[Pro Tip] Interactive Marketing — Voting and Polls

Key Takeaways

• Gamification gives consumers a better experience and a warmer feeling toward your brand, driving greater engagement and involvement
• Put the consumer at the center — weave fun, playful elements into your website, social media, and day-to-day operations
• Build a loyal fan base for your brand at a relatively low promotional cost

Gamified Marketing — Deepening Customer Engagement With Your Brand

In another article, we explained the Difference Between Voting, Survey, and Polling. Here, our focus is on gamified marketing — so no matter which voting or polling format you use, the core idea underneath it is always the same: interacting with users and building the customer relationships that grow out of that interaction. Depending on your goals and scale, you can choose different voting structures as the top-of-funnel that draws people in, then pair them with other nurturing programs.

Brand marketing is no longer simply about offering a product or service — it is about creating varied marketing strategies. Getting customers to take part through gamification, for example, builds a strong two-way relationship with consumers, strengthens their connection to your brand, and creates value together. Put the consumer at the center and weave fun, playful elements into your website, social media, and everyday operations: gamification delivers a better experience and a warmer feeling toward your brand.

Why Are We So Drawn to Voting? A Story From the '90s…

Before 1995, blue M&M'S did not exist. But by 1995, Mars was ready to change that — and they made a move that was radical for its time: they let the public decide the product's new color.

Candy lovers could dial a 1–800 number to vote for blue, pink, or purple to replace the tan M&M'S of the day. Against all expectations, by the time the two-month campaign wrapped up, 10 million votes had been cast. The winner was blue, with 54% of the vote — and blue M&M'S have been with us ever since!

Here are a few ways polling can give your brand an edge:

Make Them Laugh: If humor fits your brand, cracking a little joke in a poll can be a great approach.

Make the question silly, or make the options playfully snarky, to give your audience a laugh.

Engagement Through Choice: Millions voted for the next M&M's because they wanted to be part of a genuinely historic moment. When a brand invites users into its decision-making process, it is really showing fans that it cares about their opinions.

Fans love sharing their honest opinions with the brands they love.

Inform and Entertain:

Deliver your message in a uniquely interactive way.

The Academy Awards ran a poll in a quiz format — a simple question paired with a polling feature makes for something both fun and interactive.

Microsoft Education took a conversation-starter approach, using a poll to spark public discussion about STEM education. The conversation not only announced an upcoming event but also positioned the brand as an expert in the field.

Do Research and Generate Ideas: Instead of guessing what your customers want, the most direct approach is simple: ask.

Example: Password manager LastPass asked users which features of its software they liked best. The answers they collected are sure to help the brand roll out features that better match what customers actually want.

Beyond capturing fans' ideas, a brand can also use a simple vote to push other topics into the spotlight and get people talking — it is a stepping stone to interaction.

Example: Starbucks asked customers which brewing method they wanted to learn about: a French press or a pour-over dripper? The responses leaned toward the French press, which in turn sparked more conversation about brewing methods — giving Starbucks an easy opening to share even more on the subject with its customers.

This approach boosts customer participation in the conversation, creating an opportunity to share expert knowledge that helps build brand loyalty.

A few extra seconds can make all the difference

In Short:

Voting contests do a lot for brand promotion — by increasing customer participation and involvement, and by gathering information. At a relatively low promotional cost, you can build a loyal fan base for your brand.

Through voting interactions, brands can capture customer opinions and refine — or relaunch — products that are known to appeal to the majority. On top of that, voting and polling serve another purpose: they let a brand break through the passive way users consume content online, encouraging them to linger a few extra seconds to think it over. Users are bombarded with so much information every day that those few extra seconds can make all the difference.

Surprisingly, many brands have never used voting or polls on any social media platform. Making greater use of interactive tools lets your brand respond to the market quickly and in the right direction — so start your interactive marketing today!