by Coy Whittier
We’ve seen them all over social media – quizzes like “Which Disney Princess Are You?” or “How Well Do You Know the Lyrics to Swedish Hip Hop Songs?” Let’s just get the shame out of the way and admit we’ve all taken them (for the record, I got “Belle” and “Not very well”).
But did you know that these quizzes can actually hold the key to significant business growth? Because they're not just any ordinary quizzes; they're lead quizzes. Here's how to use quizzes for leads.
Why use lead quizzes for content marketing?
Level with me
It’s crazy hard to stand out in the fog these days, especially as a small business. Your marketing efforts are often bound by what you can afford – the coffers won’t allow for unrestrained paid search or PPC, nor can you afford to pay an enormous marketing team. You have to stretch every dollar and test exhaustively to make sure you spend in only the best ways possible.
At the same time, something’s happening in the marketing world: Consumers are tuning out advertising noise, so businesses must get creative to break through and start conversations with would-be customers.
Say no to skim
Content marketing began as a response to the acquired apathy – instead of hurling advertisements at consumers like a Spanish tomato fight, marketers decided to try to bring people in by offering valuable information in exchange for much needed exposure.
The problem today, however, is that so much content is produced that yours can easily get lost in the fray. It’s estimated that nearly 3 million blog posts are created every day. So unless you have a way to draw people in and keep them there, they’ll be on and off your site faster than Google’s bots.
Interactive content is – well, interactive
You have to produce material that is meaningful to your audience if you want to capture their attention. But people are so diverse – how do you know what that material will be? Interactive content provides a way for them to gather their own meaning to what you have produced.
According to Buzzsumo, 82 percent of people who see a quiz in their social feed will try it. Why is that? What is it about a quiz that hooks people? I think it’s the desire to know more about themselves.
Quiz content marketing holds the key to some secret vessel of knowledge about oneself that can be unlocked via interaction. Carefully crafted questions can pull out gems of insight to connect the dots and either challenge, enlighten or confirm presumptions. People’s curiosity keeps them engaged as they answer question after question.
At Qzzr, we’ve found that around 75 percent of people who start a lead quiz finish it – and take an average of two minutes 27 seconds to do so. In today’s attention-devoid landscape, that is an eternity for someone to be interacting with your brand on your terms.
They’re here – now what?
Once you’ve gotten people’s attention with a captivating lead quiz, you can use the opportunity to offer a call to action. Capitalize by driving social traffic, gathering email addresses, extending offers or pushing another campaign.
Kettlebell Fever is a small ecommerce company out of the UK. They’ve actually seen a lot of success using GroSocial, but they’re still a relatively small player online. They decided to launch a quiz, Are You Really StrongFirst? to the passionate StrongFirst fitness community. Using this quiz, they’ve presented an offer to over 550 people, and pulled in 100 solid leads. Now, 18 percent is a solid conversion rate no matter who you are, but for a small business, that can go a really long way.
Dipping their toes into the interactive content waters, Fit Marketing put together a quiz for the KISSmetrics blog to test readers’ knowledge of inbound marketing practices. To date, the quiz has been taken 4,227 times with a 17 percent conversion rate – that’s huge for a small inbound marketing agency.
Marketing automation
One of the greatest tools at the modern marketer’s disposal is marketing automation. Gone are the days of throwing up an ad on a billboard and hoping the right people see it at the right time. Nowadays, savvy marketers present tailored offers to qualified leads based on a litany of individual factors and behaviors.
But where does that data come from? Traditionally, surveys and market research have filled this role, but there are several problems with these methods. First and foremost (and my personal favorite), these methods are SO boring. The only thing I can think when taking a survey is “How many questions do I have left?” Second, it’s hard to find people to contribute. You end up begging or even bribing people to take part in your “study.” This hurts your methodology and your brand image.
A survey, by nature, is entirely unidirectional. In other words, they’re giving you information and you’re taking it. In contrast, a lead quiz goes both ways. You’re still asking the questions, but this time your audience has a vested interest in the result. That’s what makes it interactive, and what drives them forward.
If you’re creative with your questions and use rich imagery, you can essentially gather the same information and integrate it seamlessly into your CRM, while leaving your audience with a much better feeling. Don’t let potential customers get away without offering them a chance to take action [Click to Tweet]. If you do things right, they’re happy with the result and willing to give you their information – especially when paired with a juicy giveaway or other offer.
That brings us back to marketing automation. Once you gather this information about your customer, it makes the advertising relationship richer and more rewarding for both parties. In fact, B2B marketers that implement marketing automation increase their sales-pipeline contribution by 10 percent – on average! By gathering good data and implementing the right strategy, you can blow these numbers out of the water, all the while increasing your customer’s satisfaction.
And someday we may get to a point where I don’t have to sit through ads for incontinence products – although by that time I may need them.
One of the crown jewel case studies for lead quiz marketing comes from Sideshow Collectibles, who launched a new product line by asking fans to take a quiz, sorting them into various factions relative to the storyline. To date, the quiz has been taken almost 37,000 times, and has generated 22,000 leads (60 percent conversion!). But in the process of generating that many engagements, they also acquired an invaluable bank of prospect data, including color preferences, personality traits, and ambitions. This information continues to help them move potential customers through the funnel.
Let’s wrap this up
Quizzes can be a fun and engaging medium. If you’re interested in learning more about how to create and use quizzes for your small business, download this best practices ebook from Qzzr. And don’t forget to find out how well you know Star Wars.
Coy Whittier is Content Qwizard for Qzzr – the world’s simplest and most beautiful quiz creation tool. He’s a native Coloradoan that would rather be outside than inside, unless Magnum P.I. is on – in which case, don’t bother him. Connect on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.