Gamification: Making Member Engagement More Rewarding

Ever feel like your membership engagement could use a boost? Well you’re not alone. The Memberwise Digital Excellence (2024) Report revealed that enhancing engagement is a priority for many membership organisations today. That’s because we live in a world of rich digital experiences. 

With countless options available to the modern consumer, engagement is a prerequisite for organisations that want to maintain member loyalty. This means investing in solid engagement strategies that position your brand and its activities in a distinctive way in competitive modern markets. 

In the search for an effective strategy, one reliable approach has been gamification—adding game mechanics to your engagement strategy to transform mundane activities into memorable experiences. 

Understanding Gamification in Membership Contexts 

Gamification means applying game design principles to non-game activities. This often means points, badges, leaderboards, prize draws and challenges—all designed to motivate and entertain your members. 

For membership organisations, creating a loyalty programme inspired by such design elements essentially turns mundane interactions into engaging, motivating and even rewarding experiences. 

But it’s more than just adding a scoring system. 

If done properly, gamification plays on natural human instincts for achievement, competition and recognition. This allows you to elevate the member experience by making basic membership activities (like training courses) more fun and enticing.  

Benefits of Gamification for Membership Organisations 

Despite its lingering ‘fun’ connotations, gamification might just be the most powerful strategic tool in your organisation’s arsenal. Here’s how.

• Higher participation: When activities seem like interesting or fun challenges, members will want to participate more.
• Improved learning: Learning scenarios using gaming logic can make a topic more digestible and memorable, improving skill development. A study conducted on learners revealed that challenge-based gamification boosted performance by 89.45%.
• Better retention: The more members feel they are getting something valuable in exchange for their membership, the longer they are likely to stick around.
• Data-driven insights: Gamified systems provide useful data about member behaviours and preferences, which enables you to personalise your offers.
• Community building: Social competitions and group-based challenges can create a stronger community among your members.

Key Gamification Techniques for Member Engagement 

Ready to play? Well, not quite yet. We’re getting there.

But first, you must identify the gamification techniques that work best for your audience. While this will differ by organisation, here are key tactics to consider:

1. Point systems and leaderboards: Assign points for various activities and display the top performers on leaderboards. This increases friendly competition and regular participation.
2. Badges and achievements: Reward accomplishments with badges or virtual trophies. Members could earn badges for reaching a particular milestone, becoming a certain type of expert, or helping the community.
3. Challenges and quests: Gamify membership by offering time-bound missions or long-term goals that members can work towards, from simple missions to lengthy multi-step journeys.
4. Progress bars: Show your members how far they’ve come through a course, membership tiers, or skill development. It gives them a good sense of progress and achievement.
5. Rewards and perks: Offer a reward, such as access to exclusive content or invitations to special events, for member achievements.

The point is not to embrace and implement every technique available, but those that match your organisation’s aims and resonate with your members.

Implementing Gamification: Best Practices

Effective gamification is seamless and complements the member experience rather than upstaging it. Here are some tips for effectively implementing gamification:

1. Align with goals: Make sure your gamification elements align with your organisation’s goals. Points are great, but don’t put them in if they don’t add value.
2. Know your members: Different member segments might respond to different game elements in different ways. Adapt accordingly. 
3. Balance competition and collaboration: Competition through leaderboards can boost participation but be sure to include space for people to work together and cheer each other on.
4. Measure and adjust: Track engagement and adjust your strategy to optimise results.

Now You’re Ready to Play! 

Gamification is a great channel for boosting member engagement. It makes the membership experience more fulfilling by leveraging innate human interest in games. 

So why not give it a try? 

Your organisation could reach new heights of engagement success with the right strategy!

Contact us to learn more.