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We began using Atrivial with a little hesitation because we were wondering if anyone actually wants to play trivia in their inbox?

Turns out, that’s an emphatic yes.

Quiz content is one of the few formats that consistently pulls a reader back to click twice, not once (once to answer, once to see if they got it right). In this case, there’s also coming back to check on the leaderboard and more.

Now, Atrivial is built specifically for newsletter publishers and content creators who want to turn what they've already written into something interactive. And it’s for anyone, but especially those without learning a design tool or briefing a developer.

It takes your articles, a URL, an RSS feed, or just plain ol’ pasted text, and uses some really sharp AI to draft a full quiz (questions, multiple-choice answers, pretty much the lot).

You review it, edit whatever needs editing, and publish when you're happy.

And one of the best parts is that you can set this as an ongoing, automated thing too!

No need to manually create these if you’ve set them up as recurring trivia either, which is where value deepens.

Customers already using it include the likes of All About Email (yes, the very same newsletter our community knows from Simon Harper) and the team at HeyNews (who we only just featured in Volume 7).

All good company to be tested alongside, in our books.

But you’re here for the practical stuff, so let's walk you through how it actually works.

The workflow is genuinely three steps. And you don’t need to be technical to work through the platform, which is great considering how much new stuff email senders need to figure out daily.

Here's the breakdown:

1. Connect your content

Paste an article, drop in a URL, or connect an RSS feed as an ongoing source. The more specific the source material, the sharper the questions Atrivial drafts.

The team is also working on some neat email platforms integrations too, just sayin’.

2. Generate your quiz

Atrivial's AI drafts a full quiz edition in the background (questions, answer choices, and the correct answer flagged). You're never really starting from a blank page, unless you want to.

There are heaps of styling options to match your brand, CI and format. And, we’ll get to this, but there’s a MASSIVE monetisation opportunity for email senders in the Sponsorship tie-ins you can use and customise here.

3. Review, edit, and publish

Every draft edition lands in your portal before it goes anywhere near a reader. Edit individual questions, regenerate from the source, tweak questions and answers, or approve it as-is. Nothing ships without your sign-off.

And getting it into your email is easy! The team at Atrivial have styling options to match the requirements most email platforms require, but you can pick adding the code to your mail, embedding it on an external page or purely sharing a link.

The choice, dear gentle reader, is yours.

And about those ongoing quizzes…

You can point an entire RSS feed at Atrivial and set a schedule. A fresh draft edition waits for your review each time it fires, or there’s the autopilot that handles things without your intervention.

Set it, forget it, (or human-review, your call), and you’re good to go.

There are a few things that take this from a nice-to-have gimmick from something actually worth your time.

The team at Atrivial have kept email and audience psychology in mind while building this platform, too.

Here are a few things that tick the “really solid” box:

1. Scoring, streaks, and leaderboards

Readers build a score as they play, keep streaks alive across editions, and can see themselves on a leaderboard against other readers. It’s a small mechanic, but it's the reason someone opens tomorrow's email too, not just today's.

There’s a reason platforms like Duolingo encourage streaks, because it works! Plus, seeing your name up in lights after taking the trivia is the moral boost readers need while wading through their inboxes too.

Readers and players can earn badges, gain XP, review their accuracy and also tap into Atrivial’s Daily Challenges, so this environment takes it to the next level for engagement.

2. Newsletter integration

The first question drops straight into your email as static content, with a hosted quiz link taking readers through to play the rest. Right now, that's a native, plug-and-play block if your email provider has HTML blocks available.

You also have the option of using a hosted link manually rather than using a purpose-built block, but there are options suited to your style, preferences and setup, which helps.

3. Website embed

For websites, there’s also a responsive iframe embed, so the same quiz can live on your site too, not just your inbox.

Simply approve your domain in the tool and, voila, another great incentive to keep those site visitors engaged (or a really neat audience growth tool, if you’re smart about it 😏).

4. Direct hosted links

For all that sharing on social or in your community, this becomes easy to do without needing an email or a website at all.

And we suspect at the rate this platform is developing, there are a heap more options and features incoming, all in the name of helping build what matters:

Audience engagement.

Sponsorship placements

Now THIS is where smart newsletter operators can capitalise on Atrivial.

Add a sponsor's logo, a short message, and a link directly into the quiz experience, plus a custom end-screen call-to-action once the reader finishes playing.

If you're building out sponsorship inventory, that's a seriously unique slot to sell than "logo in the footer." It’s one of the reasons we’re bullish on this platform too.

Zero-party data

Every answer a reader gives you is a small, voluntary signal about what they actually care about.

That's more useful than most of what you'll get from an open or even sometimes a click, and it's data you can use to segment on later.

Analytics

There’s also a solid metrics dashboard that breaks down engagement, plays, new vs returning players, and a heap more on streaks and player stickiness.

The kicker is the sponsorship data too. Sponsors will want to know how many players saw their brand, reached their end-screen ad, and how many clicks they received. This is all baked right into the platform.

How long that data sticks around depends on your plan (30 to 90 days on the standard tiers, three years on Enterprise), so if reporting matters to you long-term, check which tier actually gives you the runway you need.

Developer access

There's also a proper API behind all of this too (quiz generation, publishing, embeds by slug, etc.), so if you've got a dev team and want quizzes built into your own CMS workflow rather than the portal, well, that door's open.

Atrivial is doing something genuinely different in a newsletter tools space that's mostly chasing the same AI-writing-assistant idea.

Most of what we cover in this series helps you write or send better. This tool is designed to help you build something to be played, not just read, which is a different engagement lever entirely.

We covered this level of engagement with our friends over at Stripo who use similar engagement-building elements in their email builder, but using these in tandem is likely a game changer.

For a small or mid-sized newsletter, the entry price is low enough to try without agonising over it, and the two-step workflow means you're not signing up for a new skill, but having things run in the background to build engagement.

What we like most:

And, because these overviews are objective, here are improvements we'd love to see:

Overall, Atrivial earns a spot on the list of tools worth a serious look, especially if your audience is the type that likes to be tested and not merely informed.

Atrivial runs three tiers: Individual at $7.99/month for solo creators, Business at $79.99/month with more analytics runway and higher volume, and a custom Enterprise tier for bigger operations.

Every plan comes with a 14-day free trial, so there's no reason not to build one quiz and see how your readers respond.

And, because we’re big on helping our community win, we’ve also got the team at Atrivial to give our readers an exclusive 10% of an extended 30-day trial.

Keen to skip the reading and get started?

Hit the button below to head over to Atrivial, use our code: DES10 when signing up, and give your readers the experience they deserve.

(FYI: This email is part of our collaborative work with Atrivial, but our views remain our own and are in no way influenced. Some links may contain affiliate links, which help support these emails and keep them free, and keeping you looped is the right thing to do)