What is gamified mobile engagement and how does it influence customer behavior
For the first time, in 2018, more people were accessing the internet from their smartphones than desktops. Mobile has become the benchmark for engagement today. But with so many brands competing for users’ attention, any old marketing strategy won’t do—in comes gamified mobile engagement.
According to TechSci Research, the gamification market is expected to be worth north of $40 billion by 2024. The growth of this market has not only influenced brand marketing strategies but also consumer behavior.
But before diving into how to create gamified mobile engagement, let’s look at why gamified mobile experiences are so in demand.
Updated on Jul 29, 2020
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Why are gamified mobile experiences so hyped?
1 in 3 people today use multiple smart devices. As a result, they seek relevant engagement from brands and apps they love. In turn, brands must innovate to meet the needs and wants of this growing user base. In comes gamified mobile engagement.
As a marketing strategy, gamification not only improves customer engagement and loyalty but improves sales, conversion rates and optimizes customer acquisition.
Today, brands are rapidly adopting gamified marketing strategies to build and deliver interactive experiences. Their ultimate goal being the creation of value for effort.
Consistent mobile engagement will help brand optimize their customer lifetime value (CLV).
So brands who deliver delightful and relevant experiences will stand out. Gamified mobile experiences are a great way to cut through the noise.
It’s time to play: Why do gamified experiences matter
Gamified experiences can have a strong influence on how your brand is perceived. People love ingenuity, creativity and fun.
Over time, these perceptions solidify into loyalty, trust and relationship. That’s not to say that one can build great relationships with customers through gamified strategies alone. Gamified experiences can influence collective customer behavior in powerful and subconscious ways.
So, if you are wondering whether it is worth the time, effort, and money to design, build and deliver gamified experiences on your website or app—it is.
How does gamified engagement work?
A gamified engagement strategy is one where a brand takes the ordinary and injects fun into it. One great example is when customers come to a website to buy or sign up for a service. Gamification adds excitement and makes them active participants in your brand experience.
An example of this is having a “spin the wheel” overlay promising an exciting offer when the customer clicks on “spin”.
By lending a fresh experience to a common experience, brands can drastically increase the time a visitor spends on their website and app. In turn, more time engaging turns into better conversion rates.
The concept is simple and effective. The challenge is personalizing the experience for unique customer segments. But, it’s not impossible.
Proven strategies for gamified strategies
Wheel of Fortune
A highly effective gamified tool to improve opt-in rates, optimize conversions and bring users back to your website.
Wheel of Fortune comes as an overlay on your mobile website. First-time users can be incentivized to enter their email address and spin the wheel to receive a unique discounts, free trials, etc.
Wheel of Fortune can increase lead generation efforts. First-time visitors will be motivated to sign up and receive their offers.
Consider another scenario: the same wheel can improve Average Order Value (AOV) during peak shopping season. How? By incentivizing users to add more items to their cart for more benefits.
Wheel of Fortune has multiple use cases, including reducing cart abandonment. Check out Insider’s Wheel of Fortune and other mobile web gamified templates here.
Page Curl
For brands that want to promote specific product categories can redirect users with incentives using page curl.
So let’s assume a fashion accessories website wants to increase sales for off-season products.
In addition, when a page curl is next to a discount or promotion, it can motivate users to check out an entire category. In this example, the user will notice the offer because the curl will create the illusion of dimension. People tend to notice things that are different.
Likewise, the page curl creates a gamified mobile engagement experience and motivates visitors to flip over and browse products.
Page curls are not limited to product promotions or discounts, they can also be customized to the need of the hour. Promote related content, or services using page curl.
Scratch to Win
Who doesn’t love a little mystery? Scratching off the silver layer to reveal the prize underneath. Never gets old, does it?
So why use this curiosity to entice your customers, website visitors, and app users! Scratch to Win templates are a great way to bring gamified mobile engagement and interactive incentives to your customer journeys.
Bring in the excitement Scratch to Win to your mobile experience and watch your engagement metrics and conversion rates soar.
Exit Intent Overlays
Engagement strategies focus on keeping users active on websites and apps. But what happens when they decide to leave?
In short, is there a last-ditch strategy to retain these users? Exit-intent overlay is a trusted strategy you can rely on. In essence, an exit-intent overlay identifies users who are likely to leave your website. This type of overlay engages at-risk users with relevant and personalized messages and an incentive to get them to stay and complete their journeys.
How can gamified mobile experiences be used?
To sum, the above mentioned gamified templates are some of the more popular gamification strategies. However, this doesn’t mean that gamification opportunities are limited to these templates.
That is to say, you can creatively design and build a host of gamified engagement options regardless of the channels and tools you use. For instance, emerging communication channels like Messenger for Business and WhatsApp Business API are ripe for gamified engagement.
What does the future look like?
The rise of smartphone users and the connected devices opens up a whole new world of possibilities for mobile engagement marketing. With smartphone usage surpassing the desktop computer, the future looks bright.
However, it’s interesting to note that despite the overwhelming usage of smartphones, the bulk of revenue still comes from desktop computers. This presents marketers with a unique opportunity to tap into this new segment and engage a growing segment of smartphone users.
Still, conversions are lower than the desktop on mobile devices. But with the right gamified mobile engagement, the bulk of smartphone users can find the motivation to complete their purchase journeys on mobile.
Ready to implement your gamified engagement strategy? Reach out to us for a personalized demo.
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