How to Ask Effective Quiz Questions

You know that feeling when you’re deep in a conversation with a close friend? When it feels as though time slows down, and you’re left feeling totally seen, heard, and valued? 

Yep, those are the moments to hang on to in life. Those conversations are the ones worth having. 

That’s the energy you want to create when building an effective quiz. Like you’re having a deep and engaging conversation with your best pal. 

When you’re really listening to someone, you’re wholly invested in the conversation. You ask questions that spark deeper thinking, and you care about helping that person see themselves more clearly. 

One of the best ways to create this quality within a quiz is by asking effective questions. Asking better questions is a key ingredient to understanding your audience, building that “know, like, and trust” with your customers, and inspiring them to buy your products or services. 

In this article, I’ll share top tips for asking better quiz questions. 

I’ll cover: 

• How to connect to your audience 
• The importance of scenario-based questions 
• How to keep it real 
• Hot tips on writing better questions

Let’s get into it, shall we?! 

Your questions are the building blocks to creating an exceptional quiz. They’re there to make your audience feel connected, engaged, and valued. Just like a deep 1:1 conversation, your quiz questions should make your audience feel seen and understood. 

So, how do you do that? Start by connecting with your audience! 

How to connect with your audience 

If someone is carving out valuable time to take your quiz, chances are they are hoping to learn something meaningful about themselves. So, instead of jumping right in to sell your product or service (that will come later), make a point to really engage with your audience first. Create quiz questions that put them front and center. 

How do you do it? 

Direct each one of your quiz questions toward the actual person answering them. The common tendency is to steam-roll an audience by jumping right to information-gathering questions. I’m talking questions like: 

• What’s your budget? 
• What’s your age demographic? 
• How much are you looking to invest in these services? 

Catch my drift? 

Don’t get me wrong: gathering zero-party data is an important aspect of creating a quiz, but it’s best to leave those types of questions until closer to the end.

As Josh explains in the video below, your questions should be written for the person answering them. This will build rapport with your audience and make them more likely to purchase your products or services—not because they are being pitched to, but because they genuinely appreciate you as a brand. 

The bottom line? When you give your audience what they actually want, you’re more likely to get what you want: higher sales, more leads, etc. 

Besides, questions that make us feel understood are just more enjoyable to answer! Who doesn’t love a little self-indulgence in the name of learning?! 

Below are examples of questions written with an audience in mind: 

• How would your best friend describe your personality? 
• When do you feel most like yourself? 
• What challenge are you currently facing with your diet? 
• Why did you become a teacher?

Remember, though—and this is important—while your questions should focus on your audience, they should also be specific toward the people you can actually help with your product or service. 

Next, let’s look at the importance of scenario-based questions…

The importance of scenario-based questions 

One thing’s for sure: understanding your audience isn’t an overnight thing. It takes time, consistent effort, and a willingness to re-think how you communicate with them. 

Scenario-based questions are beneficial because they allow the audience to respond to a real-life situation. Think about it—if you had a brick-and-mortar business, and a customer walked in with a problem, you would probably ask them questions about their specific problem.

Am I right?!

Asking a question in the same way you would in real life will help your audience feel heard. It sends a message that says, Hey, I understand you, and that you’re willing to dig deeper to learn about their pain points. 

At the end of the day, your goal is to help your audience by recommending the right product or service—so it’s important that you really understand what they need! 

Remember to keep it real

Okay, by now you know that asking effective questions means you’ve got to know your audience. You know to ask situational, real-life questions. What’s next? 

An essential part of asking effective quiz questions is to keep it oh-so real with your audience! 

There is so much content floating around out there in the digital marketing world. It seems like someone is telling you what you “should” be doing for your business everywhere you look. Whether it’s another platform to subscribe to, the next reels trend you need to get on top of, or some course you better take if you want to succeed. 

It’s important to separate yourself from the “noise,” from the endless stream of digital marketing propaganda. The best way to do that is by keeping it simple and keeping it real. 

Authenticity is contagious and almost always attracts the right people at the right time. Your audience is more likely to connect seamlessly with your brand (and your quiz) if they feel like they’re engaging with a real person. 

When creating questions, write them in a way that’s simple, concise, and authentic to how you do business. This can look like: 

• Asking a direct question that addresses a problem your audience can relate to. 
• Using as little “jargon” or formal language as possible. Remember, less is more.
• Asking a question in the same way you would ask your best friend. Keep it real.
• Apply “the tipsy rule,” which you can learn about here. The tipsy rule is all about taking the edge off. You know that feeling at happy hour when you can just kick back with your friends? The same rule applies here. Ask a question from a relaxed and casual place to keep your audience engaged. 

Hot tips for writing effective quiz questions 

All right, so you’ve done the research, and now you’re equipped with the know-how to create better quiz questions. It’s time to put it into action! 

Remember: writing a quiz is a process that takes time to fine-tune before you get it to that “just right” place. 

When writing your quiz questions, keep these hot tips in mind: 

• Write your results first. Your quiz questions will flow more effortlessly from your results page. Spend time clarifying those categories and then write your correlating questions based on them. Once you’ve got that dialed, remember to correlate your questions to their corresponding result!

• Keep your quiz to about 5 to 10 questions. Your quiz shouldn’t take longer than two minutes to complete; make sure your questions are short and to the point. You’ll also want to ensure there’s a mix of situational questions, segmentation questions to gather data, and a couple of questions just for fun! Learn more about writing questions by checking out The Quiz Course
• Lean on The Quiz Collective for support! The Quiz Collective is a free community for Interact members with all the resources and support you need to make your quiz great. Not sure how your questions are landing? Drop your quiz into the feedback channel to get in-the-moment feedback from other community members and quiz experts. 

Don’t overthink it. Your quiz is an evolution; you don’t have to get it perfect on the first try! You’ll have plenty of time to gather feedback and refine it along the way. We love living by the motto, Done is better than perfect, so try to relax and let it be easy.