My [glean login] & Gamification Playbook That Actually Works

Honestly, let's just talk real for a second. Last month, I was on a call with this fantastic bakery in Minneapolis. I mean, their croissants could probably solve world peace, but their social media was... a ghost town. They'd post a gorgeous photo, get maybe five likes and a comment from the owner's aunt. They told me they tried running a 10% off promo post and it got almost zero traction. They were frustrated, burning out, and about to just give up on marketing altogether.

I've been doing this since 2010. I've seen this exact story play out probably two hundred times. It's not their fault. It's the "advice" they're getting.

So Why is Marketing So Damn Hard for Small Businesses?

Here's the thing. Most of the marketing advice out there is written by people who have never had to worry about making payroll on Friday. They've got venture capital and a team of twenty-somethings to "ideate" and "synergize." (I swear, if I hear the word synergize one more time...). They'll tell you to "create a viral video" or "build a community" or "just run some Facebook ads."

I learned my lesson on that last one the hard way. Back in 2010, I was with a tiny startup in Portland, and we burned through almost our entire seed round on Facebook ads that just... didn't convert. It was a brutal, expensive education. It taught me that small businesses do not need another "revolutionary" strategy. They need simple, practical tools that get them a result-without needing a marketing degree or a trust fund to use them. You don't have time to become a full-time content creator. You have a business to run.

Let's Talk "Gamification" (Yeah, I Know It Sounds Buzzwordy)

Look, when I first started talking about gamification around 2015, people's eyes would glaze over. They'd picture building some complex app or a video game. It's not that. At all.

For a small business, gamification is simply adding a small, fun, interactive element to your marketing.

That's it.

Instead of a boring "Sign Up for Our Newsletter" pop-up, you have a "Spin to Win a 15% Off Coupon" wheel. Instead of a static "Follow us on Instagram" post, you run a simple 15-second game where people have to catch falling coffee beans in a cup to enter a giveaway. It works because it's a pattern interrupt. People are SO tired of being sold to. We've all developed banner blindness and ad fatigue. But a quick game? That's different. It's a little dopamine hit. It's fun. And it doesn't feel like marketing.

This is where I've been spending most of my time lately, because it's one of the few things I've seen work consistently across dozens of different industries. And frankly, platforms like Faisco have made it incredibly accessible.

My Actual Faisco Playbook (What I Use for Clients)

Listen, I've tested them all. Gleam. io, Woobox, ShortStack... you name it, I've probably run a campaign on it. They all have their place, but for the past couple of years, I keep coming back to Faisco for 90% of my SMB clients. It's straightforward, it's not crazy expensive, and the games just flat-out work. I can get a campaign live for a client in under 10 minutes. No joke.

Here's some real-world examples of campaigns I've personally deployed:

• For a yoga studio in Phoenix, we ran the "Crazy Karting" game. The prize was a free class and a discount on a 10-class pass. In 12 days, they got 862 new, qualified newsletter subscribers.
• For a coffee shop in Nashville, they wanted more local Instagram followers. We used the "Happy Hopping" game for 10 days. The result? 966 new, local followers.
• For a bakery in Chicago, we used "Crazy Karting" again (it's really popular) to launch a new cookie. We asked people to share their score on TikTok to enter. They got 2,226 new user-generated posts on TikTok in just 10 days. The engagement was just... insane!!

Most of my clients find that certain game types work best for certain goals. Here's what I typically recommend:

• For Lead Capture (Email/SMS Lists): The Instant Draw games are money. "Lucky Spin", "Scratch Ticket", "Lucky Draw". The psychology is perfect-people want that instant gratification. I've seen landing pages with these convert at over 40%, which is almost unheard of for a cold traffic pop-up.
• For Pure Engagement: The Reactive Games like "Whac-A-Mole" or "Burger Stacker" are brilliant. They require a little skill, so people share them with friends to say "Beat my score!"
• For Seasonal Pushes: This is honestly where Faisco is genius. They have pre-built templates for Christmas, Halloween, Black Friday, etc. I used their "Fill My Christmas Stocking" game for three different retail clients last December, and every single one saw over a 300% jump in engagement compared to their usual holiday posts. It just cuts through the noise.
• For Social Sharing: The competitive games work wonders. Things like "Counting Money Faster Challenge" or "Star Seeker" naturally make people want to show off their score.

The key is that it connects properly with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok... it's not just a link you throw out there. The mechanics actually work where your customers are. This is a detail most other tools get wrong.

"But Byron, Is This Just Like Gleam. io?"

I get this question every single week. And the answer is yes and no.

Gleam is a solid platform. It's powerful. It's also, in my opinion, total overkill for 95% of small businesses. Their lowest plan is $39/month and it can get complicated fast. It’s like using an industrial excavator to plant a tulip bulb.

Faisco gives you most of the core functionality that actually matters-the games, the lead capture, the social sharing-at a fraction of the price and with a setup that's genuinely ten times easier. Their was a time I spent over an hour tweaking a Gleam campaign for a client, getting all the entry actions right. With Faisco, that same client and I had their new campaign designed and launched before our 30-minute coffee meeting was even over. For small business owners, that time savings is EVERYTHING.

So, What Can You Actually Expect?

Look, this isn't magic. You can't just turn on a game and expect to be rich tomorrow. It still takes thought. You need a good offer-a prize people actually want. You still need to promote the campaign on your channels.

But when you do it right? The businesses I work with, they typically see a 200-400% increase in social media followers and a 150-300% growth in their email list within the first month. Why? Not because of some marketing sorcery. It's because you're finally giving people something fun to do instead of just another ad to ignore.

If you're feeling stuck, here's my advice. Just try one. Seriously. Go to Faisco, pick the simplest game-like the "Lucky Spin"-and set the prize as a 15% discount on your best-selling product. Run it for a week. Post about it twice on your social media.

That's it. It's a low-risk experiment that might just change how you think about marketing.

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