Why a quiz contest works:
Quizzes are already super engaging – it could be a pub quiz, a game of Trivia Pursuit with friends, or an online version. The bottom line? People love to show off how smart they are.
Adding a contest takes that to the next level. You set the threshold for a successful entry (‘Score 90% or better to be entered to win!’) – and it’s irresistible.
All you need to do is think about your favorite radio station. We bet you hear them run lots of contests – such as the classic ‘We’ll take the correct answer from caller #9’. Heck, even the BBC’s Radio 2 runs their daily ‘End of Days’ contest – the listener who answers the most questions correct gets to have their favorite song played.
It’s human nature. People can’t resist entering the quiz contest – and filling in your lead form. One bonus? You’re far more likely to get valid data this way (instead of donald@duck.com) – people need to give their real details to win the prize.
Case study (quiz generator) – Red Bull
Red Bull has made a name for itself beyond mere energy drinks.
After all, they’re one of the most well-known sports brands and publishers on the planet – because they’re brilliant at creating content that engages (and captivates) their audience.
They created this nifty quiz to keep their race fans engaged – even after the cancellation of the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore.
Red Bull used our quiz generator (now featuring 132,000 pre-stocked questions in 11 languages) plus our quiz timer – to make it difficult for contestants to cheat or game the system.
- First, they uploaded a spreadsheet of questions to Riddle’s quiz generator.
- Then, they randomly displayed 25 new questions to each quiz taker – so quiz retakes weren’t possible.
- Second, they added a quiz timer – giving quiz takers just 3 seconds to answer each question (so they couldn’t Google), and 20 seconds overall.
- Finally, they added a lead form – and required a photo of a receipt, showing the quiz taker had bought Red Bull.
Case study (quiz) – NBA’s Chicago Bulls
Let’s take a look at this great quiz by the legendary Chicago Bulls.
Initially, they were just going to run an article announcing one of their players was selected for the USA Olympic Basketball Team.
But instead of bland text – they created a quiz around the topic and challenged their audience to try and win two free tickets to an upcoming game.
Why this quiz contest succeeds:
- Short and to the point: we recommend no more than 10 questions to keep users engaged.
- Great images: the intro image grabs your attention.
- Good answer options: 3-4 choices per questions challenge without overwhelming the user.
How to make your own quiz contest?
Ready to make your own quiz contest? Let’s dive into the steps that are involved – don’t worry, no coding or any tricky tech skills required.
- In the ‘Create’ step, make your quiz or quiz generator.
- Next, in ‘Collect leads’:
- Step #1: Add a contest entry lead generation form with our drag/drop form builder. (Be sure to include an opt-in check box for your contest terms and conditions.)
- Step #2: Send leads to your email marketing tool (via AWeber, MailChimp, or our Zapier app) for future marketing.
- Step #3: Save leads to any Google Spreadsheet using our nifty Google Doc integration.
- Publish your quiz – and embed it on your site.
- When the quiz is over, view all entries in your Google Doc spreadsheet.
- (Optional) If you set a minimum score, sort all entries by score – then filter out people who did not answer enough questions.
- (Optional) If you only allow one entry per person, sort all entries by email address – then use this trick to quickly scan for duplicate entries).
- Use Random.org to pick a random number. Count down the list of eligible entries – and voila! You have your winner. (We recommend taking a screenshot – so you show how you awarded the prize.)
- Announce on your site and social media – tagging the winner directly for better reach among their network of friends.
Other ways to run a quiz contest:
- Add a quiz timer – for extra difficulty (and adrenaline), use Riddle’s timer function to set a time limit for either or both:
- Overall quiz length – ‘45 seconds to answer 8 questions’
- Individual questions – ‘5 seconds per question’ or ‘7 seconds for #1, 5 seconds for #2…’
- This is brilliant for ramping up the difficulty of your quiz. A bit like Jeopardy, start easy, and end with the most difficult questions.
- Prevent the “Google Factor” – with quiz timers, users won’t have time to look up answers they don’t know.
- Here’s how to add your own quiz timer:
- Delay showing answers – Riddle’s quiz maker normally gives immediate feedback after each question.
- You can choose to show answers until the end of the quiz AFTER the entry form.
- You’ll get more entries – especially if only people who score X correct are eligible.
- This way, even people who didn’t score enough to qualify will enter; they won’t see their score until after the contest entry form.
- Add ‘call to action’ buttons or ‘custom result pages’ – limit who sees your contest form.
- Call to action buttons: after the last question, successful quiz takers will see a button – that leads to an entry form on your site.
- Custom result pages: at the end of the quiz, automatically send people to a page on your site to enter.
- Both of these options do not use our lead generation form – but are a good option if you already have a quiz entry system you prefer to use.
- Leaderboards – this takes a bit of coding on your side, but you can track how many questions each user gets correct.
- Create a quiz (especially our new quiz generator / auto-quiz – that shows a new set of questions every hour/day/week/month.
- Add a lead form – collect each quiz taker’s name/email.
- Send all quiz scores/data + user info to Google Sheet (or you can use our free webhook).
- Group each entry by email address – then display that data on your site.
- It’s a relatively simple task coding-wise – but this is something you’ll need to do yourselves.
Phew! There you have it – all you need to quickly create a quiz contest using Riddle’s quiz maker.
We’ve been working to help brands and publishers like the BBC and Manchester City FC for years now. If you have any questions about quizzes and contests, we’re here to help – just drop us a line at hello@www.riddle.com/blog or via support chat on Riddle.
(We read and respond to every message – often in under two minutes flat. Unless we’re sleeping – in that case, we’ll respond as soon as we get our critical, much-needed morning caffeine!)
