With Ai content material flooding all our channels, participating individuals has by no means been tougher and likewise by no means extra essential. Whether or not you’re attempting to transform a prospect right into a paying buyer or remodel a brand new rent right into a loyal staff member, one factor is evident: with out significant engagement, your efforts are more likely to fall flat.
At Gamification Nation, we’ve labored with world manufacturers and small companies alike to assist resolve challenges in worker motivation, buyer retention, and productiveness. Through the years, we’ve seen a recurring fact: earlier than individuals act, they have interaction. Earlier than they purchase, subscribe, be part of, or contribute—they join in a roundabout way, nevertheless small. This is the reason we designed the EARN framework: Have interaction, Entice, Retain, Nudge.
Backed by analysis and behavioural science, the EARN mannequin gives a dynamic, gamification-led roadmap to create enduring enterprise relationships. On this article, I’ll stroll you thru the mannequin, share the most recent findings that help it, and clarify how it may be utilized to each buyer and worker engagement methods.
Engagement is Not Elective—It’s Foundational
Let’s begin with why engagement issues.
Trendy advertising funnels and worker journeys usually are not linear. Audiences are bombarded with content material, and staff are juggling a number of platforms, duties, and messages. What cuts by means of the noise is private relevance and emotional connection. That is what actual engagement is about.
Viewers Engagement Comes Earlier than Model Engagement
We now have the info to help what many entrepreneurs and other people professionals have suspected for years: viewers engagement precedes model engagementand each are essential to drive motion.
Analysis from NetLine (2023) reveals that B2B professionals who have interaction with content material—whitepapers, webinars, articles—are 33% extra more likely to make a purchase order determination inside 12 months. Equally, PowerReviews discovered that customers who work together with evaluations, Q&A sections, or filter choices on product pages convert at as much as 177% larger charges than passive browsers.
This means that earlier than individuals change into loyal to your model or product, they need to first discover one thing price participating with—a narrative, a problem, a query that feels prefer it was designed for them.
Introducing the EARN Framework
At Gamification Nation, we’ve distilled years of expertise and behavioural insights right into a four-phase mannequin:
1. Have interaction – Seize Curiosity and Spark Interplay
Earlier than the rest, you want consideration. However not simply clicks or views—you want cognitive engagement, emotional resonance, and a few type of interplay. This could possibly be a touch upon social media, a accomplished quiz, and even studying a case research.
Gamification methods for this part embrace: – Interactive quizzes and persona exams – Micro-rewards for small actions – Visually wealthy progress bars and unlockable content material
Analysis Perception:
Gallup studies that engaged customers ship 23% extra in profitability and pockets share. In different phrases, when individuals really feel concerned, they provide extra again.
2. Entice – Construct Want and Connection
When you’ve captured consideration, the subsequent step is to construct a deeper connection. That is the place your model values, storytelling, and content material have to shine. You’re transferring from consciousness to affinity.
Efficient techniques right here embrace: – Customized journeys (e.g., “choose-your-own-adventure” onboarding) – Social proof and testimonial partitions – Gamified training content material with clear milestones
Analysis Perception:
Demand Gen Report (2022) reveals that 62% of B2B consumers overview 3–7 content material items earlier than ever speaking to gross sales. These mid-funnel moments form model notion and shopping for readiness.
3. Retain – Maintain Momentum with Significant Progress
Retention is the place most organisations battle. We’ve all seen initiatives that work effectively for a launch after which lose steam. The important thing to long-term retention is making individuals really feel like they’re making progress, that they belong, and that their efforts are seen.
Gamification instruments for retention embrace: – Degree programs or achievement tiers – Peer recognition – Deep dives and professional quests – Group challenges – Up-or down-voting
Analysis Perception:
Edelman’s 2023 Belief Barometer discovered that engagement and belief go hand in hand. Clients and staff who recurrently work together with a model in significant methods report larger ranges of loyalty and advocacy.
4. Nudge – Information Behaviour With out Forcing It
The ultimate (and repeating) part is all about nudging—refined reminders and prompts that assist customers take the subsequent finest motion. That is the place behavioural economics meets design.
Nice nudge options embrace: – “You’re 2 factors away out of your reward!” – Electronic mail or in-app prompts based mostly on behaviour – Peer based mostly nudges to encourage you in the direction of your targets – Default selections that encourage desired outcomes
Analysis Perception:
A research revealed in MIS Quarterly (2021) warned that engagement with out steerage can backfire. When an automotive model made its web site extra interactive, test-drive appointments really dropped by 12%—as a result of individuals felt they’d already explored sufficient on-line. This underlines the necessity to pair engagement with directional nudging.
The EARN Loop: Why It’s Not a Funnel Anymore
What makes the EARN mannequin completely different from conventional funnel frameworks is its looping nature. As soon as somebody has been nudged to motion, they don’t fall out of the system. As an alternative, they re-enter the cycle—now extra acquainted, extra empowered, and ideally extra motivated than earlier than.
In buyer journeys, this will imply: – Changing as soon as → returning once more – Referring others – Changing into model advocates
In worker journeys, this will imply: – Progressing in function – Changing into mentors – Shaping firm tradition
The continual nature of EARN signifies that you’re not simply fixing for the subsequent click on or motion—you’re constructing long-term engagement programs. It’s at all times contextual to your firm, tradition and intentions with the unstated assumption that it’s good to your individuals, the planet and the group you’re employed in, we do need you to maintain it truthful, inclusive and optimistic for everybody in your ecosystem.
Deep Viewers Understanding is the Basis
Each part of the EARN mannequin depends on a transparent understanding of your viewers: – What motivates them? – What frustrates them? – What would profit them? – The place are they probably caught? – The place are they of their journey?
Whether or not you’re constructing an onboarding move for brand new hires or a lead quiz for brand new prospects, your mechanics should be aligned with viewers wants and enterprise targets. That is the place our gamification diagnostics come into play. We use motivational profiling, behavioural segmentation, and journey mapping to make sure every aspect of the EARN mannequin is related and efficient.
Making use of EARN to Key Enterprise Targets
1. Improve Buyer Acquisition
By creating gamified experiences on the prime of the funnel (like quizzes or competitions), you’ll be able to have interaction chilly audiences in a enjoyable, low-friction approach. With the correct follow-up content material and worth, you’ll be able to then appeal to and convert them.
2. Increase Retention and Loyalty
Retention is commonly an afterthought—however with gamified development paths and significant nudges, you’ll be able to maintain customers coming again. Loyalty isn’t in-built a single motion however by means of a sustained sense of progress.
3. Cut back Worker Turnover
Engaged staff are extra productive and fewer more likely to go away. With gamified onboarding, studying journeys, and recognition instruments, the EARN mannequin helps you create a office individuals wish to be a part of.
4. Improve Productiveness
Motivation is a multiplier of efficiency. By turning targets into video games and duties into challenges, you make productiveness measurable, seen, and enjoyable.
How Gamification Nation Applies EARN
We’ve deployed the EARN mannequin throughout various industries—from monetary providers and telecoms to healthcare and training. In every case, the mannequin is tailor-made to the organisation’s tradition, customers, and targets.
Instance Functions:
– Playerence Quizzes: Have interaction and appeal to potential prospects with enjoyable, branded quiz experiences you can feed immediately into your CRM.
– Onboarding Missions: Retain and nudge new hires by means of gamified coaching paths, incomes rewards for milestones achieved.
– Wellbeing Programmes: Maintain engagement in worker wellness by means of habit-forming nudges and tiered incentives.
In each enterprise and life, individuals are extra more likely to act after they really feel seen, valued, and motivated. The EARN mannequin doesn’t simply enable you to get individuals within the door—it helps you retain them, develop them, and switch them into ambassadors.
Have interaction them. Entice them. Retain them. Nudge them. Repeat.
When you’re prepared to maneuver past outdated funnel pondering and construct actual, sustainable engagement, we invite you to discover the EARN mannequin with us.
Get in contact to learn how we will apply it to what you are promoting.
