As per a recent report, it was estimated that around 58 percent of companies did not feature a formal customer acquisition and engagement program. At the same time, it was also revealed that around 60 percent of organizations did not track the number of customers they lost in the last year.
Some of the common challenges that most organizations face with respect to customer acquisition and engagement are:
· Expectations: Ease of access to a myriad of products, platforms, and services has enhanced the end customers' expectations. If your engagement strategy is not about interacting with customers effectively, they might easily switch to some other service provider.
· Distractions: As competitors keep vying for the attention of the customers, a significant challenge for any customer engagement program is to cut through existing distractions while differentiating your brand.
· Connection: It is equally important to come across new as well as innovative ways for ensuring continuous connection with the end customers.
A key business strategy is focused on combating distractions and keeping customers engaged throughout the customer journey. One effective way is through the development of a brand loyal and engaged online customer community. An online platform wherein customers engage with each other with respect to specific products or services, discuss reviews, or come up with new ideas for products or services serves to be an effective way of ensuring customer engagement.
Using Gamification for Increasing Customer Engagement
Gamification can be referred to as the application of game-thinking concepts in a non-game context or manner. Marketers or industry experts borrow concepts from traditional games while applying the same to uncommon aspects like customer engagement and retention.
Customer acquisition can turn out to be expensive. Therefore, a reduction in custom churn can significantly impact the financial health of your organization. A study reported that an increase in customer retention by around 5 percent was capable of generating around 25 to 30 percent increased profit margins.
Gamification tends to play a major role in keeping the community members motivated as well as engaged. Rewards and challenges are introduced for driving maximum participation from the members. Some of the effective ways in which you can leverage the concept of gamification for increasing customer acquisition and engagement are:
#Driving User Engagement
Gamification is responsible for converting the entire customer community experience into healthy competition. Customers moving up the respective competition levels are rewarded for the subsequent contributions. The given contributions from the customers’ end could be some form of discussion, replies to queries, publishing product reviews, and much more.
#Generating User Data
With every piece of information that gets shared or posted in the community, you receive access to meaningful customer data. Customer-centric data that you receive can be immensely valuable for your brand. While you can come across a myriad of processes for collecting customer-centric information, gamification is known to deliver access to accurate results.
Analytics on collected customer data can help in driving the marketing campaigns of your business. It leads to better performance throughout. You can achieve the same by analyzing the respective community participation of customers –like the number of posts, discussions, type of shared content, and so more.
#Promoting Brand Loyalty
When you offer a sense of reputation to your customers with the help of leaderboards, badges, or points, it converts them into loyal advocates for your brand. You can also consider offering free merchandise or discounts for a specific action like a positive review. It will help in making your customers feel valued. Eventually, it will improve their brand loyalty towards your business.
#Augmenting Lead Scoring
In specific cases, gamification helps in providing a relevant opportunity for tracking the activities of engaged leads in the given community. Moreover, the concept also allows you to evaluate the overall scope of turning leads into loyal customers. When you assign values to different types of customer interactions, you are capable of planning out actions related to customer acquisition effectively.
#Improving Brand Awareness
Most of the rewarded customers are known to share their respective achievements on social media. The sharing of rewards on different social media platforms can help in increasing brand awareness amongst potential customers. Moreover, it also bypasses the requirement for coming up with expensive and time-consuming mechanisms of tapping potential customers.
Strategies for Ensuring Improved Conversions
When you integrate the concept of gamification in your customer loyalty program, you should optimize the product to get maximum results. Some of the leading strategies in the given context are:
#Easy Sign-up Process
Customers prefer a short and easy sign-up process. Get rid of all possible barriers for customers to join. Enroll shoppers into the brand’s loyalty program by asking for basic information like email address and name.
#Offer Simple Rules
Loyalty programs require easy-to-understand and implement rules. Do not come up with a lengthy list of restrictions and rules. Keep everything simple while evolving as your loyalty program will grow.
#Provide Personalized Offers
As per a study report, it was observed that 67 percent of customers who experienced targeted rewards in loyalty programs preferred personalized offers like coupons or promotions. Personalized products or rewards equal the creation of a positive brand. It offers inspiration to customers to shop for more while leading to a path of brand advocacy.
#Rewards for Non-purchase Activities
Customers can continue showing brand loyalty even without purchasing products. You should reward shoppers for their non-purchase activities as well. Allow people to earn relevant points when they would sign up or refer a friend.
Conclusion
When done correctly, the concept of gamification helps in raising the interactivity aspect of your customer acquisition community. As customer attention continues growing, your brand tends to achieve ample customer engagement. The given engagement is responsible for making all the difference in achieving your desired goals.
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