Quiz Your Audience with Content

As a fan of trivia games in general, I'm obsessed with the TV quiz show Jeopardy. On the road, when settling into a hotel room, if I come across an episode I'll drop everything and focus. Once I've sized up the categories and the competition, people in adjacent rooms might hear a series of staccato ehhh! sounds as I "ring in" and blurt answers (in question form, of course) before the real contestants beat me to the buzzer.

I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this affinity for the test-your-knowledge format. In fact, trivia games and quiz shows might have something to teach us about content marketing. Consider:

• Simply being approached to participate in a test of knowledge gets some people's emotions, intellect, even adrenaline revved up. 
• There's an inherent promise of value and possibility in a quiz -- you're either going to learn (education), or have multiple opportunities to showcase and be affirmed in your knowledge (validation).
• Information, interaction, calls to action, feedback, measurement -- all occur in a steady stream of small increments, so there's a natural continuity and engagement to a Q&A "touch stream."
• Conceptually, the organization delivering the content is automatically coming at the audience in a value-add way. This is about information-sharing, learning, fun -- it's not a hard sell.

When deciding on a content marketing approach, perhaps as a change of pace or one engaging touch point within a broader campaign, consider the quiz format.

Identify subject matter around which the audience and the brand have shared interest. Then, parcel out relevant information in the form of test-your-knowledge quizzes, questions of the day or week, longer-form continuing ed courses, or your own, unique "did-you-know" execution.

Here's my current favorite example:

When parents register their high schoolers for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), a key step toward college admission, the folks at SAT invite student and parent alike to receive The Official SAT Question of the Day via e-mail. 

This feature gives students a chance to practice (and parents the opportunity to feel humbled), thanks to a daily stream of multiple-choice math and language/grammar questions of the type students face on the SAT.

I registered my high school junior months ago. She tested weeks ago. Yet here I am, still eagerly awaiting and answering daily questions (all the while confirming what a smart move it was to choose journalism over math as my college major).

In other words, SAT has me engaged. And, when it comes to additional reseach and planning around college admissions, I'm likely to return to their Web site as a resource. No question about it.