Raise your hand if you have ever taken a quiz online before.

I see that everyone here is raising their hands.

Good.

Quizzes give your audience what they want most and that’s answers to their questions. Quizzes either confirm or invalidate people’s suspicions. But on the surface, quizzes are just super fun for your audience. When they’re created with your audience in mind, they can be really powerful and effective as content marketing for your business.

There are many ways to capture your leads and grow your mailing list these days. It’s hard to know which one you should be using. I’m yet to come across a business that wouldn’t benefit from using a quiz. Interactive content is the way of the future. Get ahead of the game. I’m going to tell you exactly why you should use a quiz as part of your content marketing and how you can create one so keep reading!

Readers love interactive content

Interactive content is key to keeping your readers engaged, and there’s nothing more fun than taking a few minutes on a quiz.

A good quiz should also have enough questions to make your reader feel like it’s been worth their while. Three questions probably aren’t enough for a quiz but 50 questions (unless you’re reinventing Myers-Briggs) will ensure your reader never makes it to the end.

A quiz on your website can help you capture leads, too, if the answer to the quiz has to be sent to someone’s email.

This is how your quiz should be structured to capture your leads and get them on your mailing list:

• The participant goes through the quiz questions
• They submit their answers and see an ‘Analyzing’ screen for a few seconds
• They go to the results page and see a mini result. Something like “YES! You are ready to start an online business and become an entrepreneur!”
• Under their mini result should be some copy to the effect of “Tell me your email address and I’ll email you your full, detailed, and personalized report”
• The participant gives you their email and your mailing provider fires an email off to them and you have one more person on your mailing list!

The people who take your quiz are adding themselves to your mailing list, so it’s important to create a quiz that will attract the right people. Quality instead of quantity. If you’re a local ice cream parlor, you’d want to create a quiz like “What ice cream flavor combination suits your personality?” or “What your favorite flavor of ice cream says about you”. People who take these quizzes more than likely like ice cream, so they’re going to be quality leads that you could turn into customers.

But if your business has nothing at all to do with ice cream, do not use this idea!

Remember, you’re not simply trying to build your email list. You want to build your email list with people who are interested in what you have to offer. That means people who are more likely to open your emails, click on your links, and engage with your content.

Think of quizzes the same way you would content upgrades. What kind of content/quiz is going to speak to your ideal customer avatar?

How to make a quiz that appeals to your readers

Don’t go for “Which Disney Princess’s Shoe Would Fit You” unless, of course, you’re a shoe store. Then definitely do that. With quizzes and interactive content, you can’t just throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks.

You need a plan — and boy oh boy do I love a good plan!

The best place to start when planning your quiz is to think about the people you want to take your quiz — the people you want on your mailing list.

Think about what quiz would spark their interest and compel them to take time out of their busy schedule to interact with your business.

Answer the following questions to help you come up with some ideas for your perfect quiz:

• What kind of topic appeals specifically to your target audience (but not the public)?
• What could your quiz teach them that will be valuable enough to encourage them to give you their email address?
• What burning questions does your client avatar have that you could answer in a quiz?
• What is their biggest pain point? How can you incorporate that into a quiz to help them solve a problem they’re facing?
• Do they have a favorite TV channel or program? A favorite place to eat or favorite celebrity that you could use in your quiz to make it appealing to them?

Different types of quizzes

• Personality — Personality quizzes are some of the most popular quizzes. People are always looking to find out more about themselves. If you’re looking to attract only a certain type of person to your quiz, personality quizzes might not be the way to go unless you word it in such a way that appeals to only your target market like “Personality test for health coaches”.
• Scored — How many questions out of 10 did you get right? On the surface, this is one of the most basic types of quiz. But you can make it so much more interesting. For example, you could use a scored quiz for something like “Are you a soccer genius?”. On the surface, this is scores out of 10, but the result doesn’t have to be “You got 6/10! Well done!” You could program your quiz application to give more detailed results based on how many questions were answered correctly.
• Assessments — These types of quizzes are supposed to be more detailed and in-depth than a scored or personality test. Things you could assess in a quiz are health, lifestyle, and careers. Something like “Are you suitable for the digital nomad lifestyle?” would be a good assessment quiz.

No quiz type is better than the next. It depends on what you want to get from the quiz and what you think is going to resonate with your target market the most.

Examples of great quizzes

Looking for inspiration for your quiz? Here are some of our favorite quizzes!

• Tony Robbins — What is your leading energy?
• What zoo animal are you?
• Which Austin coffeehouse should you visit?
• The Holistic Highway — Modern dosha quiz

Each quiz is perfectly suited to the business. It’s targeted towards their ideal client or customer and is helping them to capture valuable leads. There’s no point spending all your time and effort creating a quiz that’s not going to give you a return on your investment. So let’s dive into how to create your quiz!

How to add a quiz to your website

Step 1: Create the outline

Map out all the questions and answers for your quiz. Figure out logic jumps in the outline. If your quiz is complex, it might jump questions depending on the answer. For example, if a question is “Do you have a dog” and they answer “No”, you might want to ask “Do you wish you had a dog?”. Whereas if the answer was “Yes” you don’t want to ask the follow-up question.

You can also decide if you want to segment your list in the quiz planning phase. Using the example above, if you’re a pet store owner, you could segment your list into different types of pet owners and then send them relevant emails about their pets food or toys.

Step 2: Decide how you’ll deliver it

Already have a subscription to Typeform or Paperform? Look no further. These two platforms have you covered for all your form and quiz creation needs. You don’t have to go and purchase any additional software.

Alternatively, if you’re not already using Typeform or Paperform — you could subscribe to them. But they’re not your only options.

Read this post on the various quiz building software out there.

I’m not recommending one platform over another for quiz building — they all do a fantastic job. Use whatever platform you’re most familiar with. You don’t need to be spending your valuable time learning how to use an entirely new program.

Step 3: Tell people about it!

Spread the word! Tell people about your awesome new quiz and get them to go and take it.

Put CTA’s on your website. In the sidebar, at the end of blog posts and in popups. Make sure that people know that you have a quiz for them to take and tell them what they’re going to get out of the quiz.

Share your quiz on your social platforms on a daily basis. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. Get the word out there and others could like, share and retweet and do some promotion for you.

You can even send paid traffic to your quiz. If you’ve made the quiz really appealing to your target audience and ideal customer avatar — combined with Facebook ad targeting — you should get a ton of qualified leads on your mailing list and see a good return on your investment.

Don’t overlook your existing mailing list. Send them an email letting them know that you’ve launched a new quiz. Now, this won’t grow your mailing list because they already subscribe to you — but your subscribers might share it with others and grow your mailing list this way. Make the most of the traffic that you can control.

Step 4: Refresh your email client to watch your list grow

This is the most exciting part! I get chills every time I see a mailing list grow!

You should see your list grow quickly, and over time, through your quiz. Make sure that you keep promoting it, putting CTA’s at the end of posts and directing traffic to your quiz. It needs to keep up momentum for you to keep the momentum on your mailing list.

In summary

Quizzes are an awesome form of interactive content that you can use to capture leads. If you haven’t already, you should think about integrating one or two into your content marketing plan. They’re a lot more fun for the participant than a standard lead capture because they get to interact with your business, and they get something out of it at the end. A result, an answer and if nothing else, it was fun and it helped them to pass the time!

Make sure that your quiz is relevant and attractive to the people you want to have opting into your mailing list. You don’t want any ol’ person on your mailing list — you want leads that you can qualify and turn into customers or clients. As always — it’s quality over quantity!