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Gamification. Sounds fancy, right?
It is, and it isn’t. Essentially, gamification is a marketing technique that engages people through the use of game-like elements. Typical examples of gamification in marketing include contests, loyalty programs, quizzes, and actual games.
Some advantages to using gamification techniques in your marketing are customer engagement, more time on-site, improved brand awareness, and increased loyalty. For example, after Verizon used gamification on its website to encourage more engagement, they found that customers spent 30% more time in the gamified environment.
Likewise, in a report by SNIPP, gamification increased a brand’s client engagement by 47%, brand loyalty by 22%, and brand awareness by 15%.
All of these measures are intertwined. Customer engagement with a brand leads to loyalty through repeated interactions. Loyal customers are more likely to develop a brand attachment and spread the word about the brands they love. Word of mouth drives brand awareness among a customer’s audience who are more likely to check out your brand because someone they trust recommends it.
Now to find a marketing tool that can do ALL of that? Sounds like any business’s dream. It’s easy to see how well these tools are suited for B2C marketing. For example, a makeup company could include a quiz to help customers choose the right shade of lipstick, or an ice cream shop might use a loyalty program to get folks coming back again and again. However, it might be harder to conceive how gamification might work for B2B marketing.
In fact, B2B marketers have PLENTY of opportunities to effectively use gamification in their marketing. Below you’ll find eight examples of B2B businesses using gamification to collect leads, educate their audience, and gather user-generated content (UGC).
#1. HubSpot – Make My Persona Tool
If you’re a B2B marketer, you’re probably VERY aware of HubSpot. If you’re not, HubSpot is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that does it all – from marketing automation to sales enablement, customer service to content management.
HubSpot is well-known for its inbound marketing strategies to grow its business. One of the strategies they deploy is offering free business tools. These tools are quick and easy for people to use, and they give HubSpot a load of leads.
Many of the tools are also a great example of gamification in action. Take the HubSpot Make My Persona tool. Marketing and sales professionals can complete seven easy steps to generate a buyer persona that their company can download and use. In return, HubSpot asks for a bit of information, including an email address and company stats.
#2. Neil Patel – Spin to Win game
Neil Patel is the co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, and KISSmetrics. He’s also a very well-known marketing expert and influencer. Much like Jeff Bullas is known for providing top-notch B2B advice, folks go to Neil Patel for his SEO and traffic generation insights.
Neil Patel’s website offers several free tools to generate inbound leads, much like HubSpot. However, he’s also leveraged other tactics, like contests. He ran a Spin to Win contest where folks could enter their email for a chance to win a prize. After submitting, entrants would spin a wheel to see if they won access to some of Neil’s paid resources. By giving away his resources as prizes, Neil could generate a list of leads who were interested in his services.
#3. Stemcell Technologies – “Which Immune Cell Are You?” Quiz
Stemcell Technologies is a biotech company that provides specialty cell culture media and separation products for scientific research purposes. During the pandemic, the scientific community stopped in-person conferences. However, it’s important for the community to continue to share knowledge.
They created a fun and timely quiz to help raise awareness of their submissions for a virtual immunology conference and a cell therapy conference. The “Which Immune Cell Are You?” quiz asks participants questions to reveal which immune cell fits their personality. The quiz garnered much attention, including an article on NPR.
#4. SAP – Community missions badges
SAP is an enterprise application software producer that develops solutions for some of the world’s most well-known companies. They have created a community of over three million individuals who use SAP products.
The SAP team gamified the community to encourage engagement. Community members can complete various missions to receive community badges. Members proudly display the badges on their profiles.
#5. FloQast – ROI calculator
FloQast is an accounting workflow automation platform that helps accounting teams streamline their processes and do more in less time. They know a thing or two about calculating return on investment (ROI). As a sales tool, FloQast provided an ROI calculator for companies to determine if using the platform is a good investment.
Potential customers must fill out a form with company information to receive the ROI report results. This data gives FloQast valuable insight into who the prospect is and how they could help the prospect’s team before the FloQast team reaches out.
#6. ShortStack – “Elf on the Shelf” website scavenger hunt
ShortStack is a SaaS platform for online marketing specializing in form-based and social media contests. They hosted an “Elf on the Shelf” themed scavenger hunt to raise awareness of new features.
Over the course of a month, the ShortStack team revealed a weekly clue that led participants to a page on their website where their elf named Jack was hiding. People clicked the elf to enter the contest, then had the opportunity to learn more about the feature highlighted on the webpage they had visited.
#7. Hootsuite – Social media trends knowledge quiz and contest
Hootsuite is a SaaS platform that helps marketers publish social media posts, engage with followers, conduct social listening and advertise on social media. In other words, they are the ultimate social media experts, so much so that they write an annual social media trends report.
To encourage people to read the report, they created a knowledge quiz based on the report findings. Once quiz-takers answered five questions correctly, they could enter to win a prize. Hootsuite could then use these leads to promote its social media tools.
#8. DEWALT – #TradeStory UGC contest
DEWALT is a well-known power tools company. Tradespeople who want quality, long-lasting products use DEWALT tools to help them do their best work.
DEWALT hosted a contest to help promote a more inclusive worksite culture and raise awareness of their brand among folks in this market. The #TradeStory contest encouraged tradespeople to submit their stories to help inspire job-site diversity for the chance to win DEWALT products. In addition to raising awareness, the contest also served as a way for their marketing team to collect UGC for future marketing efforts.
Time to get in the game
When creating your next lead generation or brand awareness campaign, think about how to make it more engaging for your customers with gamification.
Consider creating a contest where entrants can win a prize, a quiz where folks can show off what they know (or don’t), learn something about themselves, or offer a tool that will help them move their business forward.
By gamifying the experience for your customers, you make the lead generation process more enjoyable. You also boost the amount of time they spend with your brand, promote greater brand loyalty, and increase their likelihood of sharing your business with others.
Guest author: Jane Vance is the Marketing Director for ShortStack.com. Jane has over a decade of experience in B2B SaaS marketing and specializes in product marketing, customer experience, and lead generation.
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