Developing Interactive Content: Best Practices for Quizzes and Polls

If interactive content is not a major marketing focus for your agency, you may want to include it in your offerings now. Providing your clients with interactive content such as quizzes and polls can help to set your agency apart. You can use quizzes and polls in various channels such as on a client’s website and particularly on their social media.

Because it encourages audiences to engage, interactive content can

• Generate 200% more conversions than passive content
• Generate 500% more views than static content
• Generate more than twice as many shares

There are various forms of interactive content, but quizzes and polls stand out due to their ability to engage audiences, collect valuable data, and drive conversions.

What Are the Benefits to My Clients of Using Interactive Content Such as Quizzes and Polls?

Quizzes and polls offer a unique way to connect with your client’s audience. They are inherently engaging, because they invite participation and often offer instant feedback. This interaction can significantly increase the time users spend on your site, enhance brand recall, and provide insights into customer preferences and behavior.

Here’s why quizzes and polls are so powerful:

• Engagement: Interactive content grabs attention and keeps users involved.
• Personalization: Quizzes can offer personalized results, enhancing user experience.
• Data Collection: Polls and quizzes can gather valuable data about user preferences and behaviors that you can then use in your other marketing efforts.
• Virality: Quizzes are highly shareable, expanding your reach organically.

Best Practices

Quizzes and Polls are not the same animal. So, let’s explore best practices for each separately.

Best Practices for Creating Effective Quizzes

1. Define Clear Objectives

Before you actually create the quiz, define what you aim to achieve. Do you want to generate leads, increase engagement, or educate your audience? Clear objectives will guide the content and structure of your quiz.

2. Know Your Audience

Understand your target audience’s interests and pain points. Your focus needs to be on your audience, their challenges and their desires rather than just talking about how great your company is.

Create quizzes that resonate with your audience. For instance, a fashion brand might create a “What’s Your Style?” quiz, while a B2B company might offer a “What Type of Leader Are You?” quiz.

3. Write Engaging Titles and Descriptions

You need a great title to draw your audience in. The title and description are the first things users see. Make them catchy and intriguing. A good title sparks curiosity and encourages clicks. Personalize as much as possible.  For example, “Which [Your Industry] Expert Are You?” is more engaging than “Industry Knowledge Quiz.”

4. Keep It Short and Sweet

People have short attention spans these days, so don’t overwhelm your audience. Limit your quiz to 5-10 questions to maintain engagement. Longer quizzes can lead to drop-offs. Each question should be concise and easy to understand.

5. Use High Quality Visuals

You need to capture and keep your audience’s attention. To help do that, use images, videos or GIFs to make your quiz visually appealing. Visuals can also help clarify questions and enhance the overall user experience.

6. Provide Valuable Results

Ensure that the quiz results are meaningful and valuable to the user. Personalized feedback, tips, or recommendations based on the quiz answers can add significant value and encourage sharing.

7. Include a Call-to-Action (CTA)

Include a CTA at the end of the quiz to guide users to the next step, whether it’s signing up for a newsletter, downloading a resource or making a purchase. Of course, the CTA needs to be relevant to the quiz content and the user’s interests.

8. Test and Optimize

As with any digital marketing, you will need to test what is effective. A/B test different versions of your quiz to see what resonates best with your audience. Analyze the data to optimize question phrasing, visuals and CTAs for better performance.

Best Practices for Creating Engaging Polls

1. Identify Your Purpose

Determine the primary goal of your poll. Are you seeking feedback on a product, want to understand customer preferences, or just spark a conversation? A clear purpose will help shape your poll questions.

2. Keep It Simple

Like quizzes, polls should be straightforward and quick to complete or you are going to lose your audience. Always keep in mind that your client’s brand is not the foremost topic in the minds of their customers. People have their own lives. Limit the number of questions to 1-3, focusing on one topic to avoid overwhelming the audience.

3. Use Clear and Concise Language

Use easy to understand language. Avoid jargon or complex phrasing. The goal is to make participation as effortless as possible. In other words, Clarity overrides cleverness.

4. Offer Relevant and Balanced Options

Your audience should be able to choose among poll answers that relevant and balanced. Avoid leading questions and ensure that pretty much every potential viewpoint is represented. For example, instead of asking an obviously self-serving question such as “Do you love our new product?” ask, “What do you think of our new product?” with a range of options.

5. Engage with Visuals

Just like quizzes, you should use visuals to grab attention for your polls and make them more attractive and engaging.

6. Promote Interaction

Encourage users to share their opinions and results with their friends or their feed. Integrate social sharing buttons and display real-time results to foster a sense of community and engagement.

7. Analyze and Act on the Data

Review the data collected from your polls to gain insights into your audience’s preferences and opinions. Use this information to improve and focus your marketing strategies and improve your products or services.

8. Follow Up

If appropriate, particularly in B2B situations, follow up with participants to share the results of the poll or how their feedback will be used. This can build trust and demonstrate that you value their input.

Integrating Quizzes and Polls into Your Marketing Strategy

To maximize the impact of quizzes and polls, integrate them seamlessly into your broader marketing strategy.

Leverage Multiple Channels

Promote your quizzes and polls across various channels, including your website, social media, email newsletters, and even paid advertising. Each channel offers unique opportunities to reach different segments of your audience. We will publish a more in-depth article on this topic soon.

Use Targeted Campaigns

Tailor your quizzes and polls to specific audience segments. Don’t use a shotgun approach. The more targeted your marketing is, the more effective it will be. For example, create a quiz for new visitors to introduce them to your brand, and another for existing customers to deepen their engagement.

Measure Success

Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your quizzes and polls. Track metrics such as participation rates, completion rates, shares and conversions to assess their effectiveness.

Continuously Improve

Use the insights gained from your quizzes and polls to refine and improve future content. Stay updated on industry trends and evolving audience preferences to keep your interactive content fresh and relevant.

Be Mobile Friendly

With a significant portion of users accessing content via mobile devices, ensure that your quizzes and polls are mobile-friendly. Test them on various devices to provide a seamless experience for all users.

Keep in mind that

• As of 2024, 67% of website traffic comes from mobile devices.
• 3% of Internet users access the Internet through their smartphones at some point.

Want Help with Quizzes and Polls or Other Interactive Content?

Quizzes and polls are powerful tools for digital marketing agencies, offering a dynamic way to engage audiences, gather insights, and drive conversions. But you don’t need to be an expert yourself to offer interactive content to your digital marketing agency clients.

For a free consultation about white label marketing services performed by experts, contact Umbrella by heading to our website or calling (866) 760-2638.