9 Ways to Gamify Your Customer Engagement

What is gamification?

the act of applying aspects of playing games – competition, rules, scoring points, and more – to other areas of life, incentivizing people to take specific actions.

Gamification:

Gamification belongs in your marketing strategy.

Why?

Directly influences customer retention.

Works with human psychology and basic needs.

Customer options grow daily – you need to stand out.

Gamification:

How does gamification affect retention?

Retention is….

The average time length your customer base is remaining actively with you as a customer or member.

Gamification helps with retention by...

Making visiting your business a habit

Humanizing your brand and making you more “fun”Increasing customer engagement with your brand

Gamification keeps your customers actively engaging with you.

Customer Engagement

Engagement is key to retention. Gamification incentives engagement.

First impressions are the most important.

They habitualize further engagement.

How can you use gamification to keep

your customers engaging with you?

Reference Pop Culture + Current Events

Pop Culture + Current Events

Schedule out posts for big events (Olympics, holidays).

Leave room in your editorial calendar for spontaneity.

Capitalize on trending topics, viral videos and news.

Prioritize time-sensitive over evergreen posts.There will always be time for evergreen content.

Get on Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go

Set up a lure or host a Pokemon Go crawl.

Post photos of Pokemon sightings.

And repost your customers’ sightings.

Rewards those who catch Pokemon at your business.More on that later.

Use Hashtags

Trending hashtags are your friend.

They’re easy to find, easy to use and capitalize on real-time engagement.

Trending Hashtags

Find ways to make the trending hashtags relatable.

Tie them back to your business’s ethos.

Keep the quality of your content high.

This will help you get above the trending hashtag noise.

Give Celebs a Shoutout

Humanize your brand by tagging celebs in relevant

posts.Bonus: you’ll show up in searches for that person.

Contests

Contests are a great way to boost your social

interactions.And remember, engagement is key here.

Contests

Focus on Twitter and Instagram for contests. Facebook likes lots of comments, but dislikes brand

promotion, so contests can be tricky

Give away partner merchandise or low cost memberships

This will help you save on contest cost.

Use Polls and Questions

Polls and questions prompt direct engagement with your

customers.Plus, they boost leads and can help you make business

decisions.

Use the features that each social platform

wants you to use.

Psst! Twitter wants you to use polls.

Polls + Questions

Show your brand personality off when making a poll.Get creative with polls! Make them something fun to be a

part of.

Mix business-specific polls with more fun polls.You can also use polls to learn about what your

customers really want from your business.

Focus on long-term engagement and brand

personality over ROI when it comes to polls.

Snapchat Takeovers

Use your brand influencers to generate social media.

Genius, right?

Snapchat Takeovers

Give your social media advocates the reigns.

It’s mutually beneficial for you to create content together.

Let those actually interacting with your product create

lifestyle social media for you.As interesting as you are… they’re the ones using your product or

service.

Snapchat Takeovers

Consider buying a Geo-Filter for your location.

Use the platform the way your users do: with filters!

Be funny and human – don’t sell right off the bat.

Nobody will want to interact with that.

Interact with your customers

Social media gives you the opportunity to build

relationships with your customers.

Take advantage of that!

Respond to questions with the personality you want

your customers to associate with your brand.

Don’t spend all your time apologizing or dealing with support, either.

How often should you engage?New businesses + small teams

Businesses w/ bandwidth

Minimum 1 hr / day

Focus on profiles that relate to your audience

All day, every day

Keep active during the hours that people are online

Get a Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs work because they use the

principles of gamification, goal setting, and

progression.Plus, they’re fun.

Loyalty ProgramPoints can be rewarded for performing actions specified by you:

Facebook checkins

Dollars spent

Time-based points

Frequency of

attendance

Attending a class

Referring a

friend

(and more!)

Plus, they can help you make money and increase customer retention.

How?

Loyalty Programs

Make more noise about your business.

Make money off of your customers’ earning activities.

Coming in for classes, spending money in your business, etc.

Make money off of the perks you offer.Offer discounts on poorly selling items and generate referrals.

Your customers will generate social media and local buzz.

When in doubt, always remember...

V I P

V I P

VisitsRetention is

about actively visiting customers

Interactions

Positive interactions keep customers

around longer

ProgramsDevelop habits

through programs

Want more tips on using gamification?

Check out our webinar with an engagement expert at http://info.perkville.com/webinar-

gamification-on-demand

Head to info.perkville.com/learn

Schedule a free consultation with a retention expert.