How to Use Quiz Funnels to Attract Leads & Accelerate Business Growth with Ryan Levesque

You want to scale your business? Well, part of scaling is making sure that you have enough leads and I mean right fit leads coming into your business on a regular basis. And to do that using a quiz funnel and doing it right is the solution that you need. So I am so excited to introduce a dear friend of mine and quiz expert, 3 Time Inc. 500 CEO and number one national best selling author and the expert when it comes to quiz funnels. Ryan Levesque.

Allison, it's awesome to be here. Really excited for our conversation and excited to chat about quizzes.

I am too. And you know, first off, I just want to say that you helped me and our team build the most amazing quiz funnel and, and that is why I want you on here today because it has helped us so much in our business and we have so many people that want to scale and this is definitely a way to get them started.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm super excited. We've had a tremendous amount of success with quizzes in our business, in our clients business. I've yet to find something that is a faster, more powerful way to get more leads and more customers online for any business that is really looking to scale here this year.

Yeah, I think there's something intriguing about a quiz. Right. People want to know the answer to something. And so tell us why you got into doing these quizzes and what has been the journey for you.

Yeah, for sure. So I'll first start by kind of explaining at a high level when we talk about a quiz funnel, what are we talking about here? So quiz funnel is. It's not quite a quiz, it's not quite a funnel. It's as if an online quiz and a marketing funnel, they got together, got married and had a baby. And really what you're doing here is when someone lands on your website, instead of trying to get them to sign up for your webinar, instead of getting them to sign up for your event, or instead of trying to get them to buy your product or service right away, you take a step back and you begin by asking a series of questions to better understand that person's situation so that you can put them into one of several buckets, as we call them, and then customize your messaging and potentially the offer that you put in front of someone based on their answers. So that's what a quiz funnel is in action. And now in terms of so my story, how I got into this, I got into this world in 2008 on the heels of the world financial crisis. I was working in finance and the company That I was working for was one of those big financial companies that basically was going bankrupt. And so I used it as my opportunity to kind of start my first business. And I proceeded by going into 23 different niche markets online, really using a quiz to go into those businesses. My first year month in business, I think we made $370. Within a year and a half, we're making $25,000 a month. Within three years, we're making $120,000 a month, basically in all these little niche markets. And then from there, I started kind of getting the attention of these big companies that were interested in building one of these quiz funnels to grow their business. And I was a part of a few big acquisitions that led to some really interesting exits, one of which was with NBC Golf. We built a quiz on the golf market that led to an acquisition through NBC for over $20 million. Built another quiz in the business funding market called loan Builder that led to an acquisition by PayPal for $180 million. And so just kind of having more and more experience with this, we then built an education company teaching this model. It's a three time Inc. 500 company, most recently the number 50 fastest growing education company in the country. And then from there built a software company which is the technology that now people use for building these quiz funnels. And we have about over 30 million end users every year. And over 12,000 quiz funnels have been built on our platform. So that's kind of like the abridged truncated story. In the last decade, we do quizzes all day, every day. We've got a company with 65 full time employees that this is all that we do. And really excited to have the conversation today about anybody who's looking to basically scale their business, get more leads and customers, and do it through a quiz.

Well, you truly are the quiz expert. My God. I mean, really, back in 2008, so this isn't something new for you. Can you just give me some specific types of businesses that could use the quizzes? Because some of them might be listening, going, well, that's just for this particular industry. Can you give just the genre? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, we run the gamut. So examples that come to mind, you know, if you sell B2B, B2C, low ticket products, high ticket products, it really can run the full range. So I'll share some examples, but I'll talk about kind of why quiz funnels are so effective. And as I'm talking about kind of why quiz funnels work so well, I'll talk about all sorts of examples of companies that have used this to scale. So there are really three big reasons why quizzes are so effective. The first is incredibly cheap traffic. So oftentimes you can cut your cost per per lead what you pay online to acquire a lead by anywhere from 30 to 90% on the back of a quiz. And so examples that come to mind, I think of Mastin Kipp. He is a, he's an author. So he's an expert. He's an author. He was paying $6 per lead before his quiz, now he's paying 76 cents. I think of people like Beryl Young who owns a photography business. She was paying $1.67 per lead, now she's paying 14 cents per lead in that business. I think of Sean Penrod, he's in the marathon running market and he was paying $2.59 per lead, now he pays 23 cents per lead on the back of his quiz. So incredibly cheap leads is reason number one, reason number two and people always want to know like how do those leads convert? Are they just like cheap leads that don't buy? Well, you can often go from anywhere from doubling to tripling your sales conversion rate on the back of a quiz. And the reason for that by the way, is because you can customize your copy, your content, the case studies, the testimonials, the information that you give someone based on their quiz answers. So I'll give you an example. Andy Mackensen, he runs an e commerce business and he wanted to do a quiz as a test. So he did a three month test and he did it just with a portion of his traffic. So his control funnel was generating about $3,300 per month in this test. He ran a quiz against it. The quiz generated $10,982 per month versus the control. So he said, alright, this is working pretty well. I'm making three times as much money. I've been able to cut my sales cycle from 11 days down to seven days. So he's able to get the money faster. So he said, I'm gonna roll this out across everything. He rolls out his quiz on his homepage for his company called Snack Nation. And on the heels of his quiz funnel, he landed on the Inc. 500 list, the fastest growing companies in America, basically growing his business, scaling his business from a few million dollars a year to now over $24 million a year on the back of this quiz. And so it's a snack quiz to figure out what type of snack is right? For you. And he sends businesses and consumers a box, a curated box of healthy snacks based on your kind of taste preferences. So he uses a quiz to do that. You know, I can think of a dozen examples. I think of Gabby Rast. She's in the horse training market. She was doing $11,000 a month in her business. She's now scaled to $27,000 a month on the back of her quiz. You know, so there's just so many examples of businesses that have been able to do this.

So, yeah, so it's not, it's not. So for those that are saying, oh, well, that would never work for my business, you've pretty much done it from snacks to horses.

Snacks to horses, everything in between. Yeah. And the last thing I'll say, Alison, is that, you know, not only you get cheap leads and conversion, fast results. This isn't one of these things. Like, there are a lot of ways that you can build an audience online that take a long time. For example, you launch a podcast or show on YouTube. It can be very effective, but it takes time. Right? You're growing it over time and it happens slowly. When you use a quiz, the results can happen really fast. So I think I'll just give you a couple examples. I think of, for example, Jamal Miller. He started basically from scratch in his business. He created a quiz in the Christian singles market. Why are you still single? That was his quiz. Like, why are you still single? Take the quiz to find out. Now, he got over 10,000 people to take his quiz in less than 14 days and built a membership for Christian singles on the back of it that he scaled to over half a million dollars a year in his first six months on the back of the quiz. I'll give you one more example for anyone who's in a non English speaking market. I think of Luis Carlos and his wife Gabby. They're in the parenting market, but they operate in the Hispanic market. So the Spanish speaking market. They launched a quiz which is in Spanish, like, what's your parenting style? The quiz went completely viral. They launched the quiz, they had no idea what to expect. People mom started sharing it in mom groups online. It started getting national press, it was on television. They got over a million people to take their quiz in less than two weeks. They built their email list, literally from where it was a very small list, to over a million people in less than two weeks, just on the back of the quiz. So cheap traffic, high conversion, fast results. And to your question, everyone, from snacks to horses to the parenting market, to consulting and Everything in between.

Yeah. Wow, that is incredible. Especially the quick. You know, it's not this super long nurture that you have to go through. It's like all the nurturing is condensed exactly into this short time period. So what do you feel like are some of the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to this?

There's three big mistakes that come to mind, right? So the three big mistakes that I think people tend to make. So every quiz. Now remember, this isn't one of these time wasting quizzes that you may have taken online, like what type of Disney character is your dog? Right. Those quizzes are a lot of fun, but they're not going to convert clicks into customers. They're not going to generate leads and clients for your business. So every quiz funnel follows the same formula. Attract, diagnose, prescribe. Attract is the way in which you attract the right type of audience to take your quiz. Diagnose represents the questions that you ask people when they take your quiz. So just like a doctor, you can diagnose their situation. So ultimately stay step three, you can prescribe the best next step for them, which is naturally going to be your product or service as the prescription. So three big mistakes that people make. Number one, the wrong hook. Every successful quiz funnel has a big idea that's designed to attract the right type of prospect. So you've got to have the right hook. Mistake number two is asking the wrong questions. What we found, because we have access to so much Data with over 12,000 quiz funnels built in our platform. For example, every quiz funnel has some best practices like we've discovered. The data tells us that the most successful quiz funnels ask between five and 12 questions. Now why is that? I don't know. But I've got a theory that you've got to ask for enough information that the diagnosis you're giving someone is believable. Right? If you go to the doctors and you say, hey, doc, I hurt my wrist. And she says, you know, I've got one question for you. Is it your left wrist or your right wrist? You're gonna say, you say my left wrist. And she said, all right, I know what it is. It's like not enough information, right? You've got to ask.

Yeah, you're like, you don't even know me yet. You don't even know what happened.

You've got to demonstrate your empathy and understanding sufficiently. So that's my theory. Why you have to ask for enough information. Now, on the flip side of it, you can't ask a thousand questions because most people are taking these quiz funnels where their phone. So people's patience online now today is rather thin. So they're not going to sit through a quiz that asks for a hundred pieces of information. So five to 12 is that sweet spot. That's mistake number two, the wrong questions. Now, mistake number three is the wrong offer. Remember, these quiz funnels are designed to convert leads into customers, and to do that, you need to have the right type of offer after people take your quiz. And every offer follows the same formula.

Every.

It's what we call band aid cure. So your quiz is incredibly powerful because instead of asking people to click the link below to get my ebook, instead listen to how what I'm about to say is very different. Click the link below to find out your results. See how it's all about you, all about them, as opposed to all about me as the marketer. Find out your results. So the band aid piece of it is where you're giving people some free value. You're offering something of value in exchange for their quiz answers, where you're giving people the results of their quiz, but then you segue into what we call the cure. The cure is your paid product or service that ultimately solves the underlying problem that your quiz is helping people diagnose around. So every offer follows this band aid cure transition. So three big mistakes. The wrong hook, the wrong questions, the wrong offer. But when you get those things right, you can get some pretty incredible results.

Yeah, I like that. You're really taking people through a journey, and then, you know, you want to know what the answer is, right. That's how our brain works. So can you share some other examples of just pulling all of this together?

Yeah, for sure. You know, you know, I'll give some examples of, like, sort of the breadth of different products. So you asked about, you know, what types of businesses does this work for? So, you know, I think about, for example, Alexis Fedor has a quiz in the art market. So she works with artists, and her quiz is, what's your art marketing type? So helping artists get their art in the world. And she sells a product that's, you know, sub$100. I think of, for example, on the flip side of it, Morgan Gist McDonald has a quiz. What's your publishing path? She helps aspiring writers get their books published, and she sells a $15,000 publishing package on the back of her quiz. And because she's asking really thoughtful questions and really addressing the sort of situation that people are struggling with right now, she's able to Convert cold traffic into a high ticket product. Because in a very short amount of time in that compressed format, she's able to demonstrate her expertise on the subject, ask really thoughtful questions, give people a path to follow. And then the only question people have when you do this, well, is Alison, what's my next step like now that I know my results? Like, where should I go from here? So they're asking you that question. So whether you sell something for $100 $10,000 or somewhere in between, this is a process that can work. B2B, B2C. International English speaking, non English speaking. It really kind of ties into human nature. So local businesses. I think of Greg Crawford. He has a gym in New Jersey. He uses a quiz funnel to fill up his gym. I think of Mark Anthony Ball, he's a real estate agent. He uses a quiz, a home sellability score quiz to get real estate clients. I think Anthony Pellegrino, he's a financial advisor in Chicago. He uses a quiz to help bring in financial advisor clients. So whether you've got an offline business, an online business, you're tapping into this human desire, what we call the power of self discovery, to discover something about yourself. And that's why this is universally so powerful.

I love it. And you know, in the quiz funnel that we worked with you on, on helping people to figure out within our scale it method, what was their strength and what was the weakness and then what's the prescription? It gave us an opportunity to share our expertise and so that people are building a relationship and building trust along the way. And so I just, I just think it's so, so brilliant. And I love the fact that you really can tailor this to the specific industry, the specific customer, and then ultimately move them through the cure, which is your product or service.

Absolutely. Yeah, for sure.

So, so powerful. So where can someone learn more? What is the next step?

Yeah, you know, I know it's like we could talk about this all day. I know our time is limited, but for anyone who's watching this or listening to this right now, your timing is perfect. And here's the reason why. Once a year we do a quiz funnel workshop, and it's totally free. And in this workshop, we walk through the process of how to create one of these quizzes step by step. So how to come up with your big idea behind your quiz? How to decide which of the three types of quizzes is right for you and your business? We go through dozens of examples. I know we've talked about examples, but we actually go through real quizzes. So you can actually see them in action. You can see the questions people are asking. You can see what these quizzes look like. So you can get inspired and get ideas for how to apply it in your business. Now, like I said, it's totally free. The only catch is we only do it once a year. I teach this live and it just so happens to be basically happening right now. So if you're interested or even just curious, the link to join us is quizfunnel.com/quizfunnel.com scale if you go to that link, that will take you to the page to register for this workshop. And, and we'll go through this process together. It's going to be a lot of fun. And if you've got any interest at all in creating a quiz for your business, this is absolutely the best next step to take.

I cannot recommend it enough. You'll be in great hands. And this is a tangible workshop. It's not just there to be inspired. Like you're going to really leave getting this and knowing exactly what to do. So, Ryan, thank you for being with us here today. I'm super inspired. I love that you're helping so many businesses out there. That's my same passion and mission. So I love all the work that you're doing in the world. So thank you.

Well, thanks for the opportunity to share and really excited to share this workshop with everyone listening and watching here today.

Yeah. And check out the link. We've got it there that you can go and click. Do not miss this workshop. It happens once a year and you don't want to have to wait a whole other year because you're going to miss out on on a lot of leads and a lot of dollars. So thank you for being with us today on the scale or fail show. And until next time, get out there and elevate yourself because you are worth it. Bye, everybody.

Bye.