Gamification content: Benefits of including gamification elements in your content

Successful gamification strategies need high quality content to achieve the desired effect that companies want. In the same sense, great content also needs gamification elements to engage users. With gamification becoming a more embedded part of society, it is being more widely used as a strategy to engage people.

According to Gartner, 70% of Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified application by 2014. Organizations are using gamification content not only as part of their marketing strategies and promotions, they are using it internally to keep workers engaged. With Generation X and Y growing up in a gaming culture, gamification is a vital tool to drive engagement and motivate people to spend more time with your brand.

Popular Gamification Content Tactics

Brianne Walter in 3 Gamification Tactics for Content Publishers outlines three very important gamification tactics that can be used to enhance levels of engagement with your company’s content. They are:

1. Points: Points are one of the most traditional and most effective gamification tactics that can be used for engagement. There is no shortage of ways that companies can assign points when users engage with content such as assigning points for things like page views, comments, and progression.
2. Leaderboards: People love competition, and they love to compare themselves to others. Including a leaderboard on your website allows people to see where they stand compared to other users. It also motivates them to further engage with your brand so they can move their way up the leaderboard.
3. Badges: Similar to leaderboards, badges allow users to gain notoriety or status when they engage with your brand. It also allows for comparison with other users and gives them reason to engage at a deeper level with your brand.

Benefits of Gamification Content

Gamification content marketing is becoming a more widely used strategy. Effective content marketing plans are used to educate, inform and entertain. Gamification can help to enhance these tactics.

“Smart marketers are using the same mechanics that have hooked gamers to generate more business and, with advancements in technology, are doing so with greater creativity and complexity,” says Nicolette Beard in Gamification as a Content Marketing Tactic – How Brands Are Engaging Consumers.

Companies are using gamification content and gaming mechanics because they provide these potential benefits:

• It encourages users to spend more time with your brand
• It allows for deeper levels of engagement
• It is something that is different from traditional marketing and advertising tactics that people have grown weary of
• Gamification creates fun experiences with your brand
• Gamification speaks your users’ language and engages them on a familiar “playing field”

Gamification content creates reasons for your users to keep coming back. Points, badges and leaderboards reward users for engaging with your content, and this is the key to turn these users into customers who will choose to purchase your brand’s products and services.