Quora is often thought of as a place to go for answers to pressing questions, but it can also be used as a powerful sales tool. Small businesses can leverage Quora to generate leads and sales by publishing content that is relevant to their target audience, participating in relevant discussions, and answering questions from potential customers. By doing so, you can establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and create opportunities to connect with potential customers.
With that in mind, in this post, we will discuss five ways small businesses can use Quora as a marketing tool to generate sales, and I’ll also share some tips on creating amazing answers that drive tons of traffic.
Why you should use Quora to generate sales
Quora can be an extremely valuable tool for small businesses looking to generate leads and sales. Publishing content relevant to your target audience is a great way to reach potential customers and connect with them on a deeper level. Participating in relevant discussions and answering questions from potential customers can also help you build trust and credibility, building your authority as a brand and making it easier for them to convert.
Furthermore, you can also use Quora to find out what your competition is up to and get insights into what potential customers are looking for.
#1: Use Quora to generate high-quality traffic for your website
According to Quora, the platform had over 300 million active users in 2021, and that number has been steadily increasing. This means that by answering questions on Quora, a very large audience will be exposed to your content and your brand. Furthermore, Quora traffic comes from people looking for long-tail keywords. Since Quora has such strong SEO content, and pretty much every question you can think of has already been asked in Quora in every way possible, when you type in a long question on Google, chances are a Quora answer will pop up on one of the top results.
Suppose you write a great answer that gets a lot of views, and you add strategic links that will guide readers to more information on your blog or to a solution they can find on your website. In that case, many of the Quorans who read your answer will turn into traffic for your website.
This is why Quora is such a powerful traffic-building tool. You may attract many potential consumers to your site by targeting relevant questions about your product or service. For example, if you’re running a stock research site, you could answer questions about the stock market’s history, how stocks are predicted to move, why the stock market reacts the way it does and hundreds of other topics.
#2: Use Quora to generate new content ideas
Quora isn’t just a great source of traffic; it’s also a great source of content ideas. Searching on Quora for a particular keyword or topic you’re interested in and filtering the results to just questions will provide a long list of questions people are asking about that particular topic.
This can help you identify content gaps in your blog that you may not be aware of. Additionally, since these questions and answers are within Quora and not on your competitors’ websites, this content gap probably won’t show up on your standard competitor analysis when using tools like ahrefs or SEMRush.
If you manage to identify questions that fit this description, you could gain an advantage over your competition by providing content on your website that others are not. Additionally, by looking at how these questions are worded, you can better understand how real people use the keywords you’re targeting. Adjusting your content accordingly will make it easier for your potential audience to connect with it.
#3: Use Quora for customer support
If you already have an established customer base, people will probably be asking questions about your products or services on Quora. This is something you should leverage to the max. This translates into using Quora as an extra customer support channel that is open and transparent, one that your customers will appreciate.
You don’t want anyone else answering your customers’ questions about your company other than yourself. So, it’s important to find the questions people are asking about you and put in the time to answer them to the best of your ability.
If they’re on Quora, finding these questions is relatively easy, by following the aforementioned steps while using your brand, product and/or services as keywords and then filtering by questions.
Also, finding these questions and reading what others are answering gives you an untethered view of what your customers think about your business. You can use this information to identify your strengths and weaknesses from your customers’ point of view and then use that knowledge to improve your product or service or come up with new solutions you know they’ll value, driving your sales up.
Any company, large or small, can take advantage of this. For example, some people turn to Quora to be entertained, but many more go there for more direct use cases, such as comparing multiple fintech products side-by-side or conducting in-depth research before making a purchase. Once you can identify the sort of questions people ask as they approach the bottom of the sales funnel, you can steer them toward your offering while satisfying their original needs, creating a win-win situation for everyone.
#4: Performing competitor research on Quora
If you can research what Quorans are asking and saying about you, you can also research what they’re saying about your competition. This means that you can also leverage Quora as an additional tool for competitor research.
You can go the active route, do a manual search for your closest competitors, and read the different threads that come up. You can also take a more passive route and set up notifications for certain keywords or topics related to your industry.
Either way, you can gain valuable insights by reading what people say about your competition on Quora. This information can help inform the decisions you make about how to position yourself in the market and what areas you may want to focus more on when it comes to marketing your products or services.
#5: Leverage paid advertisement on Quora
Like most social media today, Quora has its own set of paid advertising options that online businesses can take advantage of. Paid ads on Quora work a little differently than other social media sites in that they’re designed to blend in with the rest of the content on the site. This makes them less intrusive and, as a result, more effective.
Additionally, these ads target users based on the types of questions they’ve asked in the past and the topics they’ve followed. This targeting ensures that your ad is being seen by people who are already interested in what you have to say — people who are more likely to convert.
A Beginner’s Guide to Business Success in the Metaverse
Some tips to generate hundreds of thousands of views on Quora to boost sales
Besides all the other uses small businesses can give Quora, the Q&A platform’s biggest pro is that it can bring in tons of highly valuable traffic that converts. But to get that traffic and make the best of Quora, you first need to answer questions that get tons of views.
Here are some tips I’ve personally curated, based on my experience generating over one million views on Quora in only one year.
Tip #1: Find relevant questions.
The first thing to keep in mind is only to answer questions relevant to your industry and your products or services. Avoid going on a tangent and forcing links to your website on completely unrelated questions. It will be a complete waste of your time and energy, and Quorans will quickly pick up on it and downvote your answer.
Suppose you’re planning to break into a new geography and are looking to answer questions about payment solutions because you offer more options than your competitors. In this case, it would be wise to search for questions about the specific payment or exchange services your company supports, and then answer them in a way that highlights the features and benefits you offer that your competitors don’t.
Tip #2: Write the best possible answer to the question.
Your answers should be well-researched and provide valuable insights not easily found on the Internet. You’re writing about your industry, your niche; this is something you should know more about than most people on Quora, so make sure it shows in your answers.
If a question has already been answered, think of a way to write an even better answer. Provide more insight, give relevant examples, show relevant statistics, don’t hold back. This is the only way Quorans will see you as an authority and, as a result, click on your profile to see what else you have to say.
Tip #3: Use images, videos and gifs liberally.
Since Quora allows for multimedia content, use images, videos and gifs to break up your text and make it more engaging. Add some infographics or screenshots to back up your points.
Tip #4: Optimize your bio and add a call to action.
Your Quora bio is one of the most important elements of your profile. It’s what appears beneath every one of your answers, and it’s one of the first things people see when they click on your profile. So make sure it’s well written and that it includes a call to action.
A well-written bio will not only tell Quorans who you are and what you do, but it will also include a link to your website or blog. This is valuable real estate that you should make the most of.
Tip #5: Promote and share your answers.
Once you’ve written a great answer, the next step is to promote it. The best way to do this is to share your answer on social media and other online platforms. This will help increase its reach and get more people to see it.
Tip #6: Don’t overpublish.
While it’s important to be active on Quora, you don’t want to overpublish and spam people’s feeds with your content. A good rule of thumb is to answer one or two questions per day. Any more than that, and you risk turning people off.
Tip #7: Avoid excessive self-promotion.
Similarly, you also want to avoid excessive self-promotion. Quora is not a place to blatantly promote your business and products. That’s what your website or blog is for. Instead, think of Quora as a platform to share your insights and knowledge with others and attract them to your business.
Tip #8: Develop templates for similar answers.
It’s common to come across many variations of the same question. Even if you already answered one of them, you still want to answer the others. To speed up the process in these particular cases, it’s smart to develop templates and a master document where you keep all the information and sources at hand to help craft each answer. This way, you’ll only have to tweak a few things here and there, perhaps add or remove a couple of subheads, and you’re set to go.
The bottom line
Quora can be a powerful tool for small businesses looking to generate sales. Even if you don’t sell a product of your own, millions of Quora users visit the site seeking diverse opinions on products before they make a purchase decision, which is why Quora also fits nicely into every affiliate marketer’s tool kit.
By providing valuable insights and information in your answers, you can attract people to your profile and then direct them to your website or blog to learn more about what you do and how they can buy from you. You can also increase sales by generating new content ideas for your website (therefore increasing organic traffic), using it as a new channel for customer support and researching your competitors.
Optimize your bio, include a call to action, and promote your answers on social media and other online platforms. And most importantly, write the best answers possible to provide real value to potential customers. By following these tips, you’ll not only generate traffic and leads from Quora, but you’ll also establish yourself as an authority in your industry.
