Episode 145: Get More Sales Using Quizzes as Lead Magnet with Linda Sidhu
Quizzes--we all love taking them so no wonder they are GREAT for growing your email list and getting your audience engaged! Since human psychology tells us that customers LOVE learning about themselves, quizzes are one of the best ways to get more sales and build your email list using it as a lead magnet! Better than an eBook or video training, quizzes allow you to get more information about your audience while keeping them engaged, creating a win win for email nurturing later to increase your chances of making that sale! Don't miss this episode with quizz expert Linda Sidhu who has created quizzes that generated 6 figures in sales and more!
Here’s What We Cover and More:
Linda’s transition from pharmaceutical sales to quiz strategist.
Effectiveness of quizzes as lead magnets over social media.
Overview of different quiz types— scored quizzes, personality quizzes, assessments, and e-commerce quizzes.
Steps to create a successful quiz.
Importance of a well-integrated email marketing system.
Necessity of a follow up welcome series to nurture leads into customers.
Strategies for targeting specific demographics with positive messaging.
Use of tools like ChatGPT to streamline quiz creation.
Introduction to Linda’s “Quiz to Cash Strategy.”
The value of market research and creation of compelling quiz titles and questions.
Tips on leveraging PR to gain media visibility.
Explore the magic of quizzes and transform your lead generation game—just ask Linda Sidhu, the quiz queen who turned midlife crises into midlife advantages. Whether you’re in skincare or paddleboards, quizzes can be your marketing MVP, nurturing leads and boosting sales with personalized charm. Ditch the social media grind and let quizzes do the hard work, one engaging question at a time!
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Resources Mentioned:
Join the PR Secrets Masterclass
Join the Small Biz PR Pros Facebook Group
DM the word “PITCH” to us on Instagram to get a pitching freebie https://www.instagram.com/gloriachoupr
Connect with Gloria Chou on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloriaychou
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/428633254951941
Follow Linda Sidhu on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/linda-spence-sidhu-6485b054
Check out her Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamlindasidhu/
Join her Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/813848232379718/
Take the quiz: https://resources.lindasidhu.com/quiztocash
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Transcript
00:00:00 Gloria: Hey, small business heroes. Welcome back to Small Business PR, where we make marketing and PR super accessible for the everyday small business underdog. So today I have my personal friend, Linda Sidhu. She's many things. So we are in a mixer mind of hers where she pairs up amazing entrepreneurs. So that's a group that she created, but she's also a quiz queen. And we're gonna talk about all the lead generation strategies for any business, whether it's product or service, to get more leads, convert those leads and grow your email list. So welcome to our show.
00:00:28 Linda: Hey, thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.
00:00:31 G: So can you tell us a little bit about quizzes? Like, what are we talking about when we talk, because when I think about quizzes, I think of those Scantrons, you know, from back in high school. Can you talk about quizzes, like in the sense of like online business and online commerce? Why quizzes?
00:00:43 L: Yeah, so quizzes were just engaging, right? So if you think back in the day where you would have to take a quiz in a magazine, like Seventeen Magazine, you know what else is really engaging is the horoscopes in those magazines, right? And so what I found is I think the reason why people love quizzes and love horoscopes is because it tells them more about themselves. And so I ended up getting certified in DiSC when I was in pharmaceutical sales. So I learned how to people read. I learned how to understand people's personalities, so I could communicate and sell to them.
00:01:23 L: And so I brought this with me, went into my entrepreneurial journey, because once I actually retired from pharmaceutical sales, I launched my own business and I created a quiz for lead generation. And so it was very quickly, like within three months, I realized that my quiz was doing very well. I even caught the attention of interact the quiz platform where it was converting very high. And so they brought me on to be a strategic partner with them. And then I just ended up kind of following the breadcrumbs and creating quizzes for coaches, course creators, and of course, e-comm as well.
00:02:00 G: I love that so much. So let's define, kind of the vocabulary, right? So for people who are just getting started, they might have heard of a quiz, but then there's the whole thing about lead magnets. So can we talk about what the difference is? Are all quizzes lead magnets, for example?
00:02:13 L: Okay, so a lead magnet or an opt-in is how you get somebody to opt into your email list. And so you give them something in exchange for their email. And it could be a PDF download. It could be an ebook. It could be for, you know, e-comm percentage off, like 15% off for your first purchase. And then there's obviously quizzes. And so quizzes are when you try to figure out what superpower do you have. You know, it's basically trying to figure out what your strengths are, depending on the quiz.
00:02:44 L: And so if you do the quiz right, you can really attract the right leads. And then you ask them a couple of questions and then you deliver a result for them. And for e-comm, you can also do something as simple. I gave you this example earlier, like a deodorant, like what deodorant is right for you. You could answer a few questions and then you can tell them what deodorant would be best for their skin and then allow them to purchase. So it's just going back to your original question, a lead magnet is giving them something of value in exchange to their email address.
00:03:17 G: Yeah. And I mean, we all know this, right? The more people on your list that says, yes, I want to hear from you, the more you can retarget and sell to those people. But just like Marketing 101, I think a lot of people when they start businesses, let's say soap or fragrance, the first thing they think of is, oh, I got to have an Instagram account. I got to start posting. I got to start. But you know, me and you are in the tribe of work smarter and not harder. Why is it more important to figure out maybe using a quiz strategy or getting an opt-in and not rushing to create all these pretty graphics on Instagram, for example?
00:03:50 L: Oh my gosh, I have not done Instagram and I don't know how long. And I'm actually okay saying that because for a while I wasn't sure if it was a bad move or not, but I've actually continued to grow as a business owner and I've continued to make more money each year. So I actually don't feel like Instagram or social media is a priority for me and my business. And so why, that matters when I look at email marketing, email marketing is my best asset.
00:04:21 L: It's… I always say quizzes are your hardest working employee. And the reason why is because you can put it right in front of your audience, attract the lead, get their email. And now you can actually use email marketing to start to sell to them. And hands down, I have made pretty much all my money in business through email marketing alone. And if it wasn't email marketing, it has something to do with relationship marketing and tapping into referrals and your peers.
00:04:50 L: And so that's more organic. I have actually not had success using social media. I find, like, it's too time consuming and it doesn't move the needle. Specifically, when I actually got diagnosed with cancer last year. I had to realize, what is, the priorities for my business, what's the needle movers? And email marketing was definitely the one priority that I moved forward with. And that's when I stopped doing Instagram.
00:05:16 G: Yeah, yeah. And I'm so happy that you're doing well now and keep us updated on that. So I love what you said about working smarter and not harder in Instagram. It's really about owning your data. And I think in 2024, first party data, which is someone giving you their email, which you own and you can keep retargeting them is much safer and more reliable than, let's say, Instagram, because one thing happens, they can shut you down, you can get hacked, and boom, you lose everything.
00:05:45 G: So we know that email marketing is important. I want to talk about the various types of lead magnets. Lead magnets, is how do you get people on your email list? So like you said, it could be a webinar, it could be an ebook, and for you, your area of expertise that you've done so well in are quizzes. So let's talk about the quiz types. Like what types of quizzes? Is it a really big project? Is it something that requires a lot of money and effort to do it? Can anyone do a quiz?
00:06:11 L: Well, anyone can do a quiz. When I first created my first quiz, I really probably didn't have any business doing it because I didn't have a validated offer. So one of the biggest mistakes I've seen in the industry and I did it myself was creating a quiz to an offer that wasn't validated. So you don't want to attract a bunch of leads to something that nobody's going to purchase.
00:06:32 L: So one of the big mistakes that you need to consider before you create a quiz is do I have an offer that people love and then I can actually create something that's gonna send a lot of traffic that way. What quizzes do is they really build a foundation for your business and they set it up on automation where I say it's the hardest working employee because it can then start to attract the right leads. It can also share your know, like and trust factor with your nurture sequence or your welcome series.
00:07:01 L: And then later you can actually start to get to where you're selling to different individuals. You can also segment your email list so you know specifically what segments are important to you and target those for a different type of promotional activities throughout the year, different type of holiday specials, you name it, but you have more control.
00:07:24 L: And I do want to say there are a lot of people having success with Instagram and other social media platforms. And so if that’s something that feels good to you, definitely keep doing it. I always want to say there's like, you know, two sides to each coin, but I definitely feel like as a business owner, we can definitely spend a lot of time and we want to work smarter, not harder, like you mentioned. And just having some type of email marketing system in place will really be a foundation because you're not going to, you know, you're going to have to have that to work for you when you're away, when you're traveling, when you're sick, right? Or when you're just busy or when you're a parent and you want to spend time with your children, that system will do the selling for you.
00:08:08 G: Yeah. And we know from research, I mean, this is, empirical fact that when someone opts into your list, that is a much higher commitment and they're way more likely to buy from you than an Instagram follower, right? Even an Instagram follower that's engaging on your post, like that's, absolute fact. So I love what you said about that. When I think about quizzes, like are there different types of quizzes? You know, like, for example, I think about Sephora, right?
00:08:30 G: When you create any type of beauty profile, they're asking you about what types of products and what types of skincare, and do you have eczema? And I think that's so important because then they can retarget you with those products for that season. So I'm thinking, like winter. So it's so smart what they're doing. Are there different types of quizzes? Let's just talk about that. Like what are the most common types of quizzes?
00:08:51 L: Well, there's different types of quizzes. There's a scored quiz where you're trying to establish a score or a rating. There's also personality quizzes where you're trying to figure out what results are you, what persona, where are your strengths? And that's where my strengths are in it. I really focus on creating personality quizzes. Then there's also assessments. Assessments are a hundred questions long where they're really trying to assess something like the DiSC or Enneagram. Those are assessments, right? Even Myers-Briggs, I would consider as the assessment.
00:09:26 L: And then there's also e-comm quizzes, right? Where people are trying to sell a product. Matter of fact, I actually just took a quiz two days ago and I'm looking for certain stand-up paddle boards that I wanna purchase. And it was such a great quiz because it was asking me, are you a beginner? Are you advanced? And if, they kind of directed me to a stand-up paddle board that was built for my situation.
00:09:50 L: Like, do you want to have, you know, do you need extra weight? Do you not? Do you want to do it in the ocean? Do you want to do it in the lake? Like, where are you going to take it? And so it was really fascinating to me because I took this quiz and then it told me which one I should get and I'm probably going to purchase it. It's like a $500 purchase, but really fun. You can do that for your product, whether it's something as simple as a deodorant, something like a skincare, right? Where it's like what type of skin routine is best for you. And then you can also do it where it's like a standup paddleboard, which is super fun.
00:10:26 G: Yeah, I love that. And based on like, you know, like you said, what type of surfer are you or what type of runner are you, what type of skincare person they can, you can then tag them and then again, like those, offer those seasonal products. So now you talk to us about the different types of quizzes. What is, like, the easiest way to create one? Cause I'm thinking, oh my God, I don't, I don't know how to create a quiz. I don't know where to start. Like, what's the first step?
00:10:47 L: Okay. So the first step is to understand what you're offering. What are you going to drive traffic to? And then make sure that it's a validated offer that people have purchased it in the past and it's not something that's brand new. Then you want to figure out what your results are going to be. For example, if we take skincare, it could be skincare for a busy mom and skincare for somebody who wants to have a longer skincare routine. There's people out there that like, do things for a half hour at night, right? And they spend a lot of time.
00:11:18 L: For me, I kind of classify as, like a busy mom. I know that I just want to get… be efficient with my time. Tell me the three things I need to do to have anti-aging in my back pocket and let me do that every day versus spending an hour, right? So you can take these quizzes and then you do the results. So what are you trying to achieve? Like what result do you want them to have? I don't recommend more results over four unless you need to, but just keep in mind the more results you have, the more welcome series and emails that you need to have that go towards that email sequence.
00:11:58 L: And so the more results you have, the more work you're going to have on your plate. So try to keep it simple. Once you have the results done, then you know what questions to ask. So, you know, which result each person is going to go into. And then from there, you're, you can create the quiz on, you know, a platform like try Interact, involve.me. Those are two of my favorite platforms. And then you can attach it to your email marketing system with a welcome series that helps nurture them when they take your quiz.
00:12:28 L: Another big mistake I've noticed that entrepreneurs make is not having a welcome series after people take the quiz. So for example, that standup paddle board situation that I just took, I actually gave them my email address, never received anything in my inbox. No welcome email, no follow-up email, and that's a missed opportunity. And that's what the welcome series does. It's actually the magic between finding your new lead and turning them into, converting them into an actual client or customer, right?
00:13:00 L: And so there's a series of emails that you're going to want to write that says, hey, thank you for taking the quiz. This is what you can expect. Maybe here's a percentage off. Then you start talking a little bit about you and your business and credibility. Maybe you can even share your Forbes article that you were in and repurpose that content or a top podcast that you're in. And so then you start to get to the situation where you're selling to them on the emails and reminding them about the result that they got and the product or the service that you can provide to get them to where they want to go.
00:13:36 G: Ooh, I love that so much. I think this part is gold. I think anyone who's listening to this needs to rewind because you just gave us so much right there. When I think about all the things that you can do with quizzes, right? Because a lot of people think, well, maybe I should just do one of those spinny wheels of like percentage off. But what you said was so brilliant. You said, if you have a quiz, you have something, a story or something that they can latch onto, a conversation that you can have without just selling them.
00:14:00 G: And I think that if you just give them a discount code, the conversation kind of ends right there. Whereas if you do have a quiz personality, you can say, here's a little bit about you, here's how we can help you, and here's the coupon code. So you can do all those things. And I think that's so brilliant.
00:14:13 L: Another way you can use a quiz that's really fascinating, obviously you can use it as a tool on the backend. So you can have people take the quiz and then you can segment your list as well and tag them accordingly. The other thing is, is I was talking to a couple girls who do Airbnb rentals. They were clients of mine and I was telling them if you have an Airbnb, you can actually do quizzes that match people's experiences. So when they come to stay, they can take a quiz. You know, are they introverted or extroverted?
00:14:46 L: And based on their personality, you can give them personalized results on where to eat, what to do, how to make the most of their time, right? So you can be really creative in so many different ways. And that's why I think if you do a quiz right, it can really last the lifetime of your business.
00:15:03 G: Ooh, I love that so much. So just to recap really quickly, have a quiz, have no more than three or four answers and the answer should be directing them to an offer or a product. So let's walk people through this. Let's say if I make personal care items, would the four option be like, what's your self-care personality? Or like, maybe like what ingredients you like, and then each ingredient can lead to like, you know, my product that has that ingredient. Would that be a good way to think about it?
00:15:28 L: Yeah, like an easy way to think about it is like fitness, right, or skincare. Like what type of workout personality are you? Or what type of workout style suits you best, right? And based on your personality, I think the fast action takers who are really dominant task oriented, they probably thrive in, you know, a 20 minute fast paced workout every morning, right? Or maybe they like the Peloton, something that's like, fast paced.
00:15:56 L: There's other personalities that are more people oriented. Maybe they enjoy classes, right? Maybe they should do the orange theory or different, type of, classes to be around people. Then there's the personalities that they take on a lot. They make a lot of decisions and they just want some downtime when it comes to working out. So they're more interested in hiking or yoga.
00:16:17 L: And so that's like when you can divide it up based on somebody's personality. You can even do this with journaling or meditation or just anything. I mean, it's so versatile when it comes to quizzes, but yeah, give them a result based on personality or based on product. Tell them what, result they are. Attach a welcome series so you can start to build your know, like and trust factor. And then you can start selling to them, to that offer or product or service that you have.
00:16:44 G: So don't sell them the product right away, like on the end page when they get their results.
00:16:49 L: Yeah, so typically about 3% of people will take action fast. It's a very low percentage. You can have an offer on there. You could have a discount code with an offer or whatever you want to do. But more importantly, these days, people are a little bit more skeptical about what they're purchasing. And so it's going to take a little bit longer for the buyer cycle.
00:17:12 L: So typically you're gonna wanna introduce that offer a few times throughout the process to get people to purchase. The more times that you offer something, the more likely they're gonna purchase. So keep that in mind as well.
00:17:25 G: Yeah, 100%. I mean, we're so inundated with our 50 tabs open. I totally get it. You really have to not just capture the attention right away and get the email, but like keep emailing them, having some kind of story. And the quiz is a beautiful way to do that. It ties together so many narratives. Can you talk about, can you share about some of the successes you've had building quizzes for yourself and others? What kind of amazing, epic wins were you able to achieve?
00:17:51 L: A friend that we both know inside the MixerMind is Dr. Cindy Childress. She had a quiz. She helps people. She's a ghostwriter and she helps people write their books. Her quiz title is, What's Your Best Selling Author Personality? What I love about Dr. Cindy of, what she does is whenever she gets media wins, like she's featured in Business Insider or Authority Magazine, she always shares her quiz as a call to action.
00:18:19 L: So you can partner these with your media wins and you can share your quiz as a call to action. So once people see you in Forbes or they see you in Business Insider, they can then take your quiz and then be on your email list. Right. So that was a huge one. I saw. And I love that Dr. Cindy uses her quiz to do that.
00:18:39 L: Another huge win was with, and these are clients, I'd rather, like, talk about clients. Of course I've had my own wins with quizzes too, because I like to walk the walk and talk the talk. But one of the biggest success stories was with Helena Bowen. She's a TEDx speaking coach. And her quiz title was, What's Your Speaking Superpower? So people who want to speak were taking the quiz. And then they got introduced to Helena. They started to go through her welcome series, building the know, like, and trust factor.
00:19:10 L: And she was offering a speaking program. And she made $95,000 with her quiz funnel just by doing that alone. And so that was a huge success. And so she was offering the Speakeasy, which was a group coaching program. And she sold 19 out of the 20 seats. And where it kind of stemmed from was from the quiz.
00:19:31 G: Ooh, I love that so much. That's sales, that's visibility, that's know, like and trust and growing your list. I love that so much. You talked about quizzes, you talked about how long, how short they can be, how they can apply for both like an author or skincare. How do you think quizzes are changing now with, like our... Because I think about BuzzFeed, right? They have like a thousand different quizzes. So, quizzes are not novel, right? I can take a quiz anywhere. How do you make sure that people actually want to take the quiz and actually get to the end so that, you know, we can target them because there's a lot of quizzes out there.
00:20:06 L: Yeah, I think the most important thing you can do for your business is market research. Really know who is your audience, what do they identify with? And a great example of this is one time I was working with a client and she was really focusing on women over 40. She didn't want anything to do with women under 40 because her focus and where she helped people was for that certain age group. She also helped people around the midlife crisis time.
00:20:35 L: And so one thing you can do with your quiz is keep her title positive. So instead of saying something about women over 40, what's your midlife crisis identity or something, what we did was we really targeted that women over 40. And we put that right before the quiz title. So it really attracted that woman who was 40 years old or above, right? Then we said, what's your midlife advantage? So we switched it to a positive title. So people would say, oh, I'm over 40. Let me know what my advantage is.
00:21:08 L: And so that was a simple tweak of something you can do to make it positive, to have the most success. But going back to market research, you really need to know who you're serving. I mean, we wouldn't have been able to pull off that quiz title if we didn't know that the majority of our audience was over 40 and people who were struggling with a midlife crisis for her to then sell her services.
00:21:28 G: Ooh, I love that so much. Turning a negative into a positive and really calling out that demographic. I mean, I'm all about specificity. So I think that's so good. Well, this has been so awesome. I mean, I could talk to you for hours because there's so many parts to this, but I love how you made it very simple and you talked about the easy ways people can get started without being bogged down by all the tech things.
00:21:49 G: So just to recap, everyone should have a quiz. It doesn't matter what industry you're in, three to four questions, that leads to an offer. Have a welcome sequence to target them. Seasonal promos. Is there anything else you want our audience to know about quizzes and this type of strategy?
00:22:04 L: Well, they can actually use ChatGPT now to make it super easy and be efficient with their time. I've been playing around with ChatGPT and it's been super helpful, especially with brainstorming and thinking of quiz titles and coming up with good questions. The other day I was actually helping somebody. I was auditing a quiz, a friend of mine, and she sent it to me. And her quiz was, I think the title was like, what's your intuition identity? It was okay. But I looked at it immediately and I said, I think it should be the intuition identity quiz. It sounded better just by switching it to the intuition identity quiz.
00:22:42 L: And then when I was taking her questions, I realized it wasn't really on theme. She wasn't asking me anything about my intuition at all. And so I said, why don't you go to ChatGPT and see if you can have ChatGPT come up with some ideas that would be good questions that are on theme for intuition. And sure enough, just by that simple tweak, she was able to do that within seconds. And now there's continuity with their quiz from the title to the questions, to the results.
00:23:12 G: Ooh, I love it so much. So anyone that's out there saying, well, I can't do this or I don't have the tech. Boom. Linda just shattered another limiting belief. Thank you so much, Linda. You know, you do so many things. I call you, what did I call you like the cosmic connector?
00:23:24 L: I don't know. I love it though.
00:23:27 G: Or like a relationship alchemist. We talked about before this podcast, there's so many buckets of things you can talk about from quizzes to relationship marketing. But today we focus on quizzes. But I just want people to know that you are highly intuitive. The way that you make everyone feel included and invited to the table is really a talent that you have. And that's why you have the community that you do. So I encourage everyone to check her out. She also created the MixerMind, which is a peer networking. I want to say like, community of just heart-centered mission-driven entrepreneurs who are doing amazing things. How can people find you and learn more about you?
00:24:03 L: Yeah. Well, if you're interested in taking my quiz that can help you discover your own quiz to cash funnel, I have a quiz available called Discover Your Quiz-to-Cash Strategy. And you can take that. Of course, we'll link it. And then that way you can get on my email list. You can learn more about quizzes. I offer fun workshops. I offer programs to help with you if you want to create a quiz.
00:24:29 L: And then if you're interested in following me, you can also find me on, I am Linda Sidhu on Instagram. Or I still have a Facebook group. I feel like that's aging me to say that now. But Super Connected is the Facebook group where you can hang out with about 3,000 entrepreneurs that are doing the same thing. It's also, community online as well.
00:24:51 G: Yay, thank you so much, Linda. And for all that you do, and I think we're just gonna have to have you back to talk about the relationship marketing piece, but this quiz thing has all of us buzzing. I need to, you know, I had so many quizzes that I actually started that I never finished. And I think this was just the push I needed to stop overthinking it and just create a quiz already. So thank you for that.
00:25:12 L: Absolutely. I think it'll be brilliant. You always have me here to lean on if you have any questions or concerns, because I'll be rooting you on for that, Gloria.
00:25:20 G: Thank you, Linda. Appreciate you.
00:25:24 G: Hey, small business hero, did you know that you can get featured for free on outlets like Forbes, the New York Times, Marie Claire, PopSugar, and so many more, even if you're not yet launched or if you don't have any connections? That's right. That's why I invite you to watch my PR Secrets Masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought after industry expert.
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