Tips from the Pitch Avatar team on using video game experience to capture and warm up leads.
Anyone who regularly works on creating, selling and promoting online content faces the challenge of engaging their audience. It’s well known that when viewers become active participants in a presentation, they are more likely to buy products and services, like, and share links. In short, they perform the actions we want them to take.
The main question is, how exactly do you engage your audience? Studies show that audiences don’t appreciate being relegated to a purely passive role by speakers. But when it comes to asking questions, leaving comments, filling out lead forms, registering, or visiting a store website, many people say “pass.”
In our opinion, online games provide the best answer to this question. Can you find more interactive and engaging content online than games? Why not use the techniques of online games in presentations? People love games. For millennia, humans have acquired and developed skills and abilities through games that contributed to survival. Those who didn’t like games simply didn’t survive.
By partially or completely transforming your online presentation into a game, you will not only increase engagement but also gain several other advantages:
- Demonstrate creativity and position yourself as a “know-it-all,” which helps form a positive image of your brand.
- It’s easier to maintain audience attention.
- Collecting contact information becomes simpler.
- Understanding the needs and motives of your audience through their reactions and responses to tasks, contests, and quizzes.
However, to reap these and other benefits, you must play by the rules. Here are three key rules we consider essential:
1. From simple to complex
No online game throws newbies into high-level battles against bosses or seasoned masters right away. All online games start with very simple, tutorial levels that require minimal action. The same approach should be applied to games integrated into online presentations.
Start with a quiz or test consisting of just one question or task. Answering it should require a quick and easy action, such as clicking a mouse, choosing a symbol or letter on the keyboard, or dragging an object on an interactive slide.
Ideally, place this task at the beginning of the presentation. This will immediately engage the audience. Then, you can and should introduce more complex tasks and actions.
2. Variety
Strive to maximize the variety of interactive actions, games, and tasks. It’s no coincidence that online games rarely feature the same map, opponent, or task twice in a row. Players can usually quickly switch characters, game objects, locations, and even accounts.
Follow this approach when creating a set of interactive actions for your online presentation viewers. Make them all different. For example, they could follow this scheme: a single-question game on the presentation topic with multiple-choice options, a quiz with object manipulation on an interactive slide, a Q&A session with the presenter, and a final game consisting of five different tasks based on the presentation information.
3. Hook prize, Registration prize, and Sales prize
No game action should go unrewarded. Every prize the viewer receives should also benefit you. Let’s recall how this works in online games.
One of the most popular prizes is the hook prize—a legendary character, rare weapon, premium tank/ship/aircraft, and so on. The key is that it’s something that can only be used during the game. By giving this to a newcomer just trying the game, developers almost guarantee turning them into a regular player. Who wouldn’t want to try a new toy? The key is to offer the next hooks on time. In the case of an online presentation, such a hook could be a discounted free trial period of the product.
Another great method is offering prizes in exchange for filling out a form. This process can also be gamified as a quiz. Took the time to share your wishes and leave contact details? Get a temporary premium account, for example.
Perhaps the most effective method is the sales prize. It’s very simple. The player completes a task and receives a good discount as a prize. In games, this is usually a discount on paid tools and upgrades. The idea is that someone who has put in the effort won’t want to waste the discount. “Thank you for participating in the game! You’ve won a 50% discount for ten days of using our product! You can activate it within three days!” Who wouldn’t be tempted to reach for their wallet with such an offer? We all love discounts, right? Especially when some effort was made to earn them.
Examples of online services for creating quizzes and tests
Testix: A convenient platform for creating quizzes and tests, offering ready-made templates that just need your information and images.
Quizlet: A popular educational platform that also offers test creation capabilities.
SurveyMonkey: A well-known solution for creating surveys and questionnaires, with creators claiming 20 million online questions answered daily.
Quiz Maker: A free service for creating quizzes with a simple basic interface.
TriviaMaker: An app for creating games based on popular TV quiz shows like Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and Multiple Choice.
These tools are just examples to help orient those who don’t know where to start creating games for presentations. Keep in mind that there are literally hundreds of paid and free, simple and complex resources for creating games, quizzes, and similar activities that can satisfy the most sophisticated intellectual tastes.
Let us offer one more piece of advice: test all games and tasks with a trial audience. What may seem simple or overly complex to you might be perceived differently by real users. Only after real people try your tasks will you know their actual effectiveness.
Good luck, successful presentations, and high profits to all!
