At first glance, Quora doesn’t seem to be an important tool for a marketer. However, underestimating the value of this platform can be one of the worst mistakes you make for your brand.
The question-and-answer site has 1.5 million visitors every month.
That’s 1.5 million visitors who have the potential to discover your brand and become prospective leads. This is why one of the biggest digital marketing trends of 2017 has been the growing focus on Quora.
It has a distinct edge over other question and answer forums because of its highly monitored content. User profiles are strictly verified and content is routinely checked for quality. Building your brand’s presence here can make people more aware about your brand, increase traffic to your site and even generate leads. Here are seven crucial reasons why your brand needs to make use of Quora in its overall marketing strategy.
Helps consumers find and learn about your brand
The biggest advantage Quora offers is the large community that is built on trust, and whose members rely on each other for information. When you provide informative answers to questions other users pose, you’re automatically increasing your brand’s credibility. The platform allows you to engage in meaningful conversations with your target audience and establish your brand as an expert in your field.
However, it is important that you never attempt to oversell your brand. The community is distrustful of marketers and hates self-promotional material. Instead of speaking about your brand in great detail, focus instead on providing good answers to the questions being asked. This will gradually build your brand credibility and bring users organically to your site.
Improves search result rankings
Google search results often include Quora posts among its highest ranking sites. This makes it a powerful SEO tool to drive organic traffic to your site. You could even increase your chances of showing up in the top results by strategically using important keywords with the help of keyword research tools .
However, make sure that your content is relevant. Dropping keywords with abandon and speaking extensively about your brand with little or no connection to the actual question will decrease your chances of showing up in search results.
Helps find crucial influencers
One of the biggest digital marketing trends this year has been the growing importance of influencer marketing. If you’re struggling to find key influencers for your brand, Quora could be a great resource. There are many users who are identified as key contributors by the site because of their highly informative answers.
Users heavily rely on these contributors because they have established their credibility. You can engage with them by answering their questions or by providing comments to their answers. You could even directly reach out to them and ask if they would be interested in helping you promote your brand.
Helps market your content
If you have excellent content and blog posts on your brand’s website, then Quora can be a great way to share it with a larger audience. Again, the key here is to be subtle about promoting your website. Instead of replying to a question with, ‘Visit my website for information about this’, introduce it slowly within your answer.
Your answer needs to cultivate interest that will actually make users curious enough to visit your blog. Provide key information in your answers and link your content to it by saying that you’ve written about it in more detail on your blog.
You can also use this question-answer forum to crowdsource information for your article. You could mention that you’re writing a blog on ‘ how to improve SEO rankings ’ and ask users for their tips on the subject. When users feel like they have actively contributed to a blog post, they are more likely to share it themselves.
Helps gain insights into target audience
Instead of guessing what your target audience needs, why not let them tell you what they want directly? The questions on Quora are an invaluable source of information about your target audience.
If several people are asking questions about the same problem, can your brand be the solution to it? Questions (and their answers) are a great way to learn more about your customers: the way they think, what they use and what they need. By actively catering to their problems, your brand can continue to stay relevant.
Helps come up with content ideas
If you’re stumped for new content ideas, trawling through Quora can help you ideate. A good blog post needs to provide answers to relevant questions anyway so what better place to find these questions that on Quora?
For example, if a number of people are asking, ‘ How do I increase my Instagram engagement? ’, then you immediately have an idea for a relevant blog post. Using questions to ideate for your blog also serves up another advantage. You can link the blog post you’ve written along with your answer to the question and amplify it further.
Helps establish thought leadership
Thought leadership is a badge every marketer would want for their brand. Establishing thought leadership makes your brand an authority in its field and increases trust. While it can take some time to build, the pay-off makes it all worth it. One of the best ways to establish thought leadership is through Quora.
By providing meaningful and informative answers to your consumers’ questions, you’re demonstrating the extensive knowledge you have on the subject. Many brands struggle with building thought leadership because they don’t know how to steer a conversation in the direction of their brand’s offerings. Quora saves you the trouble because the conversation already exists — you just need to contribute to it.
Clearly, no marketer can afford to ignore Quora if they want to successfully build their brand’s digital presence. It is even more essential when it comes to marketing for a start-up because it helps new consumers come across your brand. So take full advantage of this site for a well-rounded digital marketing strategy.