Let’s look at some stats. Quora has 1.5 million unique visitors every month, and the number is growing.
Based on this metric alone, you may want to start a promotional campaign on this social media platform.
For those who need more reasons, I’ve highlighted the main points about Quora and explained the ways that you can use it for marketing. By the end of this article, you’ll know how to use Quora to build a stronger brand for your business.
Table of Contents
- What Makes Quora Different?
- Who Uses Quora?
- What Can You Do There as a Marketer?
- What Will You Get From It?
- What Quora Is Not
- Where Should You Begin?
- How to Get Upvotes?
- How to Use Quora for Content Curation?
- How to Use Quora for Networking?
- Should You Advertise on Quora?
What Makes Quora Different?
Quora is a platform for asking questions and giving answers. While on other social networks you need to work hard to keep prospects engaged and the conversation going, on Quora, people are already asking you to interact with them by answering their questions.
Even if they do not know you or your brand, give them information on their terms, make your answers valuable, and they will follow you. That’s why many marketers are fond of Quora.
Who Uses Quora?
Quora is for sharing knowledge.
Unfortunately, its members do not go there to find out about your business and new products. They have come to talk about their problems, ask important questions, and receive relevant and valuable answers. If you understand this truth about quorans, your marketing strategy there will succeed.
When people are interested in a particular product or brand or want to share their impressions, they ask questions on Quora. But even such brand-related topics are not a place for spammy promotional messages.
If you focus on the questions being asked about your brand, you will see that Quora is an excellent venue for customer listening and communication.
Quora is also a blogging platform, so industry experts (and marketers) use it to repurpose evergreen content and increase brand exposure. Similarly, all quorans follow the authors whose blog posts and answers they like to read.
What Can You Do There as a Marketer?
If you’ve read the previous sections carefully, the answer is clear to you. People go to Quora seeking knowledge, so you will need to share your professional expertise with them. The community is built around experts in all kinds of industries who are willing to spend time answering other people's questions. The quality of answers is what defines Quora’s member experience, so the community is on a constant watch out against spammers and ruthless self-advertisers.
Go to Quora.com and enter the keywords that are most relevant to your business into the search form. If you’ve already created personas of your target audience, come up with a separate set of keywords for each persona. The search will give you a set of questions being asked right now on the topic of your interest. When choosing the ones to answer, pay more attention to those with most views and followers. As you probably understand, the more members follow the question, the more people will see your answer in their feed. These questions are evergreen and get updated with new answers for years. Don’t be overwhelmed with the competition: even if the question already has many answers and comments, there is still something you can bring to the table. Newest answers are displayed at the top, so you have good chances to share your perspective on the topic.
If a question has been asked in the previous week, has 10 or more followers, and there aren’t many good answers yet, give it a shot too.
Also, many questions on Quora rank high organically in Google search. Do SEO research on your keywords, track those Quora discussions, and write killer answers to them.
What Will You Get From It?
That’s all fine.
But why on Earth should you spend time answering other people’s questions? What good can it do for your business?
Glad you asked!
- You can use Quora to promote your brand by linking to your website, blog, and social media accounts in your bio and the answers people get from you.
- You can generate leads from the quorans who are already interested in your topic and seek professional advice.
- As you interact on Quora, you will pay attention to the topics brought up by your target audience and the problems they are facing. You will understand what they want to know and think. For a marketer, Quora is an invaluable tool for social listening and field research. You can not only collect data about your target audience but ask them questions directly!
- Remember your thoughts when you were choosing a theme for your next blog post. Chances are, you were trying to guess what your target audience wants to know right now. With Quora, you don’t need to guess anymore. Search relevant keywords and look through the stats of the questions you find. The most popular ones are the most trending topics for your new blog posts. Moreover, as you look through the answers and comments, you will see what your audience already knows, what your competitors tell them and what reaction specific answers get. Use the data to create new content for your blog.
- If you are on the brink of launching a new product, you can use your blog on Quora to evangelize the target audience. For your followers, create or repurpose a series of posts that shed light on the particular problem that your new product solves. Don’t give direct information about it first. Educate your readers about the industry, its trends and prompt them gently to the necessity of a new solution. By publishing 1-3 such informational posts, you will prepare the grounds for an article where you will describe your new product in full details. And even then, you should not get too promotional. On Quora, you need to give users relevant information first and invite readers to learn about your business second.
What Quora Is Not
Advertising space or a venue for blatant promotion and spam. People will go to your website ONLY if you have answered their questions so well that they want to read more from you.
Where Should You Begin?
Create a profile on Quora using your personal Google+, Facebook account or email.
Fill in the “About me” section as fully as possible, keeping your marketing goals in mind. Make sure you add the name of your business to the “Credentials” section of your profile. In the short bio below, compress the most important information into the first sentence because everyone will read it in the preview.
Writing an impressive bio and adding credentials is how you establish authority right from the start. Quora allows setting different credentials for various topics, so you can alter the text that everyone will see next to your name when reading your answers.
When writing a new credential, come up with a short (50 characters maximum) line that explains why you are knowledgeable on the particular topic. If you are using Quora to increase brand exposure, you every credential should contain your company and product name.
Also, your bio is where you can add links to your website and social media accounts without looking too promotional. Create anchors for links that you add to your bio; they may contain calls to read more from you or follow you on other platforms.
Chose a professional and friendly-looking photo for your profile.
Along with your personal profile, you need to start a topic for your business. Give it your brand name and send requests to other quorans to review the topic. There, you can ask customers about their impressions of your service and answer their questions about your business. Other members will be able to edit this page, so make sure you keep an eye on the discussion. If there already are active discussions about your brand or product, you can participate in them, edit them. And try to lead them in a favorable direction. These discussions are your ideal tool for raising brand awareness and increasing customer happiness.
How to Get Upvotes?
It is from the first two lines of an answer that people decide whether they will continue reading. Keep this in mind when composing your answers.
Check the credentials you’ve added to this topic: do they make it clear why your answers should be trusted? You may also emphasize your experience in the first sentences. For example, you can describe how you have encountered a similar problem in your work and solved it successfully or give examples of your successes in this particular field.
Write with respect and confidence. The style of your writing means as much as the accuracy of the information you share. Remember that most people do not know you personally, so if you sound unconvinced yourself, they will not trust your answers either.
When giving “How to” answers and practical recommendations, add screenshots and statistical illustrations to amplify your point.
It is crucial that your answers are accurate. Double-check everything. Quora bans users for giving inaccurate answers even if they didn't mean to.
Answers that contain outward links to authoritative sources and information about the latest research get upvoted more. Even if you are an expert in your area, spend some time finding fresh data on the topic.
If you want to use your already published content in an answer, do not copy and paste it. Instead, write a small enticing snippet and add a link to your website for those who want to read the entire article. It is essential, though, that the snippet already contains useful information, so the answer does not look spammy.
Copy all your answers into one document, and in several weeks, you will have a pool of content to use when compiling new answers. Never copy one answer into another without making changes, Quora hates lazy writers.
How to Use Quora for Content Curation?
If you are already running a blog on your website, you definitely should repurpose your content for Quora. Start a blog there and publish your most successful articles.
Do not republish the articles you are counting on for SEO purposes, because your posts on Quora may rank higher on Google than the original articles. But wouldn't it be great to rank high in Google with some other posts? Add links to your website for your answers and use Quora’s high domain authority to draw organic traffic.
After you’ve spent some time on Quora, use the analytics tool to see the most popular answers. Use them to create new posts for your blog and social media accounts. Also, pay attention to the wording used by quorans when creating headlines for your posts.
How to Use Quora for Networking
To be recognized as an influencer on Quora and get followers, you need to be continuously active on at least one topic. Choose your topics wisely. Think about your marketing personas and their interests.
Always check out the people who comment and upvote your answers. If you follow them, they will get notified and may follow you back. Also, pay particular attention to your followers. Open the list and choose the people you would want to contact personally. You can ask them a new question or request their answer to an existing one. When these quorans give their answers to you, all their followers will see the discussion in their feeds.
Read, upvote, and comment on answers written by other authors. Quora is a lively community, and you should spend some time participating in relevant discussions.
Quora is a wonderful place for networking. If you follow popular topics for some time, you will see who the most influential writers are. Open the profiles of the people whose answers impress you and contact them with a message or with a question. You can recognize a distinguished member by the number of questions answered and upvotes received in their profile. You can tag these people when writing your answers to draw their attention and start a conversation. Just make sure your answers are worth their attention, and you are not annoying anyone. Like in real-life communication, on Quora, it takes time to be recognized as a valuable community member and get responses.
Should You Advertise on Quora?
With Quora, you will be advertising among the people who are actively seeking information on a particular topic. Your ads won’t be as customized and nice-looking as on Facebook or Instagram (no visuals are allowed in ads). However, they will be put neatly between the answers in a thread, so the eyes of the topic viewers will be on them. For more information, check out our guide to creating Quora ads.
Have you learned anything new about Quora from this article?
Did you enjoy reading it? Please rate it and share your thoughts in the comments.
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