OK, I get it now. Most digital businesses have a website and websites need traffic, a bit like blood – without traffic they die – this traffic can be generated through word of mouth (viral traffic) – viral traffic is mostly free. If you are not so lucky to have free viral traffic then you need to pay for your traffic and there are only a couple of ways you can do this. PPC and Email Marketing. Google owns the PPC method but is being chased down by more informative social media companies like facebook, linkedin and so on. Google is fighting back however with Google Plus but it is not available for business yet which is a shame.
These social media companies have found the bridge between PPC and word of mouth – what do I mean by this: well – whilst talking about a company via facebook with your mates that company can pay to display an advert on the page.
Email marketing still plays a large role in the market as a tool that companies use to buy traffic although because it is push rather than pull the conversion is not as high. However you can still get the same number of conversions if you are prepared to send enough emails.
Where does gamification fit in then and what is it? Will find out and come back.