How to Combine Quiz Flow Data and Subscription Messaging to Make Buyers Feel Understood

Quizzes are powerful tools to collect data on your subscribers (or soon-to-be subscribers). You can use their responses to create highly engaging email and SMS flows. 

The data your subscribers intentionally share with you is called zero-party data. This type of data is important because it comes directly from the customer, which makes it accurate, reliable, and timely. You can then attach this data to the customer’s profile, which allows you to customize your subscription messaging to match their interests.. 

One of the most effective ways to collect zero-party data is through a quiz. Quizzes are fast and engaging and help create a stimulating experience for your potential subscribers. 

In an episode of Subscription Ecommerce Live, we talked about quizzes with Gen Furukawa, co-founder of Prehook. This quiz platform helps DTC brands accelerate list growth, improve sales, and capture zero-party data. We spoke about how ecommerce brands can use quizzes to strengthen relationships with buyers. 

How do you use quizzes effectively? Let’s walk through the 3 steps to use quiz data to build relationships with your subscribers and make them feel understood. 

Step 1: Design a Strong Quiz

Quizzes aren’t for the sake of novelty anymore. Great quizzes are an exchange of value between you and the quiz taker. Both parties should get something out of it. You get valuable data, and the quiz taker gets personalized product recommendations and a better shopping experience.

It’s important to state this value early. Your quiz takers should understand the value they’ll receive before they take the quiz. Doing this will lead to higher completion rates. 

‍Stitch Fix is great at this. The heading above their quiz call-to-action is concise and clearly states the quiz’s value: Discovering styles you love just got easier.

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Quizzes aren’t for the sake of novelty anymore. Great quizzes are an exchange of value between you and the quiz taker. Both parties should get something out of it.

Stitch Fix is known for squeezing tons of value out of its quiz. “They’re essentially a data science company at this point,” Gen told us during our session. They ask key questions to collect data that they need to customize subscription boxes, but they can use that data at any point during the subscriber experience.

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Here are some helpful tips for designing effective quizzes:

Plan Your Quiz Before You Create It

“Brands who are strategic in knowing how they’re going to use the data, and what form that comes in, succeed the most,” Gen told us.

Before you start writing questions, think carefully about the kinds of information you want to collect. Which data points will help you segment your subscribers the best? Which will help you create a positive subscriber experience for them? 

Your goal is a crucial step. The messaging you create in the next step will only be as good as the data you collect.

Work backward from there by designing questions that help you get those answers. 

Ask Questions in a Fun, Accessible Way

Customers often can’t tell you what they want. If they could, they would navigate straight toward it. However, they can tell you what they like, so ask questions about them. 

For instance, asking your customers if they prefer your Pink Lemonade Smoothie or your Double Chocolate Smoothie wouldn't make sense. They can’t answer that question if they don’t know your products yet. If they do know your products, they might like both!

Instead, ask questions you know they can answer. You might have them select from a list of flavors they typically enjoy the most, like you see in this Skinny Mixes quiz.

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Shorter is Typically Better

Whenever you ask your website’s visitors to take a particular action, it’s almost always best to keep it short. The likelihood of completion decreases with each additional question you ask. You may want a lot of data, but you also want them to finish the quiz. 

“You’re trying to simplify the buying experience,” Gen told us. “Reduce as many barriers or bottlenecks, address as many customer objections as possible, and then get them to checkout. That’s why I’m always trying to strip away some of the questions like ‘What’s your favorite season?’ or ‘What drink would you be?’ because those don’t necessarily add any value. With every question, the completion rate will decline, so you don't necessarily want to add more questions, or you will have a greater likelihood of having a customer bounce.”

‍Trade Coffee keeps its onboarding quiz short and fast by only asking four questions.

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Whenever you ask your website’s visitors to take a particular action, it’s almost always best to keep it short. The likelihood of completion decreases with each additional question you ask.

You have to be clever with your questions: Ask the important questions that help segment your audience and create the best onsite experience.

One caveat: Some quizzes lend themselves to more questions, and quiz takers understand. For example, a medical intake form has to ask specific questions, regardless of length. 

Step 2: Pair Quiz Responses with Tags

Once your questions are in place, the next step is to pair the responses with tags in your ecommerce platform and marketing automation tools. Your goal is to use your quiz to create a profile of tags for each quiz taker.

For instance, suppose you have a question that asks quiz takers if they prefer sweet, salty, or savory flavors. If a quiz taker selects “salty,” add a “salty” tag to their customer profile in your ecommerce and marketing automation tools. 

This process is called segmentation. It will allow you to send email and SMS content about salty flavors to subscribers with the “salty” tag (we’ll get to this in the next step).

Consider using negative tags as well. If a subscriber hates sour flavors, add a tag to their profile that indicates this. Then you can make sure they never receive content about sour flavors. 

Don’t be stingy with your tags. Tag your subscribers as much as possible to store as much data as you can. You never know when a data point will come in handy. 

Finally, add similar tags to your ecommerce products. These tags will allow you to pair products with your segments. When you make that email flow for salty products, you can instruct your marketing automation tool to insert products with the “salty” tag. In Shopify, you can add tags to any product in the product editor.

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Step 3: Build Custom Campaigns for Those Tags

With your quiz and tag system in place, your final step is to prepare personalized content for your subscribers based on their responses.

Build automations specific to the data you gathered in the quiz. During this process, you’ll have a lot of freedom. Ultimately, you’ll need to decide what adds value to your subscribers’ lives. 

The key, however, is to make them feel understood. You want your subscribers to feel like you know them personally. You’ll achieve this by sending them content you already know they’ll love. 

Product recommendations are one way to add value, but not everything has to be product-focused. You could offer educational content, user-generated content, or something  unique. 

Use their language in your content as well. If a quiz taker tells you they’re looking for ways to destress in the evening, send content that acknowledges their feelings. You don’t necessarily have to provide a solution. Simply showing a subscriber that you understand is a big win.

You want your subscribers to feel like you know them personally. You’ll achieve this by sending them content you already know they’ll love.

Don't be afraid to get crafty by using multiple tags together. For example, if a subscriber has tags for “puppy” and “health-conscious,” you could offer tips for dog health or recommend dog food products that are health-oriented. 

When using ARPU, merchants can use Shopify tags to build custom campaigns to send subscribers highly personalized upcoming order notifications. These tags can come from anywhere, including your quiz data.

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Ask Smart Questions for Deep Personalization

When collecting data, the information provided by your subscribers is always the most valuable because it’s reliable, accurate, and current. Quizzes are a fun and engaging way to collect this precious data, which makes them a powerful tool to personalize your subscribers’ experience with your brand. 

The critical takeaway is to be intentional about the quiz data you collect. Think about the information you need for good segmentation and personalization, then prepare quiz questions that help you meet those goals.