Leveraging ScoreApp to attract email subscribers

What is ScoreApp?

You may have heard of Daniel Priestley, he's an Australian entrepreneur who's now based in the UK. He mainly focuses on helping small business owners start and grow their businesses and offers various tools to assist that outcome - one of which is his software platform called 'ScoreApp'.

Essentially, it's a quiz/assessment/test/scorecard* software platform that he sells using a SaaS** model, i.e. you pay a certain amount each month to access a set of features - the more you pay, the more features you get.

There's a free plan to get you started, however, there are restrictions as you'd imagine, e.g. you can collect a maximum of 10 subscribers per month, and are limited to just one 'live' scorecard.

The basic premise is that you create scorecards that present a set of questions, and based on the responses, the system generates a personalised report, scoring the participant in relevant categories (as set by you).

Scorecards can be configured so that anyone undertaking one must provide their name and email address, so it's a great way to grow your email list with interested leads.

To find out more about ScoreApp and its pricing, here's the link: scoreapp.com

*For ease of reference, I'll use the term 'scorecard' in the rest of this article.

**SaaS = Software as a Service

In this article, I'll cover the following 3 sub-topics of the ScoreApp platform;

1. The ScoreApp scorecard components
2. How to integrate ScoreApp with ConvertKit
3. How I collect, share, and reuse the data collected from ScoreApp

Watch me create a scorecard in ScoreApp and automatically share the data with ConvertKit

The ScoreApp scorecard components

Each 'scorecard' in ScoreApp is created for a single and unique outcome - e.g. if you wanted to create two 'quizzes' (remember, you can refer to scorecards as whatever makes the most sense for your business), you need two separate 'scorecards' in Scoreapp.

For every scorecard you create, there are 3 main components that you need to create or configure;

1. The landing page (including page settings)
2. The questions (including categories)
3. The results page (including page settings)

1. The landing page

This is the page where you'll direct your interested leads so they can learn more about what the scorecard will help them with, how to get started, and what to expect once they've completed the scorecard.

The URL for each scorecard can be edited inside the landing page settings, as shown below;

I subscribe to the 'Starter' plan, so there are certain features I don't have access to, e.g. removing the ScoreApp branding.

In the settings, each option is pretty obvious what it does, however, the two main settings are the 'Name' of the scorecard and the URL that you'll share with your audiences.

The landing page builder

To create a landing page, head to the main dashboard and click on the '+ New Scorecard' button - this will open the page builder wizard;

You can choose to start from scratch using a blank canvas, pick from the list of created templates, or use the AI wizard that's been recently introduced in beta mode.

If you choose the template option, you'll see a list of categorised templates to choose from. don't get too hung up on the exact elements on each page, or the colours etc., as you can change these when you begin to edit the page;

You'll see a list of categories down the left-hand side of the screen to choose from; as you click on each category, the list of templates shown will change to reflect your filter criteria.

Think of your landing page as being a regular web page, as essentially, that's what it is, but hosted by ScoreApp for you.

Like any good web page builder, ScoreApp provides an easy click-and-drag interface that lets you add more sections, all of which come with predefined templated layouts that you can edit to match your preferences.

See the example below of adding a section to an existing landing page;

Down the left-hand menu, there is a list of section types that you can select; on selection, the possible options are then listed to the right of the section, allowing you to click on the desired section template and add it to your landing page - this list of section types are;

• Banners
• On-page forms
• Call to actions
• Testimonials
• Categories
• Videos
• Content
• FAQ

You can add as many sections as you wish, although I'd recommend keeping it relatively short as you could give too much content for your potential subscribers and distract them from the main objective, i.e. to complete the scorecard!

Your finished landing page should be succinct, clear, and easy on the eyes, making it appealing to anyone who lands there.

The landing page 'page settings'

Each scorecard landing page you create has associated settings that you can configure to match your preferences and enhance your ability to be found online.

Below, is an image showing the settings you can edit; (these settings are accessed by clicking on the 'Page Settings' link, from within the scorecard landing page).

The 'Page Name' should include a meaningful title that encompasses what the landing page is about, but also any keywords that will help your landing page be found when someone searches for what you do; e.g. I would include terms like 'email marketing', 'content marketing', and 'small business' as those are relevant to me and my business and potentially what people will type into Google.

The 'Title Tag' will be displayed as hover text when you move the mouse over the web browser tab of the landing page.

The 'Meta Description' helps your page to be found by search engines although it'll never be seen by those visiting the landing page. Add terms here to aid SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

2. The questions

Of course, for every scorecard you create, you'll need questions that your subscribers will be asked. Each question can be tagged with a 'Category', although doesn't need to be.

For example, in the scorecard in this article, I ask questions in these 3 categories;

1. Email marketing
2. Content marketing
3. Business best practices

Categorising your questions allows you to score your subscribers accordingly in each category; so, in my example, someone may score highly for email marketing but more lowly in the other 2 categories.

The combined scores from all categories can be configured to produce the overall score (an optional setting).

Creating a category in ScoreApp

Once logged in to ScoreApp, navigate to 'Questions' from the left-hand-side menu - then click on the 'Categories' link;

Click on the 'Add Category' button to pop the following screen;

You can enter a name, a description for the category, and an icon that will be associated with questions from that category, and finally, choose your preferred scoring logic for the category (i.e. either contributes to the total score or doesn't).

Adding a question

To add a question to your scorecard, click the 'Add Question' button, as shown below; (there is a long list of question types, all of which are fairly intuitive, so choose the most relevant for each question you want to ask);

Once you select the question type, you'll see on the right-hand-side of the ScoreApp desktop, a window that lets you type in your question and add the possible responses - see example below;

For each question you create, you can configure it to behave in different ways. The images below show the settings you can set to your preferences;

Question options (as shown above)

Show instruction: this allows you to add more text that helps explain what you want your subscriber to do, e.g. "Choose as many options as you wish."

Allow multi-select: as the name suggests, the subscriber can choose more than one option from the available list.

Jump to: this gives flow logic to your scorecard, you can configure it so that when a response is given, it'll jump to a certain question in your scorecard.

"Other" option: when selected, this adds a final option to your list called 'Other' - typically this would be used when not all possible answers can be displayed; for example "Which email marketing platform do you use?" could have 3 named options plus 'Other' as a catch-all.

And, for each question, you can configure the options for the possible answers, as shown below;

Answers options (as shown above)

The example above has two possible answers, "Yes" and "No". For each, you can switch on 'scoring' and configure the scorecard to jump to a certain question, depending on the answer.

Below, is an example of how you can configure the 'Answers' options for a "Yes" response;

I have added 2 scoring outcomes for a "Yes" response; if the question is asked in the category of 'Content Marketing' the scorecard will assign +10 points, however, if it's asked as part of the 'Email Marketing' category, it's assigned a value of +5 points.

(This is purely a fictitious example, I created it only to demonstrate how this feature works)

Additionally, I configured the scorecard to jump to a particular question, if the subscriber chooses "Yes" as their response.

3. The results page

As you might guess, this is the page that subscribers are taken to once they have completed the scorecard.

Creating the results page is pretty straightforward using the simple page builder inside ScoreApp, much like the landing page, described above in section 1 of this article.

The results page will take the score for the subscriber, together with any content you have added, and present it to them via a unique URL that is specific to that subscriber, for that particular response to the scorecard (i.e. if a subscriber completes a scorecard twice, there'd be 2 unique URLs created, one for each response).

The image below shows the top section of one of my results pages;

The list of sections available in the landing page builder is also available for the results page builder.

It's good practice to add a CTA (Call To Action) to the end of your results page where subscribers may wish to take things to the next stage with a 1:1 review call (or whatever works best for you and your sales process).

Below is an example of one of my CTAs;

Again, just like the landing page, you can make the results page as long as you wish, but I'd recommend keeping it succinct to keep focus on the desired outcome.

I keep my results page short for a very specific reason - because I create a very detailed and personalised report via email which is automatically emailed to each subscriber after they complete the scorecard.

I cover 'how' I do this in a section below in this article, so read on to see how I do this, step-by-step.

The results page 'page settings'

Just the same as the landing page (shown in the 'landing page' section, above), the results page can also be configured, however, is less relevant since it's never going to be indexed or found by anyone as it's unique to a subscriber.

My recommendation is to leave it with its default settings.

How to integrate ScoreApp with ConvertKit

One of the most powerful (and helpful) features of ScoreApp is its ability to natively connect to other platforms, and specifically for me, ConvertKit - my preferred email marketing platform.

Connecting the two platforms is a simple process.

From the ScoreApp desktop, click on the 'Integrate' button in the left-hand menu and look for your platform on the right-hand side of the page.

If yours isn't listed, then, unfortunately, a native connection isn't yet possible (check back regularly though, as new integrations are happening - and there is also an alternative way of connecting, however, you'll need the help of an intermediary platform such as 'Zapier').

In my account (image above), you can see that ConvertKit is already connected, however, you'll see it as an available option to choose from when you view this screen.

Connecting ConvertKit is a wizard-click-along type process where you'll be asked to provide your unique API key - you can get that from your ConvertKit account by clicking on 'Settings' inside ConvertKit and clicking on 'Advanced'; you can then copy your API key.

Once connected, you'll see the screen below; (this is the top section of a longer page);

In the settings above, you can select the 'FORM' you wish to use from ConvertKit to map the subscriber details in ScoreApp with ConvertKit (you'll see a drop-down list of your ConvertKit forms).

The 'form' you choose will never be seen or used on any page, it's merely a technical mapping to make the data sharing work as expected and a place for you to create your confirmation email (inside ConvertKit, it's referred to as your 'Incentive email' - basically, the email that subscribers receive as soon as they sign up, asking them to confirm their email address).

To create your form on ConvertKit, just click on the 'Grow' > 'Landing Pages & Forms' menu option and click on the '+Create New' button.

Click on 'Form' and you'll be taken to the form editor. Rename the form to something meaningful and easily recognisable for future reference.

Now, click on 'Settings' to edit your incentive email*. Make it relevant to your scorecard and add an image that serves as a visual reminder (and conduit) to your scorecard; see my incentive email below;

*Using an incentive form provides a double opt-in policy for your subscribers, something I recommend you do to protect yourself and your subscribers - for more information on opt-in policies, check out my article here .

In the 'OPT-IN STATUS', you can choose which subscribers to add to your email list, however, I always make it mandatory to opt-in otherwise it defeats the purpose of the scorecard.

The remaining two settings here are 'STARTED TAG' and 'FINISHED TAG' - these are the ConvertKit tags that you wish ScoreApp to add to subscriber profiles in ConvertKit whenever they start and complete a scorecard.

I recommend you create new tags specifically for these inside ConvertKit which will then become selectable from the drop-down sections in ScoreApp (refresh your ScoreApp settings page if necessary, after creating your tags in ConvertKit).

The next section of the 'Settings' page is shown below - this is where you map the lead form fields, i.e. the subscriber's first name and email address;

Because your ScoreApp account is now connected to ConvertKit, again, the ConvertKit fields are selectable - map the subscriber's first name and email address to the relevant fields.

Next, we can begin to map other collected data fields to ConvertKit using 'Custom Fields'. To create a custom field in ConvertKit, go to 'Grow' > 'Subscribers' and click on the first subscriber on the list (it's irrelevant which subscriber you click on as custom fields, once created, become available to every subscriber, not just the one you created it for.

Once you're in the profile of your subscriber, click on the '+ Add a new field' link, at the bottom-left of the subscriber's profile;

This will pop a new text box for you to create your 'custom field', just like the one shown below;

??Pro tip: When creating a custom field, use meaningful names, all lowercase, and no spaces - join the words with underscores; this will save you problems in future when it comes to parsing data and inserting it into emails.

Once you've entered the name of the custom field, leave the 'Field value' text box blank and click 'Update Subscriber' - this field will now be available to every subscriber in your list (note: ConvertKit allows up to 140 custom fields).

Now you're ready to start mapping your other data fields in ScoreApp - one custom field for each answer you wish to import into ConvertKit.

Note

It's worth pausing here to remind you that this is an advanced strategy (i.e. the custom field mapping) and not one you need to do to make ScoreApp and ConvertKit work together.

If you wish, you can make do with just the subscriber name + email address, however, if you don't, you'll be unable to leverage any additional collected data in your email campaigns.

I find it immensely helpful in making my emails much more personal because I can inject specifics that otherwise would be impossible.

The image below shows how to map the ScoreApp data to the custom fields in ConvertKit;

Note: In case you're wondering why no underscores are showing in the ConvertKit fields you can see listed above - I don't know; I suspect it's a formatting thing that ScoreApp does, however, I can assure you the underscores are there in ConvertKit and are relevant.

That may have seemed like a bit of a slog, getting that set up - but once done, it'll just work, and for as many subscribers as you wish to collect, so a worthwhile exercise!

How I collect, share, and reuse the data collected from ScoreApp

Okay, we're on the final stretch now - we've integrated ScoreApp with ConvertKit and collected data using our scorecard; now we want to use the data we collected and share it with our subscribers.

In my scorecard "The Small Business Jigsaw", I ask 15 one-click questions; each answer is captured and persisted to ConvertKit against the subscriber's profile.

This means that I collect 15 answers and I can use those to automatically build an email that provides a detailed report for each subscriber.

The first thing I did was create an email template for my email report - this means that every subscriber gets the same layout for their individual results.

To achieve this, I use conditional Liquid templating inside the email and make every report bespoke to each subscriber (for reference, my scorecard has 1.3 million possible permutations, depending on how each question is answered).

Below is an example of the Liquid code being used to check for subscribers' responses to questions;

The text shown above that's in red is the Liquid code that tests the answer for each question, for each subscriber and then inserts the corresponding text into the report email.

The example you can see above looks complex at first glance, but it's not - it's quite simple. It's basically checking if the subscriber responded with a "Yes" or a "No" and then inserting the relevant text.

Learning Liquid is beyond the scope of this article, but just know that it's not programming or anything nearly as difficult - think of it as advanced text with fancy tags; once you learn the basic few tags and operators, you'll be off and running!

Want to take my scorecard?

The scorecard that I reference in this article can be taken by clicking on the link below. Just answer 15 one-click questions and receive your personalised report in minutes.

Take my scorecard now and discover what opportunities await!

John Bellingham Email marketing strategist for aspirational small business owners.

If we haven't already done so, let's connect on LinkedIn.

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