For kids, badges are prevalent in extracurricular activities and in classrooms. In fact, several elementary and middle schools are experimenting with replacing traditional grades with badges to signify age-level mastery of a knowledge area or skill and to foster a mindset of ongoing learning.
In adulthood, badges are one way to signify rank and achievements in the military, law enforcement, and other fields. Other grown-up moments are marked with badges—e.g., “I Voted” and “I Gave Blood Today” stickers—that evoke the same sense of accomplishment and gratification that we experience as a badge-earning child.
So, why is earning a badge so innately motivating? And how can brands harness that motivation to build loyalty?
Significant psychological research has been conducted to understand human motivation and goal achievement. Two leading explanations—goal achievement theory and endowed progress effect—observe that internal and external motivations push us to achieve goals. And, further, if we perceive progress toward our goal, we’ll increase our effort to attain it.
Brands across industries put these theories into action by using digital badges—visual indicators highlighting interests, skills, or accomplishments—in their products, apps, and marketing communications to drive greater outcomes for users. Digital badges encourage users to set goals, track their progress, and stay engaged.
Digital badges offer marketers an excellent means of boosting engagement at any point in the customer journey. From initial application to profile creation and product trials, badges encourage new customer engagement. Valuable core customers can be engaged and rewarded through gamification and at milestone achievements.
Digital badges provide a tailored, personalized, and low-cost way to engage with customers and loyalty program members in real time and across channels. According to one study, 87% of badge earners report being more engaged as they pursued a digital badge. When they’re strategically integrated with marketing communications, digital badges can support key business goals:
A successful badging strategy drives lasting customer engagement and satisfaction. Badging is an increasingly popular strategy to drive growth in customer engagement, probably because digital badges help brands unlock opportunities for meaningful customer engagement. And that is a vital part of building and maintaining brand devotion.
Digital badges, a flexible and straightforward form of gamification, can drive sales growth. Once customers have a goal to attain a badge, keeping them engaged and progressing toward new goals is important. Badges can be their own reward or can be coupled with bonus points or other offers to encourage customers to make a transaction.
Example: Chipotle, a quick-service restaurant leader, communicates new opportunities for rewards members to earn badges across channels via email and the app. Members can earn exclusive app badges for ordering limited-time menu items, ordering a certain number of times, donating points to charity, or ordering to mark special days, like National Burrito Day.
Finally, badges can be used to build community among your customers and establish new habits with your brand.
Digital badging can be used in engagement strategies to support personalization and drive the customer journey. For many brands, digital badges strengthen communication to accelerate customers toward the next key stage in a loyalty program. For simpler objectives, badges can build momentum by celebrating mini milestones that encourage customers to progress. These smaller badge opportunities include app downloads, profile completion, leaving a review and newsletter subscriptions.
The student savings tutorial app, Bankaroo, encourages adolescent and young adult users to set savings goals and receive shareable digital badges when the goals are completed. The accumulated badges are tracked on a competitive leaderboard among connected users to spur ongoing competition and cooperative savings goals.
When digital badging strategies are properly executed over time, the benefits surpass increased engagement into greater customer loyalty. In fact, many brands are discovering the deeper personalization opportunities that result from bestowing badges to customers.
Badges create an implied consent to tailor customer communications based on consumers’ recent engagement or purchasing activities without becoming overly intrusive. When a customer earns a new digital badge, it’s added to their app and included in future email messages. And it likely triggers their next engagement opportunity. Similarly, once a customer achieves a significant milestone, e.g., an elite membership tier, their customer experience adapts to recognize their new status. The customer’s earned badge becomes a key aspect of future communications for ongoing celebration and recognition.
Digital badging acts as a mark of distinction for customers and usually unlocks additional rewards and experiences. Earning badges prompts feelings of pride and encourages emotional connection—and marketers can use digital badges to evoke similarly fond memories around their brands.
Todd Hedberg is senior director, Digital Strategy and Brenna Hodge is senior manager, Strategic Services. For more than 30 years, The Lacek Group has been innovating the art and algorithms of brand devotion. We help world-class brands identify their highest-potential customers, engage them across channels throughout their lifecycles, personalize each relationship for optimal long-term results, and measure the true effectiveness of those efforts.