How Jenna Kutcher Built a 7-Figure Business with Her Online Quiz

You may have heard marketers talk about how “the money is in the list,” but how do you entice people to sign up for your email list in the first place? 

In order to make more sales and generate more leads, you need to have a compelling reason for someone to give you their most prized online possession: their email address. 

Once you unlock access to their inbox, you can communicate with them at any point without worrying about pesky social media algorithms getting in the way. Sounds like a dream, right?

So how do you attract the right people and get them to join your email list community in a way that feels natural and value-driven?

By launching your first online quiz!

That’s exactly what Jenna Kutcher, the savvy entrepreneur behind the multi-million dollar empire. Since Jenna generates most of her profits from her email list, having the right lead magnets and list building strategies is her top priority. 

Her most effective list building strategy to date? Using her Interact quiz as the main entry point into her wildly successful personal brand. 

An interview with Jenna Kutcher about her successful online quiz

Since Jenna Kutcher is pretty much a household name in the world of online entrepreneurship, you may already know a bit of her story. We’ll give you the CliffNotes version. 

Jenna started a photography business after purchasing a $300 camera on Craigslist. What started as a way to explore her passions outside of her monotonous nine-to-five day job became a six-figure wedding and portrait photography business in a few short years. 

After teaching her audience of photographers how to grow their own businesses by utilizing social media and email marketing, she widened her audience to creative entrepreneurs and became a full-time online marketing educator

Since then, she has created a multi-million dollar personal brand that allows her to use her influence and relatability to generate serious profit from her online shop, online courses, brand sponsorships, affiliate marketing, and more. 

You might know her as the girl who unashamedly loves mac-and-cheese, midday naps, and wearing yoga pants, but she’s more than that. She’s a total boss at generating leads with email opt-ins, and her most successful opt-in ever has been her Interact quiz!

In this interview, we ask Jenna: 

  • what the “secret sauce” behind her successful quiz is
  • why she loves using an Interact quiz as her main opt-in
  • what benefits she sees in using a quiz to build email lists
  • what came as the biggest surprise after launching her quiz
  • what advice she would give first-time quiz creators 

To be the best, we have to learn from the best. 

Get your notepad ready so you can jot down some golden nuggets of wisdom Jenna Kutcher shared during our interview. 

Q: So Jenna, when you created your first online quiz, what were your goals? 

My goals with the Secret Sauce quiz were twofold. I wanted to create a fun email opt-in but also to use the quiz to segment my email list. 

Since I went from being a photographer to an online marketer, I use the quiz to help me understand what my audience is struggling with and where they’re at in their journey. Then I put them into buckets in order to serve them WAY more intentionally. 

Key Takeaways: Think about your audience segmentation strategy before you create your quiz. Jenna Kutcher knew that her audience was made up of photographers, other wedding professionals, and a larger group of creative entrepreneurs who want to learn from her. By understanding who is in her audience, she has been able to create a quiz that determines which “bucket” (or subgroup) each audience member falls into depending on how the answer business-related questions. You can do the same with your own audience!

Q: Why do you think online quizzes work so well as email opt-ins? 

Well, since my own email list is growing by 5,000 subscribers each and every week, I can confidently say that having a fun quiz plays a big role in generating these kind of numbers. My quiz has also been one of the biggest contributors in increasing my unpaid email list growth, which I love

Quizzes work because they are interactive and engaging which attracts your website visitors, especially those who are landing on your site for the first time. Instead of just handing over their email address for a download, visitors are able to interact with the quiz by answering thought-provoking or entertaining questions. It’s a LOT more fun, too!

Also, quiz results are personalized to each person’s unique situation. People want to know about themselves, so a quiz with personalized results can deliver information that helps them uncover who they really are. It doesn’t hurt that New York Times and Buzzfeed say that quizzes are their top viewed content. 

Key Takeaways: Quizzes are one of the best ways to turn a passive visitor into an active participant on your website. As your audience members interact with your quiz, it heightens their engagement with your brand, making the whole experience more memorable than other lead magnet downloads. When you write quiz results, try to keep it between three to five personalities so you don’t overcomplicate your audience’s self-discovery process. 

Q: Okay, give us the inside scoop: what surprised you most after launching your quiz? 

Probably how big of an attraction my online quiz has become! The quiz is our main email opt-in now because it is such a fun and easy entry point into the brand. 

It helps people get to know my brand better and we get to send recommended content based on their action responses that is going to help them right from the beginning. 

Key Takeaways: We love that this quiz has become Jenna Kutcher’s main email opt-in! You have so much creative freedom to make your quiz your own. Think about it more as a friendly entry point into your brand, as Jenna calls it. If someone was going to learn about your brand for the first time, what would you want them to know? Make sure that is included in your quiz. Also, if you want to take a page from Jenna’s book, try incorporating personalized resource recommendations into your quiz results or follow-up quiz email sequence. It will help you make a stronger connection with your audience. 

Q: What was the secret sauce behind your online quiz? 

The quiz just fits me so well! 

Also, people are really curious and want to know what makes them stand out. If I’ve learned anything as an entrepreneur, it’s that we can sometimes feel like imposters or that we have nothing of value to add. 

What makes my quiz such a hit is that it’s a fun way to discover that no matter where you are, who you are, and what you do, you have something of value to add to the world today

People are looking for affirmation that they are enough and capable, so I feel that my quiz gives them that permission in a super fun and laid-back way while also giving them the tools they need to move forward.

via GIPHY

Key Takeaways: Jenna nailed it with her thoughts on why her quiz is so successful. By writing your quiz in a fun, light-hearted, and positive way, you’re able to inspire and motivate your audience to become all they can be. This kind of affirmation will help them build trust with you and solidify that you are the person they want to work with or learn from. You can put an extra emphasis on this when you write your quiz results. Keep these personality descriptions to three or four sentences, unless you do a long-form custom landing page for each quiz result like Jenna did here. 

Q: Last question! What advice would you give first-time online quiz creators?

First off, write your quiz is a super fun way! Make sure it is light-hearted but have intention behind what you say and do. 

I recommend creating a quiz that is 10 questions long with two to three questions that will help you serve your people better, whether that’s figuring out what stage they are in, what their goals are, or what their struggles are.

quiz question on why did you decide to do the work you're doing now with four answer from Jenna Kutcher quiz
quiz question What parts of building an online business do you wish you knew more about

Fun, personality-driven quiz questions:

Quiz question about personality sauce with answer choices
Quiz questions what's your theme song with answer choices

Give your audience a few intentional questions that allow you to put them into different buckets and serve them in a more specific way. The quiz is just the entry point; then it’s up to you to do the work to prove that you are worthy of their email address. 

You know me, I’m obsessed with email list building! It’s one of the biggest things in my business and what I teach on, so having an Interact quiz as an email opt-in is a really fun way to have an interactive opportunity for people to engage with your brand and discover something new about themselves. 

Key Takeaways: By aiding in your audience’s self-discovery process, you make a lasting connection with them that you can then nurture through follow-up emails, just like Jenna Kutcher has done with her email subscribers. We echo Jenna’s recommendations on how to write your quiz. As you come up with possible answers for your quiz, try to connect each answer with a specific quiz result. This will make it easier to set up your quiz logic when you’re inside the Interact platform. You’ve got this!

What we love about Jenna Kutcher’s online quiz

When you take a deep dive into Jenna’s What’s Your Secret Sauce? quiz, you may notice how much thought and intention went into it. You don’t want to miss out on understanding the high-level strategy she put into creating her successful quiz. 

It’s one thing to write a fun quiz that creates an enjoyable experience for your quiz takers. It’s another thing to build a whole lead generation system that runs on autopilot and helps you sell more digital products. That’s why we’re so impressed with Jenna’s example!

We’re going to break down exactly why Jenna’s quiz has been so successful so you can use similar strategies that will work for your own personality quiz

She wrote her online quiz in a fun, engaging way 

Jenna mentioned this in her interview but it bears repeating. If you don’t lead with the positives of each quiz result, people may walk away being more aware of their weaknesses rather than their strengths. 

We recommend writing your online quiz in a fun and light-hearted way, even if you are covering more serious topics. Stay true to your brand voice and remember that you don’t have to force humor in order to create a memorable quiz. Use wit where it fits. (Hey, that rhymes!)

She went above and beyond with quiz result landing pages 

Most quiz creators will write three to four sentences about their quiz results, but Jenna wanted to create a highly tailored web experience when delivering her quiz results. She did this by designing custom quiz landing pages for each quiz personality.

Standard Quiz
Example
Custom Quiz Landing Page
Example
standard quiz results with title, image, and paragraphcustom results page that says The results are in

When you use a landing page, you have more room to explain what each quiz result’s traits, attributes, struggles, and strengths are. This is your moment to build trust with your audience by digging deeper into who they are and what recommendations can take their business (or another area of their life) to the next level. See Jenna’s quiz landing page in action here

Along with including an extended personality description of each quiz result, Jenna also includes a curated list of episodes from her Goal Digger podcast. By understanding what her audience wants to learn most about, she can tailor her podcast recommendations to their quiz responses. Also, isn’t the design swoon-worthy? We love it!

Podcast episode recommendations with Empire Maker quiz results
Create a curated list of resource recommendations for each result

She also includes blog post and product recommendations in her follow-up email sequence for each quiz personality, but we love how she also incorporates some recommendations right in her landing page inside her Showit website

You can do the same thing by creating custom landing pages for each of your quiz results. This will heighten the value of your quiz and give your audience a more well-rounded quiz experience. To see more examples of quiz result landing pages, check out these two from copywriter Chanteuse Marie and website designer Jen from TONIC Site Shop 

She promotes her quiz in multiple places

It’s pretty common to see entrepreneurs highlight their quiz on their homepage, but that’s only the beginning. There are so many other ways you can promote your online quiz, and Jenna is making the most of each platform she uses. 

When you visit her homepage, you’ll notice that she uses an announcement bar at the top of her website to point visitors toward the Secret Sauce quiz. Her quiz is also embedded right underneath her personal intro copy on the site. 

Using SEO magic tricks (okay, more like proven SEO tactics but “magic tricks” sounds more fun!) on Pinterest and Google, Jenna attracts thousands of readers each day to her blog. With an overflowing archive of blog content, she uses her blog to highlight the quiz since it is her main lead magnet. See it in action here

By introducing her Secret Sauce quiz in the top banner, her audience is able to take the quiz even if they click on an individual blog post. If Jenna only mentioned the quiz on her homepage, many of her blog readers would miss their chance to take the quiz. 

Did you also notice that the soft blue background and hand-written typography match the look on her homepage? This is done intentionally so her audience is able to immediately recognize her quiz. You can create consistency by using the same colors, fonts, and imagery when you mention your own quiz. 

Want to go even beyond your website? You can also promote your online quiz on social media. As a social media influencer, you can probably guess that Jenna Kutcher is already a boss at this. Don’t forget to share mentions of your quiz on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and anywhere else you are building an engaged audience. 

Now you have plenty of ideas for how to attract more people to take your online quiz. 

Once you launch your quiz, you’ll have multiple opportunities to talk about it on different platforms. Don’t think that posting about it once is enough! Create a consistent social media calendar that helps you stay on top of promoting your quiz. 

Build an Interact and start generating leads like Jenna Kutcher

Think you have what it takes to create a successful online quiz? We know you do!

You can take strategies from influencers like Jenna Kutcher and tweak them to fit your quiz topic. It doesn’t matter what niche or industry you’re in; you can build a personality quiz that helps you generate more leads and make sales while you sleep (since napping is one of Jenna’s favorite pastimes!). 

When you’re ready to build your own online quiz, here are your next steps:

  1. Decide on a quiz topic
  2. Design your quiz to match your brand style
  3. Create interesting quiz questions
  4. Write engaging personality results
  5. Create the logic of your personality quiz
  6. Set up your quiz to grow your email list
  7. Promote your quiz on your website and social media

Easy enough, right? 

Click here for a full step-by-step guide on launching your first quiz

Then, when you’re ready, create your quiz by signing up for an Interact quiz account

We can’t wait to see what you create!

Kayla Hollatz

Kayla Hollatz is a copywriter and website strategist for entrepreneurs and content creators who want their words to connect and convert. Few things make her happier than ghostwriting for her clients or dreaming up her next conversion experiment in her studio, aka a three-season porch with a lake view.

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