Modern lead gen: Making online quizzes the hero of your strategy

It's hard for any business to build brand recognition and grow a loyal following. But for the up-and-coming, shoestring-budget business, being discovered is much harder than that 15-year-old YouTuber makes it look. Add to that the intrusion of a global pandemic like COVID-19, and the struggle is real.

But let's not get it twisted. Now's not the time to give up hope for your small business. Now's the time to get smart about funneling limited resources into business growth. Now's the time to diversify client base, grow audiences, and find cheaper, more ingenious ways to reach ideal customers—all roadblocks small businesses face.

I've been working in marketing for over a decade, and I've seen people try all sorts of tactics to get new leads. Some of them work. Most of them don't. One that cuts through the lead gen noise: quizzes.

Let me introduce you to my little (lead gen) friend

There are many ways to stand out in the big, bad business venture world. But when it comes to good lead gen, there are two bite-sized marketing lessons that come up again and again. Let's break them down.

You're out of business if you don't have a prospect

Zig Ziglar had a good point. Kind of feels like a throwback from LeadGen 101, but sometimes you have to start at the beginning. Finding prospects is the main purpose of lead gen. Often, this challenge is met with a large budget for ads, video production, and marketing campaigns to build brand awareness. That's for the big fish in the marketing sea, but a bit harder to come by when you're still a minnow trying to survive.

Keep this in mind: small businesses should outsmart, not outspend their competitors.

Enter the not-so-new, but real effective kid in town: quizzes. When it comes to building email lists and showcasing your brand's personality, quizzes are a brilliant way to shine.

Get acquainted with Typeform's quiz builder.

Content is fire, social media is gasoline

This one's from Jay Baer, and it's hot. Raise your hand if you've ever taken a quiz resembling "what TV series character are you?" or "which soft drink flavor best describes your personality?" These personality quizzes are so entertaining they verge on addicting. And the best ones collect thousands and even hundreds of thousands of responses.

In fact, rare is the realization that these quizzes are promoting a brand or product, unless the euphoria is interrupted by an annoying demand for an email address. Be chill. If the journey's smooth, people will enthusiastically provide an email address to stay updated on upcoming quizzes and company news. They might even share it on social media. (Read: for a business, the hits just keep on coming.)

Here's a cool take on the personality quiz by Beardbrand:

Quizzes can help you engage your audience and build—over time—brand awareness and loyalty. Let's look at why they cut through the noise.

Why do quizzes work so well for lead generation?

The simple answer is that quizzes offer people a personalized result. It's one of the more effective ways for businesses to simply say: Your voice matters to me. I get you.

Quizzes can also be the driving force for several different lead generation strategies. For example:

• Lead segmentation. Based on respondents' scored results, you can aggregate the data to create personas for your product-market fit model. It can also be a useful approach for personalizing the offers or products showcased to respondents or used for future communications (follow-up emails, blog articles, etc). Here's an example of how to apply that approach.

• Driving traffic to your funnel. With the inclusion of quizzes, you can help build brand awareness and drive traffic from social media to your site (via helpful links at the end of your quiz, as an example). Here's additional proof of its success.

At Typeform, we've seen the benefits of quizzes firsthand. Not only are they helping to grow our customers' businesses, but we've also been testing them out ourselves. We're learning lots about the potential lead gen power of quizzes on social media. We've even run our own tests to further understand the benefits of this effort and social media to create the perfect lead gen harmony.

You can check out our quiz here:

Keep this in mind: this isn't your granddad's approach. Though quizzes may seem unconventional for lead gen, they are an effective and unique way to get your message across, whatever your intent.

What does your quiz say about you? Tips and takeaways

Before you throw all of your budget and resources (and the kitchen sink) into a robust marketing plan, build intrigue and generate brand awareness in order to capture leads. Here's what to do (and avoid) when creating an online quiz for lead gen:

1. It's not you. It's them. Yes, you want brand awareness and qualified leads. But at the heart of all of this is the customer. Create questions they can identify with and keep them entertained. Google Trends can be a good pointer here. After all, everyone loves to ponder new questions or thoughts. Serious stuff like: how many split personalities does your pet have or what eating ice cream in the winter says about you.

2. Qualify your leads. The difference between a customer and a future advocate rests on how qualified your leads are. Ask the right questions, and segment your answers based on responses. A carefully executed personality quiz like this, or an assessment quiz that tests respondents' knowledge are a great start.

3. Don't forget to count (scoring quizzes 101). Lead gen is only as good as the data you collect. Make sure your quiz tool easily keeps score, sends people to the right outcome, and adds a personal touch with special thank-you screens.

4. Use opt-ins (email not mandatory). Fun fact: no one likes to be blocked from results after they've spent their precious time taking your quiz. Making email optional is less intrusive. You'd be surprised how often people provide this information, even when it's optional. Case-in-point: in a recent collab with Monday.com, our email-optional approach led to nearly 60% of their quizzes' 10,000 respondents leaving their email.

5. Give in order to get. Definitely one of the golden rules. And it's simple to follow: Provide value. Provide value. Provide value. How you do this depends on your product and lead gen strategy. Some examples: offering helpful content, a product coupon, or limited access.

6. Don't forget to follow up. Now that you and the team have put so much effort into acquiring leads, don't lose them. You might use Zapier to integrate leads into your own CRM or to send auto-reply emails with your email marketing tool. Regardless of how you do it, you should have a clear follow-up strategy. This keeps respondents engaged with your brand and product.

Building a business isn't easy. But as a smart fish once said, "just keep swimming." Pretty soon, you'll see you're just as big as the sharks are. And smarter too.