You need to engage your visitors to create momentum and build an audience. And an online quiz is one of the easier ways to create engaging content that can also help build an audience of returning visitors.
I use Smart Quiz Builder to build quizzes for some of my websites. So far, I am very pleased with the results and find the service extremely intuitive to build and use.
In this article, I will list some of the benefits of using a quiz on your website.
I will also tell you where you should focus when you first start out.
Finally, I will show you how easy it is t make a quiz with Smart Quiz Builder and list my favorite paid alternative and a popular free alternative.
Benefits of using online quizzes
There are many advantages and benefits to using an online quiz on your website. Or even better, use one quiz for each article you publish.
Quizzes are actually relatively quick to create in conjunction with each and every article you write and serve as an additional source of supporting content.
Some of the main advantages of an online quiz are:
1. Increase visitor engagement
In a previous article, I explained the difference between a bounce and an exit from your website.
And while both exits and bounces are a natural part of running a website your goal has to be to keep your visitors engaged when they arrive at your website. You want the visitors to stay on your website and read your articles.
Publishing quizzes will help you increase the time visitors spend on your website.
And engagement as in time spent on your website is an important part in your work to create an audience.
The longer your visitors stay on your website the more likely they are to trust you and to return to your website in the future.
2. Build your brand
An online quiz will educate and entertain visitors to your website.
And this added layer of interactivity will help build your brand and set you apart from other websites that only publish information via posts and articles.
3. Reach new potential visitors
Online quizzes are often shared among friends and on social networks. This sharing of an online quiz may take the form of sharing a result on a quiz or simply sending a link to a friend interested in topics related to your niche.
After all, everyone likes to take an online quiz from the comfort of their home. For you this means an extended reach and more potential victors interested in your posts and articles.
4. More returning visitors
Quizzes are fun. And one of the reasons people return to YouTube over and over is that it can be educational but also a bit of uncomplicated fun for a couple of minutes.
And your quizzes can have this same effect on people. Visitors may return to your website to take your weekly quiz and in the process maybe read an article or two.
Your focus as a new website owner
Many important projects never get started when you strive for instant perfection.
Take a hint from the Silicon Valley startups and get online with a MInimum Viable Product (MVP).
And for you this means focusing on increasing visitor engagement and worrying about lead generation, branding and social shares later.
Most importantly you need to get started. Finish reading this article and then sign up for one of the services I recommend below and publish your first quiz this week.
Later in the article I will outline just how easy it can be to get started.
When your quiz is up and running you will find that people
- like to test their skills
- will share good results
- are more likely to share a link to a quiz than an article
- will often take more than one quiz when they get started
People like to test their skills
Some people love all types of competition. But some of us can feel intimidated and fear that we will look “stupid” if we do not perform according to perceived standards.
But almost all people are up for testing their level of knowledge from the comfort of their home completely anonymously.
Many will share good results
We may like to take the quiz anonymously at home. But many will enjoy sharing a great result with friends on social media platforms like twitter and Facebook.
And as we like people to share their scores we can include share buttons at the end of the quiz.
We will of course also allow the visitor to retake the quiz. Hopefully after reading our linked article that will give them the knowledge they need to get a perfect score.
People are more likely to share a link to a quiz
You will find that a link to a good quiz is more likely to get shared by email and social media.
Everyone likes a bit of fun and relaxation. And a quiz can provide just that. Some innocent fun that is also educational covering topics that the visitor is interested in.
Passing on a link to an article can feel like giving someone homework. A link to a quiz is on the other hand a friendly gesture to a few minutes of fun and relaxation.
Visitors often take more than one quiz
Taking short quizzes is addictive. It is like watching a YouTube video. When the video is over it is hard to resist those next related videos that are presented ever so innocently.
As you build up your library of quizzes you will find that many users jump from one quiz to another.
TIP box: Always choose a topic based on an article or post you have published. When the quiz is completed you present the result. You also politely inform the user that the answers to all the questions and more are available in your article and publish a link.
The great news is that all these factors work together to help you build your audience.
- Increased engagement: keep visitors on your website longer
- New visitors: results and links to quizzes are shared
- Returning visitors: increased stickiness as visitors come back for more quizzes
- Build your brand: every quiz is presented under your brand and domain
Bonus: Use an online quiz for lead generation
Saving the best for last.
Online quizzes can be used for lead generation by asking for an email address before the quiz starts or at the end of the quiz.
You can for example offer to mail the results of the quiz to the email address they enter.
Some people are reluctant to share their email address. In the spirit of transparency I believe it is important to explain that they will have to share their email address before they start taking the quiz. Do not make people complete a quiz and force them to share an email to get the results. It may be effective - but I believe it is bad karma.
While quizzes are a great lead generator you will find that fewer people will share your quiz if you ask for an email address.
You simply need to look at your objective and then design the quiz accordingly. If your main objective is to generate leads you need to ask for an email address.
But if your primary objective is reach, engagement and stickiness you will find that a quiz without asking for an email address is far more effective.
My recommendation is to use both approaches. Ask for an email address on some quizzes and let others be there for user value only.
How to set up an online quiz on your website
As I have already told you I use Smart Quiz Builder. I find the tool to be extremely intuitive with a simple to use point-and-click interface.
Here I will give you
- Free alternative to Smart Quiz Builder
- A video showing how easy it is to install Smart Quiz Builder in WordPress
- Step-by-step overview on how to set up a quiz
There are free alternatives to Smart Quiz Builder. One of the more popular is Quiz Cat that lets you create BuzzFeed-style quizzes. If nothing else, Quiz Cat can be a good introduction to the world of online quizzes.
But I do recommend Smart Quiz Builder. See video below for how easy it is to install Smart Quiz Builder.
Creating an online quiz in WordPress with Smart Quiz Builder
When you have installed Smart Quiz Builder you will find the plugin in the left hand menu. Simply click SmartQuizBuilder > Manage Quizzes and then CREATE A QUIZ on the the next page.
After you have clicked CREATE A QUIZ you are taken to a page where you have to go through 7 steps to create your online quiz.
1. Basic Settings
This is where you name your quiz, enter a description and select the type of quiz.
You can choose from 5 different types including Assessment (like the one above), Personality (are you an entrepreneur or a big business type of person) and Surveys.
2. Display Settings
Here you decide how the quiz will be displayed on your page, whether it will be possible to retake the quiz and whether you want to collect email addresses or not to list only a few settings.
3. Start
The Start section allows you to write a small introduction and style the look of your first page that starts the quiz. Change font, background image and much more.
4. Outcome
This is where you decide how you will present the result.
You can have several different outcomes or use ranges and only have two – one for perfect score and one for everyone else.
5. Questions
Under Questions you create your quiz questions and answers. You can decide between 7 different question types including
- yes/no questions
- multiple choice questions
- free text questions and
- numerical value questions to mention a couple.
6. Lead Generation
This is where you design the interface for collecting an email address from your visitors if you enabled Lead Generation under step 2 Display Settings.
7. Shortcode
Here you can copy the shortcode you need to publish your online quiz on your own website or any other website for that matter.
Your shortcode will look something like this:
[SmartQuizBuilder id=XX][/SmartQuizBuilder]Get that first Online quiz Created now
Because that is how easy it is to create online quizzes. Even better, it is all done by point-and-click. And trust me, the best way to learn the tool is to get in there and create.
The tool is very intuitive and as nothing is published until you place the shortcode on your website you do not have to worry about making mistakes.
Simply start creating your quiz and use the built-in Preview Quiz feature to check your progress along the way.
So what are you waiting for? The benefits are obvious and plain to see. Get in there and start creating your first online quiz.
