4 Key Elements of a Lead-Generating Quiz for Better Email Marketing

January 4, 2018

You may roll your eyes at the Buzzfeed quizzes that pop up on your Facebook feed that ask “What Disney Princess Are You?” or “What Friends Character Are You?”, but what you may not realize is just how brilliant these quizzes are.

Okay, maybe these topics themselves aren’t brilliant (even though I stand behind my Disney Princess result of Ariel) but using quizzes to drive leads definitely is.

Don’t believe me? Don’t worry, I get it. It takes time to create a new email opt-in, and you don’t want to spend it creating something that won’t perform.

But I mean it when I say quizzes are magical. Why?

Well, my own quiz drove over 2,500 email subscribers in just 9 months.

That’s what we like to call a *crazy* number.

But generating more subscribers isn’t the only benefit.

Just think about it. Not only are you collecting data from your ideal audience members, but you’re making it more interactive and enjoyable than a typical survey.

You’re also adding the extra benefit of giving the quiz taker a specific “personality”, which is determined by a set of characteristics.

Quiz personality is decided based on the specific answers the quiz taker chooses, making them feel understood and known.

Once you’ve assigned your subscriber a unique personality, that’s when the real magic begins: converting them into a client or customer.

But I’m getting ahead of myself (which I do, a lot). Let’s take a step back and go step-by-step into all that is needed to build a successful, lead generating quiz.

01 //  Niche specific topic and title

If I put a quiz on my website on “What Hipster Style Fits You?”, people would be very confused. Why? Because I’m a copywriter for small businesses in the visual industries, not a well-known stylist with crop top swag. My glasses may look hipster (at least that’s what my brother says…), but it doesn’t give me the authority or desire to talk about this subject.

Instead, I want to choose a quiz topic that is more aligned with my copywriting niche. Your own topic will depend on what industry you’re in and who you serve.

Not sure what your quiz topic should be? Here are a few prompts to help you out:

• What are the most common questions you’re asked from people outside your industry? From people inside your industry? From the clients you serve?
• What are the key elements of your process? How do you educate your clients about the importance of each of these steps?
• How would you describe your ideal clients? What traits and quirks make them a great fit for your business? What do they want to learn about?

When you have a list of potential topics, ask a few of your business friends and people who match your ideal client description which topics they’d be most likely to take a quiz for. This is the best way to test out which topic is most relevant before putting in the real work.

Once you’ve chosen your quiz subject, it’s time to craft an attention-grabbing title. The most important rule here (and this one is not meant to be broken) is for it to be clear over clever.

This is one of the biggest hurdles I hear about from clients. They spend hours trying to come up with a clever name when clarity is more important. Clarity = action, which is all we care about in lead generation.

The name of my quiz is “What is Your Brand Voice Style?” I know, super clever, but it works. People who are interested in taking the quiz know exactly what they’ll learn about, especially since it’s consistent with my website copywriting and ghostwriting niche.

02 //  Connection to your email list

What’s the point in creating an awesome quiz if it doesn’t lead to anything? Without connecting your quiz to your email list, it won’t have the power to turn visitors into leads. Since that’s the whole draw of using a quiz to build your email list, you’ll want to do this from day one.

I personally use (and highly recommend!) ConvertKit for my email marketing, but there are other email service providers that quiz building tools like Interact connect with for easy automation. I only had to hook up ConvertKit and Interact once, meaning for the last 6 months it’s been running on its own without any extra work from me.

03 //  Unique quiz personality results

While your quiz answer options need to engaging enough to entice audience members to keep going through your quiz, your big goal is for them to make it to the end. That’s where the lead capture happens.

It takes more than an interesting quiz title and relevant topic to keep people engaged throughout the quiz. Enter in unique quiz personality results. When you start to brainstorm quiz personalities, think about what labels may make sense with your niche.

If you want the quiz to introduce your graphic design services, your personalities may be focused on different kinds of visual aesthetics like “Minimalistic Maven” or “Sophisticated Solopreneur”. With each quiz question, your audience member will get closer to understand what their branding style is like.

I recommend creating 3-5 personality results with 4 being my personal sweet spot. If you create too many potential personalities, you’re creating a lot of extra work for yourself. It could also get confusing for your audience because there are too many options, which deters them from continuing to take the quiz.

04 //  Personalized email sequence for each quiz

The highest performing quizzes are actually a lot less about the quiz and a lot more about the email sequence that follows after. After you create the quiz, your work is only partly done. Now it’s time to focus your attention on crafting an email sequence that introduces who you are, what you offer, and how you can help.

First, let’s make sure we’re on the same page (copywriting pun!) when we talk about email sequences. An email sequence is a fancy term for an automated series of emails that are delivered directly to your email subscriber.

Email sequences usually include a combination of educational emails with soft and hard pitches. Soft pitches introduce your product or service in a relevant way in between educational information while hard pitches feature sales copy that’s solely dedicated to making the sale. ConvertKit has an amazing formula for email sequences that you customize to your own business.

Now you’re starting to see how beneficial an email sequence can be to your quiz. You might be thinking, I should just use the same email sequence for every quiz result because I’m selling the same product or service, right? Nope. Granted, it’s better to have one email sequence than no email sequence at all, but the real power lies within personalized marketing.

Many people who create quizzes skip this part because they assume it takes too much work to personalize each email sequence. They think personalization means writing every email from scratch, but I’ve discovered a trick that helps me cut down on my writing time while still personalizing my email marketing.

It’s all about creating a theme for each email and then using a fill-in-the-blank template for each personality. Here’s an example I used from a section of my own quiz:

“Thanks so much for taking my brand voice style quiz!

Isn’t it nice to know what your superpower is so you can weave more of your [personality type here] personality into your content?

To review, this is what your quiz results said about you:

[personality quiz result here]

Does it fit you to a T? I thought so!

So now that we know you’re a [personality type here], let’s take it a few steps further.

Throughout the next week, I’m going to pop into your inbox with some action-packed lessons to help you make more of an impact with your [personality type here] superpower through your copywriting and content creation.

[personality type specific prompts here]”

In my quiz, there are 4 different personality results with the most popular being the Educator and Connector. Naturally, the way I address an Educator personality is different than a Connector.

They have different desires, values, and levels of interest in what I offer so offering personalized emails to each type helps them feel known and understood.

From the example above, you also see these personalized email sequences are totally doable. Not only that, but it doesn’t take much time to create for as big of an impact as it makes.

The more personalized you get, the more powerful the email sequence becomes.

Then your quiz can go from an interactive exercise with a fun result to your best lead driver. Who wouldn’t love the sound of that?