How do I get more people to take my quiz? Is the #1 question across all customers, since day one at Interact back in 2014. Since we’ve now had quizzes taken more than 400 million times on our platform, I now have a data-backed answer to that questions.
The determination of whether someone takes your quiz is entirely dependent on the title of the quiz. Whether they finish it or not is dependent on the quiz questions, and if they convert depends on the quiz results.
This article will focus on quiz titles. Here are the top 10 factors that affect whether or not people take your quiz.
1. Identity
Questions about identity appeal to people on a personal level. Default social cognition tells us that people think about themselves and their relationships all the time. If your quiz title asks a question about identity and people’s relationships to themselves and others, it will be worth people’s time and they will be curious to click on it.
2. Conversation
These are in order of importance, so you have to have identity at the core of your quiz title. But once you’ve got that established, you want to write your quiz title in a conversational style that communicates very clearly and concisely that you are speaking directly to one person who is taking the quiz. Part of what makes quizzes so powerful is the personalization they can provide, and the unique individual experience people have while taking them. You want to key in on this with your quiz title.
3. Question
Every quiz title is a question, whether there’s a question mark at the end of it or not. It’s a question that’s about identity, and is conversational, written in the voice and tone that your customers will receive well. The question has to be something important enough to stop the flow of thoughts going through people’s minds as they go about their days, something that they are already thinking about and aware of, something accessible enough, but also big enough to stop them in their tracks proverbially and take your quiz.
4. Personalization
The promise of personalization is powerful because people want to learn about themselves. Emphasizing that everyone will get a unique, meaningful outcome based on their answers to the quiz will get people excited and curious to know what their outcome will be.
5. Popular
There is certainly an aspect of popularity for quiz titles. It’s only number 5 on this list because it is by no means the most important thing. You need 1-4 in order for this to matter very much, but once those are in place, the popularity aspect doesn’t hurt. Popular means what is going to resonate broadly with your core audience, not what is popular in culture. What is popular within your particular niche of an audience.
6. Concerns
This aligns with the loss aversion principle of psychology. People feel much worse about losing things than by getting things. So it would check out that more quiz titles are effective when they present you with a question about concerns, but benefits is the next item on this list.
7. Benefits
Getting something is also great, and it’s #7 on this list because many quiz titles that are highly clicked on have the promise of benefits. Importantly, the benefit must be concrete and quick. You need to deliver something to people that’s clear and going to be delivered with immediacy.
8. Curiosity
Curiosity is directly tied to motivation. Curious people are more motivated to learn and grow. If you can ask a question that sparks curiosity and wonder, then they will be more likely to seek out the information at the end of the quiz.
9. Immediacy
Immediate reward increases motivation. So our brains are wired to look for instant reward because it helps us on the journey towards our long terms goals. The best quiz titles promise immediate reward because people are drawn towards something that help them reach a goal with immediacy.
10. Relevance
Timely relevance ties back to all the previous points. Things that are on the mind of your customers right now can help increase the number of people who click on your quiz and want to take it.
Q&A Quiz Titles
Common questions people ask me about how to write the best possible quiz titles for their use case.
How can I test my quiz title to see if it’s good?
Our top users say they run focus groups with their customers or even just people who match the target customer profile. You can also run duplicate versions of your quiz to see which performs better. My favorite version of this is to have your ideal customers take your quiz and give you live feedback about the quiz title, there’s nothing like seeing people’s real-life reaction when they read your title.
Do I need to make my quiz title like Buzzfeed or super cheesy?
No. In fact, if your audience doesn’t enjoy that type of quiz, then it’s detrimental to your quiz performance to make it too fun. What matters is that your quiz title resonates deeply with your ideal customer. So whatever that looks like for your audience is what’s the best.
What are common reasons a quiz title doesn’t work?
Honestly, it’s because there’s a lack of ideal customer research. Our best and most successful customers know their audience so well that they know the words that will resonate with people, they know the way people like to be talked to, they know what their audience cares about. Every time I talk to anyone struggling with dialing in quiz titles, I always point them back to their conversations and research on their customer base, that’s where the answers always are for improving quiz titles.