About the Book
“They Ask You Answer” written by Marcus Sheridan is a fantastic read for bloggers, entrepreneurs, creatives, business owners or anyone who wants to leverage the power of inbound sales and content marketing to grow their business. The book details a simple approach to inbound marketing that works across industries.
The book encourages the reader to always focus on the customer! The book aims to teach readers:
- How to develop genuine content that provides value along the customer journey
- How to get buy-in from others who have authority in the business and industry
- How to elevate your digital presence by delighting customers who spread the word
If you want to engage the modern digital consumer, use this book as a guide on how to modernize your sales and marketing strategy. Click here to purchase a copy on Amazon.
The Big Five Content Topics
One of my greatest takeaways from They Ask, You Answer was the Big Five Content Topics. After years of posting and reviewing the analytics, the author noticed that there were five types of content subjects that generated the greatest among of traffics, conversions, leads and sales.
The five types of content subject include:
- Pricing and Costs:
- Problems
- Comparisons
- Reviews
- Best in Class
These topics parallel what consumers search and research when they are getting ready to make a purchase decision. As consumers, these are the five topics that we are most concerned about. However, as a business, we usually resist publishing these details and instead hope the customer never asks or defer to answer until we are in-person one-on-one.
Content Topics for Your Blog
For each of the five content subject areas, there are a few questions to help you start brainstorming blog articles for your own business.
Pricing and Costs
- How much does your product or service cost?
- Are there variable costs? Or particular factors that will increase or decrease the cost?
- What is included in the base cost? Are there add-ons, accessories, or premium features?
- Can you help prospects understand the factors that influence the cost?
- What are the common pricing approaches in the industry? How does the cost compare to others?
Problems
- What are the most common problems associated with your product or service?
- What makes your product or service a good fit for a customer?
- When is your product or service a poor fit for a customer?
- Would your competition have anything negative to say about your product or services?
Comparisons
- How does one product type compare to another product type?
- How does the underlying technology affect the performance of the product or service?
- How does your brand compare to another brand?
- How is your method or process different from the competition?
Reviews
- Who are the best manufacturers in the industry?
- What are the most reliable platforms, technologies, or products?
- How well does a particular product or service meet an individual’s needs and wants?
Best in Class
- Who are the best providers in your industry?
- If you weren’t the right fit, who would you refer to?
Is it Worth the Effort?
When you dive into the world of inbound and content marketing, you realize it takes a lot of time, effort, and work! Is it really worth it?
Here are a few reasons why it is worth it:
- Streamline & Save Time: There are likely a few common customers you get on a regular basis. If you provide a detailed answer through a blog post or another medium, you can simply direct future customers to this resource. That way you save yourself the hassle of answering the same question over and over, while each customer gets the exact same answer!
- Improve the Quality of Leads: Your content can educate prospects and help move them along closer to purchase. Not every lead or prospect is going to be a good fit for your business. Content marketing allows these poor leads to weed themselves out before making contact and wasting your sale forces’ time.
- Transparency Builds Trust: Customers appreciate information and transparency. When you are upfront and transparent, there are no seeds of doubt planted in the customer’s mind, rather they are more inclined to trust your business instead.
- Become an Authority: Customers look for open, honest, and valuable content. If your website provides quality content that is of value, customers will look to your business as their information source in the industry. They will look to you for advice before the competition!
- 24/7 Marketing Tool: After your business closes for the day, your website and content is still available and serves as a 24/7 marketing tool for your business. Even if someone is not available to answer a customer’s call, enable the customer to find the information on your website before visiting the competition.
Kreative Solutions practices what we preach! We believe it is worth the effort and invest a significant amount of time into blogging, creating content, and being a resource.
Source: Sheridan, Marcus. They Ask You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today’s Digital Consumer. Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2017.
