It’s not easy running or growing a business, especially if you’re a small business that’s just getting started. While your ideas may be great and have epic potential, getting the world to embrace these can be tough.
There’s huge competition with three new startups being launched worldwide every single second. Gaining a lead on your competitors is hard work but gamification could pose a solution. It’s not a novel or even a new concept, but it is one that has proven incredibly successful for businesses (of all sizes) that have used it in the past.
What is Gamification?
Gamification is the use of game mechanics and experience design in another setting. While an app may ordinarily ask people to sign up and use it, benefiting from its various features and how easy it is to use, gamification gives them an additional excuse to stick with it.
Gamification in a to-do list app may look like “points” that are awarded every time you complete something on your list. The core ideas of gamification are competition, some form of points scoring, collaboration, awards, and prizes, and there should be well-thought-out ways to play too (so that users can’t cheat their way to the rewards).
How to Implement Gamification
The awarding of points when someone completes a task is one of the more basic implementations of gamification, but you can take it further. One fresh and exciting brand that has added gamification to its platform is online casino Casumo, which has an “Adventure” system for its players. The more players take part in casino games like slots, table games (blackjack and roulette), and live casino titles, the more points, valuables, and trophies they collect to progress to new levels and planets.
There are also freebies and offers (such as free slot spins) as part of this adventure.
While your own gamification doesn’t need to be as advanced as that, you should be thinking of gamification options that fit your user of client’s mindset. If you offer a note-taking app, then perhaps the number of notes that are created or followed up on could earn unlocks and badges so that a user can show off how many ideas they’ve come up with! Or, if you run a platform where people recommend services and apps and if they offer lots of recommendations, they get access to exclusive profile styles or platform features.
Why Gamification is So Effective for Building Loyalty
Customer loyalty is a hugely important business factor for one reason; it’s a lot cheaper to keep an existing customer than acquire a new one. Loyal customers can also help you acquire new customers cheaply as they recommend you to their friends and family and they can be upsold on new products and services.
Gamification is effective for building loyalty because it rewards them for sticking by you. If you give a user a badge or profile image that shows that they are a “super user” or something similar, or if you’ve given them special access to extra features, they’ll be less likely to leave you for a rival.
Gamification isn’t a salvo to endemic issues – you need to have a good foundation and be offering something good for this to work. However, it can be a useful tool for growing your base.
