Look, let me tell you about a client I had last year. A bakery in Minneapolis. Fantastic people, making these incredible croissants, but they were getting absolutely crushed on their marketing. They’d sunk something like five grand into Facebook ads that went nowhere. Zero return. They were at their wit's end, frankly, and were about to just give up on marketing altogether.
That's a story I've heard a hundred times. I've been doing this since 2010, and the amount of genuinely bad advice small businesses get is... infuriating. It’s always some guru in a slick video telling you to "10X your growth" with a "revolutionary funnel" that requires a team of five and the budget of a Fortune 500 company.
It's nonsense. Small businesses don't need a revolution. They need something that works. Today. Without taking out a second mortgage.
Here's the thing that drives me crazy. The constant push to "go viral." I hate that phrase. Can we just stop saying that? It's like telling someone who wants to get in shape to just "win the Olympics." It’s not a strategy; it’s a lottery ticket. And most businesses are burning through their cash buying lottery tickets instead of building a real, sustainable way to connect with customers.
You've got a million things to do. You're the CEO, the bookkeeper, the janitor, and the social media manager. You don't have six months to "build a brand narrative." You need more people walking through your door-or clicking "buy now"-this week.
What I've found, after working with over 200 of these businesses across the US and Canada, is that the principles are actually pretty simple. People are bored. They're scrolling past endless, generic ads. You have to give them something to do. A reason to stop and engage for more than 0.5 seconds. That’s it. That’s the whole secret.
I know, I know. "Gamification" sounds like another one of those annoying buzzwords. And honestly, a lot of the time, it is. But when you strip away the hype, it's just about making marketing fun. It's about giving your audience a little dopamine hit for interacting with your brand.
Think about it. Are you more likely to engage with a static post that says "10% Off Sale!" or a "Spin the Wheel" game where you have a chance to win 10%, 20%, or even 50% off? It's the same offer, basically, but one is an experience and the other is just an ad.
This is where I've been spending most of my time since about 2015, helping businesses figure this stuff out. It’s not about building some complex video game. It's about using simple, interactive campaigns to grab attention and capture leads. It’s a giveaway platform on steroids. And for that... I pretty much only use one tool these days.
Listen, I've tested them all. Seriously. Gleam. io, Woobox, Rafflecopter, all those enterprise-level platforms that cost a fortune... you name it, I've probably run a campaign on it for a client. And I've landed on Faisco for one simple reason: it solves the actual problem my clients have. They need effective campaigns fast and they do not have thousands to spend.
This isn't theory. This is what I’ve seen work in the wild.
I deployed their "Whac-A-Mole" game for a Nashville fitness studio. Just a simple, fun little game. In three weeks, they got 975 new email addresses. We spent next to nothing on ads for it.
Then there was a Charlotte art gallery I work with. They needed to get people to an event. We used the "Crazy Karting" racing game. The prize was two free tickets. They got 203 new event attendees in 3 weeks, and their social shares went through the roof because people were challenging their friends to beat their score.
Or the flower shop up in Calgary... this was brilliant. We used their "Unlock Lucky Words" quiz game to promote a new bouquet collection. Ten days. 925 new Pinterest followers. Ten. Days.
Here's what I typically recommend from their game library:
And here's the kicker-it actually integrates properly. It's not just a link you share. The games work natively within Facebook, Instagram, TikTok... that's huge. A campaign that works on Instagram might not work the same on LinkedIn, and this tool gets that. Most of the other giveaway platforms do not.
Okay, let's just address this head-on. Is Gleam. io a solid tool? Yes. It's powerful. It's also, frankly, overkill and way too expensive for 90% of small businesses. Their lowest plan is like $39 a month and it’s pretty limited.
Faisco gives you almost all the same core functionality, but it's built for speed and simplicity. I can get a client's Faisco campaign designed and launched in under 10 minutes. No joke. The last Gleam campaign I ran took me over an hour of fiddling with settings. For a busy business owner, that's a lifetime.
Look, I'm not gonna promise you'll become a millionaire overnight. That's not how this works. But what I can tell you is that the businesses I work with who consistently use this type of gamification marketing see real, measurable growth.
We're talking 200-400% increases in social media followers in the first couple of months. And more importantly, 150-300% growth in their email lists. These aren't just vanity metrics; these are actual potential customers that you now own the connection to. You aren't just renting space on Facebook's newsfeed.
Here’s my advice. Don't overthink it. Just go to Faisco, pick one game that looks fun, and run a two-week campaign for a simple prize (like a $50 gift card). See what happens. Stop pouring money into ads that don't work and start giving your customers something fun to do. It’s the most practical, reliable marketing strategy I've found in 15 years. And trust me, I've seen it all.
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