Gamify your partner milestones to surpass engagement goals

Your partners likely participate in multiple channel programs — how can you stand out from others in the market, capture partner attention, and drive long-term engagement? Gamification is the solution. 

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With gamification, your partners know exactly which next steps they should take and are rewarded by completing desired actions. Thanks to human nature, this is an incredibly effective way to motivate your channel and maintain engagement long-term.

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This article will dig deeper into how gamification works and best practices for implementing gamification within Allbound.

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Ready to get started with gamification through Allbound right away? Dive in here.

Gamification is a module used to reward users for completing specific tasks. Admins can define and set point values for different tasks. Meanwhile, users (your partners) can complete tasks to earn points, then redeem them for gift cards at various retailers.

Each partner company has a gamification leaderboard where individual team members can see where they rank within their team, fostering friendly competition between colleagues. (Who doesn’t want to brag about having earned the most points in their organization?)

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On the backend, portal admins can view gamification point history to see the overall leaderboard and who has accumulated points. This is a great way to monitor which tasks are popular for individuals to complete, who top earners are, and which organizations are the most engaged in your program.

Gamification reinforces good behavior, and partners feel a sense of achievement for accomplishing tasks you select. Meanwhile, humans are inherently competitive, driving them to work hard to achieve more than their counterparts. When you incorporate aspects of gamification into your partner portal, your channel will be inspired to outearn coworkers or competitors at other organizations.

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Gamification isn’t just for fun. According to Centrical, over 70% of companies that implement sales gamification tools report 11%-50% increases in measured sales performance.

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Of course, people also love rewards, and the prospect of earning something for their efforts can be very enticing. Overall, gamification can inject feelings of emotional investment in your partners, inspiring them to engage more often in a deeper manner.

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“In terms of gamification, I think it definitely works,” highlighted Aleksi Mattlar on The Partner Channel Podcast. “I think ultimately people need goals and things to work towards if they don’t have a target that they’re aiming for. The old adage is, if you’re aiming at nothing, you’re going to hit it. So I think it’s critically important that partner managers lay out things like goals, targets, KPIs, things for their partners to hit and, ultimately, tiers for them to move up.”

Gamification is a powerful way to drive desired actions by your partners within your portal. Whether you’ve been struggling to drive adoption, are looking to increase engagement, or just want to encourage specific activities, gamification can help you do it.

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Already using Allbound and looking to get started with gamification? This help doc covers everything you need to know.

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What Does Gamification Look Like?

Within the partner portal, end users will see a trophy on each piece of content that has gamification tied to it. Users can click on the asset and on the trophy within the description to see how many points can be earned and any recent point activity.

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If gift card redemption is turned on, end users will see a “Redeem Points” button alongside the gift cards that are available to them.

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What Can Admin Users Customize Within Allbound?

There are several features that admin users can enable within Gamification Settings. As long as you have admin privileges, you’ll be able to…

• Assign different point values to each action
• Limit the frequency that users can earn points within (per action)
• Set up withdrawal limits
• Reset points (monthly, quarterly, annually etc.)
• View gamification activity and points earned 

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Quick Tips for Gamification with Allbound

If you’re considering implementing gamification with Allbound, you don’t have to start from scratch. Consider the following quick tips for optimizing gamification within your program.

• Establish a specific time frame during which users can earn and redeem points to increase accountability. For example, consider resetting points at the end of the quarter to limit liability. You may choose to have gamification on throughout the quarter, but turn off the gift card redemption until the last few weeks. Any points not redeemed during that time period will be reset when the next quarter starts. It’s easy to toggle the redemption of gift cards on and off in the settings, allowing you to manage redemption in this manner.
• You can also add limits to each individual action to limit the number of points earned per action in a certain timeframe. You may want to think about the user journey and which actions they should be performing, and how frequently each action will take place.
• On the backend, you can completely customize how many points to award for actions, and which activities to reward users for. You can manipulate the system to match your program goals and needs.
• Remember to check funds regularly to ensure that your partners don’t run into issues redeeming gift cards due to insufficient funds
• If you want to assign additional points to a user because they brought in an exceptional deal or completed training in record time, you can do this within the Gamification Activity Tab and manipulate the points that they have received per action.

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Points Best Practices 

A surplus of companies have leveraged gamification to increase their partner engagement, and you can learn from their successes.
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Rachelle Visser, Customer Success Maker at Workspace 365, shared that they use a rolling time frame for earning and redeeming points. They’ve heard positive feedback from users, who enjoy getting points and gift cards for “just doing their job”. Workspace 365 communicates gamification-earning capabilities through the hero image on their portal dashboard, ensuring partners see new opportunities right away when signing in. 
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So far, Workspace 365 has always come in under budget with its rewards. They’ve accomplished this by looking at past experiences and adding limits appropriately. They always try to consider what growth might look like while being aware that not everyone redeems points on time.
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GeoSLAM has seen similar success from implementing gamification. Jemima Cresswell, Marketing Specialist at GeoSLAM, shared that they initially launched gamification and gift card redemption to incentivise engagement, and it has worked. 
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GeoSLAM shares information about gamification and gift redemption in their newsletters, on webinars, and in the portal to ensure all users are aware of opportunities to earn and redeem points. A few pro tips they shared from their successes were to promote any new or adjusted opportunities to earn points as this increases engagement. Jemima also shared that reward links have worked well for their program, as they allow users to select from a wide range of vouchers available within their region.

Standard Actions and Associated Points 

If you’re not sure where to start with gamification, consider the top actions selected by other partner programs, including:

• Profile completion — User has completed their user profile. This is triggered when a user ‘updates’ their profile, not when all fields are filled out. However you can define which fields are compulsory.
• Deal registration — User has registered a deal within the pipeline tab.
• Content view — Users have only viewed content if there is a “View Now” button they’ve clicked on this or if they click “Quick View”. 
• Portal log-in — User logs into your partner portal.
• Prospect page completion — This is only triggered when new prospect pages are created, and will not be triggered by updates to existing prospect pages.
• Learning track completion — User completes a specific learning track, including any mandatory activities.
• Email share — User shares a resource via email through your portal.
• Social share — User shares an asset to social media via the portal.
• Passed quiz — Awarded when a user completes a quiz and scores on or above the pass rate.

The tasks you select and points you designate for each are completely up to your organization. You may choose to prioritize specific tasks based on your program goals, however the below tables can serve as a baseline example for building out gamification in your portal, depending on what your goals are.
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While it’s completely possible to adjust point values and limits after launching your program, be sure to share this information with your partners as early as possible. You may find that certain milestones are far too easy to accomplish, leading to a surplus of points. Alternatively, you may find that your partners hit the daily limit for points multiple times each week, signifying you need to reduce point values or increase the limit.
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No matter what the change you’re making, let your partners know what’s coming and when it will take place so no one feels cheated. It’s likely your partners could feel frustrated if you change the goal posts without letting them know first.

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Top Prizes

Each point earned is equivalent to 1¢. When a partner accumulates 1,000 points, they can cash in for a $10 gift card at a retailer of their choice from the options you select. Most retailers offer redemption for as little as 100 points ($1), but reward minimums vary.
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Allbound data shows that Tango Cards are the top prize for partners earning points. Through Tango, your partners get to turn their accrued earnings into spendable gift cards at various top retailers. This is a great option because it broadens the choices for partners, letting them pick the stores they frequent most.

The top retailers we see users redeeming their earned Tango balance at are:

• Amazon 
• Decathlon
• Bol 
• Lowe’s
• Nordstrom
• Starbucks
• Tesco
• Walmart

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Learn how to add points redemption to your partner portal with Allbound.

Allbound makes it easy to engage partners and keep them engaged long-term. Through various platform features, you can encourage users to take desired actions and motivate them to accomplish your joint goals. 

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Gamification is a valuable resource to driving targeted partner actions, by assigning point values to certain tasks. Through gamification, your partners can earn rewards for completing desired actions, helping you win together.

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You can see gamification through Allbound in action when you request a demo.