Ashley Beaudin’s Guide to Generating 3k+ Leads in 1 Week with a Quiz

The most successful quizzes are usually fun and entertaining, often featuring well-known pop culture references and the hottest trends. So, where does this leave quizzes on more serious topics? Are they destined to be drab and boring?

Not at all! Sometimes a more serious topic can help you connect even better with your audience, and no one does that better than Interact quiz creator Ashley Beaudin.

As a self-sabotage coach and trauma-informed educator, Ashley is no stranger to talking about heavy topics. 

Inspiring an audience to be vulnerable isn’t easy, but through Ashley’s genuine community-building efforts and encouraging voice, many of her followers have found healing and reached new levels of personal growth after taking her quiz.

Along with receiving dozens of positive emails from her community, the results from her quiz launch have been astounding.

In her first week, Ashley generated 3,454 leads from her quiz! 

Although she set tiered goals ahead of time, she surpassed them all with this quiz.

She also generated $7,000 in membership sales from a webinar that was exclusively available through the quiz. Since this was from her first launch, the sky’s the limit for all future membership launches!

Do you want to learn exactly how she did it? Ashley tells all in this interview!

An interview with self-sabotage coach Ashley Beaudin 

If you have considered creating a personality quiz but want to cover a serious topic, you can still do it successfully. It requires a different strategy than a typical Buzzfeed-style quiz, but there are plenty of ways you can infuse fun and joy into your quiz.

We spoke with Ashley about how to go about writing a quiz that’s delightful and incredibly transformational for any audience. You might want to take notes. This advice is too good to miss!

What inspired you to start your quiz? How much did you know about quizzes before you got started?

Quizzes have always been something I’ve really loved, ever since I was a girl reading teen magazines and discovering my newest crush. I have always loved how quizzes can be such a revelatory experience, the kind that make you go “My gosh! Someone gets me!” I knew a quiz would be a powerful tool for my audience and my brand.

Because I really wanted the quiz to be helpful and effective, it took me a while to execute it. This wasn’t to say that the process of quiz-making was laborious, but I took my time because I wanted the concept to be truly effective.

When I discovered the work of helping people heal their self-sabotage, I knew that a quiz would be the perfect way to introduce people to that work.

Key Takeaway: Before you create your quiz, think about what you like about quizzes you’ve taken. Did they help you learn more about yourself? Were they educational or entertaining? Did the quiz help you accomplish a new goal or see things from a new perspective? No matter how you answer these questions, you’ll be able to discover which elements you connect with and which ones your audience will love, too. Focus on ways to make your quiz as effective as possible, rather than on the amount of time it will take to create it.

What were your main goals with the quiz? What did “success” look like to you?

First, I knew that the quiz had to be helpful. 

I didn’t want to just throw something together that was patchy and loose-fitting. I wanted people to feel deeply seen when they read their results. I started getting emails from people who said they felt understood after taking the quiz, and that’s when I felt truly successful. I realized my quiz was a supportive tool—so much more than just a lead magnet.

From a strategy perspective, my initial goal for the quiz was for it to be the beginning of a mini-funnel into my The Heart Haven membership launch. I set minimum, desired, stretch, and “this-is-crazy” goals for how many people I wanted to take the quiz in the first week.

From the quiz, I led them to a webinar sign-up, and through that webinar sign-up, I personally invited them into my membership. Because of this, success looked like high numbers, which I hit extraordinarily quickly.

Key Takeaway: Think about the role you want your quiz to have before you start creating quiz content. Is it a supportive tool like Ashley’s quiz, or is it simply meant to entertain? What offerings do you want to introduce or sell through the quiz? Do you want it to lead to a webinar like Ashley’s quiz, an email course, or something else entirely? It’s completely up to you! When you think about the “why” behind creating your quiz, you’ll be able to create an insightful customer journey that’s integrated with the rest of your marketing and sales strategies.

How was your experience with connecting your email marketing strategy on Flodesk with your Interact quiz? 

For the most part, it was fairly smooth-sailing connecting my email marketing on Flodesk with my Interact quiz. They are both such visual platforms that they really complement one another in the process, which I love from a branding perspective.

Because there is currently no direct integration, I used Zapier to connect Flodesk and Interact. When I had sort of a micro-viral moment when I published my quiz, I kept hitting my Zapier limits. That meant in the first month, I had to increase my plan four times to accommodate, but that’s something I had absolutely no problem with because the success felt pretty sweet. Since then, the numbers have grown steadily, so I’ve been able to keep my Zapier plan at the same rate each month.

Key Takeaway: Investing time (or money) in growing your email list is worth it! Email subscribers are considered 15 times more valuable than social media followers because of their willingness to convert on your offers. It’s a no-brainer. Growing your business with quizzes starts with creating a great email marketing strategy and using a powerful email service provider. If you want to use a cutting-edge visual email builder while growing your list with Interact quizzes like Ashley, click here to sign up for a free trial of Flodesk!

How did you decide on a quiz topic or theme for your audience?

Because my work is super-focused on helping people heal their self-sabotage, I knew right away that the quiz would need to be on the same topic. That was absolutely a no-brainer for me since that’s the major pain point of my audience.

I thought if I could help them with the first step of self-awareness by identifying their self-sabotage type through the quiz, we could embark on an incredible journey together. I chose to include different quiz questions that helped my audience look at self-sabotage in a new way, like the ones below.

Through my coaching work with clients, I’ve seen recurring patterns on how self-sabotage shows up for people, which empowered me to begin drafting the eight types of self-sabotage that would then become the quiz results.

Key Takeaway: Through a quiz, you can offer a valuable solution to your audience’s main pain point. Take a moment to consider who your ideal client or customer is and what they are currently struggling with. Then, dig deeper by asking yourself why this may be a problem and how it could be affecting their lives, careers, or business. The more you discover, the more helpful your quiz will be.  To take it one step further, you could ask past clients or customers what their life looked like before working with you (or buying from you) and what it looks like after. Hearing these transformational stories can help you strengthen your quiz content strategy.

Your quiz deals with a serious topic. How did you find ways to inject positivity and fun into your quiz?

It was so important that my quiz had an infusion of fun in it. I knew it had the potential to feel super heavy, and that’s not the experience I wanted my community to have.

I wanted people to leave with a sense of empowerment rather than feeling like I just told them all the reasons they’re broken. I wanted to really drive this point home before they even began the quiz so they could see that self-sabotage isn’t a bad thing. It’s simply a way to understand how we try to keep ourselves safe. If my audience could go into the quiz with this perspective, they would already feel believed in rather than ashamed.

In the actual quiz content, I sprinkled in several fun questions with image answers such as “what kind of fruit are you?” or “what is your fave thing to buy?” as I knew those would be light-hearted and easy for people to answer.

Key Takeaway: If you’re worried about creating a quiz with a serious topic, follow Ashey’s lead! She did a fantastic job of bringing fun to a topic that often is associated with shame and guilt. We’re really impressed with the tone of her quiz. If you are planning to create a personality quiz with a serious topic, think about the ways you can infuse fun into your questions, answers, and results. After all, the best quizzes are written in a positive and hopeful way, and Ashley’s quiz is a great example of how to do this well.

Your quiz features eight main self-sabotage types. What did you like about creating eight different quiz results? What was challenging about it?

What I loved about having eight types is that I could get super specific about how each type works instead of feeling like I had to group them together to create fewer types. The benefit of this is when people read their type, it feels so tailored to them that they know I’m talking right to them.

Also, having varied responses in eight types is amazing for social sharing! When people share their results with their friends, there are multiple end-points, which adds versatility to the conversation as people share about what they received.

Of course, the most challenging thing about having eight types was the amount of work it took to build out that many archetypes with questions and profiles for each, as well as quiz result landing pages. But for me, the amount of work was a thousand percent worth it.

Key Takeaway: While we typically recommend choosing three to five personality quiz types, you have the freedom to choose however many fit your needs. For Ashley, it was eight, but she understood how much extra work she was taking on by choosing more archetypes. Consider how in-depth you want your quiz results to be and what you have the bandwidth for.

Your quiz really stands out because of its imagery! How did you incorporate your visual branding throughout your quiz?

Branding and visuals are super important to me in everything I do because I’m so passionate about creating immersive experiences. I knew my quiz would be no exception.

I incorporated my visual brand in the quiz landing page, result pages for each of the eight types (like this one from The Shamer type), the type guide quiz-takers received, the promotional assets that I shared with quiz-takers, and the quiz itself. It shows up everywhere!

Key Takeaway: When you design your quiz, make sure it fits your visual branding! Represent your brand as you create custom quiz graphics, with personal brand headshots, or with consistent fonts and colors. It’s best to determine your visual branding guidelines before you start designing your quiz. This will make your quiz memorable and your brand easily recognizable.

How did you make the quiz special for each person’s result?

When I was laying out the eight archetypes, I first thought about the patterns I noticed in my clients and customers, which originally left me with ten results. 

I mapped out a few things in each pattern: how it shows up, the effects it has on that individual’s life, the personal history or trauma that has formed their self-sabotage, and the gift of their type. In doing that, I ended up cutting two types as they seemed to simply be expressions of the solid eighth type.

After this, I connected each of the types to the types of the Enneagram to give me more information and help me get even more specific on things like personality. This really helped inform a lot of the questions and made the results feel specific and detailed.

Key Takeaway: Did you realize you can use other personality assessments and tests that already exist to influence your quiz results? That’s exactly what Ashley did with the Enneagram. Another example is from Interact quiz creator Kaye Putnam, who created a quiz based on twelve archetypes from the popular book The Hero and the Outlaw. Don’t be afraid to take inspiration from other quizzes and resources, but make sure the final results uniquely fit your brand and audience.

What happened after launching your quiz, and did anything surprising happen?

I was absolutely blown away by what happened after I launched my quiz. I had written down that I hoped 200 people would take my quiz in its first week.

Instead, by the end of the first week, I had 3,471 people complete my quiz with 3,454 leads, and I converted over 600 people to my webinar series!

Those numbers were higher than my “this is crazy!” goals. It was honestly overwhelming and encouraging to see how much work I had put into it and how much it was paying off. I ended up tripling my email list by the end of that week and it has continued to grow.

I was also so surprised by how emotional the experience would be for people. Some people told me that they had never felt so seen in their entire life. People who could finally identify emotions and experiences that were ready to be healed. People who had major “ah-ha” moments and self-discoveries they weren’t expecting to receive from a quiz. 

I think having that level of impact with the quiz is what really affected me.

Key Takeaway: It’s important to track your quiz analytics to understand how it is performing over time, but don’t get too caught up in the numbers. Instead, look at the data and determine what it’s telling you about your audience’s preferences, traits, and motivations. Look at the anecdotal evidence that comes from more people taking your quiz. Encourage your audience to share how your quiz has impacted them with you through email or DMs on social media. These stories can be incredibly beneficial as you refine your offers and create more content for them.

Your quiz has been a huge hit! Why do you think it has caught so much attention?

I think the quiz caught a lot of attention for a few different reasons.

One reason is the quiz was based on an emotional topic that can often be filled with so much shame. Creating a quiz that reframes the concept of self-sabotage led to a very powerful experience for most people.

The second reason is that I mixed a giveaway with a tiny influencer marketing campaign, which helped me get the word out fast in a contained amount of time. It created that sort of viral effect where the quiz is everywhere and people are asking “OMG! DID YOU TAKE IT YET?” Hands down, that was one of the best things I could have done.

My quiz was also focused on becoming a transformational, supportive tool with real impact. There’s so much service that can happen in a quiz. You’re not just leading someone somewhere; you’re also offering them a moment of awareness, transformation, or hope.

Key Takeaway: Attention is something you earn, not something that can be manufactured. Winning someone’s attention isn’t necessarily about creating the most flashy quiz but rather offering immense value in a whole new way. Think about Ashley’s unique approach to quiz building and consider what resources might give your audience the most value. Whatever it is, highlight it in your quiz!

You did an awesome job of promoting the quiz on social media! Can you give us tips?

My quiz had a micro-viral moment because of my social media presence and the use of a tiny influencer marketing campaign sharing the quiz. 

I did that by doing three things:

First, I created a giveaway in the announcement of my quiz for a weighted blanket (something my ideal audience would love!) and told people to tag friends in the comments. I also promoted that post on Instagram in a very budget-friendly way (under $75!) but it helped get the quiz in front of people. One of the requirements for the giveaway was to share the results on Instagram stories, so hundreds of stories went out in that initial launch.

Then, I invited between 20 to 30 influencer friends—who already had existing audiences interested in healing and personal developments—to share the quiz during the week of the initial launch. This led me to gain over 300 new Instagram followers.

I also created promotional graphics in a sharing kit that people could download to easily share whether they had just taken the quiz or if they were a part of my influencer campaign. My main focus was on keeping my brand aesthetics and encouraging people to share the quiz as a supportive tool.

Pre-made Instagram graphics from her sharing kit

Key Takeaway: Don’t promote your quiz only once and let it sit on your site collecting dust! Use marketing strategies like Ashley to promote your quiz on social media and beyond. Think about what social media platforms your audience likes to hang out on and how you can create attention-grabbing imagery and copy about your quiz. This is your time to get creative and experiment with new ideas!

What advice would you give other content creators who want to make their own quiz from scratch?

First of all, just do it! This quiz has been the highest-performing lead magnet I’ve ever created for my business, especially in such a short time period. It is absolutely worth the time, energy, creativity, and work since it can help you build an audience you ultimately get to serve. That’s powerful!

I would also say to look at how you can make your quiz a tool or experience! Think about how you can make quiz-takers feel like they just spent time with you, and then know how much you can help them. Using the values and culture of your brand, decide how you want your quiz to be implemented into the journey or lifestyle of those who take the quiz.

I highly encourage creating a quiz launch and using a tiny influencer campaign as it can create that viral effect that will give you insane results as long as you align with people whose audiences are full of the exact people you want to serve.

Create a personality quiz like Ashley Beaudin

While Ashley may have been surprised by how successful her quiz was from the get-go, it clearly didn’t happen by accident! From community-focused social media campaigns to extended quiz result landing pages to beautifully branded graphics, this quiz had everything going for it. 

We’re thankful for all of Ashley’s advice on quiz building. If you want to make your own personality quiz, here are a few resources to help you get started after you sign up for a free Interact account:

• Everything You Need to Know to Launch Your First Quiz
• How to Create Customer Personas
• 20 Personality Questions to Ask For Your Business
• Exactly How to Write Questions and Answers
• Your Complete Guide to Quiz Design

Happy creating!