Who doesn’t love a good game to have fun and take a break from their daily routine for a few minutes? In marketing, email games let your target market do just that—in the process, strengthening your relationship with them while boosting your email open rate by up to 30%.
Exactly how does email gamification benefit businesses? What are some creative ways to gamify emails? What should a gamified email include to drive conversions? In this article, we’ll share practical tips to help you send gamified emails that maximize your company’s benefits.
The Benefits of Gamification in Email Marketing
If you want to stand out in crowded inboxes and drive real interaction, email gamification can come in handy. Gamelike elements such as scratch cards, wheels of fortune, quizzes, and competitive games help you deliver not just promo messages but experiences.
First, let’s explore why investing time and effort in email gamification pays off.
- Increased User Engagement and Interaction
With gamified emails, you can break the traditional pattern of reading emails—open it, skim through it, click if something catches your eye, and close it. Instead, games motivate recipients to participate and take action—solve a puzzle to unlock exclusive content, “scratch” a card to get a discount, or take a quiz to learn more about a product and get tailored recommendations.
By transforming your regular emails into two-way conversations and engaging gaming experiences, your subscribers are likely to shift from being passive readers to active participants who interact with your emails longer and, thus, recognize your brand better.
- Enhanced Brand Loyalty and Customer Retention
Engaging and visually appealing game elements will enable your subscribers to easily recognize your emails from among hundreds of other newsletters in their inboxes. After a few memorable experiences with your emails, they’ll look forward to receiving more, not just for information or discounts but also for fun and rewards. Thus, your emotional connection with your target audience will potentially deepen, making them more likely to stay loyal to you over time.
A concrete way to accelerate customer loyalty through email gamification is to include, in loyalty program emails, a progress bar that will show recipients how close they are to unlocking their next reward, thereby encouraging them to make repeat purchases.
- Better Conversion Rates
With gamified email marketing campaigns, you can drive sales much faster by integrating purchase incentives into interactive formats and gaming experiences. Thus, you will raise curiosity and motivate players to buy. A good example of this is the Wheel of Fortune game—a player has to click the button to spin the wheel and get a random discount, free shipping, or any other incentive. Usually, these rewards are time-limited, so recipients are more likely to complete their purchases.
- Higher Revenue
When engagement, brand loyalty, and conversions rise, revenue follows. Email gamification can boost revenue by up to 15%. The best part is that a game can always be created for any occasion—whether a seasonal promo, product launch, or educational email. Your imagination is the only limit.
Beyond driving short-term sales, gamified email content also gathers valuable insights into subscribers’ preferences, allowing tweaking of future campaigns for higher ROI. For example, a product quiz in an email can generate personalized bundle recommendations based on the recipients’ answers.
- Playful Education of Subscribers
Games aren’t all about fun—they’re also powerful educational tools that can boost memory and recall by 40%. Whether you want to present a new feature to existing clients or a product tutorial to new subscribers, an interactive format will help them memorize information much faster. For example, you can replace a how-to email with a short quiz about your new feature and reward players with a badge or discount code for correct answers.
Creative Gamification Ideas for Your Email Marketing Campaigns
Gamification refers to applying game components—achievements, challenges, leaderboards, replayability, luck, etc.—to nongame activities like emails to promote products and enhance engagement. It entertains your email subscribers, motivates them to wait for your next newsletters, and helps them recognize your brand in their cluttered inboxes.
Looking for fresh gamification ideas for your next email campaign? Here are some creative ways to entertain and engage your audience:
- Gamified Loyalty Programs
- Unlocking exclusive content or offers
Give subscribers the opportunity to unlock unique perks as they progress through the loyalty program. A perk can be early access to new products, members-only discounts, or unique content. You can add some hidden rewards to pique the recipients’ curiosity, like, “Get a mystery reward after opening 5 emails this month.”
(Source: Email from MAC Cosmetics)
- Leveling up or earning badges and bonus points
Turn your loyalty program into an engaging interactive experience that motivates your subscribers to buy from you more often. Use level progression: participants start earning loyalty points by taking simple actions—like opening a newsletter or clicking a link in your email—then advance to higher levels by completing purchases or referring friends. Keep them motivated with badges or bonus points as rewards.
- Quizzes and Surveys in Emails
- Rewarding points or discounts
Motivate recipients to participate in quizzes and surveys by offering them a small reward. It could be a limited-time discount, free shipping for the next order, exclusive content, or loyalty points.
(Source: Email Love)
- Educating recipients
Quizzes can help your target audience learn more about your product and how to use it effectively. Whether a skincare routine quiz or a SaaS platform knowledge check, a quiz makes it easier for participants to grasp key information through its playful and, thus, more engaging format.
(Source: Email from Litmus)
- Providing personalized recommendations based on quiz results
Quizzes can also be great tools for better behavioral segmentation of your subscribers. Instead of segmenting them based on demographic or geographic data, you can categorize them based on their preferences and behaviors, as revealed through their quiz answers.
(Source: Email Love)
For example, a fitness brand can tweak its gear and clothing recommendations based on a subscriber’s activity levels or preferred sport. A company that provides software solutions can tailor its product suggestions according to a subscriber’s job position, team size, and daily challenges.
- Wheels of Fortune and Scratch Cards as Instant Rewards
- Offering chances to win prizes or discounts
Winning a mystery prize is always thrilling, isn’t it? Luck-based games can be a great option if your budget is limited and you can’t offer a generous discount to all your subscribers. Even a small instant reward—like free shipping, 10% off, a free sample, or other freebie, or early access to a new product—can feel exciting and valuable.
(Source: Email from Estée Lauder)
- Encouraging social sharing for additional entries
Gamification doesn’t have to stop at the inbox—you can reach a wider audience. Encourage social sharing by offering extra entries or rewards for referrals. For example, after a subscriber spins a wheel, display a message like, “Share this game with your friends to earn 2 bonus entries!” Enable sharing via email forwarding, social media, or referral links.
- Competitive Games
- Engaging users through competitions and challenges
Encourage friendly competition to motivate recipients to engage with your emails more often as they strive to outperform other players. To maintain consistent engagement, design games that require quick weekly interactions. In addition to contests, incorporate scoreboards to let participants compare their results and track their progress.
(Source: Email from Stripo)
Incorporating challenges into regular promo emails lets subscribers “win” discounts, while adding contests to holiday emails enhances engagement and entertainment. These tactics strengthen audience loyalty.
- Rewarding top players
Don’t forget to acknowledge your subscribers’ achievements with rewards. Whether these rewards are extra points for loyalty programs, discounts, or exclusive content, top players should feel that their efforts are genuinely recognized and appreciated.
- Gamified Feedback Forms
- Encouraging customers to provide feedback through interactive elements
While interactive NPS score collection and in-email ratings aren’t games, they make it easier for subscribers to provide feedback. To capture their opinions quickly and effectively, use the most popular options, like star ratings, satisfaction scales, or emojis.
Such interactive feedback forms will boost response rates and simplify the gathering of user data. Since the recipients can provide their feedback directly within the email, the process feels effortless for them.
Traits of a Good Gamified Email
Now that you know the benefits of email gamification for your business and have creative ideas for your next campaign, it’s time to reflect on what makes a game truly successful. Let’s explore the traits of a great email game to maximize its impact and achieve your marketing goals.
- Clear Rules
Clear guidance is crucial for leading players toward a specific goal they have to accomplish. Your game should be simple to understand at a glance so that subscribers won’t have to guess what to do or search the entire email for instructions. Place the game rules at the top of your email, and use visual cues—like arrows or animations—to direct attention. A simple prompt, such as “Click the button to spin the wheel and get a prize,” eliminates confusion and encourages participation.
- Achievable Goal
Games are fun and engaging, but your subscribers need to feel that their effort is worth the reward. Focus on a single goal—such as “Complete the quiz to receive a personalized skincare routine + 10% off”—to ensure that the game’s purpose is clear and concise. Keep this goal is challenging yet achievable—it shouldn’t require deep industry expertise or advanced technical skills.
- Feedback System
Players need to see their progress, as such feedback boosts motivation and strengthens your gamification strategy. Add a reaction to each of the players’ actions, like a progress bar, celebratory animations, or a score display. If an immediate result isn’t possible—such as in a puzzle or a quiz—clearly inform the recipients when they’ll receive their results to keep them engaged and expectant.
- Voluntary Participation
We’re confident that you’ll create an engaging email game that your subscribers will love, but some may be too busy or tired to participate. Ensure that they won’t struggle to find key information in your email—include a “Skip the game” button so that the experience would feel optional, not forced.
Wrapping Up
Email gamification is a great way to transform a traditional way of interacting with newsletters into two-way communication and an exciting experience for readers. If done right, games in emails can enhance engagement, improve brand loyalty and customer retention, and drive conversions. To have better results from this approach, ensure that your games include clear rules, achievable goals, a feedback system, and voluntary participation.
Gamelike elements like leveling up loyalty programs, quizzes with reward points, scratch cards as instant rewards, and competitive games that engage players through challenges spark curiosity and enthusiasm, making subscribers more likely to look forward to your next email and engage consistently over time.
