How to Use Quizzes to Improve Your Online Conversion Rates

Stefan Debois profile picture
By Stefan Debois

Published
6 min read

If you left for vacation today, what type of transportation would you use?

Did you notice what happened as soon as you read that question? In your head, you started answering it right away.

Even if the question is irrelevant to your situation, your brain begins fetching an answer instantly.

This is a fundamental quirk of human nature, and quizzes tap right into it.

fun_quizzes

You may be wondering what this has to do with your marketing efforts. How can quizzes possibly help your conversion rate?

To answer that question, we need to start with the benefits of quizzes themselves. Then, we'll walk you through four tips on creating your own quiz.

How can you benefit from quizzes?

In the marketing world, quizzes are classified as interactive content; they prompt interaction and two-way communication with your audience. This article, on the other hand, is static content (one-way communication).

Why should you opt for interactive content (quizzes) over static content?

According to Content Marketing Institute, 87% of marketers agree that interactive content grabs attention more effectively than static content.

quiz-2

(via Content Marketing Institute)

The same study found that contests, calculators, and quizzes are the most popular types of interactive content used by marketers.

If done right, quizzes are attention grabbing, interactive, and engaging. Instead of leaving without reading half a sentence, readers will stick around to complete a quiz, and even reload the page to improve their score or achieve a different result.

Let's look at some specific marketing benefits of quizzes.

Quizzes are highly shareable

Quizzes are engaging, shareable, and more likely to go viral than static content. They rank among the most shared content on the internet year after year .

Capitalize on this by making it easy to share your quiz. Allow participants to share their results on social media, and challenge their friends to do better. The auto-generated social media post should include their score and a link to the original quiz. Social media shares organically expand your reach beyond your dedicated followers.

Quizzes help segment your audience

Mailing lists. They're hard to build, and low open rates—and even lower click-through—can be discouraging.

Customers can be put off by broad marketing emails that feel too generic, as well as hyper-focused emails that feel inapplicable. Each time this happens, customers are less likely to open and engage with your next email.

The solution? Don't treat all of your customers the same. Instead of throwing all of your subscribers in the same bucket, segment your list.

Quizzes can do this segmentation for you. Not only can you have multiple outcomes, but you can route each outcome to a different mailing list.

Module Housing is a great example of quiz-driven segmentation success. The company matches potential clients with their dream home through an engaging quiz, during which users enter their contact and basic demographic information.

quiz-3

Module Housing's interactive, customer-segmenting quiz

Each quiz result segments that user into a specific mailing list, converting browsers into qualified sales leads in just a few clicks. The users sees a home that meets their needs, and receives a more personalized follow-up.

Quizzes drive conversion

A Demand Metric study found that interactive content generates twice as many conversions as static content. That means twice as many newsletter signups, twice as many leads, and twice as many sales.

Take Belgium-based Survey Anyplace as an example. Recently, the company hoped to generate around 200 leads for a client through a playful, interactive new product questionnaire.

The quiz ended up netting almost 1,000 new leads in just six weeks. The quiz was embedded on the client website, and they drove traffic to it through Facebook and Google Ads.

The best part? The quiz wasn't anything crazy. The design was minimalist, but made the most of high-end features like piping and skip logic. Respondents answered an introductory question like the example below, then moved into questions about the product itself (a charging dock).

quiz-4

Depends on the time of day, doesn't it?

The quiz asked questions about where customers wanted the charger installed, and their technical proficiency level. The system calculated a price estimation based on the user's responses, and automatically emailed the estimate to the customer.

Four tips to help you build your first quiz

Now that you know quizzes are a proven way to boost visitor engagement and conversion, it's time to put it all together.

Don't panic; creating a custom quiz doesn't require specialized technical know-how. Most quiz software tools include responsive embed codes or easy-to-use WordPress plugins.

Follow these four tips, and you'll be well on your way to marketing quiz mastery.

1. Write an engaging headline

You won't get anywhere if no one opens your quiz. What makes a good headline varies from industry to industry, and often from company to company within industries.

A good way to determine what works best for your company is to conduct A/B tests with sample audiences before sending a quiz out to your entire email list.

2. Keep it short and fresh

The ideal number of quiz questions is between five and ten. Response rates start to drop if you ask more than that.

Add some variation to keep people engaged, altering the number of possible answers and question structure. Add images or GIFs throughout to keep users visually engaged.

3. Be conversational

Don't be afraid to use informal language in your quiz. Customers are more likely to engage in the organic social sharing you're after if your quiz isn't text-heavy and full of marketing speak.

Aim for a conversational, direct tone. If you need to ask technical questions, include succinct, clarifying statements for less tech-savvy respondents.

4. Make sure that the end of the quiz isn't the end of the conversation

Always remember that you're trying to generate leads and improve your conversion rates. Ask for an email at the end of the quiz before showing the respondent's score, or at the beginning when collecting their name and basic demographic information.

Consider automatically emailing a branded, personalized PDF report based on a respondent's answers. These reports should include personalized recommendations and provide tangible value that will transform respondents into customers.

Moving beyond quizzes

Quizzes can aid your marketing efforts, but they certainly aren't enough on their own. Follow Capterra's sales and marketing blog for new marketing tips every week, and check out these posts to start upping your game today:


Looking for Marketing Automation software? Check out Capterra's list of the best Marketing Automation software solutions.

Was this article helpful?


About the Author

Stefan Debois profile picture

Stefan Debois is the founder and CEO of Survey Anyplace, an online tool to create engaging surveys, quizzes and assessments. As CEO, he has advised many clients about growing their website traffic and increasing conversions using quizzes, both in B2B and B2C environments.

visitor tracking pixel