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Have you ever wondered how those fun personality quizzes are made? You know, the ones like… “What kind of dog are you?” or “What color is your aura?”
How can I create a personality test?
Well, in this article, we’ll take a deeper look at personality quizzes and see how you can go about creating your own. Are you ready? Let’s get started!
What exactly is a personality test? Just so there’s no confusion, here’s this (boring, but useful) definition: A personality quiz is a series of questions (preferably multiple choice) designed to reveal something about the person being surveyed.
Why do these personality quizzes make sense for you as a brand to use them for interactive marketing?
Let’s find out together.
A personality test is a great way to create a content experience for your readers that is truly about them. Quizzes give you the opportunity to reveal something interesting or surprising about your readers that will make them want to share their results with others. This means that the results you create in your quiz represent an ideal medium for communicating your message to your readers, wrapped in a revelation about them.
Robert Simmermon told The Huffington Post that personality quizzes provide an “illusion of authenticity” by offering a chance to reaffirm judgments we’ve already made about ourselves . “They reinforce your sense of self, whether or not it’s legitimate,” says Simmermon, who is cast as Obi-Wan Kenobi in an online test. “We know it’s not literal, but some secret little part of us hopes it’s true.”
People also constantly seek out spaces for self-awareness, explains Steven Meyers, Ph.D., a psychology professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. “You can introspect and meditate on yourself, but there are limits to that ,” he says. “These self-assessments provide us with another kind of internal mirror.”
We all try to make sense of our lives and ask ourselves the same questions: Who am I? Who do others think I am? Who do I want to be?
Personality quizzes help answer these questions by placing us in funny and unlikely situations, helping us get to know ourselves and discover the “who” of our personal story.
It’s time (finally!) to get down to business. So how do you create a personality quiz? Here’s a rundown of how to do it.
First of all, you will need a topic. There are many personality quizzes out there, you should try to make your topic eye-catching .
If your title brings a smile, you’re off to a great start!
Here are 3 tips that will surely help you when choosing your quiz title:
1. Start with a working title, a sort of draft
2. Keep it fun (or sexy, if you want)
Just make sure it’s not boring. Don’t use old-fashioned language and try to keep it engaging and simple. Now, my example isn’t that simple, but… it’s pretty fun, isn’t it?
3. Brainstorm with someone else
Writing is hard, and coming up with a good title… is even harder. That’s why it’s good to stimulate creativity by sharing ideas with a friend or team member. As someone once said… “talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships.”
I couldn’t agree more. You can have the best title in the world, but if it doesn’t get people to open your quiz… that’s why it’s best to consult with others to see if you’re on the right track.
If you want more tips, check out this Hubspot article . (It’s just tips for creating blog titles, but I really liked it.)
Here are some great examples of BuzzFeed personality tests to get you inspired:
Since news broke about the misuse of personal data collected through Facebook quizzes ( the Cambridge Analytica scandal ), people have become more cautious about participating in them.
There’s nothing wrong with collecting your audience’s personal data, but it’s important to clearly communicate what you’ll be using it for. Taking care of these basics will help you create a quiz that’s secure while still providing you with the data you want:
- Be clear about who is hosting the quiz and what its purpose is.
- Explain that you will use the data only for internal purposes (e.g. “to provide better service”) and that the information collected will not be shared with third parties… only if this is the case, of course! If you have other plans, be transparent about what you will do with the answers.
- Allow people to unsubscribe from your notifications at any time.
When you’re writing your questions, ask someone, preferably a teenager, to read them and watch their reaction. Teenagers are often a difficult audience to please. They also know the slang and know what things are hip and trendy. It’s always beneficial for you to have a teenager read your quiz questions. It’s also very helpful to make sure you’re using language that isn’t too difficult.
If your quiz is targeted at a non-teen demographic, it would of course be a good idea to choose someone from that group. 😉
If your respondents are smiling or looking pleased, you’re on the right track. If not, you should rethink your questions. Rewriting your quiz is an important part of the process. Don’t just stick with the first version, try again and make adjustments.
Doug Villhard’s Tips for Creating Great Personality Quizzes was a great inspiration. Below you’ll see the ones I selected from them.
Let’s see how to make a personality quiz:
- Use funny exclamations to spice up your quiz! This will make the content feel more like a real conversation and not just a list of questions . Check out our list of exclamations for some cool examples – ooooooooh yeah!
- You can put as many questions as you want, but be careful. Avoid having your respondents drop out halfway through. The ideal number of questions is 7 .
With less than 7 questions, the quiz won’t seem too interesting. It’s like a roller coaster: riding it can be fun, but if it lasts too little… you’ll always end up a little disappointed.
On the other hand, more than 7 questions soon start to feel like a drag. You want to get it over with, it’s like being hungry in a restaurant and the food doesn’t arrive. So, try to figure out which questions are best for your target, which ones will provide you with the information you want to gather, and which ones will help you calculate the results of your personality quiz.
- The most important questions are #1, #2, #3, and #7 . The first three will grab the respondent’s attention. If they love them, you can be sure they’ll stay hooked and finish the quiz. The seventh (or the last one in the group, in case you have a few more or less) is the icing on the metaphorical cake – it has to be special.
- The ideal number of answer options is 4. As in life, sometimes it’s the little things that matter. Like the screen layout for your quiz. Here’s a tip: four answer options is the perfect size, because they line up or stack nicely in a row on desktop and mobile screens. This makes your layout look clean, and helps make it coherent. Consistency helps your respondents navigate through the quiz easily, as it helps them find their rhythm.
- Provide clear differences between the answers. This is not like an assessment or a test, where you want to encourage the respondent to think. In a quiz, things should be simple. The respondent should be able to find their answer very, very quickly. You might use a scale that measures the response options; such as an extreme option, an average option, a mild option, and another option for someone who is not interested in the topic.
For example: When you see someone attractive on the street, what do you do?
a) He/she hides behind the bushes.
b) He/she introduces himself/herself and has a brief chat.
c) He/she asks her/him out.
d) He/she proposes marriage.
- Keep it short. It’s the most important tip of all: keep it short! (try harder!) Did you know that it’s best to use one-word answers? The next best thing is 2-4 word sentences. If you need to write a longer answer, try to make it only happen in one of the questions in the set and put it at the end, so as not to slow down the respondent.
- The best answers have pictures. Why? Because it’s an easy resource and people love pictures. It helps them recognize themselves among the answer categories. Don’t forget: a picture is worth a thousand words. Keep this in mind when creating your quiz.
If you create a quiz to identify with a movie star, your respondents will expect to be Brad Pitt or George Clooney, not an actor from a B-grade indie movie from a decade ago.
After taking a personality quiz, you want to feel like a superstar. Why? Well, as psychologist Robert Simmermon, Ph.D., says:
“I think it’s a fun thing to do, but I also think it touches on something about the personal sense of how our story develops. I think it really points to a sense of narrative psychology.”
But what is “narrative psychology”? It is a theory that holds that humans make sense of their lives by organizing events into stories that unfold over time – it’s like creating our own “biographies” to explain who we are and where we come from.
Tip: Just like with answers, nice (high-quality) images are best for individualized quiz results. People love to share nice things, even when it comes to a quiz. There are plenty of tools to do this.
The best would be one that lets you get started for free, right? 😉 Use our Quiz Design Guide to get started with Pointerpro.
- How many outcomes should you have? Ideally, between 6 and 9. But be careful, the more possible outcomes you have, the harder it is to distribute weight between the answers. It is essential that you test the outcomes, so that each one has a chance.
- Make sure the results are different. You should have a wide spectrum of possibilities. If you make a quiz about “What burger are you?”, don’t just give the options “Big Mac” or “Big Mac Junior,” use the whole spectrum of burgers. Put a Whopper in there and maybe even one of those KFC burgers.
- Add a positive description. Create a story around the outcome. Take the time to add a positive message and provide a lucky outcome. For example, in the burger quiz, if your respondent turns out to be a gourmet burger , you can say that it’s a fancy burger with lots of freshness. (I’m not sure what this means, but I think you get the idea.)
Once data has been quantified, it can be used to compare and contrast other research and can be used to measure change. This makes monthly or annual questionnaires increasingly valuable over time.
Improving comparability implies that errors due to translation should be minimised. In terms of translation of questionnaires for multinational, multicultural and multiregional surveys, the aim is to achieve a level of comparability across all local versions.
Click here for more tips on taking a personality quiz.
Did you know… quizzes break traffic records and generate more comment threads than any other viral post in Facebook history? It would be great to be able to do this for your brand, right? Imagine the brand awareness it can generate for your business!
People are more willing to give their email address if they get something in return, such as the opportunity to participate in an experience that they can then share on their social networks. This definitely leads to more lead generation , useful links, and increased traffic to your website.
Quizzes are highly customizable and are more relevant to your users than any other form of content. Increasing the level of individualization by adding elements such as fully customized reports will greatly increase the perceived value of your content.
For example, you can create a personality quiz on “Are you a good digital marketer?” If respondents receive an individual report with their scores and additional insights, it will greatly help them and increase your status as an expert on the topic. Read more about this in our blog post on Individualized Assessment Reports .
Interactive content helps you stand out, and increases positive associations. People will remember you for longer. Quizzes that contain positive statements in their results make users more loyal to your brand.
A real-life example that I like is Knorr’s “What’s delicious for you” profile generator . When you take the quiz, you get a result and a snapshot of all the products from the brand that you might like. Great. It’s an easy way to discover new products (from a consumer perspective) and a great idea to show the full range of products to customers, who can go from being casual buyers to loyal buyers.
Interactive content that captures users’ attention can lead to them providing you with more relevant data, which you can use in the future to create targeted and useful content. It can even open a door or window through which you can contact them and give them new information later on. Get them into the sales funnel!
A successful interactive campaign can help your audience move from being aware of your brand to a consumer of your products. Adding a small incentive (such as a 10% discount) helps lower the threshold.
For example: Let’s say your company is selling an eBook on how to improve your skills as a content writer. You can combine it with a quiz where users find out what kind of content writer they are, and direct them to sections of the book that contain relevant tips based on their scores. This way you prove the value of your eBook instantly! Add a small discount for the purchase of the book at the end of the quiz, and you’re all set!
If you want to learn more, read this article on using interactive content for marketing .
Using quizzes can add a fun and fresh edge to your marketing campaigns. They can generate a real boost in engagement and create a lot of brand awareness. Here are some important insights into what benefits interactive content and personality quizzes can bring to your business.
For more information, you can check out the other CMI statistics . Interactive content is a fast-growing trend in content marketing . It provides great results and new ideas to those who know how to take advantage of it. Again, there are many ways to create interactive content, but I think online quizzes are one of the easiest and most accessible ways to do so.
Well, a quiz can attract the viral effect and instantly increase engagement levels. Quizzes are 40 times more likely to be shared on social media . Amazing, right?
Heineken Go Places is one of my favorites because it uses a results-based quiz that invites potential customers to participate in an interview in which they are led through a kind of Heineken “Neverland” where they must answer 12 questions in less than five seconds each.
At the end of the quiz, the participant receives a personality assessment that can be easily shared on social media.
A personality quiz is not only a fun activity for you and your respondents, it also has many benefits for your business. Three birds with one stone, right? 😉
Mix business and pleasure and create your own personality quiz. I had a blast doing it, I’m sure you will too!
Do you think we missed some tips or would you like to share your experiences taking personality quizzes? Leave it in the comments below.
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