The Pop Quiz

Emma worked as a content manager for a tech company. She had been an employee there for about three years. She had tried some fantastic strategies to increase engagement: live streaming tutorials; hosting monthly webinars; and the works. But she still felt like something was off. That was when, one evening, while scrolling through her favorite social media channel, Emma saw a pop quiz on the corner of her feed by a popular brand. Hundreds of comments and results were shared along with tagging friends thanks to the light-hearted, interactive nature of the post. Emma thought she had the idea that her own brand needed a quiz to breathe some fresh life into its content strategy.

The very next morning, Emma pitched the idea to her team. "We should do a pop quiz," she said, filling with excitement. "It is a good way for our audience to be involved with us without involving much time." Her team looked at each other curiously.

"What could we possibly ask?" Ben-the brand's designer asked.

Emma smiled. "Okay, let's start with our FAQs. What are people always asking us? What do they want to know more about?"

Her co-workers began brainstorming potential questions. They were a company specializing in sustainable home goods, having a niche and passionate audience. They wanted to keep the quiz simple but meaningful, blending informative questions with a couple that could clear up common misunderstandings about sustainability in their industry.

The rest of the week was taken up by Emma working through the questions. She was using their often asked questions and realized that many people were asking where their material came from in the products of the brand, how to dispose of items at the end of their life, and why some products cost more. Using this knowledge, Emma started creating a short quiz:

1. "What material makes up our eco-friendly line?"

2. "What of your products is 100% compostable?"

3. "Why are sustainable products frequently more expensive?"

4. "How do you recycle the packaging our products come in?"

She added a few lighter questions-and it helped that she tacked "What kind of eco-warrior are you?" to this list with such playful responses as "The Conscious Consumer," "The Green Thumb," and "The Zero-Waste Warrior." The team loved the idea-it added a little bit of whimsy to what otherwise could be these fairly stodgy information-gathering questions.

She posted it when it was ready on the social media pages of the company, even started an email blast, and put it up as a pop-up on the homepage of their website. The title of the quiz was lively and catchy: "How Sustainable Are You? Take the Quiz to Find Out! "

The response was instantaneous and enthusiastic. Within hours, hundreds of people had taken the quiz. Emma could see the comments pouring in:

"I had no idea you guys used bamboo for your products. That's awesome!"

"I didn't know why sustainable products were so pricey till I took this quiz. Thanks so much for the info!"

"Had 'The Zero-Waste Warrior' – going to try harder on my recycling now!"

The most jarring probably was the question, "Why are sustainable products more expensive?" Many customers commented how the answer clarified something they'd been skeptical about. Emma knew the company had struggled to communicate its cost behind its "ethos of ethical sourcing and fair labor practice," so it was exciting to see people finally understand their commitment to responsible production.

She collated all of the outcomes and presented them to the team after one week. The quiz was not only some significant traffic flow through the website but also some real impact to sales. Products that had features in the quiz were remarkably increased, and more importantly, Emma saw her community not only talk about sustainability but now knowledgably in the comments.

True success, however, was outside of the numbers. Emma realized customers felt a closer relationship with the brand. They shared the quiz amongst each other, talked about the answers to each other, and even playfully challenged each other to make green swaps. It was very evident the quiz created an engagement creator she had been seeking-a way to educate with the fun, interactive feel she wanted for her audience.

It brought the team to ecstasy. Ben couldn't seize the moment without cracking a joke. "Who would ever have thought that a pop quiz could be more powerful than all our webinars?" Emma quipped back at him, laughing. "Sometimes all people want is a quick way to learn something interesting, and maybe have a little fun while they are at it too."

Now, from then on, Emma just used quizzes to engage the brand's audience as she used seasonal quizzes, product-specific quizzes, and even personality-based ones. With each quiz, she found new ways to educate and engage the audience, and the brand was considerably stronger in connecting with its customers.

It was one of those experiments that proved the worth of one lecture: sometimes, the most meaningful connection could be made over the simplest of ideas--in this case, a pop quiz.