8 Pillars Of Successful Marketing Campaigns - Gamify

At Gamify, we've discovered over time, across multiple case studies that we could identify consistent patterns being revealed in successful marketing plans, regardless of whether the client was a big brand or a small business.

Taking note of these regularities, our team has formed "The 8 Pillars of Successful Marketing Campaigns" as a sign-off for our customers if they wish to partner with us. We guarantee results if our customers agree and adhere to these following 8 points within their marketing strategy.

1. Set goals beforehand/Have a clear objective

Gamified Marketing Campaigns can be designed for many purposes, whether they be for educating clients on a new product or service, developing brand awareness, selling more units of a product or simply lead generation. Having one clear priority helps give the campaign direction.

You would be surprised how often brands feel the need to launch a marketing campaign, yet never take the time to identify what it is they hope to achieve. Simply making noise in the hopes of staying front of mind with your customer base is not a long term goal.

2. Know what success looks like through setting KPIs

Make sure to set KPIs, whether they be to get a certain amount of plays, or a number of social shares. Having a target to aim for helps focus all efforts on attaining those numbers.

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are exactly what they sound like, by setting KPIs in place before your Gamification Campaign goes live, you have created parameters and a direction for the campaign to move in.

Without KPIs, how do you get an accurate read on whether or not the campaign was a success? Set KPIs up first and it will help with all the following points falling into place.

3. Confirm promotional budget

Knowing how much money you’re willing to put into the promotional aspect of a digital marketing campaign not only helps you determine how wide of a net you’ll be casting but even where you choose to cast that net. Knowing this information in advance to a live campaign means you won’t cast your net too late either.

Make sure when you are planning a Gamification Campaign that you allocate the right amount of your marketing budget towards content quality, email marketing, marketing automation, and promotional ads.

You may find that you were planning on simply promoting the campaign via your companies own Instagram or Facebook accounts as a form of integrated marketing, which is strongly recommended. Yet, purchasing promotional ads allows for your campaign’s reach to go further and create new user connections.

4. Know your target audience

Age, gender, interests & location all matter when choosing a game. Some games have a user percentage that can be 85% male, while others are 70% female. Knowing who your audience is, allows you to allocate the right kind of game in order to reach that demographic.

The user experience is the foundation of effective marketing, however, some brands get so caught up in their own message that they forget to tap into who their audience is and where their interests lie. Once you can identify your target audience it becomes inherently easier to build a campaign around that information.

5. Determine incentives and rewards

Determine what you want to give away as an incentive. It could be a new product sample, content and guides to help the audience or promotional coupons. There needs to be a clear incentive in order to make the gamification work with your audience.

If you haven’t used incentives before, it is good to benchmark what appears to be working with others in your industry or ask your audience what they would like to receive from you. Without a clear cut reward, customer motivation will be at its lowest.

Rewards are a must for Gamification campaigns, as they require proactive engagement from users, so in order to get them over the line, there must be something on offer that would entice the users into giving the campaign their time and attention.

6. Promotion across relevant mediums/Create relevant content

Gamification marketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all process, what works to drive engagement on social media channels might stall on your website or in-store efforts. As you launch your gamification campaign, you should be mindful of where your target audience will be and what kind of content marketing they will respond to.

7. In-store Gamification/EDMs

Not all of your marketing efforts should target customers before they reach your brick-and-mortar location. Location-based marketing promotes your brand to customers while they are in your building and actively engaging with your brand.

Challenge your customers with games when they’re at your business using interactive touchscreens, digital signage, and free customer Wi-Fi. In-store Leaderboards are another example of encouraging your customer base to get involved.

EDMs (Electronic Direct Mail) is another way of directing your Gamification Campaign straight to your customer base. While Social Media platforms can fluctuate in relevance to your campaign and its intended audience, EDMs are a consistent audience that should always be tapped into for any and all sales cycles.

8. Campaign duration and long term sales efforts

When it comes to campaign timing, not only when to launch a campaign is important but also how long the duration of the campaign will be.

Gamify’s recommended timeframe for most campaigns sits around the 6-week mark, this allows enough time to promote a following but not enough time for the campaign to grow stale.

You want your users to feel a sense of urgency when participating in the campaign, if they feel that they have all the time in the world to engage with the competition, they may put off and lose their opportunity altogether.

While engagement is an essential part of the marketing process, the long-game should lead to increased sales and revenue for your brand.

Each marketing campaign is unique in its structure, objectives and target audience. With that in mind, not all 8 pillars may be necessary for a campaign to be successful.

For further enquiries about successful marketing campaigns, check out our Case Studies page and fill out the information field on the right of this page to further enquire with some of our friendly Gamify staff.