If you’re running an online business or part of a multi-location operation, then the term “gamification” is probably already familiar to you. Gamification is the application of game mechanics and design elements in non-game contexts, such as learning management systems or employee training modules.
For most people, the idea of gamifying their business seems to be a good one but one that can be difficult to execute successfully if done incorrectly.
In this post, we’ll from a product development standpoint share with you our top 10 tips listed by https://ilventofailsuogiro.com/ on how to successfully gamify your online business.
1. Start With the Right Mindset
You might be thinking that gamifying your business is going to be a fun way to reward and incentivize your customers and employees – but sometimes the most important aspect of gamification isn’t fun – it’s competition . This can be a powerful motivator if implemented correctly. For example, you could create a “whale award” for the individual who spends the most money in one month, or run a competition within teams for who can produce the highest sales figures in 2 months.
2. Limit the Number of Winners
While competition among employees and customers is important, you don’t want to end up with a completely unproductive environment. If you’re too focused on competitiveness then you could end up with poor engagement and little motivation altogether — on the other hand; if your goals aren’t incentivized enough by prizes, then no one will care enough to even try doing anything.
3. Make Your Prizes Something Useful and Lasting Value
If you don’t want employees and customers to feel like they’re wasting their time or resources with a gamified reward system, then it’s important that the prizes are both valuable AND lasting value, otherwise people may feel that it’s not worth them doing anything at all. For example, you could offer rewards like prizes of $100 in free marketing, $100 in free web development, $100 in free e-commerce or even $100 in free copywriting.
4. Engage Your Customers With Social Media Integration
One of the best ways to get people involved with your rewards program is to have some type of social media integration. Facebook or Twitter are usually the easiest platforms to allow users to both “play” and “share”, while also giving them the option to monetize their efforts by inviting their friends. If you can get your customers engaged within social media, then you have a much better chance at getting them involved with your programs.
5. Involve Your Customers in Your Development Process
If you’re going to be gamifying your business, then you absolutely have to involve your customers and current users in the process of development. You can do this by asking for their thoughts and feedback on what they’d like to see in each reward, or by taking note of what features they find most important when it comes to making purchasing decisions.
6. Give Them Penalties For Unsuccessful Mission Accomplishments
If your aim is not just to incentivize your customers and employees, but also to encourage them with a sense of achievement — then giving them a penalty when something doesn’t “go according to plan” could be the perfect incentive. You could do this by setting a deadline, and then penalizing them if they fail to meet those goals.
7. Give Them More Than Just Rewards to Keep Them Engaged
If you want people to engage with your gamified program as much as possible, then you need to make sure that there’s more than just rewards involved. This can be achieved by adding challenges, competitions and leader-boards – which will help to keep people engaged for extended periods of time. When people are involved in a challenge or competition, they’ll also be working to “beat the system” – which will encourage them to work even harder towards a goal.
8. Reward More Than One Reward
As you may have guessed by now, there’s more than just one reward in most gamified programs. If you have multiple levels of gamification or rewards, then you can increase engagement by not only giving out the same rewards to each person, but also by introducing new prizes over time. For example, if you’re offering “best-selling” products with a reward of discounts on future purchases, then you could introduce a new kind of reward that offers free advertising on your website. You can then use all of these incentives to keep your customers engaged for even longer periods of time.
9. Limit the Amount of Reward for Any Single Achievement
If you’re not careful, then it’s easy to get carried away with gamification and end up with something that people don’t appreciate. You need to learn to limit the amount of rewards you give out per person, so that each time they complete an “achievement” they don’t get too many benefits. For example, if you were offering $300 in free marketing for completing an e-commerce order, it would be wise to reduce the reward based on the number of orders completed (or at least give them more than one reward). You can also use leaderboards or some type of challenge to keep your customers motivated while only giving them one reward at a time.
10. Make Your Missions Difficult, but Not Too Difficult
If the missions are too difficult, then you’ll end up with people feeling like they can’t complete anything at all. On the flip side; if the missions are too easy, then you’ll end up with people getting bored and not wanting to participate anymore. The solution is to make sure that you’re creating goals that are difficult enough for people to achieve but not so difficult that it’s frustrating or discouraging. You can do this by offering multiple paths towards every achievement (such as through social media) and allowing people to reach your goals in different ways.
