Gamification Email Marketing: How to Engage and Play With Your Customers

Do you incorporate gamification into your marketing emails? If not, now is the time to start! Increasing engagement, boosting conversion rates, and cementing brand loyalty: the benefits of gamification email marketing are undisputed. And what's more, gamification is a whole lot of fun.

What is gamification?

Gamification uses game principles in non-game contexts. Any time you apply elements of game playing, such as scoring points or participating in a competition, to activities that aren't typically structured as a game, that's gamification. Gamification in email marketing might look like competitions, quizzes, or tests. According to a survey performed by Reflect Digital, 93% of consumers think gamification marketing is effective, and one case study showed that using gamification can get three times more revenue from email marketing.

Why does gamification work?

Lead magnets, freebies, and discounts are great ideas, but in practice they don't always work. Many users sign up just to get these bonuses, then ignore or unsubscribe from any subsequent marketing emails. This is where gamification comes in. It can grab your readers' attention and increase engagement, and when people get engaged with your messages, they'll be more likely to continue engaging with your brand. Gamification isn't necessarily meant to generate more sales directly; instead, it boosts engagement, and increased sales are often a natural consequence from there.

When to use gamification in email marketing

In-between major holidays

You might be inclined to use gamification on special occasions like holidays, but it's often better to save gamification emails for other times of the year. On big ecommerce holidays, consumers typically expect and prefer discounts over other types of content. Instead, try sending gamification emails during stretches of time between major holidays to liven up the more monotonous times of the year.

As event marketing

Another good time to use gamification is when you have a special event coming up. It can help build excitement around your event, generating buzz and getting more people to sign up.

For reactivation email campaigns

Gamification is also helpful for reactivation campaigns, since the goal is re-engaging users, which is a natural fit for game-like elements.

In your rewards program

Try using gamification to put a spin on your rewards system or loyalty program. Customers are used to getting traditional rewards like a small discount, but playing games to win rewards is often a new and exciting experience. One brand hid a virtual character on its website that moved to a new page each day; customers who found it received a special discount code. Set up your rewards system so that the more customers interact and engage with you, the more points or rewards they get.

Gamification email examples

One writing tool included fun gamification elements in a weekly update, showing readers their weekly statistics plus how they stack up against other users, a fun way to get users engaged and interested in their progress. Quizzes are another great example of gamification: one clothing retailer sent a "short quiz" letting readers scroll through and choose answers to get a personalized product recommendation at the end. One onboarding email made getting started fun by presenting a user's statistics from the past week, then using an interactive checklist to help finish setting up their account, encouraging new subscribers to stick around. And one restaurant chain designed a rewards game based around a few of its products, challenging customers to complete each activity to earn a reward, with a bold CTA button encouraging readers to start playing.

Wrap-up: Create your own gamification emails

Feeling inspired to incorporate gamification into your own email marketing? A simple drag-and-drop editor with a full catalog of premade templates makes it easy to create top-notch gamification emails.