Gamification Marketing for Dummies

Grow your customer base with games!

Gamification is the practice of adding elements of gameplay into marketing materials to better engage customers. In Gamification Marketing For Dummies, you’ll learn to use this proven strategy to capture the attention of your target markets and boost your results using valuable gamification data.

Games are fun! That’s why gamification is so successful—customers will jump at the chance to play and win your custom-developed marketing game. You’ll connect with your customers and create lasting memories. Whether or not you are digitally savvy, this book will teach you the basics of gamification, from choosing the right game to capturing the user behavior data that the game generates.

• Use games to increase customer engagement and marketing results
• Learn how to choose or commission the right games for your market
• Plan and execute a successful gamification strategy
• Learn from data generated inside your game for valuable market insights

From simple strategies like customer loyalty programs to complex, branded, social game apps, this book will point in the direction of gamification that works for you.

Zarrar Chishti is a software and games development consultant who has developed and marketed more than 500 games for companies all across the globe. As CEO of Tentacle Solutions, he consults with teams around the world to develop gamification options.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Introducing Gamification Marketing 5

Chapter 1: Gamifying Your Marketing Strategy 7

Seeing What Gamification Can Do in Marketing 8

Understanding gamification 8

Gamifying your marketing 9

Looking at some examples of gamification 9

Understanding How Gamification Differs from Other Online Marketing Tactics 10

Looking at the advantages of gamification 10

Taking your current user experience to the next level 13

Stepping Up Your Current Marketing 14

Chapter 2: Getting to Know Gamification Models 17

Exploring Your Options 17

Discovering game types 18

Creating the Perfect Gamification Campaign Settings 26

Choosing the right game for your audience 27

Determining duration and frequency 29

Avoiding the Big Mistakes 31

Depending on desktop 32

Going rogue 32

Complicating the gameplay 32

Creating too many rewards 32

Misusing game mechanics 33

Banking on virality 33

Creating a campaign that can’t be played at work 34

Assuming your audience will understand games 34

Part 2: Beginning Your Gamification Marketing Quest 35

Chapter 3: Identifying Your Target Audience 37

Defining Your Audience 38

Throwing out everything you think you know about your audience 38

Conducting research to find your audience 39

Taking a Closer Look at Your Current Customer Base 40

Establishing existing data points 41

Tailoring for B2B 42

Mining Your Social Media Accounts 43

Identifying key data points 43

Tracking unique metrics from each platform 45

Choosing meaningful social media data versus vanity metrics 48

Chapter 4: Increasing Engagement in Your Campaign 51

Establishing User Rewards and Achievements 52

Rewarding your players 52

Creating loyalty 55

Encouraging Sharing among Your Audience 58

Using a unique hashtag 58

Providing more than just a link to share 64

Chapter 5: Budgeting Your Development 69

Setting Your Budget 69

Estimating the costs 70

Aligning your budget with your goals 70

Anticipating risks 70

Gathering Your Team 72

Accounting for your gamification model 72

Outsourcing talent 72

Chapter 6: Getting to Know the Technology 83

Choosing a Foundation for Your Campaign 83

Building in HTML5 84

Recognizing the downsides of building an app 88

Keeping Up the Communications 90

Checking your email deliverability 90

Making sure your emails don’t end up in the spam folder 92

Continuing with your campaign 93

Complying with the General Data Protection Regulation 98

Considering Testing Issues 101

Looking at testing methods 101

Checking on browsers 103

Part 3: Executing Your Gamification Plan 105

Chapter 7: Making Your Game a Reality 107

Choosing the Perfect Gamification Model for You 108

Determining Your Target Market 112

Conducting your own audience research 112

Considering what the research is telling you 114

Embedding Goals into the Game 115

Creating SMART goals 115

Devising your gamification objectives 116

Building in Loyalty Rewards 118

Deciding on your options 118

Using rewards in your game 119

Chapter 8: Selecting the Right Components 121

Making Sense of the Game Development Process 122

Understanding the stages of the game development life cycle 122

Deciding which life cycle model is right for you 125

Assembling Your Team 129

Working out who does what 129

Balancing everyone’s role 131

Choosing freelancers, agencies, or in-house employees 132

Preparing the Technical Strategy 134

Understanding the available choices 135

Comparing the platforms 138

Chapter 9: Launching and Promoting Your Game 141

Scheduling the Right Time to Launch 141

Perfecting Your Landing Page 143

Leading Up to T Minus Zero 145

Building pre-launch interest 146

Devising a game-launch marketing strategy through social media 148

Launch Day: Aiming the Spotlight on Your Game 150

Reaching out to your current audience 150

Grabbing media attention 154

Giving influencers and bloggers a sneak peek 157

Using your existing social media channels (or not) 160

Getting your game onto other sites 163

Part 4: Monitoring Real-Time Events and Data after You Go Live 165

Chapter 10: Capturing All the Data 167

Establishing a Portal to Your Data 168

Developing your portal 168

Securing access 169

Building your reports 172

Knowing Which Data You Should Be Capturing 173

Progress tracker 173

Interaction 174

Duration 174

Percentage of new sessions 174

Goal completions 174

Views versus sessions 175

Bounces 175

Location 176

Returning versus new 176

Referrals 177

Following the User Journey 177

Watching all their moves 178

Learning what the users don’t tell you 179

Gaining Valuable User Feedback 181

Providing a dedicated feedback form 181

Installing live chat support 182

Rating your campaign’s performance 182

Creating an online forum 182

Displaying positive customer feedback 183

Using polls 183

Monitoring social channels 183

Chapter 11: Analyzing and Applying Data 185

Understanding the Why and How of Data Analysis 186

Extracting Your Campaign Data 187

Sourcing your data 187

Locating your data 191

Applying Intelligent Big Data 191

Deconstructing big data 192

Benefiting from big data and data analysis 193

Getting Help from Predictive Analysis 194

Installing a predictive analytics tool 195

Using predictive analysis 195

Maintaining Control of Your Data 196

Keeping your audience’s trust 197

Protecting your data 198

Securing your database 198

Chapter 12: Avoiding Data Overload 201

Watching Out for Maximum Capacity 201

Identifying the effects of crashing 202

Preparing for increased traffic 203

Dealing with Data Failure 206

Identifying the cause 206

Fixing the problem 207

Preventing problems from happening again and minimizing the damage 207

Applying the Best Development Practices 210

Optimizing the gamification code 210

Focusing on the purpose of the data 212

Part 5: Preparing for Your Next Gamification Quest 213

Chapter 13: Failing Up: Learning from Your First Quest 215

Taking a Hard Look at the Results 216

Using data to your advantage 216

Using analytics the right way 219

Researching for the Future 221

Shaping the Future 225

Cleaning your data 225

Using artificial intelligence 226

Chapter 14: Relaunching Your Gamification Marketing Campaign 227

Understanding Why You May Want to Relaunch Your Campaign 228

Tweaking Your Gamification Campaign 230

Checking your exit points 230

Assessing whether the gamification option you chose was right for you 231

Redefining your target audience 234

Building a seasonal version of your campaign 235

Knowing When to Shut It All Down 239

Part 6: The Part of Tens 241

Chapter 15: Ten Best Gamification Marketing Examples 243

Starbucks: Starbucks Rewards 243

Chipotle: A Love Story Game 244

Nike: Nike+ FuelBand 245

M&M’s: Eye-Spy Pretzel 246

Target: Wish List 247

Citroën: Game of Scroll 247

Coca-Cola: Shake It 248

Netflix: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch 248

Nissan: CarWings 249

Magnum: Pleasure Hunt 250

Chapter 16: Ten Common Gamification Marketing Mistakes 251

Offering an Unengaging User Experience 252

Leaving Your Audience Screaming, “Help!” 252

Having a Flawed Game Structure 253

Leaving the User Waiting 253

Scoring Pointless Goals 254

Not Establishing Clear Big Data Goals 254

Looking Great on the Desktop, But Not So Much on Mobile 255

Not Checking Up on Absentees 257

Missing Out on Social Interaction 257

Launching without Marketing 258

Chapter 17: Ten Benefits to Gamifying Your Marketing 261

Building Brand Awareness 262

Increasing Reach 262

Instantly Appealing to a Younger Audience 263

Driving Engagement 264

Injecting Fun into Your Brand 264

Influencing Customer Behavior 265

Accruing Big (Customer) Data 265

Personalizing Brand Experiences 266

Building Customer Loyalty 266

Gathering Great Customer Feedback and Research 267

Index 269

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