Gamification is a new way of looking at how you engage with your customers. It’s about making your brand experiences more captivating and memorable. The goal isn’t simply to keep your customers engaged but to get them hooked and turn them into brand evangelists.

The global Gamification market is expected to reach around USD 10.5 billion by 2021, projected to grow to around USD 96.8 billion by 2030. This growth is due to the increasing popularity and use of gamification in businesses as a form of customer engagement and retention. 

The only thing is that gamification, like any other marketing strategy, has to be implemented correctly. The stakes are too high to make any mistakes. Gamification mistakes, though they are rare, are easy to make.

To engage your customers and make them love your brand, you must be aware of the most common gamification mistakes and know how to avoid them.

This article will discuss common gamification mistakes businesses make when implementing this popular customer engagement strategy. So, let’s get started! 

Avoid these Common Mistakes in Gamification

1. Lack of User Research

Research is the foundation for designing strategies. You need to understand who your customers are, what they are trying to achieve using your app, and what drives them. Understanding your customers helps in creating a more engaging and successful gamification strategy. 

It’s important to ensure that you are targeting the right audience and that the research is conducted in a way that will produce valuable results. Some key techniques for user research include opinion polls, quizzes, and surveys.

With the right target audience and well-conducted user research, you can create a successful gamification strategy that engages and motivates your users.

2. Prioritizing Rewards over Results

Your rewards should not be the only motivating factor in your gamification strategy. They should be one of many motivators, alongside the user’s desire to achieve the desired outcome.

Putting rewards above results can be a common gamification mistake. Rewards should be a means to an end, not the end itself. If your users are motivated primarily by the rewards they receive, they will not be as attentive to achieving the desired outcome. Instead, they will be focused on getting their hands on the rewards, which can lead to decreased motivation.

Instead, use rewards as one tool to motivate users. Use them to encourage them to continue playing your game(using your app).

3. Complex Game Designs

When designing a gamification strategy, it is essential to keep the game design as simple as possible. So users can easily understand and follow the pathway to achieve the desired outcome.

The primary purpose of gamification is to help achieve desired outcomes easily. Users will quickly lose interest if the game has complex designs, lowering the brand’s perceived value. Ensure the game is challenging enough to keep users engaged but not so difficult that it becomes frustrating.

Stick to simple, detailed designs that are easy to follow. This will help users achieve their goals more efficiently and with less frustration.

4. Dependence on Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic gamification won’t last very long if earning rewards or reaching the top spot on leaderboards are the only primary motivators for users to engage with the app. For these, you need to add new rewards if you rely on extrinsic motivation constantly. 

Users may lose interest and rapidly become intrusive as the novelty wears off because extrinsic motivational factors are only so influential for some time.

Users won’t use your app again once they’ve won all the rewards, so give them something to look forward to. Hence, including intrinsic rewards in your gamification plan is essential as well.

5. Not Having Clear Objectives

Before launching a campaign and gamifying it, the brand must define clear goals that result in success. Gamification features shouldn’t just be used because they’re popular now or because they look good.

To make sure that the gamification experience is worthwhile, you should approach it strategically. It is crucial to ensure that your gamification approach aligns with your brand goals. You should also see to it that your objectives are crystal clear and that game features are the most effective way to accomplish them.

Do extensive research to set clear goals first and then focus on gamification. After establishing specific objectives, benchmarks, and events, then you must include gamification in the overall strategy.

6. Applying Short-term Strategies to Long-term Problems

While implementing gamification in your business, it is crucial to design strategies based on the problems you want to solve. Applying short-term strategies to long-term problems is not a brilliant idea.

To use gamification effectively, understand the objective, make a plan, develop a detailed strategic design, and make sure your gamification strategy is thoroughly studied and effectively incorporated.

Change how you think about gamification and treat it more like a long-term process than a single-time usage. For example, if your goal is to create more brand-loyal customers, rewarding them for a single desired action will not help. Instead, have a long-term strategy that makes the customer journey process fun and interactive until they become loyal customers.

7. Absence Of Aesthetic Appeal

The absence of aesthetic appeal is another common gamification mistake. Aesthetic appeal is one of the most important factors in designing a successful game. All design elements, including templates, themes, sounds, characters, and other components, must be carefully considered in order to create an appealing experience. 

Although it may seem simple, aesthetic appeal significantly impacts the campaign’s performance. The gamified product must be engaging for users and accurately reflect the brand.

However, sometimes this results in the game wanting to be visually appealing, even when it is not necessary or desirable.

Wrapping Up

Try and avoid making these mistakes while implementing your gamification strategy. These mistakes can have adverse consequences, and decrease the value and ROI of a gamified program.

To avoid these problems, it is important to understand what makes a successful gamification strategy. Gamification should be designed to promote positive behaviors in users, not to bore them. It should also be consistent with the brand’s values and goals and should be entertaining for users.

If you are considering implementing a gamification program, talk to our Gamification Experts to help create a successful strategy.

The Upshot.ai Advantage

Upshot.ai is an omnichannel, user engagement, and gamification platform that helps digital product owners and marketers improve product adoption and conversions.

With Upshot.ai, banks, Insurance, OTT platforms, and FinTech firms can enhance their digital experiences with pre-built gamification features. It can provide personalized insights, actionable recommendations, and contextual nudges designed to deepen its relationship with its users. Book a demo of the most comprehensive user engagement and gamification platform to achieve your digital product goals. 

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