There’s not a week that goes by here at Suki Marketing that we’re not asked this age-old question:
How do I increase my SEO and drive traffic to my website?
And they’re not alone. As of August 2022, there are 28,600,000 results on Google for this exact question.
The way that we search and ask Google for information has changed. Users now expect complete answers from what they type into the search engine and expect knowledgeable, insightful, and valuable solutions to their queries. And who can blame them?
But hopefully, this has given you a significant insight on where to start boosting your SEO and driving traffic. Create compelling, helpful content that answers your customer and potential customers’ questions.
Want to know how our team at Suki uses customer questions as part of a content strategy? You’re in luck; this blog is about just that.
7 steps to answering your customer’s questions in your content strategy
Define your target audience
Before answering any questions, you need to understand who’s asking them and who these potential customers are. Get to know your customers, do your research and understand them. Creating detailed profiles or customer personas that outline everything you know about your customers will help, from their demographic information, to where they’re shopping and what they do for fun.
To help you define a clear picture of who your target audience is, ask yourself these questions:
- Where are they from?
- How old are they?
- What are their interests or hobbies?
Once you’ve established your ideal customers, you’ll understand better what they want and need and how you can provide it. Want to know more about customer personas? Take a look at our blog.
What do your customers need to know at each step of the customer journey? What are they asking?
Think about what content you can create that educates and informs your customers on the needs or pain points they may have and how your business is in a unique position to help.
Some customers may not be aware of these problems or needs before they get to your site; they may stumble across you accidentally. Therefore, it’s up to you to educate them on the issue and show your audience that there is a better, faster, more innovative, more cost-effective way.
Create content that educates your customers on their problem and how you solve it. This opens space for more questions – which is a good thing!
Empathise
Look, you don’t want to come off as this know-it-all higher being, right? We’ve all heard about how people buy from people, and it’s true. So, although it’s essential to educate, it’s also important to empathise with them. Therefore, you need to create content which shows you can relate to them, how they feel, what they need, and how they are affected by the problem/solution.
Some say that everything we do is rooted in relationships and connections, even the relationships that form between brands and customers. It’s not just about providing solutions to challenges; it’s about showing a potential customer that you get it. You can provide intelligent solutions because you understand their needs, you are an expert in this area, and you genuinely care about their success.
Take note of what questions your customers ask you
The next time you’re in a sales call or answering an email from a potential customer, note down any questions they ask you. If there are any common questions across a variety of customers, you’ll be able to create content pieces that answer these exact questions.
Plus, the next time someone asks that question, you’ll be able to direct them to a ready-to-go piece of content that will help to reassure a potential customer of your knowledge and expertise.
Research exactly what they’re asking when you’re not in the room
Now that you know your potential customers, it’s time to answer their questions. But how can you know what they’re asking? Luckily you don’t need to be a spy or a data scientist mining through unlimited data. Here at Suki, we use tools that delve into search results to contextualise searches.
Some of our favourites are:
- SEMRush
- Google Analytics
- Google Trends
- HubSpot
- Answer the Public
These tools help you to understand better what your target audience is searching for. You can use these to develop content ideas that get you in the search results and in front of potential customers.
What’s your competitor doing?
Ah, competitor research, the job we love to give the new person on their first day, right? But competitor research is some of the most straightforward but insightful analysis out there. It can give you a ton of information about where your competitors are ranking. Search any questions you’ve identified and see who turns up at the top of page one and in the snippets. It might seem tedious, but it’s worthwhile. Plus, some of the tools listed above can make the process quicker.
When doing competitor research, here are some questions to ask yourself:
- How/where are they outranking you?
- What content are they sharing?
- What channels are they using?
- How often are they posting blogs, social, and updated web content?
These questions will help you identify what they’re doing well and where you can improve your content strategy.
Answering questions in a blog vs FAQs
There’s no doubt about it, FAQ pages can be an excellent resource for visitors to your website, especially if they just want a quick answer to a simple question. However, they already need to be on your website and looking for an answer from you.
So, FAQ pages are great for answering questions like:
- What are your opening times
- Does x integrate with y?
- What batteries does this product need?
FAQs are for when you want to get to the point quickly. You already have the connection and trust with that customer, and you’re just building on that relationship.
However, potential customers search for answers on Google every day, and typically, an FAQ page won’t show up with the answer because it’s too short. And this is where blogs and other web content come into play; you can go into more detail, educating about the why and how and providing an entry point into you as a brand and your products or services.
What to do with all this information?
Now that you have all this knowledge and insight, you can start plotting blogs and web content that answer these questions into your content calendar. A regularly updated blog with lots of information shows potential customers that you’re knowledgeable and truly understand what you’re talking about.
You almost already have most of the answers to create all this content within your business, whether floating about in your head, from answering the same question 99 times, or within your team who knows the brand inside out. All you need to do is put pen to paper and get it out there. Simple, right?
Nail your content marketing strategy with Suki Marketing
Not sure you’re up for creating a content strategy that shows off what a superstar you are to your potential customers? Or just need a shoulder to lean on when it comes to content marketing? Why not drop us a message? Here at Suki Marketing, we don’t believe in creating content to ‘tick the box,’; we create content that connects with your audience. So, why not contact us to see how we can help?
