“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” — Robert Frost.

In this crowded space of email marketing, standing out is key. Gamification is one of the least traveled paths that you can take to stand out. And gaming is now not just about the fun, it also is a very effective marketing strategy.

According to research, incorporating game elements in mobile apps satisfies psychological needs and boosts engagement for positive marketing outcomes. People tend to engage more with content that appeals to them rather than content that lies static.

In this goldfish attention span era, how do you attract attention? With such competition in the market, what can you do to improve your next email campaign?

What is Email Gamification?

Email gamification is essentially about introducing game elements and mechanics into your non-gamified realm of email marketing.

Email Gamification incorporates game elements within emails, making them more unique, interesting, and interactive, thus making it easy to stand out from the crowd. It transforms the traditionally static email content into an interactive playground, using elements like spin the wheel, whack a mole, or even puzzles, enabling businesses to engage with their audience more excitingly and interactively.

But what’s the buzz? Why use Email Gamification?

Gamification brings a plethora of benefits :

1. Encourages Engagement: The exciting games in the email entice customers to try it out, and play the game, thus engaging with your content.

2. Higher CTR: When customers engage with your email, they are also likely to click on the discount or offer you provide at the end of the game, thus increasing your Click through rates (CTR) and traffic to your website.

3. Brand Recall: With gamified emails, you’re not just selling, you’re entertaining. This creates a memorable experience for your customers that’ll also help them remember your brand better.

4. Stand out: Only a few companies are utilizing gamification marketing and achieving outstanding results. So gamification can help you stand out from the crowd, as not many of them have adopted it yet.

5. Generate Higher Revenues: With a customer base eager to click your emails, you can convert higher sales with discount coupons and offers through your games.

During the Black Friday sale, Stylus.ua, a leading online retailer in Ukraine, sends roulette or spin-the-wheel widgets. They planned to provide discount codes to all customers who opened their emails throughout the year. As a result, their roulette marketing increased revenue by a staggering 35%.

Gamification in Action?

All of this sounds great. But does it work in the real world?

Pizza Hut: Pizza Hut gamified the classic jackpot machine and launched a campaign where they distributed coupons from 10 to 50%

Forever 21: During the Black Friday sale, people could not resist but scratch the coupons sent by Forever 21, but they were disguised.

Being hidden from the eye, the chances of getting great discounts drive engagement and keep the customers in the loop of the upcoming sale!

Logitech: Logitech pulls a classic. The wheel reveals enticing discounts for people to come and grab! All you do is SPIN and WIN!

MOO: The only way to know your score is to roll the dice. The perfect CTA will engage your customers, and the anticipation of the score will compel them to click!

These examples perfectly show how big brands incorporate games and hook customers. But it doesn’t have to be something only big brands can do, with Mailmodo, anyone can gamify their emails within a few hours. How? See for yourself 👇

Start your Gamification Journey with Mailmodo:

We at Mailmodo have made creating gamified emails as simple as a game of tic-tac-toe. We have created 8 games and put them in email templates such that all you have to do is, customize them and send them out.

Check out the free gamification templates here and use them in your next campaign through Mailmodo. But exactly how can you use them?

Here’s how —

• Pick your template and click the “Use this template” button.

• Mailmodo’s email template builder will open. Here, you can customize the game as per your needs. Add the rewards you want to offer your customers when they play the game.

• You can also customize the template:

1. Change out the email layout, and add or remove content blocks.

2. Add your email copy, and adjust the heading, subheading, and spacing.

3. Choose interactive elements from our AMP widget gallery, such as forms, surveys, polls, reviews and ratings, carousels, quizzes, etc.

• Once you make all the changes, save it, preview both the AMP and fallback (HTML) versions, and check how it renders from mobile and desktop.

Now all that’s left is to add your email list and send out the campaign.

Start gamifying today!