Email marketing has been around for decades, but the landscape is constantly evolving. With more and more people getting their news and information online, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd.

One way to do this is to use interactive content in your email campaigns. Interactive content is any type of content that allows users to interact with it in some way, such as quizzes, polls, and games.

Games are particularly effective for engaging audiences and driving conversions. They’re fun, and challenging and can be used to teach people about your products or services in a more memorable way.

And for brownie points, we will also talk about how Hubspot’s custom email templates [1] can prove fruitful for your email marketing campaigns.

The Game Plan: Significance Of Gamification In Email Marketing

Gamification is the use of game design elements and principles in non-game contexts. It’s a great way to engage audiences and drive conversions.

Gamification can be used in email marketing to make your campaigns more fun, challenging, and rewarding. This can help to increase open rates, click-through rates, engagement, and conversions.

There are a few reasons why games captivate audiences. First, games are inherently fun. They provide a sense of challenge and accomplishment, which can be very motivating.

Second, games are social. People enjoy playing games with others, and they enjoy competing with others to see who can do the best.

Third, games are rewarding. People enjoy earning points, badges, and other rewards for their accomplishments.

Game Types And How To Choose Them

Here are some of the most popular types of games that can be used in email marketing:

• Quizzes: Quizzes are a great way to test your subscribers’ knowledge about your brand, products, or services. They can also be used to collect valuable feedback.
• Puzzles: Puzzles are a fun and engaging way to challenge your subscribers’ minds. They can be used to promote your brand or products in a creative way.
• Scratch cards: Scratch cards are a popular way to give away prizes and discounts. They can be used to encourage subscribers to open and engage with your emails.
• Wheel of fortune: Wheel of Fortune games are a fun and exciting way to give away prizes. They can be used to promote your brand or products and encourage subscribers to take action.
• Hidden object games: Hidden object games are a great way to challenge your subscribers’ visual acuity. They can be used to promote your brand or products in a fun and engaging way.
• Scavenger hunts: Scavenger hunts are a great way to get your subscribers to interact with your brand. They can be used to promote new products, services, or content.

Crafting Interactive Game Emails

Building Game Elements Into Email Design

When designing your game emails, it’s important to make sure that the game elements are integrated seamlessly into the email design. The game should not feel like an afterthought. Instead, it should be a natural part of the email experience.

Using visuals and animations to make games pop

Visuals and animations can be used to make your game emails more engaging and visually appealing. For example, you could use a GIF to animate a puzzle piece or a carousel to display different game options.

Integrating user-friendly game mechanics for easy interaction

Your game emails should be easy to interact with. The game mechanics should be simple and straightforward, and the buttons should be large and easy to click.

Here are some additional tips for crafting interactive game emails:

• Keep your games short and simple. People are busy, so they don’t want to spend a lot of time playing a game in their email.
• Make sure your games are mobile-friendly. More and more people are reading their emails on their phones, so it’s important to make sure your games work well on mobile devices.
• Use clear and concise instructions. Make sure your subscribers know how to play your game and what they can win.
• Offer rewards for completing the game. This will encourage subscribers to keep playing and coming back for more.

Best Practices For Implementing Games In Email

Crafting Compelling Subject Lines To Entice Recipients

Your subject line is the first thing recipients will see, so it’s important to make it count. Use clear and concise language that accurately reflects the content of your email and piques their curiosity. You can also use power words and emojis to grab their attention.

Here are a few examples of compelling subject lines for game-driven email campaigns:

• Test your knowledge and win a prize!
• Solve this puzzle and get 10% off your next purchase.
• Play our new game and discover hidden discounts.
• Challenge your friends to a match and see who wins.

Ensuring mobile responsiveness for seamless gaming on all devices

More and more people are reading their emails on mobile devices. That’s why it’s important to make sure your game-driven emails are responsive and look good on all screens.

There are a few things you can do to ensure mobile responsiveness:

• Use a responsive email template. Example, a Hubspot custom email template can prove handy here.
• Avoid using too much text or images.
• Make sure your buttons are large and easy to tap.
• Test your emails on different mobile devices before sending them out.

Strategies For Integrating Game-Based Emails With Your Marketing Funnel

Game-driven emails can be used at different stages of your marketing funnel. For example, you could use a quiz game to collect leads, a scratch card game to drive traffic to your website, or a scavenger hunt game to encourage subscribers to make a purchase.

Here are a few strategies for integrating game-based emails with your marketing funnel:

• Use game-driven emails to segment your audience. For example, you could send a quiz game to subscribers who have never visited your website before, or a scratch card game to subscribers who are abandoning their shopping carts.
• Use game-driven emails to nurture leads. For example, you could send a series of puzzles to subscribers who have opted in to your email list, or a scavenger hunt game to subscribers who have downloaded your white paper.
• Use game-driven emails to convert customers. For example, you could send a coupon code to subscribers who complete a game, or a leaderboard to subscribers who are competing with their friends.

Futuristic Probabilities Of Using Games With Holiday Emails

Here are a few tips for staying ahead of the curve with innovative game strategies in your email campaigns:

• Use AI to personalize your games: AI can be used to create games that are tailored to each subscriber’s individual interests and skill level.
• Tell interactive stories: Interactive stories are a great way to engage subscribers and keep them coming back for more.
• Create gamified loyalty programs: Gamified loyalty programs can be used to reward subscribers for their engagement with your brand.
• Experiment with new game formats: There are many different types of games that you can use in your email campaigns. Experiment with different formats to see what works best for your audience.

Conclusion

Games are a powerful tool that can be used to improve the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. By following the trends and predictions outlined in this chapter, you can stay ahead of the curve and create engaging and effective game-based email campaigns.

I encourage you to experiment with gamification in your own email marketing campaigns. There are many different ways to do this, so don’t be afraid to try new things.

Read Also:

• 5 Reasons Why Email Marketing Is Still The Best Strategy For Ecommerce Companies In 2021
• 3 Ways to Include Video Content in Email Marketing