How to use lead generation games to capture leads
1 . Introduction
What is lead generation? Do all persons who view advertisements of a particular brand become leads? No. A lead is nothing but developing interest of a person in a brand’s product by using advertisements. Since all viewers are not converted into leads, it becomes important for businesses to focus primarily on those customers that show interest in their product. This is something that is now being readily practiced by brands to be cost efficient and effective. In today’s competitive era, it has become the need of the hour for brands to develop more captivating methods to record leads and create a loyal customer base. While the marketing industry itself has abundant traditional ways, it has become important for businesses to incorporate unique and interesting modes of marketing, one of which is branded marketing games, popularly known as lead generation games. As a mode of interactive and engaging advertising, lead generation games provide an amusing and fun-laden experience to customers while acquainting them about their favorite brands and their respective products. In the process, lead generation games use their tech to gather contact information of such customers, making it more convenient for the brand to reach out to them for future marketing. This not only makes it easy for brands to follow up on their customers but also to convert them into consumers. Lead generation games can have multiple forms. For example, quizzes, giveaways, or even lotteries. While they may be distinctive in their methodology, what makes them common is that all are driven with the primary motive of being engaging and informative. Another advantage of event gamification over traditional forms of marketing is that while audio-visual advertisements tend to fade away quickly from the customer’s memory, these gamified methods of marketing leave a long-lasting impact in the minds of their viewers. This makes the customers more inquisitive about the brand, thus increasing brand awareness and generating more leads.2 . Benefits of gamifying lead collection
The most important job before incorporating new methods of marketing is to assess their effectiveness. Since games for lead generation are probably one of the most engaging web advertising experiences for a customer, they have their own perks for businesses across a variety of domains.- Highly engaging – These games are programmed to keep the viewer engaged throughout. This helps the brands keep their customers on the webpage for a longer duration, making it more likely for them to make a purchase. Thus, the more time a viewer spends on the business’s website, the higher are their chances to convert.
- High quality leads – Due to their highly informative yet interesting outlook, they aid in attracting better quality leads that are more probable to get converted to customers.
- Creating awareness about the brand – The most important part of marketing for any business is to create a strong and long lasting bond with their customers. Lead generation games do just that and more by giving viewers a memorable experience about the brand’s products and services.
3 . Choosing the right lead generation game
Lead generation games provide a plethora of option to choose from when deciding your next marketing tactic. However, with a multitude of alternatives, getting the right game that aptly suits your task could be overwhelming. Given below are a factors that should be paid heed to while setting up your own game:- Specially tailored – Before choosing a lead generation game for a business, one should pay heed to the interests and preferences of their targeted audience. Audience should be provided with information that’s relevant and engaging as well provide a fulfilling experience.
- Business goals – A marketing strategy largely depends on the goals that are to be achieved through the game. Whether it’s engaging your customers or educating them about the brand and it’s products or merely capturing leads for business, knowing what you want to achieve through this venture is a must before it’s put to work.
- Budget – Since the prices for employing interactive games vary largely based on the type of work they are used for, they can prove to be economical only when smartly used. Also, it is important for businesses to pre-determine their budget through which they can find the game that suffices their purposes and is budget friendly as well.
4 . Top examples of interactive games for lead generation
My Starbucks Reward – Starbucks has always focused on delivering personalized services to their customers. Also, the brand is fairly particular about the ambience that they offer. Everything, ranging from their stores to their advertisements, is characterized by an inviting environment. This is what makes their customers stay longer in their stores to enjoy that shot of caffeine.
The Starbucks Reward uses brand gamification to enhance their customer experience and increase sales. They use a mobile application that records every time a user makes a purchase. These records accumulate as stars which are displayed like a cup that gets filled with every purchase.
But that’s not all. The game also marks the customer’s loyalty towards the brand under three heads which depends on how often a customer pays a visit to the Starbucks. The benefits from these rewards include birthday gifts, personalized goodies and even an extra cup of coffee.
Shake it campaign by Coca Cola – The carbonated drinks giant has enhanced its advertisements with a display of magical kingdoms and a touch of happiness. Through its Shake It campaign, Coca Cola has attempted to amalgamate smartphones, vintage media and games.
What the brand does is – it offers its teenage consumers a free and branded application that runs in consonance with a television spot in the evening. As the television spot begins, the customers are required to use the mobile application and shake their phones to win discount coupons on products offered by the brand’s partners like McDonald’s and Burger King. Coca Cola has been able to align its campaign with the brand’s mission. The campaign’s highly interactive UI makes it extremely fun and hard to overlook. The brand’s optimistic thinking is well advertised with its gasified tech which allows it to interact with its customers.
All eyes on S4 – In the year 2013, with its then latest launch – the Samsung Galaxy S4, the brand introduced a new marketing campaign that not only tested the phone’s new feature but was also interesting and increased awareness about the brand. The brand not only required the contestants to focus, it also attracted onlookers and the people passing by.
In this game, Samsung had attempted to the test the will and resilience of its viewers as it required the participants to keep their eyes fixed on the new Samsung Galaxy S4. The smartphone came with an inbuilt Smart Pause feature that allowed the phone to know if someone was looking at it.
The rules of the game were simple; the participant had to look at the screen for a certain period. The longer the participant looked, the more was his discount. Samsung took the campaign a step further by giving away a Samsung Galaxy S4 after the participant successful completed 60 minutes in the game.
Duolingo – The web-based language learning platform Duolingo is famous for its gamified approach towards e-learning. This not only makes its user interface interesting but it also makes learning fun and interactive. Its software lets the users earn points and reach higher levels to unlock new features and achievements. This has made the company attract millions of users across the globe.
5 . Conclusion
As the competition gets tough, it is important for businesses to stay a step ahead of their competitors. With too many products and services to choose from, what makes a business grow is its unique efforts towards the brand’s promotion. Lead generation games as a mode of interactive marketing have emerged as the need of the hour for brands to leave a long lasting impact on their customers. With benefits like an interactive UI, organized lead recording and a long lived persona, lead collection games could be your next powerful tool to up the game.
