A loyalty program is a powerful tool in itself as it helps companies in attracting and retaining customers. When combined with gamification strategies, a loyalty program becomes even more effective and exciting for the customers. As per a study, consumers engage with only half of the loyalty programs they enroll in. This is major because the loyalty programs are not interesting enough to keep the customers engaged for a long period of time.

This is where gamification acts as a powerful tool. By incorporating gamification strategies in your loyalty program, you can keep your customers engaged and boost loyalty. The following are some most effective gamification ideas for your loyalty programs:

1. Streaks & Milestones

Loyalty programs based on streaks and milestones are different from the regular rewards programs. In these programs, customers receive rewards or benefits after achieving certain milestones and not for performing a single task. For example, you can offer a discount coupon to your customers for logging in to your website/app for 30 or 60 days in a row. If they skip even one day, they lose the reward. Similarly, you can offer a free gift on completing a certain number of purchases with your brand.

Through milestone-based loyalty programs, you can ensure that your customers do not forget about your brand even when they are not making a purchase. This also helps in boosting customer engagement. As your customers engage more, they are more likely to stay loyal and purchase frequently from your brand.

2. Levels and Tiers

Including different tiers in your loyalty program is an effective way to constantly encourage your customers to purchase more. With each upper level or tier, customers get better rewards and benefits. You would have seen rewards programs where companies have two or three tiers, including bronze, silver, and gold tiers. You can also run similar loyalty gamification programs for your customers. As soon as they make their first purchase, they enter the first, i.e. the lowest tier, which has the most basic benefits.

After making a specific number of purchases or spending a certain amount on your brand, they move to the next tier and become eligible for higher rewards and benefits. This is how tiered loyalty programs work. When customers get basic rewards after entering a tier, they are automatically encouraged to purchase more often in order to get promoted to the upper tiers and receive higher rewards.

3. Code Words

This is quite a unique yet effective loyalty program idea that can help you retain most of your customers and turn one-time buyers into brand loyalists. You can convert online engagement of customers into sales by providing them with access to a rewarding ‘code word.’ By applying this code word, your customers can get a discount or rewards on making a purchase from your brand. For customer retention and loyalty, you can make this ‘code word’ accessible only to the registered users of your website/app. With this, you can not only motivate more customers to register on your website but also boost sales by offering rewards and discounts.

4. Referral Challenges

Referral loyalty programs have also gained very much popularity and are considered an effective way to expand the customer base of a brand. By running ‘refer a friend’ challenges, you can encourage your customers to recommend your brand to more and more people. This enables you to get access to many potential customers that you would have never known without running a referral contest. Different brands run referral contests in different ways. For example, you can offer a 50% discount coupon on five successful sign-ups or offer a free gift on the first successful purchase made by your customer’s friend.

5. Scratch-to-Win Games

These types of loyalty gamification programs are very effective in retaining customers and keeping them engaged with your brand. You can add a ‘scratch-to-win’ feature on your website or app and encourage your customers to log in every day in order to get a chance to scratch. Make sure that you offer valuable rewards/gifts in scratch cards so that your customers don’t lose interest in the contest. You can include different options, such as a certain number of reward points, a discount coupon, or a free gift. Make sure that your customers get at least some reward points every day that they can accumulate over time and redeem for some discount coupon or free gift.

6. Seasonal Challenges

To ensure that your customers don’t lose interest in your loyalty program, you can come up with seasonal challenges. Keep launching different contests or reward programs for a certain period of time. If the challenges are really exciting and you offer valuable benefits under them, your customers will see each challenge as an opportunity to win a reward. You can make the challenges more interesting by including qualification criteria. For example, a customer becomes eligible to participate in a challenge only if he/she makes a purchase after its launch.

7. Quizzes and Leaderboards

You can even run quiz challenges on your website, app, or social media platforms, and give a shoutout to the winners through leaderboards. You can add questions related to your products, services, or your industry, and update the leaderboard on a daily/weekly basis. This type of loyalty programs helps keep customers engaged and encourages them to learn more about your brand. Make sure that you keep the quiz interesting and engaging for your customers

Include Gamification in Loyalty Programs with RewardPort

RewardPort is one of the top loyalty solution providers in India and is trusted by a number of businesses. If you want to make your loyalty program more engaging by combining it with gamification strategies, RewardPort is the right company to partner with. The team of marketing experts at RewardPort analyzes your business requirements deeply and comes up with an effective gamified loyalty program that works for your brand.