Want to be recognized as a subject matter expert? One of the easiest and fastest ways to do so is to actively answer questions. I’m not talking about the theoretical questions on your FAQ page. Get out there and answer real questions posed by real people. Provide a thoughtful and helpful answer, and you will have gained one fan for sure, and perhaps an audience of fans who come later looking for the answer to the same question.
Here’s how this works.
1. Find the Right Questions
Finding the right questions is so important. This starts internally, believe it or not. Spend some time really analyzing your business. What makes you money? What leads people to buy from you?
You’re goal in becoming an expert is to draw in more customers. So you need to be careful that you are answering questions that mesh with what you offer. You could end up wasting a lot of time answering the wrong questions if you don’t do your internal inventory first.
Now here’s the bad news. The best questions may not get asked. People who may be potential buyers may not even know enough to ask the right questions. Its the classic example of the buyer who only asks about price, and doesn’t put enough thought into return on cost. As the seller, you wish they would ask you all about value. Unfortunately, people don’t always know the right questions to ask.
Here’s the trick you must learn. If you can’t find anyone asking the right questions, find the questions that lead in toward that right question. You’ll have to lay a trail of bread crumbs. Sometimes that trail will start with a person asking how to do something themselves, and eventually lead them to realizing they would be far better off hiring you to do it for them. Other times, they are already looking to buy, they just don’t have a clue how to go about it. Walk them in by finding the questions that lead to the right questions.
Remember, the right questions are the ones that lead to a sale. You are going to have to test and track to find out which questions are getting asked often enough and which of those leads down the path to the sale.
Now that you know what types of questions to look for, you need to know where to find people asking them. There are a few popular places, and if you do a little research you will turn up a lot more. Start looking on Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers. You can also check out LinkedIn’s Answers section. Perhaps one of the best sources of questions are industry forums. Search for active forums within your industry and join up. Also, Twitter is a great place to find people asking questions. The only problem with Twitter is there is no organization so you need to do some serious digging. You should probably go there after you know what kind of questions you are looking for.
2. Give Good Answers
Once you find the right questions, you can focus on giving really good answers. This is the easiest part. You know your stuff, don’t you? So just get in there and give helpful advice.
Try to word your advice so that it is helpful not just to the one person asking the question, but to a broader audience. What you write in your answer will be popping up in search results for years to come. Nail the answer, and you have bought your self some valuable online real estate.
3. Own the Question
So you’ve found some good questions and knocked it out of the park with your answers. Don’t let it go to waste. When you start answering questions, you will find that some of the answers you give lead to more traffic on your site and to sales. Its time to take ownership of those high value questions.
Doing this is very simple. Take your answer and turn it into a full length article. Include links back to your site and other resources. Make it a step by step answer.
Now, take that article and re-purpose it on multiple high traffic sites. Get it posted on places like Squidoo, eHow, Ask.com, EzineArticles, and more. You already know that people are looking for the answer to the question. If you do this, they will not only see your short answer on a forum, they will find your longer, more informative answer. By posting on high traffic sites, you improve the chances that your answer will be seen in top search results. Own as many of those results as possible. Be the expert of that particular question. And with each result, you have cast a net for future customers.
Remember though, you can waste a lot of time and effort if you do not first identify the questions that will convert best to sales and the ones that are being asked most often.
Any questions?
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Bradford Shimp helps small businesses and professionals build their web presence and increase sales at BroadRiverCreative.com.
