With Ai content material flooding all our channels, partaking folks has by no means been more durable and in addition by no means extra necessary. Whether or not you’re making an attempt to transform a prospect right into a paying buyer or rework a brand new rent right into a loyal group member, one factor is obvious: with out significant engagement, your efforts are prone to fall flat.
At Gamification Nation, we’ve labored with international manufacturers and small companies alike to assist clear up challenges in worker motivation, buyer retention, and productiveness. Over time, we’ve seen a recurring reality: earlier than folks act, they have interaction. Earlier than they purchase, subscribe, be a part of, or contribute—they join ultimately, nonetheless small. For this reason we designed the EARN framework: Interact, Appeal to, Retain, Nudge.
Backed by analysis and behavioural science, the EARN mannequin offers a dynamic, gamification-led roadmap to create enduring enterprise relationships. On this article, I’ll stroll you thru the mannequin, share the newest findings that help it, and clarify how it may be utilized to each buyer and worker engagement methods.
Engagement is Not Non-compulsory—It’s Foundational
Let’s begin with why engagement issues.
Trendy advertising and marketing funnels and worker journeys should not linear. Audiences are bombarded with content material, and staff are juggling a number of platforms, duties, and messages. What cuts by 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 information to help what many entrepreneurs and other people professionals have suspected for years:Â viewers engagement precedes model engagement, and 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 prone to make a purchase order choice inside 12 months. Equally, PowerReviews discovered that customers who work together with critiques, Q&A sections, or filter choices on product pages convert at as much as 177% larger charges than passive browsers.
This implies that earlier than folks change into loyal to your model or product, they need to first discover one thing value partaking 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. Interact – Seize Curiosity and Spark Interplay
Earlier than anything, you want consideration. However not simply clicks or views—you want cognitive engagement, emotional resonance, and a few type of interplay. This may very well be a touch upon social media, a accomplished quiz, and even studying a case examine.
Gamification methods for this section embody: – Interactive quizzes and character checks – Micro-rewards for small actions – Visually wealthy progress bars and unlockable content material
Analysis Perception:
Gallup stories that engaged shoppers ship 23% extra in profitability and pockets share. In different phrases, when folks really feel concerned, they provide extra again.
2. Appeal to – 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 must shine. You’re shifting from consciousness to affinity.
Efficient ways right here embody: – Customized journeys (e.g., “choose-your-own-adventure” onboarding) – Social proof and testimonial partitions – Gamified schooling content material with clear milestones
Analysis Perception:
Demand Gen Report (2022) reveals that 62% of B2B consumers evaluate 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 wrestle. We’ve all seen initiatives that work properly for a launch after which lose steam. The important thing to long-term retention is making folks really feel like they’re making progress, that they belong, and that their efforts are seen.
Gamification instruments for retention embody: – Degree techniques or achievement tiers – Peer recognition – Deep dives and professional quests – Crew 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 usually 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) section is all about nudging—delicate reminders and prompts that assist customers take the subsequent finest motion. That is the place behavioural economics meets design.
Nice nudge options embody: – “You’re 2 factors away out of your reward!” – E-mail or in-app prompts primarily based on behaviour – Peer primarily based nudges to encourage you in the direction of your targets – Default selections that encourage desired outcomes
Analysis Perception:
A examine printed in MIS Quarterly (2021) warned that engagement with out steering can backfire. When an automotive model made its web site extra interactive, test-drive appointments truly dropped by 12%—as a result of folks 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 a substitute, they re-enter the cycle—now extra acquainted, extra empowered, and ideally extra motivated than earlier than.
In buyer journeys, this may increasingly imply: – Changing as soon as → returning once more – Referring others – Turning into model advocates
In worker journeys, this may increasingly imply: – Progressing in function – Turning 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 techniques. It’s all the time contextual to your firm, tradition and intentions with the unstated assumption that it’s good to your folks, the planet and the neighborhood you’re employed in, we do need you to maintain it honest, inclusive and constructive for everybody in your ecosystem.
Deep Viewers Understanding is the Basis
Each section 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 doubtlessly caught? – The place are they of their journey?
Whether or not you’re constructing an onboarding stream for brand spanking new hires or a lead quiz for brand spanking new clients, 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 high of the funnel (like quizzes or competitions), you may have interaction chilly audiences in a enjoyable, low-friction means. With the best follow-up content material and worth, you may then entice and convert them.
2. Increase Retention and Loyalty
Retention is usually an afterthought—however with gamified development paths and significant nudges, you may preserve customers coming again. Loyalty shouldn’t be inbuilt a single motion however by a sustained sense of progress.
3. Scale back Worker Turnover
Engaged staff are extra productive and fewer prone to go away. With gamified onboarding, studying journeys, and recognition instruments, the EARN mannequin helps you create a office folks 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 schooling. In every case, the mannequin is tailor-made to the organisation’s tradition, customers, and targets.
Instance Purposes:Â
– Playerence Quizzes: Interact and entice potential clients with enjoyable, branded quiz experiences you can feed straight into your CRM.
– Onboarding Missions: Retain and nudge new hires by gamified coaching paths, incomes rewards for milestones achieved.
– Wellbeing Programmes: Maintain engagement in worker wellness by habit-forming nudges and tiered incentives.
In each enterprise and life, persons are extra prone to act after they really feel seen, valued, and motivated. The EARN mannequin doesn’t simply assist you to get folks within the door—it helps you retain them, develop them, and switch them into ambassadors.
Interact them. Appeal to them. Retain them. Nudge them. Repeat.
In case you’re prepared to maneuver past outdated funnel considering and construct actual, sustainable engagement, we invite you to discover the EARN mannequin with us.
Get in contact to learn the way we are able to apply it to your corporation.
