If you haven’t heard the word “gamification” yet, you’re not alone. But if you’re played Angry Birds on your phone, Draw Something on your iPad, or checked in someplace on FourSquare you’ve definitely been gamed.
The first time I’d heard of Gamification was last year when our digital marketing team discussed the concept with a B2B client who sells software as a service (SaaS). Since then I’ve noticed this word appear over and over in the news.
Gamification means to turn a business objective into a game, and making users into players. The point is to increase engagement with your audience, prompting them to do what you want them to do by being rewarded. Rewards can be monetary, prizes, or badges that denote status.
Since working with small and medium sized B2B firms are where my passion lies, I know that many of these organizations ignore buzz words like Gamification, and if the trend sticks around long enough in B2C, they’ll eventually pay attention!
Marketing Sherpa published a great article on B2B Gamification, and I’ve boiled down and added my own spin on the Top 3 Gamification ideas for local B2B companies:
1. Grow in-bound Web leads – i.e. offer a visitor a free whitepaper download if they complete a RFQ form on your website
2. Improve customer satisfaction – i.e. offer your customer service team rewards when your customers share specific positive feedback
3. Develop employee training sessions – i.e. offer your outside sales reps a prize when they attend or interact with a sales webinar
To discuss how your B2B firm can improve your results using Gamification, let’s talk.
