If you’re a marketing professional like me, you don’t have extra time to toy with trendy marketing hacks or gimmicks.
Chances are you’re too busy testing optimization strategies for improving conversion rates on your site, working with your team to develop fresh content, or executing more “traditional” online marketing tactics like paid search or display ads.
I get it: Time is a precious commodity for every marketer. However, I’ve discovered one proven content distribution trick that will be well worth your time: posting to Quora.
What Is Quora?
Quora is a Q&A-based platform that discusses every topic under the sun — from skin care techniques to employment practices at Google. More often than not, visitors pose questions, then reputable people (skin care professionals and Google employees alike) answer them. The site gets hundreds of millions of views per month and has the answer to millions of questions.
But Won’t My Message Get Lost?
It’s difficult to imagine that your question or answer could stand out among millions of entries. But Quora has a few brilliant features that will help your expertise rise to the top and reach the right people.
- When people ask a question or want an answer to a question, they’re subscribed to that question and receive a notification when someone answers it.
- Quora tailors content to people based on their interests and previous reading habits. If they’re interested in your industry, they’ll see questions relevant to it.
- You can ask specific people to answer a question you post, and they’ll be notified.
How Does Quora Fit Into My Marketing Strategy?
Quora users are fairly accepting of links to owned content (whitepapers, e-books, blog posts, etc.). The catch is that you actually have to answer the question. We’ve found it’s effective to provide a fairly detailed, insightful answer to a relevant question, then link to a resource on our site that dives deeper into that topic.
If users like your answer, they’ll upvote it, exposing it to even more people searching for an answer to that question. It’s certainly not a get-leads-quick scheme. In fact, we only got nine leads from Quora in the first quarter of 2015. However, that was the result of only a few posts, and those posts will continue to show up in organic search and on Quora when people search for content marketing. The conversion rate for Quora visitors on our site, however, was 11 percent in Q1— making it one of our highest-converting marketing activities. By posting on Quora, you instantly gain access to audiences seeking information on the exact topic you’re writing about.
How Can I Get Started?
Joining the Quora movement is actually quite easy. You can log in with a number of social media accounts or create a new Quora account. Along with answering content marketing-related questions, I’ve found several other topics on the site to be quite interesting, so I typically spend up to 20 minutes each day reading questions and answers.
As you’re posting, keep in mind that people respond well to thoughtful posts. You can’t just post a sentence, add a link, and expect it to perform well. Take a couple extra minutes to think through your response and write something genuinely engaging — it will pay off.
You can also earn Quora cred by interacting with people and mentioning other users in your answers. If you think someone provided an awesome answer but you want to add something, point that out. The more engagement you foster, the better your answer will perform and the more traffic you’ll attract back to your site.
You’ll also want to consider including tracking variables in links to your site. That way, you can see which posts funneled traffic or leads back to your site and measure the associated results.
Don’t treat Quora like every other marketing tactic. That would be a waste on a few levels. Part of what makes the site so unique is that visitors gain access to genuine, unfiltered insights from real professionals across hundreds of industries, which doesn’t happen often.
Most importantly, you get the chance to demonstrate your expertise to people who care. Don’t pawn this off on someone else in your company — join the conversation! You’ll be glad you did.
