Nick Leffler — January 12, 2018 — January 12, 2018
Growing a business from nothing is one of the biggest challenges of a lifetime. That’s why so few businesses actually succeed past their first year. When you’re just starting out, nobody knows you. It’s your job to change this. Quora marketing is a good free way to become known by connecting with people in your market to grow your business.
There is a right way to market on Quora but there is also a wrong way. This post will focus on a broad overview of how you can effectively use Quora to market your business. I’ve written more in-depth articles on some Quora marketing topics of which I will link to when relevant.
It seems everywhere you look online there’s somebody trying to promote their business and get into peoples face saying “look at me, look at me!”
That’s not a good way to market.
How do you feel when someone does that to you?
I think it’s a pretty good way to turn people off from your business and waste a whole lot of your time.
It seems to be growing in popularity to actually hijack advertisements too. I see a number of comments under ads with people insulting the advertiser and then proceeding to advertise their own business.
That doesn’t seem to be an effective way of marketing a business. In fact, it could negatively impact a business.
I digress though. My point is that marketing a business online isn’t about simply being in someone’s face. Successful marketing comes from setting yourself apart from competition WHILE being in your customer’s face in a helpful way.
Yes, you have to accomplish both at the same time.
Why Quora Is So Good For Marketing
Quora is different than a lot of marketing strategies because it’s not really marketing, it’s helping. Being helpful to people is a much better way to market than traditional forms of marketing.
Marketing is more about helping people which usually means answering their questions and making them feel comfortable you can solve them.
If you search google for keywords in your industry then you’ll find a lot of industry expert articles on the topic. If you search social media for keywords then you’ll find people promoting their content and products.
This same thing happens across the board no matter where you look online. That is, everywhere except Quora. It does happen on Quora but much less frequently than other platforms. If you search industry keywords on Quora then you’ll find people asking important questions. Those questions often don’t have answers and that’s a perfect opportunity for you to help guide them.
These are people who need help and because you’re an expert in your industry, you’re just the one to help them.
Before you can help anyone though, you have to know how to use Quora and set up your profile completely.
Create & Update Your Quora Profile
Before you do anything on Quora make sure you tell (and show) who you are. You shouldn’t go to an industry event with a bag on your head and not tell anyone who you are. So, don’t do that on Quora either!
You can read more about signing up for Quora and answering your first question but I will go over the basics here. I recommend fully setting up your profile before even searching for a question to answer.
From anywhere in Quora you can click on your avatar (upper right corner picture) and then click profile. From there you’ll see the following screen (minus all the green callouts).
Each one of the green callouts above is a section on Quora that can be edited. It’s very important that you do edit each one.
What needs info in your profile
Here are the sections I’ve marked above that you need to complete:
- Upload an avatar picture, preferably of your face so people can see who’s answering their question.
- Your full name. Don’t use business names or just your first name.
- Your default credential. You’ll set up several credentials (depending on what question you’re answering) but this is your primary and most used credential. Each credential should answer why you’re qualified to answer this question.
- A full bio of yourself. You can include all the details about you, what you do, and why you do it. You’re allowed to put links and more in this section but don’t go overboard.
- Credentials and highlight are one of the most important sections. You can add many different credentials here to match the specific question you’re answering. You don’t have to predict the questions you’ll be answering though, you can add new credentials on the fly as you’re answering questions. It’s best to tailor each credential to each question you answer.
That’s it for the absolute requirements for your profile. Fill out all the relevant information you can and then it’s time to find some questions to answer.
Seek Questions From Your Industry
Once your profile is prettied up and you look like a qualified question answerer it’s time to move into actually answering questions.
It’s fairly easy to find questions on Quora. To be thorough in your search though you’ll want to vary the keywords you use and search different specific topics within your industry.
It all starts at the top of the Quora box where you can search for anything. You won’t always have to search for questions though.
As you start answering questions on certain topics, Quora will learn your preferences and start proactively sending you questions on your most loved topics.
Not only will Quora send you questions people are asking, they’ll send you popular questions which have a lot of views and a lot of answers. Just because a question has been answered doesn’t mean you won’t have more valuable input though.
Not everyone who answers is as knowledgeable on the topic as you so always give it a shot if you have the knowledge. As you become more well known on Quora you’ll also get more followers. That means you’ll see questions they’re asking and they can even pass questions onto you if they think you’re a good person to answer a question.
Every day I get an email with popular questions and occasionally I’ll receive a question I should answer.
When I get a question sent to me then I’m sure to answer it. To answer a question right though you have to go beyond just a quick answer.
Answer Questions Completely And In Depth
The expectation when you answer a question on Quora goes quite a bit beyond what you might expect. Answers that are successfully upvoted and helpful tend to be thorough and go beyond simply answering a question in a few sentences.
In order to reach a bigger audience on Quora for your business, you have to give really good answers. Yes, it’s so important I dedicated a large chunk of a post to how to effectively answer Quora questions.
People who ask questions on Quora expect in-depth answers to their questions. The more in-depth and thorough you are the more likely your answers are to get surfaced as the first answer.
Why?
Because if your answer is truly valuable then people will upvote it. That’s what you want more of. Answers with more upvotes get surfaced at the top of the answers section of each question.
Not only do highly upvoted answers get put at the top but if a question is sent out in an email then it’s sent to others who would be interested. That means you’ll reach a much larger audience.
Give yourself a little credit when you answer questions too. Cite resources to many places but also don’t forget to cite your own website and your own work.
You’re doing all this answering for a reason so don’t forget to include a link to your business, a blog post, or something else relevant to your answer (maybe a product or solution).
It’s perfectly fine to supplement your answer with a link to your own website as long as it’s done in a tasteful way. If you want your answers to be seen (and upvoted) even more then you can always promote your own answer too.
Share Your Answers (Optional)
It’s true that you don’t have to share your answers after you submit them on Quora. It’s also true that you don’t have to post on Quora at all!
Hopefully, you decide to share your answers though because it’s a good way to extend their reach. Not only that but it can also lead to a lot more upvotes for your answer.
You know what that means?
Your answer will get ranked higher than others and you have the potential to become the featured answer.
It’s easy for you to share your answers too. You can do it before you submit your answer or after the fact. Either way, Quora makes it easy.
To share your answer before you submit it simply select the box next to either Twitter or Facebook before clicking the submit button.
After you post your answer Quora will give you two convenient links, one for Twitter the other for Facebook. Add a custom message, share it on your preferred network and you’re done.
You can share your answers anywhere though and I encourage you to do so. Maybe you have a more engaged audience on LinkedIn. If so, take advantage of that and share your answer on LinkedIn.
The goal of your business is to get business. In order to get business, you have to be seen and your value has to be understood.
Be Helpful And Be Seen
Being seen as a business means you have to be seen as different from your competitors. It means your value has to be higher than everyone else’s.
The more helpful you are the more your business will be understood and seen as valuable. Quora is a great way to get yourself out there to be seen and understood.
You have a lot of options when it comes to social media and where to be seen but not all of them will be as powerful as Quora. That doesn’t mean Quora is automatically the best solution for your business though.
There are a lot of places on social media you can be and Quora is just one of your options. Quora is good for some industries but not for all. Sometimes you have to find the right social media niche for your industry and social media demographics will give you a hint.
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