How do you gamify conference referrals?

1 Offer incentives

One of the most common ways to gamify conference referrals is to offer incentives or rewards to your referrers and their referrals. These can be tangible or intangible, such as discounts, free tickets, upgrades, access to exclusive content, recognition, or badges. You can also create different levels or tiers of rewards based on the number or quality of referrals, or use a point system that allows participants to redeem their points for prizes. The key is to make the incentives appealing, relevant, and attainable for your target audience, and to communicate them clearly and frequently.

2 Create competition

Another way to gamify conference referrals is to create competition among your participants or groups of participants. You can use leaderboards, rankings, or charts to display the top referrers or the most referred events, and to encourage friendly rivalry and social comparison. You can also create challenges, quests, or missions that require participants to complete certain tasks or reach certain goals related to referrals, such as inviting a specific number of people, sharing on social media, or attending a webinar. You can reward the winners or the participants who complete the challenges with special prizes, recognition, or feedback.

3 Provide feedback

Feedback is an essential element of gamification, as it helps participants to track their progress, understand their performance, and receive reinforcement or guidance. You can provide feedback to your participants on their referral activities through various means, such as notifications, emails, messages, or dashboards. You can also use feedback to acknowledge, appreciate, and celebrate your participants' achievements, such as sending them thank-you notes, testimonials, or certificates. Feedback can also be used to remind, motivate, or nudge your participants to take action, such as sending them reminders, tips, or suggestions on how to make more referrals.

4 Make it social

Gamification can also leverage the social aspect of referrals, as people are more likely to trust and act on recommendations from their peers, friends, or influencers. You can make your referral program more social by enabling your participants to share their referrals, rewards, or feedback on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. You can also use social media to showcase your participants' stories, experiences, or opinions about your event, and to encourage interaction and engagement among your community. You can also create social groups, forums, or networks where your participants can connect, collaborate, or exchange ideas with other referrers or attendees.

5 Design for fun

Finally, gamification should be designed for fun, meaning that it should provide your participants with enjoyment, satisfaction, and positive emotions. You can design for fun by using elements such as humor, surprise, curiosity, or creativity in your referral program, and by making it easy, simple, and accessible for your participants. You can also use elements such as narratives, themes, or characters to create a story or a context for your referral program, and to make it more immersive and appealing. You can also use elements such as customization, choice, or autonomy to give your participants more control and ownership over their referral activities.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?