The popularity of promotional games has surged in the 1980s, and it’s not going to disappear any time soon. From automobiles to chocolate bars, marketers use games as a crucial part of their promotional strategies. Times have changed, and promotional strategies went online, still having gamification techniques as their essential component. Among those techniques, instant wins are one of the most popular strategies. Why are instant wins so popular and how is this connected to online shopping behavior? Today we’ll explore this topic.
First, let’s look around a bit. Undeniably, today we can access almost anything instantly, as easy and fast as with the click of a button. Google gives us instant information about anything in less than a second; we have instant access to all kinds of movies thanks to Netflix; we have instant fast food on most streets, and, of course, instant consumerism with online shopping is thriving. You may not think about that deeply, but with all this simple access, people have developed loyalty to instant gratification. Instant gratification is the desire to get fulfillment without delay. Basically, it’s to get what you want and get it now. With the striking growth of e-commerce, now consumers won’t stick around if they have slow experiences. Immediate gratification is now our human default response.
Sounds a bit pressing? Not really, in fact. You may look at it as simply the tribute to our fast-evolving digital world. Or you may leverage the desire for instant gratification for the benefit of your business. In this regard, online instant win games will come in handy. Online instant win games are typically a one or two click guessing game that will automatically give a prize. The game implies user interaction, for instance, spinning a wheel or using a scratch off card. Having such games as a pop up right before viewers leave your site is a good way to boost user engagement. Wonder why?
The trick with instant wins lies in the psychological elements associated with any contest or competition. Our human instinct tells us to catch the reward we have at hand. By tapping into these common human traits, marketers create excitement for their brand. Here are two facts that shape online shopping behavior and explain why instant win can be so effective.
- Urgency and scarcity. The best instant win games typically have these two key traits, and these traits are what makes the participants crazy about the game. Urgency is an especially powerful motivating factor as it fulfills human’s desire for instant gratification. If a customer knows they could win a free prize a week from today, they feel more highly motivated to visit your website and enter the contest, contrary to when they have a whole year to participate. Of course, not everyone will be a winner. Yet, this scarcity is actually another effective motivator. In some sense, contests are all about supply and demand. Limited supply always boosts demand. If there’s only one grand prize to win, it becomes more valuable in the mind of the customer.
- The power of free stuff. Never underestimate it. Perhaps, nothing sounds better for a customer than getting something for free, and this is another powerful factor that makes instant wins so successful. When there’s a good that is normally quite expensive, and it is given away for free, it strengthens the perceived value of the game itself, motivating a greater number of people to participate. But the psychology behind getting a free prize is just as valid when the monetary value of the prize is not high at all. In short, receiving something for free makes people happy — a psychological trick that explains why so many people love taking part in contests.
These rules apply to everyone. They are not about marketing, but about psychology. Yet, you can draw on the desire for instant gratification and make it work for your business. As you engage the psychological principles behind instant wins, you can witness growth and a greater return on investment. With instant wins, you can build your community and collect valuable data, which will help your business grow faster and at a much lower cost than other marketing methods. Other reasons why you may want to use online instant win games are as following:
- daily entries amount to daily traffic
- instant win games generate sales leads and email opt-ins
- they increase brand engagement.
As we’ve mentioned in the beginning, online shopping behavior today is, for the most part, influenced by customers’ experience. And to a great extent, this experience now includes the satisfaction from instant gratification. Hence, when thinking about your next promotion campaign, you may want to leverage instant win games strategy and reap its benefits. At Brame, we specialize in creating online custom instant win games for whatever scenario you can think of. If you are interested in such a custom solution, contact us today.
