How a Global Furniture Brand Used a Personality Quiz to Collect More Than 175,000 Leads

"BuzzFeed" and personality quizzes may be all fun and games on Facebook, but quizzes are good for more than entertainment. They present a tremendous opportunity for marketers to learn about their customers’ preferences.Back-to-school season is a profitable time of year for many retailers. In the fall of 2017, ShortStack designed a quiz for a company we’ll call “Global Homegoods.” Global Homegoods designs and sells everything from beds, lighting and desks to linens, kitchen tools and dishes. The company wanted to build awareness around a specific category of products: necessities for college-bound students. To motivate people to take the quiz, Global Homegoods added a giveaway element, ultimately awarding seven prizes to random people who took the quiz.Read on to learn how the quiz/contest was designed and what made it so successful.

The primary goal: create awareness about the company’s range of products

When Global Homegoods set out to capture the attention of college-bound kids and, more important, their parents, they wanted to do so in a lighthearted and engaging way. To meet their brand awareness goals, Global Homegoods conceived of a personality quiz called, ‘’How Should You Decorate Your College Space?” The idea was to help kids who were setting up their first home away from home figure out their style. Global Homegoods asked participants to answer seven simple questions about their decorating and lifestyle preferences.

Global Homegood's personality quiz built with ShortStack

The secondary goal: learn more about customer preferences

Global Homegoods’ “How should you decorate your college space?” quiz first asked users to, “Pick a vacation.” While this question might not seem like it had anything to do with decorating style, as the questions progressed you can see that Global Homegoods was smart by combining general lifestyle questions with questions related to home decor.

The quiz: asking engaging and useful questions

From there, Global Homegoods asked six more questions designed to pinpoint quiz-takers’ styles.

Once quiz takers were given their results, they were prompted to “Shop the look.” They also had the option to fill out a brief form in order to be entered to win a prize. The prizes included a dorm decor packages -- sheets, bedding, lighting, storage items, dishes, and more -- each worth $100. Global Homegoods ultimately chose seven winners.

Global Homegoods could use data like from the quiz results to increase production of items in the most popular color schemes or categories. They could also use the data to decrease the production of unpopular colors and styles.

Blockbuster results

Global Homegoods' quiz had more than 169K views (146K were unique) during the five weeks the quiz/contest ran. Even more compelling: some 155,040 people completed the quiz. Considering the prize was relatively inexpensive, these numbers are extraordinary -- a testimony to the power of quizzes.

Global Homegoods' quiz ultimately had more than 169K views during the five weeks the quiz/contest ran

When they showed quiz-takers the results of the quiz, Global Homegoods also highlighted links to a number of resources college-bound kids would likely find useful, including a dorm and apartment checklists and separate checklists for parents.What happened next, however, is even more compelling.

Global Homegoods’ quiz is one that keeps on giving

Global Homegoods has left the quiz up and available on its website where it continues to attract attention.Since the giveaway aspect of the quiz ended, another 229,393 people have viewed the quiz (204,178 unique) and of that, 175,578 of them have taken the quiz and have been prompted to "shop the look." Those are extraordinary numbers that point to just how engaging a well-designed quiz can be.I'm guessing that any brand could afford to give away a $100 worth of goods. It's a small investment, considering how long Global Homegoods' quiz has continued to pay dividends!

Using marketing automation to follow up

Global Homegoods' also created an opportunity to stay in touch with their customers by using marketing automation features, such as autoresponders, follow-up emails and even scheduled emails. How did it work? As soon as someone completed Global Homegoods' quiz, they received an autoresponder email that contained confirmation of their entry and a coupon with a discount for free shipping.

A month later, Global Homegoods could have sent a follow-up email reminding people, "There's still time for last-minute back-to-school shopping."Then, nine or ten months later, when many of the original quiz takers were getting ready to go back to school again, Global Homegoods could have sent them news about the company's latest designs and back-to-school products.

How any company can use a quiz

I hope you’ve seen how a well-designed quiz can tick many marketing boxes: brand awareness, engagement, lead-collection and more. Has it made you think about how a quiz could help you learn more about your customers and their preferences?Ready to build a quiz like Global Homegoods’? Here are a few ideas to help you get started:

• Make a quiz about something that’s evergreen in your sector.
• Make a quiz about something that’s seasonal in your sector.
• Think about something you really want to know about your customers and design a quiz that will help you learn what you want to know.

ShortStack's Personality Quiz Template View and Create Your Own

Holiday/Seasonal quiz ideas

• New Year’s Eve: How do you like to celebrate?
• Valentine’s Day: How romantic are you?
• St. Patrick’s Day: What's your favorite food to drink beer with?
• Spring break: What’s your ideal travel destination?
• Mother’s Day: Choose your ideal Mother’s Day gift!
• Father’s Day: What’s your ideal way to spend a weekend?
• July 4th: How patriotic are you?
• Back to school: What’s your dorm room style?
• Fall: What’s your favorite kind of home-improvement project?
• Halloween: Which monster are you?
• Thanksgiving: What kind of chef are you?
• Christmas: What kind of gift-giver are you?

Create your first quiz now

Get Started Today. It’s free and we don’t need your credit card.