In these challenging times, it’s understandable that many small businesses and start-ups - that already had limited budgets- will be even more strapped for cash.
Just because you’ve got a small budget, doesn’t mean that you can’t promote your business and get it noticed online- it just means that you’ve got to be savvy about it. Whether it’s brand experiences or digital marketing, you need to find a cost-effective way to promote your company.
That means trying to find free or cheap ways to get noticed. There are plenty of platforms and solutions that promise amazing results, but they don’t always deliver the results that you need.
One platform that I feel doesn’t get the credit it deserves is Quora. Many businesses view it as simply a place to ask questions and find the answers, but it’s much more than that. If you use it right, the platform can help you to market your business and grow your digital presence.
If you don’t believe me, or you’ve never even heard of using Quora for content marketing, then keep reading, and I’ll talk more about what it is and why you need to be incorporating it into your B2B marketing strategy.
What Is Quora?
Quora is a question and answer platform that began in 2009 and has since risen to become one of the top Q&A sites on the market today. You might ask why you should use Quora for content marketing though?
The platform now has
300 million monthly unique users, and is frequently at the top of coveted Google searches, particularly for question searches.
An account on the platform is free, and users have the option to ask questions as well as answer them. You can create a profile with an image and a short biography of yourself to show the world why you should be taken seriously.
Quora is also an ideal way for new businesses to build trust, as you can quickly prove yourself to be knowledgeable and have the experience in your niche that potential customers need.
Once you’ve created an account, you can start following popular profiles that answer the questions you’re interested in, following hashtags and topics to learn more and, of course, asking and answering questions.
You can answer questions on the topics you’re passionate about, and as you do, you’ll receive requests for answers from your fellow Quora users. This is the basic premise of using Quora for content marketing.
The more answers you provide, the more people will start requesting your answers. Your answers can be ‘upvoted’ by other users- effectively seconding your answer and indicating that it’s worth reading.
The more upvotes you get, the more likely you are to achieve the coveted ‘top answer’ spot, which can help you to get noticed as your answer could be sent out in the daily Quora email digest, and might reach the top of SERPs.
Your answer can be removed by Quora if it is deemed spammy, rude, or just irrelevant, but you can challenge a removal and, if successful, it will be reinstated. So, using Quora for content marketing is indeed a great strategy to add to your marketing strategy.
The platform offers users the chance to pay for adverts, on a Pay-Per-Click basis. In addition, there are new free features added on a regular basis. For example, there are groups where users can interact with like-minded individuals.
Why Is it Good For B2B Marketing?
Quora offers a myriad of benefits for B2B businesses; namely, you can position yourself as an expert and boost your brand authority.
You can also use the platform to generate leads by finding individuals who regularly ask the same questions, and then funnelling them through the sales process and showing them how your company can help them.
Using Quora for content marketing also allows you to include relevant links in your answers and questions. Links in answers can benefit your business by increasing traffic and helping search engine algorithms to see the relevance and authority of your content.
The platform makes it easy for businesses to build quality links by taking the challenge out of creating anchor texts for your links. When link building, it can be hard to know
how to use anchor texts properly, but Quora makes it easy.
Quora takes the hard work out of anchor text creation by automatically turning the link into the title of your article or page, as illustrated below.
As a result, you’ll save time and effort when including links in your answers. Make sure that your links are relevant, and you can easily build quality links to your site and grow its authority.
Answering questions as a way to use Quora for content marketing is a quick and easy way to market your business and showcase its expertise. You can also offer users and clients alike free advice and support, which they will value- think about it, how many businesses give away anything for free these days?!
By offering your advice and answering questions on Quora, you can show that you’re knowledgeable about your market and committed to sharing your skills and insight with the world.
In addition to showing yourself as an expert, you could also generate leads by using Quora to identify individuals or companies that are in need of your service or product.
Some Quora questions are direct requests for recommendations, so you could recommend yourself or offer a contact form to chat more about their requirements.
Many users include a link to their site and ask for assistance with specific online projects, which you could pitch for in your answer.
You could also use their biography to find their contact details, and then direct message them. Using an account-based marketing (ABM) model, you could personalise your campaign to the Quora user and increase your chances of converting them into paying customers.
When it comes to B2B marketing, Quora is a goldmine of data and allows you to show yourself as an expert, as well as giving you the chance to interact with potential customers and give them something for free.
Once you have contact details and information for users, you can use this information to direct them into your sales funnel and get them on the way to becoming a paying customer.
So, with nothing to lose but a little time, and everything to gain, including potentially lucrative customers, most business owners could use Quora to their advantage if they took the time to learn about it.
If you’ve got an in-house digital marketing expert, or even a small team, then you could get them to learn about this unique platform and get them to start integrating it into your online marketing strategy.
Alternatively, there are some agencies and freelancers who can help you to use Quora to your advantage and save you time, so if you have the budget and not the time, then they could be the ideal solution.
Without either of these resources, it’s still possible for sole trainers and small business leaders to use Quora profitably. As mentioned, you can get a free account, and even a few hours work a week answering a few questions and building a few links could make a major difference in the long-term.
By leveraging Quora the right way, you can turn Quora into your #1 lead source. However, for tangible benefits, you’d need to invest significant time into adding Quora to your digital marketing strategy.
Are Adverts Worth The Money?
As well as free accounts for subscribers,
When using Quora for content marketing, it offers businesses the chance to advertise on the platform.
Adverts on Quora cost money, so for many businesses, the big question is: are they worth it?
Like everything, there are pros and cons of Quora adverts, but in all, I think they’re worth exploring if you’re looking to enhance your marketing strategy and generate potentially lucrative leads.
The company hasn’t had its advert platform for long, so it’s at the cutting-edge of the latest advert trends and is constantly being reviewed and updated. It
launched as a beta to a selection of high-value platforms in 2016 and later became available to anyone.
As such, Quora is a relative newcomer to the advert market and is always adapting its advert offering to suit users.
While this lack of prestige and long-standing reputation might put off some marketers and businesses, you should view it as a positive; Quora ads are flexible and still evolving, and in no way old and stale.
The platform has expanded its offering to include more than just basic, small adverts with exclusively text to images and longer text. There’s even the option to promote an answer to a popular question and make it the top response, no matter how many upvotes or views it has had or how long it has been on the platform.
Some of the many benefits of Quora Ads include:
• Increased brand authority and recognition
• Lots of options so you can tailor your advert to your goals
• Targeted audience means you can generate valuable leads
• The process of bidding for keywords is similar to Facebook’s so you won’t have to learn a new approach
• You can generate new leads for your business using Quora ads
• Once you’ve generated leads, you can funnel them through the sales process using Quora ads
• The bidding process is cost-effective and makes it easy to set a budget for your advert campaign
• The platform has a great reporting system, so you can easily see the analytics and how well the advert has performed
• You can add your advert to the Quora email digest so that it reaches even more users
Incorporate Quora in Your Marketing Strategy And See The Results
Overall, I hope that this article has shown you the benefits that you can get from using Quora for content marketing in your business. The platform is growing and evolving all the time, and if you use it right, you can generate leads, promote your business, boost your brand authority and much more. Don't be like all these businesses who view it as simply a place to ask questions and find the answers, but use it to grow your company. Growth Hackers can help you to establish a strong content marketing strategy for your company. We are one of the top digital marketing & growth hacking agencies that can help your business with SEO, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, and the likes. Contact Growth Hackers if you want to improve your content marketing strategy and increase your revenue.
Hannah Stevenson
I am the Content Marketing Manager at UK Linkology, the UK’s highest-ranking link building agency. I am an experienced content marketer and prolific Quora user, so I understand the platform and how it can benefit many businesses from across the corporate world.
