Keep Customers Hooked to Your Brand: Gamified Digital Coupons

Playing games is so enticing, isn’t it? From video console games and playstations to mobile and online gaming, kids and adults will jump out of excitement and pick up their controllers. It’s fun, and we want to keep it going! Whether VR, console, video games, puzzles, or crosswords, you move to a new world where you explore something new and different. Nowadays, you might witness that marketing campaigns are more creative and engaging because marketers are adding gaming content and elements to make their brands more interesting.

As customers demand more than just products and services; ‘gamification’ helps retailers to increase engagement and brand recall. When you like something, you will remember it!

It’s simple–gamification means using game mechanics in marketing strategy. How would you feel when you get a discount voucher for your next purchase after playing a game, pretty great? Savvy marketers know the value gamification can bring and boost customer satisfaction.

Integrating digital gamification helps brands build loyalty and increase engagement. In fact, gamification results in 17% more conversions with 3x more engagement duration. Moreover, gamification is not new; being used for more than a decade and is predicted to reach $30.7 billion by 2026 in market valuation.

Make Way for Gamified Digital Coupons
One of the best ways to get desired results of gamification is through digital coupons. Coupon marketing grows incessantly and helps brands thrive in a highly competitive market. And since customer loyalty is critical for brands today, coupons help retain customers by giving them something in return for their purchase.

92% of Americans have used coupons once to make purchases, which helped users save around 40% more than average spending. Studies show that 79% of buyers will buy an item from a store when they have a coupon from that particular store. Buyers can enjoy more noticeable savings and retailers can build customer loyalty. And once retailers deliver a personalized experience, users tend to buy items regularly from their favorite retailers.

This shows that users love coupons, but marketers are taking digital coupons to the next level by adding some fun and excitement through gamification.

We all love discounts and offers, but what if we avail of them in an immersive and engaging way. For example, let users play a spin-the-wheel game to get a discount coupon wherein they feel the same excitement when we played this game back in our childhood. Plus, you get your item with some discount.

Offer Unique and Personalized Experience
Customers demand attractive offers, not simply 10-15% discounts on monthly purchases. They want brands to engage them, involve them in their activities, and make them feel valued. With gamification, you can engage in an interactive way that can change their perspective toward your brand. And when they enjoy the experience, they share it with their friends and family, which helps increase your brand awareness.

Nevertheless, offering new and unique experiences can keep customers’ interests hooked to the brand. For example, you can play a quiz with your users or loyalty members by asking questions about your brand and offering them a digital coupon targeting their needs. The better someone knows your brand, the bigger the discount coupon.

The novelty effect of gamified digital coupons can help you gain results. You can offer personalized coupons for birthdays, store anniversaries, or special occasions and establish a relationship with your customers. But you can strengthen the relationship when you offer customers something to look forward to and gamification can help here.

Interact with Customers at Every Touchpoint
Yes, gamified digital coupons can help you interact with users at every touchpoint in their buying process. For example, if you’re paying a bill at a restaurant, the owners can let them pay the amount by playing a game and give something back to customers, maybe a discount coupon or voucher to use next time. Paying bills is not fun (who likes it when money gets debited from the bank account) but adding gaming elements can mitigate bill payment’s weariness and increase the restaurant’s word-of-mouth promotion.

So, even if it is the last stage of the buying process, you can make it exciting with gamification and let customers buy from you and build deeper connections with them. Restaurant owners can easily integrate immersive games using our platform. Through the OptCulture platform, they can create digital coupons, introduce gaming elements (spin and win, memory games, etc.) and engage with their customers. Our platform makes the redemption of coupons pretty straightforward, and retailers can monitor/analyze data about their coupon performance.

Leverage the Fear of Losing
When playing, the fear of losing motivates you to try harder and win the game. Likewise, retailers can take this fear of losing and assure customers that they always have something to win when they play with them. So even if customers try their luck, you need to give them something that makes them feel valued.

Moreover, when you offer a prize redeemable in a limited time frame, users fear they will lose something if they don’t act soon. This phase of impulsive purchases helps in faster conversion.

Burger King with Pepsi launched a campaign that let users win exciting prizes, but the twist was ‘only till stocks last.’ When customers ordered a large meal at Burger King outlets, they got scratch cards to win food items, cinema tickets, PlayStation Vita, Sony 32-inch LED TVs, and even three-weekend breaks for 2 people to Rome. Users would have to avail of the prize at the outlet itself for food items. But here, all prizes are to be won.

Putting the condition of ‘only till stocks last’ kicked in fear of missing or losing out something that triggered impulsive purchases, yet users enjoyed an immersive experience. Gamified digital coupons can create that sense of urgency and convert buyers instantly.

Capture Customer Data
Controversies around capturing customers and using them for targeting users have gained a lot of limelight lately. Indeed, it is very critical for brands to take consent for taking their data because of privacy issues and misuse of data. While you offer something in return for their data, trust building shouldn’t be neglected. You can build that trust by giving customers control, and gamified digital coupons are one such way. With gamified digital coupons, you can better understand their needs and offer them what they exactly want.

If we continue the bill payment example, you can create excitement with some games and ask them to register, and customers fill out the registration form to get back something in return. This way, retailers can increase their database without hurting customers’ sentiments, engage them, and increase brand loyalty. They can likewise offer personalized offerings since they have data and purchase history.

Clear Roadmap
Undoubtedly, digital coupons can help retailers to increase customer loyalty and scale business. However, their marketing endeavors can fail without a clear roadmap and the proper infrastructure. Our retail marketing platform can back up your strategy by offering robust digital coupon integration capabilities to provide the right coupons to the right customers. Track the performance of coupons and get more visibility into user behavior. OptCulture platform helps retailers provide a rewarding experience to users and build authentic customer relationships, improving customer loyalty.