Josh Haynam is the co-founder of Interact, a place for creating fun quizzes that generate sales leads. In his spare time, he writes about lead generation and conversion rate optimization. Sitting down with Magnificent Marketing, Josh talks about how best to utilize quizzes to generate leads.

Why Are Quizzes Effective for Marketing?

There’s two reason why quizzes work, according to Josh. First of all, quizzes allow people to talk about themselves, and most people love to talk about themselves. Josh cites a Time magazine study that says 40% of the words we say in our lives are about ourselves, and that by talking about ourselves, we actually get a small dopamine rush.

The second reason is quizzes allow people to learn about themselves through the quiz’s results. This is a powerful, personal allure for people, as there are entire self-help industries built around people discovering themselves.   

Lest the effectiveness of quizzes for marketing be in doubt, Josh finds there to be a 50% conversation rate among users who take quizzes. Half of all users will opt into a list after taking the quiz, should there be an option readily available.

Once users take the quiz, you can use the results to put that person on a specific list or sequence, depending on their personality type. This allows marketers to get granular with which consumers receive what info.

How Do Marketers Create the Best Quiz?

Before starting, you obviously need to know what you’re going to make a quiz about. To do this, you need to define your audience? Josh describes this as the most important part of the quiz-making process.

After you figure that out, you can begin the next steps.

1. Start with a Template

The beginning of the quiz usually involves a quiz template, such as “What kind of jewelry buyer are you?”

This is a good question to center the test around, because it immediately makes the quiz about the taker. If you’re struggling to come up with good topics, Josh recommends talking with someone who has a lot of hands-on time with customers.

You might find out that a lot of people who buy enterprise software are also into Star Wars. You can then use Star Wars to help frame your questions. You can also get this information about your audience from Facebook Insights or other information gathering methods.

2. Results Before Questions

Before writing all the questions, Josh recommends coming up with the results first. He also stresses the fact that it’s okay if you get the results of a personality quiz wrong, because consumers will be just as interested in why you got it wrong.

Once you have, say, four personality type results, you know that each question should have four answers. Each of those questions will connect with one of the four personality types.

3. What Kinds of Questions Should You Use?

The questions should be very direct and personal, and they don’t have to be directly related to the results. This could be asking where they like to go on vacation or their favorite genre of music. Whatever it is, it should lure people in by allowing them to talk about themselves.

While the questions should be written out, each answer should be an image. This is because images process faster in our brains. It’s also handy for people taking the quiz on their phones.

Also, the tone of the questions should be friendly, as if you were sitting across from the person and asking them the questions to their face. Josh believes that seven questions is the ideal number, as it takes about two minutes to take, which is about timeframe for a user’s attention span.

4. How Often Should You Put Out Quizzes?

Josh believes you should start with one quiz and see how that goes, but some people find success doing weekly quizzes or even daily quizzes.

He also suggests trying the quizzes into certain time windows, such as holidays or seasons. Themed quizzes make it even easier for people to relate. If there are any current fads going around, you can tie your quizzes into that, as well.

If you’re having trouble coming up with new quizzes, Josh says it’s okay to occasionally reuse the same quiz, as he’s seen success by doing so.

Are There Any Examples of Companies Having Success with Quizzes?

Josh recently worked with an influencer named Marie Forleo. He did a quiz with her called, “What Type of Entrepreneur Are You?” After people took the quiz, Forleo sent out emails about their results and how their results compared with others’.  

This tapped into the quiz takers’ interest in themselves, as well as their interest in how they compare with other people.

The part where these quizzes affect the business is by including a call-to-action (CTA) with the results and the follow-up emails. It’s best if these CTAs are personalized to the user’s results. These personalized CTAs and emails are going to create far more participation than if they weren’t personalized.

It’s also important to have the “opt in” option at the end of the quiz. Presenting it too early might turn people off.

How Do You Promote the Quizzes?

There are two big areas for promoting your quizzes. First, there’s your website, as that’s the majority of your traffic is going to be. You can create an announcement bar at the top of the page or a timed pop-up, both of which are very effective, according to Josh.

The second place is Facebook, where you can create ads. The ads tend to be effective, particularly for their cost, which Josh finds to be around 22 cents per lead. It also helps that people are able to easily share their results.

What Are the Most Common Mistakes in Making Quizzes?

The first mistake marketers make is being too on-brand, because consumers will smell inauthenticity and manipulation.

The second mistake is not promoting the quiz properly, such as dropping it on a random blog with little readership.

The third mistake is getting too bogged down in the accuracy of the results, which is only a waste of time. The quizzes are about being fun and engaging, not replacing the Myers-Briggs test.

Where Can You Learn More about Josh Haynam’s Marketing Ideas?

On his company’s website, Josh writes a semi-regular blog about tips and tricks in the marketing field.

Josh can also be found on various social media platforms, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, where he posts content regarding entrepreneurship and marketing.

About Josh Haynam

Josh Haynam is co-founder of Interact, a place for creating fun quizzes that also generate leads. Josh regularly writes about lead generation and conversion rate optimization (CRO). He also enjoys a good game of pickup basketball.