How Sibila Ribeiro’s Quiz Generated 14,000 Leads in 18 Months

Q&A with Sibila Ribeiro

What inspired you to create your quiz?

I knew quizzes were a powerful tool and could help me accomplish exactly what I had in mind. As a visual branding designer who wanted to sell a DIY-friendly design course, I wanted to give my quiz-takers mind-blowing value from the very beginning until the very end.

My first step was to put everything into a Google Doc so I could organize my thoughts and ideas. There are a ton of benefits and possible goals when you’re building a quiz as a course creator, but when I decided to create my own, I focused on five, in this exact order:

1. Generate leads on autopilot to grow my list 
2. Build trust by sharing my teaching style and personality
3. Educate my leads before I sell my signature course
4. Segment and position my email list for current and future offers
5. Make it unforgettable

To achieve these goals, I made a few decisions early on. 

1. To generate leads on autopilot, I needed to embrace Pinterest and ads. Most of my audience organically comes from Pinterest, so it made sense to focus there. 
2. To share my teaching style (and build trust), I needed to use my voice and personality as well as create a kick-ass email sequence.
3. To educate my leads, I needed to use storytelling in my questions and answers.
4. To segment and position my list, I needed to add a few extra questions that weren’t related to the results. This would give me powerful data to use later.

Once the goals and features were set, it was easy to search for and settle on Interact. Interact’s features allowed me to create the exact quiz I had envisioned.

Key Takeaway: Don’t rush the goal setting process! Before you build your quiz, consider what your main goals are and put them in a prioritized list like Sibila. This way, you can monitor your quiz growth and see how well it’s performing over time.

As a designer, you can only work with a select number of clients, but over 20,000 people have taken your quiz. How does it help you with your work?

I created my quiz specifically as a launchpad, or the “invisible bridge,” to my online course, Rock Your Website. 

I’m actually slowly stepping away from one-on-one clients and providing more programs, workshops, and templates for new and seasoned entrepreneurs. It brings me a lot more joy, and my quiz has allowed me to make this more of a reality. 

The ROI from my quiz has been amazing! The quiz has helped me generate an additional $30,000 in revenue in one year. I’m still in shock!

Key Takeaway: Take a moment to think about what your long-term goals are. Are you hoping to step away from one-on-one work like Sibila? Or add more passive income to your business? Do you want to become more selective in your client work or work only on a few large projects each year? No matter what your goals are, you can strategically use a quiz to position yourself to successfully accomplish these goals.

We’re so impressed with your main quiz landing page! What made you decide to create one instead of simply embedding your quiz?

There were two main reasons for creating the main quiz landing page.

The first reason was to create a pleasant experience from the very beginning, while also convincing the visitor to take the quiz and provide their email at the end to get the PDF guide. More leads? Yes, please!

The second was mainly for SEO purposes. I did research on quizzes before I created mine, and while navigating Google result pages, I quickly realized that my landing page could come up when people searched for keywords like “brand style,” “branding,” “color palettes,” and “font combinations.”

Key Takeaway: Are you hoping to optimize your quiz so it can be found in search engines like Google? If so, you may want to follow Sibila’s strategy. First, do some keyword research to determine which ones are the best fit for your niche.  Then, narrow it down to one specific keyword (like “brand style” for Sibila) that you can target with your main quiz landing page while weaving in some of your secondary keywords (like “color palettes” or “branding”). Monitor your progress with these keywords over time by keeping an eye on your Google Analytics dashboard.

You do a great job of telling a story through your quiz. What kind of intentional decisions did you make when creating its content?

We get emotionally involved with a good story. We want to participate and know what’s going to happen next. Since one of my goals was to blow my quiz-takers’ minds and connect with them, there was nothing better than taking them through the story of thoughtfully creating their own business.

I also believed that connecting the questions would better engage them. Just like in a conversation, we don’t just ask stand-alone questions. We usually react to or base our next question on the response we got form the last one—kinda like an “if/then” dialogue. I used this approach when creating the overall story arc of my quiz.

Key Takeaway: Ask yourself how you might connect your quiz questions so they take your quiz-takers on a journey. If your quiz is the quest, your final results will give them the answers they’ve been searching for. These elements are essential to telling any good story!

We love how your quiz questions talk about everything from shoe preferences to color palettes to workspace inspiration! How did you bring together such unique topics?

My goal was for quiz-takers to get emotionally involved with the questions and navigate through them easily. The first thing I did before creating the questions was define the results. Once I was clear on my quiz results, I started creating the questions. I knew who was going to take the quiz and I got into their shoes. And I have to be honest… I came up with over 25 questions in the beginning!

To get results, my quiz-takers would need to pick colors, fashion styles, personalities, interior design styles, fonts, patterns, layouts, known brand logos, images, cities, and even cars for their brand (if it was a person).

I literally imagined myself sitting down with this “brand” and having a laid back conversation with them (like I would with a client) about their favorite fashion styles, favorite colors, favorite way of decorating, and beyond. Their honest answers would help me know the “visuals” they would likely connect with so I could reflect their own brand visual style back to them.

Key Takeaway: Some people find it hard to talk about themselves, but it’s much easier for them to select what they like based on their preferences. Sibila intentionally tapped into this by creating a quiz that transforms an entrepreneur’s brand into a living, breathing thing. If your audience finds it difficult to define their tastes and traits, this strategy may work for your quiz.

What was your strategy behind creating a PDF guide as a bonus freebie?

At first, I thought about creating a personalized results page, but I doubled down on my goals and decided that I wanted people to “run” to their inbox and download the guide. By doing that, I could collect data on who was really interested in their results, making them warmer than other leads.

This would also provoke more engagement through my emails with higher open and click rates. I liked that people could download a digital guide, go through it on their own time, click through the resource links provided, and always have access to my main guide CTA, which is my course’s waitlist.

Key Takeaway: While many quiz creators choose to create personalized results in Interact or link to a custom designed quiz result landing page, it’s important to ask yourself what your main goal is. For Sibila, it was to lead interested quiz-takers to their inboxes to download her PDF guide. For you, it may look different, so this is a good question to ask yourself before creating your quiz.

What was the biggest challenge you ran into when creating your quiz, and how did you overcome it?

I believe it was more of a mindset challenge for me…

I remember reading that quizzes needed to be somewhere between five to eight questions. I was able to shave off one more question from my initially 15-question quiz, but taking out any other question was close to impossible for me. It was like asking me to remove an arm!

I remember spending two days trying to re-work it by pulling one or two more questions out and it kept “breaking.” So, on the third day, I shook the “freak-out feeling” and decided to move forward with 14 questions. I resolved to keep an eye on the quiz during its first month to see where people were dropping off and determining then if removing any questions would help.

After launching, the results were really positive since my total quiz engagement was above 96%. I was right in keeping 14 quiz questions.

Key Takeaway: While it’s great to read up on quiz building best practices, sometimes you have to go your own way. Sibila decided to add more questions to her quiz and found that it helped her audience stay engaged with her in-depth results. Other quiz creators like Kaye Putnam have generated six-figure revenue from quizzes that include more than the recommended three to five quiz result types. Think of these best practices as a helpful guide rather than a rulebook when you create your first quiz.

What are some of the best results and feedback you’ve gotten from the quiz?

My quiz has done so much for my business, including generating more than 14,000 leads in 18 months. The quiz has given me a clear picture of where my potential students are in their journey, what their main offers are, struggles for their next steps, and what they are searching for.

It’s also helped me catapult my presence inside other mentors’ communities with podcast interviews and mentions, as well as masterclasses inside their groups and programs. It has been shared in dozens of Facebook groups from BSchool (Marie Forleo) to DCA (Amy Porterfield) to Tribe (Stu McLaren) to smaller ones about crochet and realtors.

Another fun thing is that I’ve been recognized at events as the “brand quiz lady,” which brought me to belly laughs the first time it happened. I’ve also connected with people all over the world through their wonderful emails and comments on social media.

Thanks to my lead generating quiz, I now have the best community and students ever! They are go-getters who are fun and caring. They have all taken the quiz at some point. I even have a different version of it just for my students. It has helped them overcome common brand struggles and primed them for their next journey: website building with my online program.

Now, I’m going to share a secret: I still have many plans for this quiz. I want to revamp it in 2022 and bring even more mind-blowing features to my quiz-takers. I also want to use it as a funnel for other offers I’ve been cooking up. Stay tuned!

Key Takeaway: Seeing an increase in email list growth, lead generation, and sales is incredibly motivating, but you can’t forget about the power of personal feedback from your audience. Much like Sibila, when quiz-takers reach out to you and let you know how impactful your quiz has been for them, you’ll be able to come up with new ideas for offers and ways to strengthen your quiz.

You love to teach others about “building an effective online presence.” What’s your best advice for creators who want to use a quiz to enhance their online presence?

Start planning your quiz with the end in mind and get super clear on your quiz goals. What do you want from it? Leads who will buy your program? Clients who will hire you? Focusing on this main goal will keep you on track.

Then take all the quizzes you see online. Make note of what you like, what you don’t like, what inspires you, and what repels you. Make note of how the quiz results made you feel.

Define the results you want to offer and the people you want to attract. Give them a five-star result. Be specific, positive, and fun. The results are seen as “the end” of an experience, so make it a memorable one.

Don’t skimp on the visuals. Put in the time to find high-quality images that relate to your content, especially for the answer options. Be intentional with the images you use. People are more likely to engage and finish your quiz when there are visuals in it.

Inspire them with your words! Show off a bit of your own personality, too. Storytelling has the power to connect and create engagement. When they’re done with the quiz, they’ll feel like they know you!

Don’t let the experience stop after quiz-takers see their results! There’s magic in a well-thought-out email sequence. Keep inspiring them in their inbox and stay top-of-mind with surprise goodies. It works like a charm!

Make sure you mention your quiz anywhere and everywhere. Your email signature, your blog posts, your podcast, your videos, your social media, and of course, your website! Make sure everyone knows about your quiz. Good luck!