This article is based on a research study of 39 quizzes where 7.3 million people saw the results of those quizzes, roughly equating to $7 million in revenue from those quiz takers. While the revenue number is an estimate based on our internal algorithm, based on anecdotal data it’s reasonably accurate.
When someone gets to the end of your quiz, you have a very curious and engaged quiz taker you are speaking to. Quiz results are your time to talk after listening to the quiz taker throughout the questions you’ve been asking. But, the entire quiz result must be oriented around the quiz taker and keep the spotlight firmly on them.
A quiz result has three jobs.
1. Connect. Build trust and rapport, establish yourself as an approachable expert guide who can help the quiz taker.
2. Educate. Show that you can actually be helpful by educating the quiz taker, as an individual, on the topic of your quiz.
3. Convert. Cash in on the motivation you’ve built in your quiz taker and move them into your world through the next level of experience with your brand.
Quiz result template
This is where I would start if I was building a quiz for the first time. Of course you’ll expand and branch off from here as you get customer feedback, but for an initial run, this is what I would do.
1. Connect: Write 3-4 sentences describing the quiz result in “you” second-person language. Speak directly to the quiz taker and talk as an approachable expert. Speak from your lived experiences working with this type of person, and speak to one person. You can imagine one individual you’ve had a conversation with who is this type of person and talk to them in this section. That helps to keep yourself aligned with speaking personally.
2. Educate: Continuing to speak to the same person from section 1, write 3-6 sentences and share helpful thoughts, ideas, resources, insights – educate them as an approachable expert who wants to be helpful. Picture it as someone who came up to you after you gave a talk on the subject of your quiz and you only have a minute to share your most helpful guidance to them. “Look them in the eye” so to speak, and share your best stuff, but in a tone that makes them feel competent and confident.
3. Convert: Following up on section 2, imagine your time talking to this person has now come to a close and you have to leave them with one or a couple of resources they can dive into that are most helpful to them in their particular situation. This could be a podcast episode of yours, your book, a paper to read, a video to watch, a tool they can use, etc. etc. Honestly, whatever comes to mind as you are thinking about this individual that you genuinely think would be most helpful to them is what you should tell them to do next. In this “convert” section you’re not trying to hit a grand slam, you want to just get on base and continue the conversation. Consider that the person you are talking to is just getting to know you and doesn’t want to just dive in the deep end. They want to slowly warm up to your work. In this context it’s much easier on your end as the quiz writer to just say “yah, here’s the next thing or few things I would do if I was you” and then point out a next step for the quiz taker. Easy, natural, just like you would in real life or in a DM if someone of this type was reaching out to you.
Examples of very well crafted quiz results
Each of these examples roughly follows those the three jobs of a great quiz result. But they do it with such finesse that I had to highlight them. Each comes from a highly skilled writer and does an incredible job.
1. Gretchen Rubin – 4 Tendencies Quiz Result
Gretchen Rubin is a prolific author and can craft words to make incredible meaning. The quiz result featured here from her 4 Tendencies Quiz really takes you on a journey and tells the story of who you are as a Rebel in this case.
2. NASA – Artemis Quiz
When I interviewed Storycraft labs who helped create this NASA quiz, I was struck by how attentive they were to every detail of this quiz, including the way the results are put together. This is a great one to learn from and study as an example.
3. Common Era Jewelry – Goddess Quiz
Coming in from the E-commerce world, this quiz result does an excellent job of creating a narrative that guides the quiz taker through a journey of self, and culminates in products that align with who you are. Really great one to learn from as well.
Quiz Result Best Practices
The following are a list of best practices gleaned from an empirical study of quizzes that have reached over 50 million people since 2016. These principles have largely gone unchanged in the last decade because they have to do with human psychology and behavior that doesn’t shift very quickly. I mean this list to inform the way you think about your results, rather than a hard and fast list you must check off. Hopefully you find them helpful to your process.
Personalization leads to motivation
In a study of students and the affect of personalization on learning, it was found that personalization leads to increased motivation in two ways. First, there is TSI, triggered situational interest, which basically means something catches your eye because it applies to you. Second, there are MSI-F and MSI-V, which are maintained situational interest related to feelings and maintained situational interest related to value.
In the case of quiz results this tracks perfectly, because TSI is the “hook” that gets people interested initially. This is the “About you” section of a quiz result, and it catches people’s eye because it’s the same as when you’re in a group of people and you overhear your name. You perk up and listen to see what someone is saying about you. But this interest is fleeting.
So step two is following up right away with the education section, where you implement MSI-F and MSI-V and you start delivering emotional personalization, talking about how the quiz taker can improve their life, but in an educational style, not selling anything, simply educating the person about themselves in the context of the quiz result.
In step two you also deliver real, personalized, value by educating the person on ways they can improve their situation. Throughout step two the information is delivered in a completely personalized manner, so the person reading it stays dialed in.
When you get to the last section of your quiz result and give recommendations, it’s in relation to step 1 and step 2, so the person knows it’s a continuation of the personalized content that got them motivated to read through the first two sections initially.
Active Listening Creates a Positive Perception of the Evaluator in Assessments
This study could not be more relevant to a quiz result. It is literally talking about a research process where feedback was being given to people and sometimes it was given with active listening shown, other times without. The people who got feedback with active listening perceived the evaluators more positively. And they perceived the entire experience more positively.
To test these hypotheses, we conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on participants viewing assessments of their own personal experiences made by evaluators with or without active listening attitude. Subjects rated evaluators who showed active listening more positively. – Division of Cerebral Integration, Japan.
How you say things matters a lot
It was Maya Angelou who said “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” and showing active listening is one way to make people feel good.
In this piece from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, we get another glimpse into how you can use this opening section of your quiz result to make people feel positively towards you and establish connection.
The author, Anupma Prakash is talking about their growing up experience, and had this very telling story to share.
I grew up in a home where anyone could stop by any time, unannounced, and stay as long as they wished. My mother would always make every visitor feel welcome and special, even when we recognized that it was inconvenient for her. That is what I had seen and that is what I believed the world around me would be like.
I must have been 8 or 9 years old when we had a visitor whose daughter was my age, and we instantly became friends. I was so excited to introduce this new buddy to my aunt that we knocked at her door midafternoon. We were met with a cold stare followed by some angry remarks. I do not remember what she said. I just remember I was shaken, wanted to run away but couldn’t. I felt hurt, humiliated, my head was spinning, and my heart was palpitating from the myriad of emotions. It has been over 40 years, and I still vividly remember how I felt.
I have reflected on that memory many times. Had I made a mistake or a blunder? Was my aunt’s anger justified? Was it right or wrong of her to say whatever she said to me? It is likely that the point she wanted to make was right. But that did not matter as my mind was already numb and the words had stopped registering. It wasn’t the message but the tone that was wrong.
In another world, the aunt could have opened the door, showered positive words on the young person, then gently shared that she needed to get back to a meeting, but instead she left the young person shaken and thrown off, for a lifetime.
The same holds very true for quiz results. You don’t need to tell everyone they’re perfect, on the contrary, you want to be honest with people, because otherwise they won’t trust you. But you do have to make them feel positively towards you no matter what you say.
The following is a word cloud analysis based on the most common speaking styles used in top quiz results. Friendly, Encouraging, Casual, Playful, Direct, are the top five, with variations following that to add character and personality to how things are communicated.
This tells us that the best quiz results are communicated by experts, but done so in a way that’s distinctly empathetic, not from a place of “holier than thou” but instead as an expert equal who wants to be helpful.
The overall tone of the quiz results I analyzed show a deeply understanding and accepting tone, even while doling out advice and guidance. This aligns with a Stanford Study which shows the gargantuan power of feeling accepted and how motivating it is to have people on your side.
In terms of how things are said in quiz results, it’s the ones where the quiz taker feels like they’re accepted where they are that actually motivate people towards an action, not the ones where flaws are pointed out.
Quiz Results Tell the Story of the Quiz Taker
Stories are highly engaging and light up our brains as we become immersed in them. Your own story being reflected back to you is even more engaging and powerful. The distinction between any story and the story of the quiz taker, is the power of mirroring. Mirroring is when we reflect back to people what we hear them saying, just like a mirror reflects an image.
Proper mirroring in quiz results means incorporating the answers that the quiz taker gave you throughout the quiz into their result so you can tell their story with their own narrative actually baked into it.