Ulta Beauty’s “Skincare Routine Quiz”: A Personalized Marketing Case Study

Outgrow
8 min readSep 11, 2024

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In today’s skincare market, brands seek innovative ways to connect with customers and address their unique needs. Ulta Beauty stands out with its “Skincare Routine Quiz,” designed to identify users’ skin types, concerns, and preferences for personalized skincare routines.

Curious about how Ulta Beauty crafted a successful marketing funnel with this quiz? This blog will delve into the quiz’s mechanics and the strategy behind it. Plus, we’ll provide a no-code, step-by-step guide to creating your own quizzes. Keep reading to learn more!

The Concept Behind the Skincare Quiz

The concept behind Ulta Beauty’s “Skincare Routine Quiz” is based on the understanding that every individual’s skin is unique, with varying types, concerns, and goals. The traditional method of browsing numerous products can be overwhelming, leading to frustration and wasted money.

Ulta acknowledged that skincare solutions are not one-size-fits-all. What works for one person may not work for another, even with similar skin types or concerns. This insight led to the development of a personalized, tailored approach to skincare recommendations.

How Does the Ulta Quiz Work

Ulta Beauty’s “Skincare Routine Quiz” is a user-friendly tool designed to match individuals with the ideal skincare products for their unique needs. Rather than overwhelming users with numerous options, the quiz offers a guided, step-by-step process.

  • Users start by choosing their main skin concerns (e.g., oily skin, acne), specific product types (e.g., cleanser, moisturizer), or opting for an in-depth skin analysis.
  • If they select concerns or products, the quiz follows up with detailed questions about their skin, addressing issues like large pores, dryness, and aging.
  • Based on user responses, the quiz provides tailored recommendations. For instance, if a user needs an oil-control face wash, it will suggest suitable cleansers for oily skin. For those seeking a hydrating moisturizer, it will offer recommendations that won’t clog pores.

Why Is the Quiz a Huge Success

Ulta Beauty is highly popular, attracting over 45 million visitors each month, with 35% of that traffic focused on skincare.

Capitalizing on this, Ulta introduced the Skincare Quiz, which has proven to be a massive success. It has transformed how customers approach their skincare routines, offering a seamless, personalized experience that simplifies the complex world of skincare products.

Personalized Recommendations

The success of the quiz stems from its ability to remove guesswork by offering tailored product recommendations based on each user’s unique skin type, concerns, and preferences.

This personalized approach means customers no longer have to sift through numerous options, boosting their satisfaction and confidence in their purchases, and fostering trust and loyalty toward Ulta Beauty.

Convenient and Accessible

A major factor in the quiz’s success is its convenience and accessibility. It provides expert-level advice without the need for costly consultations or in-person visits.

Accessible from home, the quiz eliminates the hassle of store visits or endless online browsing, saving time and effort while offering a streamlined solution.

Increased Conversions and Order Values

The quiz’s personalized recommendations positively impact Ulta Beauty’s sales. Tailored suggestions increase the likelihood of purchases, leading to higher conversion rates.

This personalized approach encourages customers to explore and buy more products, boosting order values. By curating product selections, the quiz reduces cart abandonment due to indecision or confusion.

Comprehensive Product Selection

Ulta Beauty’s extensive inventory of over 25,000 products ensures that there is something for everyone, regardless of their specific concerns or preferences. The quiz helps customers narrow skincare options based on concerns, desired product types, and price range. It also considers personal preferences like cruelty-free, vegan, oil-free, all-natural, and gluten-free.

This level of customization and inclusivity caters to a diverse range of customers, further contributing to the quiz’s success. Ulta Beauty’s Skincare Routine Quiz addresses the pain points of skincare shopping and offers a personalized and effective solution. It has cemented its status as a game-changer in the beauty industry, simultaneously driving customer satisfaction and sales success.

Who Is This Quiz For

There are several businesses that can benefit from such quizzes. They can create a better customer experience by providing better suggestions and increasing customer satisfaction. Here are a few examples of businesses that can use this quiz:

  • Beauty Brands and Retailers: Companies that manufacture or sell skincare products can leverage this quiz to provide personalized recommendations to their customers. By integrating the quiz into their websites or in-store experiences, they can enhance customer satisfaction, increase conversions, and drive sales of their products.
  • Dermatologists and Estheticians: Skincare professionals can utilize the quiz as a pre-consultation tool to gather insights into their clients’ skin concerns, preferences, and goals. This can streamline the consultation process, allowing them to provide more targeted and effective treatment plans.
  • Influencers and Beauty Bloggers: Social media influencers and beauty bloggers can incorporate the quiz into their content strategy, offering their followers a personalized skin care experience. This can increase engagement, build trust, and potentially open new revenue streams through sponsored partnerships or affiliate marketing.
  • Beauty Subscription Services: Companies that offer beauty subscription boxes can use the quiz to curate personalized product selections for their subscribers. This tailored approach can increase customer satisfaction, reduce churn, and differentiate their service from competitors.
  • Spas and Wellness Centers: Businesses that offer skincare treatments and services can integrate the quiz into their customer experience. By understanding each client’s unique skin needs, they can recommend tailored treatments and product recommendations. This can enhance the overall experience and potential for repeat business.
  • Corporate Wellness Programs: Companies prioritizing employee wellness can offer the skincare quiz as part of their wellness initiatives. This can promote self-care, boost morale, and position the company as an attractive employer in the competitive job market.

What if you don’t lie in the above categories?

Even if your business doesn’t fall into these categories, you can still benefit from using quizzes. For example, if you run an eCommerce store, a product recommendation quiz can enhance conversions and customer engagement.

Now, the question is, how do you create such quizzes? Well, Outgrow solves this problem. Outgrow is a no-code tool that allows you to easily create interactive quizzes, chatbots, calculators, surveys, and assessments without any coding knowledge.

With its user-friendly interface and drag-and-drop editor, anyone can create engaging content in a matter of minutes. Outgrow offers various templates for different industries. This includes e-commerce, education, finance, healthcare marketing, and more. You can also customize the design and branding to match your brand’s identity.

How to Build Your Quiz With Outgrow

Here are all the steps you can follow to build your quiz with Outgrow:

1. Sign Up for Outgrow

First, sign up for a free Outgrow account to access the quiz builder. Select ‘Outcome Quiz’ from the list of interactive content types.

2. Pick a Template

Choose a clean, skincare-focused template or design layout. Ulta’s quiz has a simple, modern aesthetic.

3. Import Product Catalog into Outgrow

Import your skincare product catalog into Outgrow. You can do this via integrations for platforms like Shopify, manually via Excel, or by entering products one by one.

4. Work on Designing

Customize the overall design to match your brand’s look and feel, similar to how Ulta uses its signature colors, fonts, and minimal styling.

5. Set the Welcome Screen

Set up the welcome screen with a friendly, engaging message about finding the perfect skincare routine, like Ulta’s “Reveal your skin.”

6. Add Questions

Add questions aimed at identifying the user’s skin type, top concerns, and preferences. Ulta asks about oiliness, dryness, sensitivities, anti-aging needs, etc. Structure questions in a logical flow, starting with high-level skin type and then zeroing in on specific issues and needs, as Ulta does.

7. Configure Lead Form

Configure the lead form by setting its position, adding fields (name, email, phone number), enabling field validations, and configuring lead enrichment and de-duplication settings. Customize the lead form’s design, layout, and submission delay if you plan to place it mid-quiz.

8. Set Up Outcomes

Set up the outcomes by adding outcome headings, descriptions, media (images, videos, charts), and primary/secondary CTA buttons. Configure outcome page settings like overall heading/subheading, CTA button actions, number of displayed outcomes, and social share buttons. Customize the outcome page’s design.

9. Map Your Suggestions

Map your product recommendations to the outcomes, showcasing the products best suited for that skin profile.

Now, to configure Advanced Mapping, toggle on the Advanced Mapping settings. As soon as you enable the advanced mapping, you can set a score weightage of each option with a score increase or decrease option.

Once you assign the point weightage, save the changes by clicking on map outcomes.

If you need to adjust the score weightings assigned to the answer options, you can easily reconfigure them by clicking the “Reset” icon in the Advanced Mapping section.

10. Make it Live

Publish and market your skincare quiz through channels like Ulta does on their website, emails, ads, etc.

Conclusion

In the crowded world of skincare, delivering a personalized experience is everything. That’s why Ulta Beauty’s “Skincare Routine Quiz” is such a genius move.

By investing in an exceptional personalized quiz experience, you can help your customers cut through the clutter and find the products perfectly tailored to their needs. The best part is that you can do all these things without going deep into coding or design.

Choose a one-stop solution like Outgrow and create quizzes, surveys, calculators, chatbots, and more. And this will quickly change how your customers interact with your brand. We promise!

So why wait? Start your 7-day free trial today and elevate your skincare game with an interactive quiz.

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Outgrow

#1 B2B Tech Company in New York. Outgrow old marketing. Engage your customers with interactive calculators, quizzes and recommendations: http://bit.ly/2x1JCGC