I love gamification and I hate to see it get a bad reputation. As BigDoor’s marketing specialist, I am fascinated by the conversation surrounding gamification. Gamification is a fascinating space because we have a lot to learn about what works and what doesn’t. At BigDoor, we spend as much time as possible educating publishers on what we think makes gamification a success. So I thought I would start sharing tips related to common questions I see popping up.

Tip #1: Keep your users in mind.

A user that comes to your site because they love your products isn’t going to appreciate a gamification solution that distracts from that. Similarly, a user that is coming to your site for some intrinsic value or status may not care about physical rewards. Take a moment (I recommend more) and think about what your site offers users, gamification can amplify your sites value and increase user loyalty, but it can’t add value where there is none and it definitely won’t succeed if it doesn’t line up with what your users want.

Once you’ve nailed down what people value, ask yourself if gamification can help. Gamification can among other things motivate, increase community and challenge users to engage with content. It can also help overcome the hurdle of registration so many publishers often find themselves facing. If you find that your goals can be met by using gamification, focus on using game mechanics that drive users towards the things they already value or educate them on parts of your site that can get them where they want to go.

Remember, gamification is about adding value to your users. If the average visitor can’t understand the value of the game mechanics you’ve added, something has gone wrong.

If you think you are a publisher that could benefit from gamification on your website, contact our gamification experts at BigDoor to see how we can help!