What You Need To Know About Gamification In Trading

Gamification has been trending for quite some time now, with various industries – from finance to iGaming – having embraced it as a means of boosting customer engagement.

Gamification is a tool that helps businesses engage with customers by treating the whole end-to-end process as a game, thus cutting out the boring parts of the user experience. People are rewarded based on achievements unlocked by completing specific tasks, just as a user would if they were playing a game on their phone. In addition, there are elements of social media personalization crafted to make all customer engagements unique and challenging.

Many types of businesses have come out sharing that they have experienced a rise in customer engagement thanks to Gamification, and a growing number of financial instrument brokers are starting to take advantage of the enormous plethora of possibilities offered by this mechanic.

The best thing about Gamification is that it takes into account a potential trader's natural need for competition, success, and socialization. In the last two decades, we have seen a staggering rise in gaming, as well as a change in attitude towards grown men and women who play video games to kill time on their mobile devices. It is no surprise then, that more and more businesses are adding this powerful tool to all levels of customer engagement in many industries, including Trading.

Games have the power to positively influence creativity and learning because they can bring down the barriers of traditional behavioral norms and routines by introducing new rules and sometimes even exciting new realities – and that's what makes the concept so exciting.

In this article, we will explain what Gamification encompasses in the context of Trading and other industries and how it works, as well as provide examples of how different businesses have implemented it to maximize their sales, conversion rates, and customer loyalty.

In this context, traders become players who trade in virtual currencies. They can receive rewards for signing up, making their first trade, making their first successful trade, and for a series of successful trades following a specific strategy. Also, they can follow the advice of other, more skilled traders to improve their skills in the field.

One of the most alluring aspects, however, is the competition factor. Traders can climb the leaderboard while competing with other like-minded people and friends they have on the trading site/app in competitions to find out who has the best trading skills. The better a trader performs, the higher they rise amongst their peers, earning special achievement badges, unlocking exciting bonuses, and other benefits.

Gamification is mainly a customer engagement tool that encourages potential traders to trade using their currency — and that is where the monetary gains come from. But not that's all. Gamification also has other benefits, including the collection of precious data, ideas born out of teaching traders the ropes of Trading, crowdsourcing insights, and much more. Businesses that have embraced Gamification have reported an increase of up to 200% in crucial areas, such as views, time spent on their website, and active engagement with their product or service.

If you're a trader who is just starting, it might seem overwhelming at first. Getting bombarded by the information presented by all the indicators and graphs, as well as industry-specific terms and concepts such as DMA, RSI, and Bollinger bands, can push you away just like that.

For people who climb this ladder, at first, stock trading can be extremely exciting. However, the thrill can also fade as it becomes routine.

And that is where Gamification comes in.

Gamification heats things by adding gaming elements to the repetitive and mundane environment of Trading. The trader's journey can be greatly enhanced by various features and incentives that put him or her in a much better position to make a profit.

The average attention span of a modern mobile phone user is said to be a mere few seconds. The moment we open our eyes in the morning, we open our phones and get showered by all kinds of messages and notifications, from social media posts of friends to messaging app notifications to promotional materials and tons of marketing email spam.

Various industries globally are fighting for the attention of customers, and the competition is growing at lightning speed.

The startup companies of today are much like social media posts — solving a particular problem with hundreds of others simultaneously. This is, however, in many cases necessary to make your app stand out from the competition, as we all have access to more or less the same information.

Hindrances are no longer just due to technology, as innovation, design, and execution are also key ingredients to a successful app, among other things.

To create a successful Gamification app, you need to smartly combine the abovementioned elements, and you will be on the road to trading kingship in no time.

Now, let us explore 12 of the most potent gamification ideas that you can implement to create a successful trading app.

1. Personalization

By smartly using precious client data, you can offer personalized financial goals, strategies, challenges, achievements, online courses, educational videos, blogs, and other valuable content relevant to each customer.

2. Avatars

Giving people the option to choose, upload, and unlock specially customized avatars is a social element in the world of video games, with veteran status. In the trading industry, avatars can help elevate what is usually seen as mundane processes to a more fun and exciting state.

3. "Tilting" Prevention

The term 'titling' is used in the gaming community to describe wild behavior that translates to negative results — e.g., a poker player going double or nothing with a bad hand or a pinball enthusiast tilting the machine.

No matter what trading solution you have chosen, it should be designed with anti-tilting in mind so that people won't make poor financial decisions. Various applications with gamification elements use bots powered by artificial intelligence highly trained to spot tilting behavior and send automated messages to people before they've dug themselves into a hole.

4. Teamplay

Seeing what the money-trading applications of today are doing to create a sense of community can only inspire businesses to follow suit. Apps with strong gamification mechanics are proof that customers are excited about the chance to connect with friends and family.

Giving people the option to interact, join forces in challenges, and engage in healthy competition against one another for rewards, can create a much more engaging and immersive customer experience for everyone.

5. Customization

Gamification allows you to customize the customer experience in great detail.

This has been observed for decades in video games; people spend lots of time building their online persona and even spend money on virtual clothing to suit their tastes.

A study by professor Nadine Bol and a team of researchers revealed the reasons for this behavior. According to the study, people tend to immerse themselves more in an experience if they are given a certain amount of control and autonomy.

Your trading site or app can also take advantage of this. By adding additional options to choose background elements, colors, night and day modes (for easy-on-the-eyes experiences), and other customization options, you can give people an experience worth sticking around for.

6. Progress Bars

One of the most crucial elements of a successful trading app is the ability to help people make wise financial decisions.

That is why it is essential to help customers get through their tasks and be transparent about their progress. Progress bars are a great way to achieve this, but that's not all they can do.

This ageless tool can help customers stay motivated by giving them a dopamine kick every time they see the bar moving closer to their end goal. In turn, this translates into retention, loyalty, satisfaction, and, ultimately, revenue.

When it comes down to helping people be smart about their finances, you should give them a specific result. For example, you can show users how much money they can get in return for investment.

7. Points, Badges, Rewards

Reward systems are a great way to attract and retain customers. By providing incentives for effort, a trading app can deliver a better customer experience while boosting return on investment.

Hence, trading apps and sites can significantly benefit from gamified elements like points, badges, and other pride-stimulating techniques.

You can, for example, hold a prize drawing for the most active users, encouraging them to engage with the app more often.

8. Gamified educational content

To successfully raise client awareness about the ins and outs of Trading, it is vital to gamify educational content. Businesses can implement various techniques that involve quizzes, puzzles, videos, and games to foster financial literacy while improving customer engagement.

For example, your app can provide educational content and a point system allowing people to win rewards such as movies, music tracks, tickets to social events, and so on.

9. Social Media

To improve customer engagement and keep churn to a minimum, trading businesses can give people the ability to share their accomplishments, favorite features, and other fun in-app content via social media sites.

In addition, this type of Gamification helps companies attract new customers and increase awareness.

For example, an app can encourage people to share gifts and money with their loved ones. Users can also receive personalized rewards based on certain activities.

10. Animations and interactions

Successful businesses understand the value of investing in product authenticity. This can include product surface texture, sounds, smells, shapes, etc. For example, have you noticed that all KFC restaurants smell the same? This is done by design.

Although such subtleties often go unnoticed, they bring great value to the experience. These principles can also be applied to digital products. Seamless and unique interactions, animations, and exciting visuals help apps become more engaging and valuable to the customer.

11. Illustrations

Illustrations work like magic when it comes to humanizing the user experience for your product or service. They help explain complex information and bring a touch of color and enjoyment to the functionality of the user interface.

12. Tone Of Voice

The words users are being greeted, informed, and entertained with play a vital role in their overall experience with the product or service. And while writing and branding are deep subjects in themselves, copywriting is an extremely powerful tool that introduces an element of fun and engagement for the user.

To find success in this area, you must write with clarity and purpose, stay away from jargon, and avoid addressing people in a monotone voice. Be playful, use tasteful humor when you can, and try to make your customer the focal point of the experience.

To gain a deeper understanding of how Gamification works in practice, here are 10 real-world examples from popular brands of different industries, including Trading, that has mastered the game:

1. Smarty Pig – Personal Finance

SmartyPig is a productivity application that uses gaming elements to help people reach their financial goals. If, for example, you want to purchase a new vehicle, the app will act as your piggy bank. People can simply set a savings goal, and the system will automatically add a specific amount of money from their bank account to their SmartyPig App every month. The progress bar rises as people add to their piggy banks.

2. Goibibo – Travel

This brand has a gamified app that takes advantage of a specific current trend, namely the Indian Premier League. Goibibo introduced goCashFest – a virtual space where people have the opportunity to earn GoCash when the Mumbai Indians are playing. The goCash can be used up until the team's next match and can be spent on making bookings on Goibobo.

3. HowTheMarketWorks

This game helps people understand how the market works in-depth. At first, the company wrote detailed articles about the stock market and created a glossary. But what helped them take off was the creation of the HowTheMarketWorks game — a free-to-play simulation game popular among many teachers and professors. The game is being used by tens of thousands of middle schools, high schools, colleges, and adult investment clubs. It aims to simulate real-life brokerage but with virtual currency. People can practice trading stocks, mutual funds, and EFTs with current prices.

The game also comes with an Education Center that offers investment tips on various levels of competency.

4. McDonald's Monopoly Gameboard – Food & Beverage

Here we have a deeply gamified Monopoly game by McDonald's, which turns buying food into a fun game where people collect "properties." Needless to say, this was a smart move on McDonald's side as it increased food sales significantly.

5. Strava Fitness Challenges – Physical Development

Strava uses gaming elements to motivate people to work on their physical well-being. Users can engage in friendly, healthy competitions in different fitness disciplines and earn rewards for completing tasks and challenges.

6. Byju's – Education

With Byju's, teachers can focus on cognitive techniques that have a great effect on positive engagement. This educational app allows students to quickly grasp key concepts through practice tests, videos, and adaptive modules.

Its gamified content includes the ability to play games, earn points, and challenge each other in different competitions and quizzes. An element of competition always works like a charm when it comes to keeping students motivated to work for better grades.

7. Woot – Retail

Woot is an app that offers special daily sales on a limited quantity of products. Due to these limitations, people rush through website pages and make their purchases before their desired items are all bought out. Afterward, they patiently wait for the next product to be unveiled at midnight.

8. – Talent Recruitment/Social Media

When it comes to getting people engaged with their platform, pulls no punches – and that includes using Gamification to calculate a user's progress.

provides engaging content such as articles and videos and motivates people through progress bars, achievement bars, and much more. Also, premium users have access to a plethora of other exciting features, including:

• Personalized interactive learning videos
• 30 Inmail credits to connect with a recruiter
• Content Gamification to curate special personalized articles, advertisements, and newsletters.
• Campaign Manager access — a tool that tracks engagement rates.

9. Todoist – Productivity Management

Here we have a productivity application that allows people to monitor everything from household chores to big work projects. It employs gamified elements to encourage people to complete tasks by rewarding them with karma points for each completed task. Negative karma points are given for missing a deadline.

As people earn more karma points, they can unlock some different levels starting from Beginner to Enlightened. Achievements can be shared with others on social media.

10. The Stock Market Game – Trading

Tradingschool.com's Stock Market Game is likely one of the most popular stock market simulators out there. With millions of users worldwide, this game offers numerous trading strategies and various markets for Trading, including stocks, oil, gold, currencies, and more. The Stock Market Game is targeted at both beginners and expert investors and comes with a simulated trading environment that allows users to make money with real investment portfolios.

When it comes to Gamification, Smartico.ai is a trusted and globally recognized leader in the field. And while it has a tight focus on the iGaming, Casino, and Sports Betting industries, Smartico.ai can be integrated with and help any business reach new levels of success, including stock trading.

Smartico.ai is a leader in providing state-of-the-art Gamification and CRM automation software solutions. Its CRM tool combines player analytics data with machine-learning algorithms to help businesses of various industries gain a deeper understanding of people and their needs while also providing valuable data insights to ensure retention, loyalty, and much more.

As a leading Gamification & CRM Automation solution, Smartico offers the following:

• Various intuitive challenges and gaming techniques.
• High-value incentives that encourage long-term loyalty and retention, elevate player value, strengthen engagement, and boost user acquisition.
• Multi-Currency/Language/Deep Brand Support.
• Missions – Engage players with fun real-time solo or multiplayer tasks.
• Points – Encourage players to keep coming back through point-based incentives and unlockables.
• Badges – Stand out from the rest with sleek badges and earn free spins for each earned badge.
• Levels – Players gain experience and special perks after each successful level or tournament completion.
• Incentives – Motivate players to come back for more with unique rewards and bonuses.
• Marketplace – Players can actualize their points by cashing them in for free game spins or other awards, such as online shopping vouchers.
• Mini-Games – Players can reset their senses through short, award-earning games.
• Tournaments – Set your own qualification rules and offer your customers a powerful endorphin rush with Smartico's special tournament system.
• Leaderboards – Set daily, weekly, and monthly prizes and watch your user engagement skyrocket.
• Bonus Engine Integration – Cash bonuses, free spin bonuses, and more.

And that's just a small sample of what's on offer. Smartico can help your business grow exponentially by supplying the solutions needed to bring the motivation in your company to a whole new level. Book your free in-depth demo today at: https://smartico.ai/request-a-demo

Gamification in all industries, including Trading, keeps on changing the way we do business as more and more small and large companies reap its tasty fruits. And the best part? As a business owner, you don't need to spend truckloads of cash to implement the methods and techniques covered in this article. Awards, achievement badges, one-on-one or large-scale challenges, and in-app quests keep customer interest pumping while promoting regular app usage without the need for a massive budget.

The Smartico.ai team wishes you the best of luck on your journey toward gamifying your business. Take the plunge; you won't regret it :)

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