Divide continuing users by total starting users monthly or yearly. Improved user retention over time reveals gamification’s role in compelling engagement and brand affinity.

Monitoring user behavior through core metrics provides definitive proof of gamification’s power to optimize incentive programs. Quantify the lifts across engagement, conversions, referrals, and retention to build data-backed business cases for gamification investments.