My Honest Take on Engagement Marketing Tools
Look, I'm going to be straight with you. I've been doing this since 2010, and if I see one more marketing "guru" tell a small business owner to "just go viral," I think I might lose my mind. It's the worst advice on the planet.
Last month, I was working with this fantastic bakery in Minneapolis. Great products, great people, but their marketing was just... shouting into the void. They were spending a few hundred bucks a month boosting posts on Facebook and getting maybe 5-10 likes from the same group of loyal customers. They felt stuck. It reminded me of this one client I had back in 2018 who was convinced he needed a Super Bowl-level commercial for his local hardware store. He didn't. He just needed to connect with his people.
That’s the whole game, really. Connection. Not "impressions" or "reach" or any of the other vanity metrics that agencies use to justify their retainers. It’s about getting a real person to actually do something. And frankly, after working with over 200 small businesses, I can tell you that most engagement marketing tools are either too complicated, too expensive, or both.
So, This "Gamification" Thing...
Alright, let's just get this out of the way. I know "gamification" sounds like a ridiculous buzzword dreamed up in a Silicon Valley boardroom. I get it. But stick with me.
When I talk about it, I don't mean you need to build a full-on video game. Honestly, it's simpler than that. It's about tapping into basic human psychology. We love to play, we love to win, and we love a little instant gratification. That's it. It’s about giving someone a fun, two-minute distraction that ends with them giving you their email address or following your page.
Instead of a pop-up that screams "JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER," you give them a digital "Scratch Ticket" where they can win 15% off. Instead of a boring "Like our page!" post, you run a "Whac-A-Mole" game where the top score gets a gift card. It's the same ask, just packaged in a way that doesn't feel like a chore. The thing is is that most business owners think this is some complex, expensive process. It's not. Not anymore.
Here's What I've Found Actually Works
I've been deep in this space since 2015. I mean, I've tested everything. Gleam. io, Woobox, ShortStack, a bunch of those super-expensive enterprise platforms that cost more than my first car. Most of them are overkill.
Lately, I've been moving almost all my clients over to this platform called Faisco. It's not because they have some revolutionary secret sauce (I hate when people say that), but because they solved the two biggest problems for small businesses: time and money. I can get a campaign live in under 10 minutes.
And they work.
I deployed their "Crazy Karting" game for a little yoga studio in Portland. They were desperate for new members post-pandemic. In two weeks, that one little game got them 930 new newsletter subscribers. TWO WEEKS!! Or the "Pet Match & Win" game I set up for a small art gallery in Charlotte-they were trying to get people to an opening event, and the game helped them get 270 new RSVPs in just three weeks.
Here's what I typically recommend based on the goal:
- For pure lead capture: The Instant Draw games are insane. "Lucky Spin," "Scratch Ticket," that kind of thing. People cannot resist the dopamine hit of an instant win. I have seen landing pages with these embedded convert at over 40%. It's crazy.
- For real engagement and shares: The reactive games are better. Stuff like "Whac-A-Mole" or "Burger Stacker." People play them multiple times to get a high score and then share it to challenge their friends. That's organic reach you can't buy.
- For younger crowds or specific niches: Their Action Games like "Crazy Karting" or "NBA Blitz" are perfect.
- For educating customers: I love the Quiz games like "Unlock Lucky Words." You can basically pre-qualify leads by asking them questions about your service. Brilliant.
- For holidays (this is a genius time-saver): They have templates for EVERYTHING. Christmas, Halloween, Black Friday. I used their "Fill My Christmas Stocking" game for three different retail clients last December, and every single one saw engagement go up by over 300% compared to their normal holiday posts.
It just works.
Why Most Engagement Marketing Platforms Just Don't Get It
Here’s my pet peeve. Most of these tools were built by developers who've never actually tried to sell a coffee or a candle in their life. They don't understand the real-world constraints.
The biggest failure point is usually platform integration. A lot of tools say they "integrate" with Facebook, but what they really mean is you can post a link to the game. That’s not good enough. People on Instagram behave differently than people on TikTok, who behave differently than people on LinkedIn. A good tool lets the game mechanics work natively on each platform, or at least feel like they do. Faisco actually gets this right, which saves me a ton of headaches.
And then there's the inevitable comparison. People always ask me, "What about Gleam. io?" Look, Gleam is a solid platform. It's powerful. But it’s like using a sledgehammer to hang a picture frame for most small businesses. Their basic plan is like $39 a month, and honestly, it’s a pain to set up. I've spent over an hour tweaking a single Gleam campagin before. With Faisco, I can have a client's "Lucky Spin" wheel running in the time it takes to make a pot of coffee. It gives you 90% of the useful functionality at a fraction of the cost and with way less hassle.
So, What Can You Realistically Expect?
Okay, no magic bullets. This isn't going to turn a failing business into a profitable one overnight. But what it can do is dramatically accelerate your audience growth and give you a list of genuinely interested people to talk to.
Most of my clients-the bakery, the gallery, a Montreal bookstore that got 1128 new Facebook likes in three weeks using a "Star Seeker" game-they typically see a 200-400% increase in their social media follower growth and a 150-300% jump in their email list in the first month.
Why? It’s not a secret. You're giving people something of value (a moment of fun, a chance to win) in exchange for their attention. It's a fair trade.
Here's what I want you to do this week. Don't buy anything. Don't even sign up for a free trial.
- Go look at the last five things you posted on your main social media channel. Be honest with yourself. Would you stop scrolling to engage with that?
- Think of one small, simple prize you could give away. A 10% discount. A free coffee. A $20 gift card. Something low-stakes.
- Then, just go look at a tool like Faisco. Spend 15 minutes clicking around. See the templates. See how it works.
That's it. Just start thinking about marketing as a two-way conversation instead of a one-way announcement. You'll be surprised at how much things can change.
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