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Gamification Customer Engagement Strategy Customer Satisfaction

5 ways businesses can ensure their value exchange satisfies customers

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April 1, 2022 | 6 min read

The value exchange

Almost sounds a little shady, doesn’t it? Like there’s some backstreet exchange of brown envelopes going on.

But in the world of marketing, as we know, the value exchange is invaluable. It’s what your business does to persuade your potential customer to engage and share their data. And it’s what allows you to build your marketing efforts since it allows you to deliver the more targeted, personalized customer experience that will keep your customers coming back for more.

It's even more important in this era of digital transformation, as businesses reinvent the way they work to address new customer needs.

Such digital transformation doesn’t happen by magic but instead relies on accurate, relevant customer data that allows for strategic, planned digital transformation. But that can be tough in a world where traditional methods of data collection, such as third-party cookies are waning.

The right value exchange solves that challenge, allowing you to collect the first and zero party data you need to build relationships with customers based on real insight.

Getting the value exchange right

The value exchange needs to be enticing if it is to do its job and persuade your customers to share their valuable data. It needs to be persuasive but not pushy.

But this is during a time when consumers are more reticent to share their data than ever. Getting the value exchange balance right is about breaking down the barriers that consumers have put up and allowing you in. To say it’s a tricky transaction is an understatement.

In this piece we look at five ways to ensure that your value exchange is priceless, allowing you to digitally transform and deliver the relevant, immersive experiences customers will love.

1.) Make it rewarding

Ok so this one might be a little obvious. We are talking about a value exchange after all. The exchange part means that you have to give something back. But how about ensuring that what you give back is of genuine value to the consumer? Their ‘reward’ can be intrinsic or extrinsic, both have their place.

For instance, in Leadfamly’s recent YouGov report Marketing Is A Data Game, 41% of consumers said that they would share first-party data in return for a better, more personalized brand experience. That’s an intrinsic reward and is often the ultimate aim of the use of your data since it’s the experience that helps to drive customer relationships.

But other times subtler intrinsic rewards work as well for customers, such as learning more about your brand. And of course, traditional extrinsic rewards, such as discounts or physical prizes are highly valued too.

2.) Make it fun

Who likes boring? Nobody of course. So if you could inject a little fun into your value exchange then why wouldn’t you? It’s memorable and it’s powerful.

Game mechanics directly address this notion of fun by tapping into our primitive instinct to want to play. And few can resist that urge. But there’s a deeper benefit beyond simply amusing your customers. Through such interactive experiences the brain becomes more alert and perceptive – and more open to your marketing as a result.

It’s also more attractive in the first place. In Leadfamly’s YouGov research, we found that consumers are 56% more likely to click a gamified ad over a normal static one and more than a third (36%) said that fun and seamless branded games positively influence how they feel about a brand.

3.) Make it competitive

This sounds a little counter-intuitive. After all, if you are making your customer do the hard work in the value exchange you might assume that will turn them off? Not so. Leadfamly’s research found that more than half (51%) of respondents said that winning a voucher meant more to them than a voucher given to everyone. They’ve had to work for their reward but it meant that they valued it more.

Leadfamly has a portfolio of five game mechanics which include Challenge, Reward, Mirroring, Compete and Fun. We found that consumers love to beat others, especially amongst younger customers where games such as pitting their knowledge against peers are nearly 1.5 times as popular with Gen Z and Millennials as it is with Gen X or Baby Boomers. The competitive element is a strong driver that will keep the customer coming back.

4.) Make it memorable

The alertness of the brain when engaging in the interactive experience that gamified marketing offers means that the memory of the experience is more likely to stick in the first place. But brands can also get inventive with their game campaigns to make them even more memorable. Many will choose to tie in with themes or occasions so need to offer something a little different to stand out.

But as with all elements of play, one of the only constraints is imagination. Amongst Leadfamly customers, we’ve seen brands build e-commerce strategies with gamification and save over 30,000 hours on candidate screening for HR. They continually raise the bar around the types of campaigns that they want to deliver to stand out from the crowd.

5.) Make it count

This is perhaps the most important way to make your value exchange truly stand out. It’s about having a clear intent about the reason for your gamified campaign and the game mechanic that you have chosen. Is it to learn more about your customers or for them to learn more about you? To encourage them to buy or simply to get them to spend time with your brand?

Ultimately data will be the aim in most instances. And as such it’s important that businesses make such data collection count, ensuring that it is clearly being used to not only benefit the business but the customer too.

It’s about using the data to better direct your marketing, moving away from spray and pray techniques towards more targeted campaigns and more personalized offers.

Most importantly making it count is when your customers begin to trust you. And with trust comes an even greater openness that will help to move your digital transformation on further and faster.

To find out more about the YouGov consumer research study about engagement, incentives, and data, download our recent ebook.

Gamification Customer Engagement Strategy Customer Satisfaction

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