Did you know that a savvy combination of competitions and marketing games is a foolproof recipe to generate more traffic on your online shop and by extension, your blog, social media accounts and all sections of your website?
An excellent way to draw traffic to your e-commerce site is to create an intriguing incentive so that web users visit it. Plus, integrating games into your marketing campaigns will help you to achieve all your goals! In fact, wheel of fortune and one-armed bandit games are popular online marketing games and competition ideas that attract the public and help increase your product and service sales.
At the same time, they increase your business’ reputation and visibility online and give you the chance to form relationships with your current and future clients. They also allow you to gather essential information about your visitors, which builds your database and helps you refine your client personas.
In this blog article, we will share a few ideas to increase your e-commerce traffic with the help of gamification and more specifically competitions. We will explain the process step by step.
The main aspects of competitions to take into account
There are three main aspects that can form part of all competitions. The way in which these elements are combined determines the type of competition that you organise. Don’t forget that competitions are a classic web-marketing tool that have become vital for boosting e-commerce performance and marketing campaigns.
- A prize:
Based on the complexity and expected participation rate of your game, it may be useful to include several prizes, rewards to be won and prize draws when organising your strategy to please as many participants as possible. Or how about an instant reward system giving out numerous prizes per day over the course of your entire marketing operation. This abundance helps to multiply the number of participants who will feel they have a better chance of winning and therefore not hesitate to get stuck in. You can use physical prizes or discount offers on a flagship product, but that’s not all. The prize may also come in the form of a badge or a virtual trophy.
- Chance:
This is generally in the form of a randomly selected winner where both the players and the competition organisers have no control. Along the same lines, we also have instant winner games and scratch card games which are well-known, popular games of chance. And to ensure that your game of chance starts off on the best foot possible, it is strongly advisable to explain the rules to the online community in a video or another format.
- A trade-off:
To take part and try to win a prize, the participant must always make an effort: sign up with their contact details and personal information, share the game online and on social networks such as Instagram, or even invite their subscribers on their platform to take part. In this way, they ingeniously contribute to growing your company’s reputation and social media following and help bring in new clients. It also increases engagement levels, facilitates communication between the business and the public and adds a social dynamic. But how do you stand out from the crowd? How do you set up an attractive and original mechanism in both form and content to draw in as many participants as possible and generate positive implications and sales?
How to effectively integrate competitions on your e-commerce site
Define your objectives
Before you dive into creating your competition, first it is essential to determine the objectives that you wish to achieve for your online shop.
What messages do you want to send to the public through this competition? What is the commercial goal? What internal and external resources do you have available to set up the game? What figures would you consider a success? (Number of players, qualified leads…)
Quantifying the results of your gamification strategy is essential to make sure that it is worthwhile or if there are changes to be made. Having a detailed breakdown of your goals will also help you to see more clearly to help choose the right approaches and tools and adapt your competitions to suit your company’s needs and resources.
Be yourself and make logical choices
It is important to stay consistent with the products and services that you sell on your e-commerce site and maintain your brand identity. Offer a game that suits you and matches the tone of your brand. Your e-commerce performance will be better for it and your customers will be more interested!
It is also very important to know your target audience off by heart, or in other words, your main clients and buyer personas, to be able to adapt your game to their profile and areas of interest.
For example, if you know most people who consult your e-commerce site are coffee lovers, it will be more effective to promote the latest coffee product that you have put online by organising a competition that reiterates the coffee codes and lets them win coffee-themed prizes.
In any case, be original when choosing your prize and ask yourself the following question: “If I was a client, what would I like to win?”
Make the most of the context
The best way to introduce a competition is to base it on a calendar highlight, it doesn’t matter which, to tie it in with a usable event framework.
Whether that is a popular current event, an international celebration day or your brand’s 10th birthday, take any excuse to launch an operation and attract new e-commerce activity. This type of approach often helps to reach a larger audience, since everyone feels involved and will want to take part.
It is therefore essential to link your competition to the event by adapting the colours and design to create a direct link between the chosen realm and your brand so that the public understands what you want to convey straight away.
Effectively promote your game
The more well-known your game is, the more it will go viral, and the more participants there will be, so this step is fundamental to creating positive implications and sales. Therefore, you can use your account on social media platforms to launch promotional campaigns and spread the word about your competition to your subscribers. These platforms have become masters in the art of competitions and gamification in general.
And above all, you can create a direct link to participate in your game directly from social media or a mobile application. This way, you will be on track to grow your main audience and attract potential new clients.
Integrating your game in online advertising can also increase your visibility and, if you manage to captivate your users well enough, it can also inspire them to click on the link to take part.
Don’t hesitate to multiply multimedia content on mobile platforms, like photos and videos to pique your subscribers’ interest and encourage them to participate!
Google’s competition example
Google competitions are specifically constructed around special events, some are annual, others are organised by the team or even saved for students: the most popular is Doodle4Google.
It is an annual competition aimed at American students from kindergarten to the last year of high school, with a new theme every year. All you need is a little creativity and some drawing skills to create a Google Home banner, which transforms into unique Doodles for special occasions.
There is a winner in each State and territory of the United States, then 5 national finalists and an overall winner who wins a grant for their education. The 54 winners will see their Doodles presented in the Doodle4Google gallery and will receive Google gifts and merchandise as well as a personalised congratulations message from the famous search engine. During the event, all Americans can vote for their favourite Doodle out of the finalists to try and secure their victory.
In summary, even if competitions can seem similar in terms of functionality in a general sense, the key to success is to be creative and innovative to stand out from your competition and offer a true moment of pleasure to your participants!
For more than 10 years, our team of gamification experts have been supporting businesses in creating punchy, digital competitions to engage their audiences and generate traffic on their e-commerce site. Thanks to the different add-ons and solutions available, Drimify is the gamification platform for all your gamified marketing projects.
