For content ideas – look at questions you get on a regular basis from both customers and prospects.  Think of all you get and write them down. Whether you come up with 20, 40, or 100 questions, write them down – and then prioritize to be writing your answers.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the number of questions you have written down. No matter how many you have listed, the goal is to create valuable and thorough answers one at a time.

With each completed answer, you’ll have another tool to help you connect with more customers and rise above your competition.

Answering For The Audience Of One

This exercise will aim to be a resource for information in your absence. To be most effective with the answers you create, follow these practical tips:

• Whether writing the answer or filming the answer, speak as you would to an individual asking you the question in person.
• Use stories, analogies, and examples to add color and context.
• Be specific. Use details to help someone truly understand the answer.
• Don’t assume. Avoid industry-specific acronyms or words, phrases, and expressions that only people in your industry would understand. Use simple language, and don’t skip details you think they should know. The reason they are seeking an answer is that they don’t know.

Consider feelings as well as questions

For businesses that deal with parents and family members in the decision-making process, remember to address the feeling that may be involved, even if they don’t come out as questions. Here are a few examples:

• Memory loss facilities / elder care: There is often guilt associated with a familiar member deciding their parents need advanced care. Show you understand that and communicate how you address those feelings.
• Adolescent care: Parents are often stressed when finding help for their children. Consider the emotions you’ve seen and the reasons behind them, and proactively address them with your content writing efforts.
• The fear of letting someone down: Many times, the initial conversation about your products, goods, and services are with someone tasked to find solutions to a problem on behalf of the decision maker. Think of their situation and create content to make their job easier and help them look good.
• Security & opportunity costs: Uncomfortableness can come from a lack of familiarity or the risk of making a new decision. Helping folks see the path of success or benefit through your experience can help lessen that perceived risk.

Examples of questions to brainstorm

• What common objection have you been dealing with? 
• What deals have we lost? Why do you think that is? 
• What questions do you get asked that immediately indicate the buyer is not close to ready to make a decision?
• What do our clients and buyers push back on the most?
• What are our buyer’s biggest doubts or worries (concerning the product, the process, or the company)?
• What do you wish your buyers knew?
• What do your buyers think they know that you have to correct?
• What questions ALWAYS come up with every deal?
• What do you spend the most time dealing with?

Where should the questions come from?

Your normal sales call

Talk with your sales team and ask what the ‘average’ sales call looks like. Chances are it’s filled with many of the same types of questions, if not the exact same questions. On average, about 80% of a normal sales call includes the same questions as the last one…and the one before. If the question comes up repeatedly, that should become a priority question to answer thoroughly and have available on the website (and yes, this includes pricing).

Common service questions

Existing customers have questions too. Poll your service team on what calls and conversations take up much of their day, and you’ll have a great list to work from.

Hiring / recruiting interview questions

Think of the ideal candidate for the open positions that you have. What information do you wish they had prior to interviewing with your company? Like with sales and service, many questions and conversations will be the same from applicant to applicant. Make better use of the time you talk with candidates – and attract higher-quality, better-fit candidates by getting detailed and thorough hiring answers crafted as part of your content plan.

The seasonal ebb & flow of your business

Most businesses have a predictable pattern to the products and services their customers are interested in or sell best during specific times of the year. Map out what that cycle looks like for your business and create a list of hot topic questions and topics you’d want your customers to know about beforehand.

Four specific ways question-based content will help your company

Show off your experience and expertise when you’re not in the room

Answering questions and providing thorough details come naturally to most of us when talking with customers face-to-face or on the phone. But what about when potential customers are not talking to you directly?

Studies show (and our habits confirm) that consumers do their homework on the internet before contacting companies and salespeople.

Some studies have shown that as many as 70% of customers who reach out to companies have already decided what or where to purchase.

Think about the answers and information you’re providing on your own website. Having thorough and complete answers to consumers’ questions helps you foster connections and make your company the one customers want to call. When developing your answers, write like you’d talk if the customer was on the phone. Be friendly, helpful, and thoughtful. The answers will help you make a positive impression on potential customers even when you’re not in the room.

Help you and your staff share the same information

Expanded answers to frequent questions can be beneficial to your staff as well as your customers.If you have employees who answer the phone, greet customers in the store or reply to email inquiries, then you know how hard it can sometimes be to ensure everyone has the same answers and information.

Developing ‘official’ answers as a company to the questions your business receives on a regular basis can help provide your employees with the foundation they need to be consistent in their answers. (Tip – these answers also work great for brochures, sell sheets, and social media posts).

Reply faster with less work.

If email is a part of your business day, you most likely have spent time remembering what you wrote last time you answered the same question that’s before you know.  When you have a library of thorough answers to turn to, email replies become faster and simpler for you and your employees.

Rather than spending 1/2 hour trying to find the right answers, you can link to the answer on your website. It’s incredibly satisfying to reply promptly and equally impressively to your customer that you’ve taken the time to develop the answer.

SEO – provide Google with great content

Remember, if customers ask you questions as part of the sales process, they also ask Google. Creating thorough and complete answers to your frequent questions will help you get noticed by Google.  Creating detailed content increases the opportunity for your website to be shown as a resource when the questions are asked on Google.

Being shown more by Google means more opportunities to increase website traffic and sales leads to your business.