You've probably encountered an interactive quiz while scrolling through Facebook or BuzzFeed: “Your Pizza Opinions Will Reveal Exactly How Cool You Are," for example. The quiz asks a handful of questions and uses your answers to deliver a customized response.

It's that tailored experience that makes quizzes so effective—and so ripe for business use.

With attention at a premium these days, quizzes offer organizations a way to engage users that feels personal. And because they're entertaining, interactive quizzes help your brand stand out.

“Insurance agencies can use quizzes as lead magnets, where you start engaging a prospect and capturing their information so you can nurture them and earn the opportunity to provide an insurance quote," says Kelly Donahue-Piro, an insurance marketing expert and president of Agency Performance Partners.

Here's how you can incorporate quizzes into your online marketing strategy:

1) Nail down a topic. Quizzes are excellent for niche products where you can customize the questions, such as “'Which of these items is covered by wedding insurance?' Or, 'Which classic car claim actually happened?'" says Donahue-Piro.

You also can use quizzes to educate. “We've created quizzes around confusing insurance policy terms and others that explain what board games can teach you about insurance," says Hadie Bartholomew, media content leader at Westfield.

2) Write the quiz with the end in mind. What are the possible outcomes? What are their characteristics? Remember these as you build your questions and make sure the answers will help you learn more about your prospects. And keep the quiz interesting to encourage participation.

3) Use a quiz-building platform. Tools like Typeform, Interact and Outgrow, to name a few, let you build quizzes without much effort. Look for a tool that integrates with your customer relationship management system to capture leads, enables you to drop text and images into pre-made templates for branding and ease of use, and has built-in analytics.

4) Make sure it meets prospects where they are. Before deploying your quiz, make sure it appears at a natural point in the customer or prospect's journey, works on different platforms and is accessible to people with disabilities. “It's important to design your quiz for the target market and to test it," says Kim Krause Berg, an internet marketing expert with Hochman Consultants. “When is it available? How is it offered? Desktop will be different from mobile."

When deployed with the tips above, quizzes can be unique ways to educate and grab the attention of prospective clients.

Valerie Foster, vice president and director of marketing at Berkley Alliance Managers, a Berkley Company, has seen the value of quizzes firsthand. “We use calculators and quizzes to empower people to assess their risk levels and to help them understand the need for insurance to cover their exposures."

“These tools increase engagement since prospects and policyholders bring up risks with their broker that they didn't fully explore in previous conversations," Foster adds. “People also share their quiz results, which helps their broker recommend the best policy forms and coverages."

“Using quizzes has enabled us to position our brokers as trusted resources, better mitigate exposures, and increase brand awareness," she says. “I certainly recommend them to insurance marketers."

Amy Hourigan is director of marketing and communications at HAI Group, an insurance company focused on the affordable housing market. She also serves on the board of directors of the Insurance Marketing & Communications Association.