Gamification—the process of adding game-like elements to a promotion to encourage participation—can be as complex adding scoring systems that award participants for performing desired actions, but can also be as simple as any marketing technique that encourages engagement with a product or service.

“Gamification doesn’t have to be complicated,” says Allan Levy, CEO of Alchemy Worx. “The key is it gets people to interact with a promotion who otherwise may pass it by.”

The tests

Alchemy Worx ran a series of A/B-split tests on behalf of drywalling-products merchant Level 5 offering free gifts, such as a nine-inch compound roller, with the purchase of any multi blade skimming set.

Free-gift-with-purchase offers tend to work best when the gift aligns with the purchase.

“The roller and other offers make sense because they involve products that drywallers use regularly,” says Levy. “Also, as professionals, Level 5 customers inherently know the value of the gift.”

So the value of the offer wasn’t in question. The question was in how the offer was presented.

In six A/B-split tests across two separate campaigns, Alchemy Worx pitted emails that revealed the free gift up front versus emails that required recipients to click through to learn what the free gift was.

Campaign 1

Campaign 2

The results

Overall, the emails that required a click to find out what the gift was drove 32% more clicks, 975% more revenue and 180% more orders.

“Clearly, engagement driven by gamification was the key to success in these campaigns,” says Levy. “The non-reveal messages had an element of mystery that the reveal emails lacked. They piqued recipients’ interest and enticed them to engage with the messaging, resulting in a significant boost in sales.”

Engagement metrics have lost their luster over the years, mainly because they track things that don’t necessarily affect the bottom line—email open rates for example.

“While engagement metrics are of questionable value, the results of these tests prove the concept of gamification-driven engagement is not to be ignored,” says Levy. Alchemy Worx plans to continue using non-reveal, free-gift campaigns going forward.

At Alchemy Worx, we test everything. You should, too. For more information on how to partner with Alchemy Worx, contact us.