Marketing

How to Design a Quiz for B2B Lead Generation

February 26, 2015

Congratulations! You just launched a brand new research report chock full of industry data your prospects crave. You plopped it on a landing page, did a little promotion, and now you’re waiting for the leads to start pouring in.

But what if the leads don’t start coming? How will you demonstrate ROI on this piece of content? What else could you do to get the word out about your report?

One approach is to shift the way you’re presenting the information. When you send out a tweet, post a LinkedIn update, or place an ad to drive traffic to your report, you’re picking and choosing from your content to find nuggets that resonate and pique your audience’s interest. This is exactly the same process behind creating a lead generation quiz — you’re taking bits and pieces from your long-form content and repurposing them in a proven format.

Yes, a B2B quiz — and I know what you’re thinking. If you’re skeptical about whether interactive content such as quizzes are realy a good fit for B2B, DemandGen Report’s 2015 Content Preferences Survey has some compelling findings:

86% of respondents expressed a desire to access interactive or visual content on demand.

Wondering if quizzes work? Just ask Buzzfeed, The New York Times, Bizo/ LinkedIn, or global talent management consulting firm DDI. Each of these organizations has driven thousands (or, in the case of Buzzfeed, hundreds of thousands) of leads with quizzes.

In addition to more leads, they are also seeing post-quiz benefits. For example, prospects who engage with DDI’s Common Leadership Styles knowledge quiz are six times more likely to open follow-on emails from DDI. We also see social share rates on interactive content in the range of 20%.

A lot of brands get stuck and never get around to creating quizzes because they think of them as a foreign entity. “We’ve never made a quiz before, we don’t know where to start!” If that sounds like you this quick-start guide to designing a quiz for B2B lead generation is a great resource to get you going.

1) Choose a Topic That Resonates

With so much information out there, buyers are increasingly discerning. They’re looking for content that resonates with their own specific needs, goals, fears, and priorities. The content that wins attention and moves leads through the funnel is the content that answers questions and solves problems for your audience.

The first step in creating any kind of content is to know your audience. What do they care about? When planning out a B2B quiz, you’ll want to consider what questions your audience is asking and what information they’re looking for. What specifically do they want to learn? Answering this question for yourself, and then building content that provides buyers with answers will ensure you’re building a piece of content your audience will really want.

Endicia, an online postage and shipping provider, created a quiz to inform their audience about changes in the USPS pricing structure. The quiz offered visitors new information they were looking for, but in a fun and interactive way. People love to test themselves and compare their results to others — one of the reasons online quizzes are so popular.

Endicia USPS

 

 

 

 

In less than two weeks, Endicia saw 70% of viewers complete the quiz, 71% convert on the lead form, and 80% click out to learn more about their products and services. Sounds like this topic resonated with their audience!

2) Pick the Right Number of Questions

When setting up your quiz, think about the experience and value it provides from your audience’s perspective. Too many questions, and it starts to feel like homework. Too few and it doesn’t feel worth the time (and your prospect probably won’t fill out the lead form to get their results).

Questions should be a mixture of formats, from multiple choice and true/false to choosing from a range and rank ordering. Your quiz also doesn’t have to be all questions — you can incorporate “Did you know?” sections to add more value to your user along the way.

3) Identify Lead Capture Opportunities

In order for this quiz to be a “lead generation quiz,” you’ll need to incorporate lead capture opportunities. Whether that means putting your quiz behind a form on a landing page or embedding a lead form right in your content, offering users a way to sign up for more information is key to delivering ROI on a quiz.

4) Offer Something of Value

If you’re looking to collect leads from your quiz, remember that your visitors are paying with their information by filling out the lead gen form — so whatever is on the other side should be valuable.

mimiandeunice

 

 

 

Credit: MimiandEunice.com

This could be as simple as the results of the quiz compared to their peers; a list of the right answers; or a relevant white paper download. Just make sure the call-to-action on the lead form makes it very clear what they’ll get out of giving you their information.

bizoBizo offered visitors who filled out the lead form on their quiz a download of their “B2B Online Display Advertising for Dummies” eBook, automatically sent via email. The direct connection between the content of the quiz and the content of the eBook ensured it was a relevant download for anyone who filled out the lead form, and essentially turned the quiz into an interactive landing page for the Dummies guide. Pretty neat!

B2B Quizzes: Not Rocket Science

To recap: Designing a quiz that hits all the right buttons for B2B lead generation might seem daunting, but given the right combination of elements it’s not rocket science to pull off. You’ll need a topic that resonates with your audience, the right balance of questions and additional information, a way to capture leads, and a way to provide value to your audience. Then you’ll be off to the races!

Take our own quiz:

 



Photo by: feck_aRT_post

Marketing Manager

<strong>Lena Prickett</strong> is the Marketing Manager,<a href="http://www.lamarzocco.com">La Marzocco</a>. Previously, she was the Content Marketing Specialist at <a href="http://www.snapapp.com/">SnapApp</a>, an interactive content creation platform based in the Boston area.