It’s certainly been a turbulent couple of years for business.
Now with JobKeeper, an increased JobSeeker and the tax breaks well in the rear-view mirror, businesses have to bounce back and once again drive growth.
Strong businesses have always grown after major setbacks. So the covid setback should be no different.
There are proven ways that you can accelerate this re-growth.
But it’s not any click-funnels or overnight lead-generation tool that spruces a ‘get leads quick’ miracle cure!
These type of approaches are simply not effective over a long term lead generation strategy.
Instead, this is a proven, worth the effort program, that guarantees results over a long period of time.
Here’s the back story.
In the dark days of the GFC, another major setback, there was a pool company way over in Richmond Virginia, USA which was about to go to the wall.
They literally lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in orders in one night alone, and their business of selling pools during one of the worlds worst economic times was all but a mountain of debt and on the brink of bankruptcy.
With the likelihood of a complete business collapse, one of the partners decided to embark on a content marketing pilgrimage.
But not just any content marketing strategy, this was content marketing that focussed on answering the questions their customers had always been asking them.
Essentially a They Ask, You Answer philosophy backed content strategy, and it worked.
Through good, honest, informative content they were able to build trust with their customers and in doing so, won their hearts and minds, and of course their business. Just by answering these customer questions.
It basically not only saved the company, but it also propelled it to the number one in-ground swimming pool company in the US, if not the world.
Big claims, yes, so take a look for yourself over at the River Pools and Spas website you’ll get the picture pretty fast. They have what’s commonly referred to as a dominant web presence.
Through the step by step guide in his (Marcus Sheridan) book, They Ask You Answer, attending his workshops and already adapting this approach for other clients, we can do the same for you.
Added bonus, this approach also invigorates any sales team.
But you do have to act now and this is not a sales ploy, it’s a legitimate race against the clock.
Developing a They Ask You Answer content marketing philosophy doesn’t happen overnight, it’ll take at least three (3) months to get the foundations laid, and once they are laid, they are rock solid. We then just continue building on it from there, where it is built to last.
But we reiterate, it is worth every bit of effort applied, it’s a proven way to not only protect your business but to take a leadership position in your industry.
It’s also where the smaller players can genuinely become the bigger players.
What is – They Ask, You Answer
Whilst it has become fairly common knowledge in how customer behaviour has changed in this digital age, most businesses websites are still talking about themselves. We talk about our services, our solutions, our testimonials etc. instead of the customers’ needs.
Whereas customers are coming to your site for information, that will help THEM make the right buying decisions.
But by just talking about ourselves we are basically ignoring their questions and the very reason they were searching in the first place. It’s only by answering their questions that we can in fact HELP them at all.
Essentially, when we say, “They Ask, You Answer is a business philosophy,” what we mean is that it’s not your common run of the mill digital marketing tactics.
Instead, They Ask, You Answer is a defined approach to communication, company culture, and the way a company sells to their buyers that removes the standard on ‘all about me’ information that saturates most business websites currently.
It’s an approach that obsessively focuses on what your buyers are thinking and what your buyers are searching, asking, and feeling. (as a note a lot of businesses think they have a good understanding of what their buyers are searching, asking, and feeling, but unfortunately, this is not the case.)
Businesses that follow They Ask You Answer see it as a moral obligation to answer any and every question their buyers have — no matter how good, bad, or ugly a question may seem.
How you get started on the They Ask You Answer marketing philosophy?
Getting started is simple. We meet, over Zoom, to discuss where the They Ask You Answer content philosophy can be best applied to your website, where are the gaps and where are the opportunities.
You can book this meeting right here, by booking right into our calendar.
Once we have completed this ‘discovery session’ and have answered your questions, we will present a step by step proposal outline of how we are going to ensure your business can thrive through any market conditions.
Generally speaking the steps to success on this are quite straightforward.
The steps to a successful – They Ask You Answer approach to marketing.
Here’s a short overview:
Step 1. We conduct a thorough audit on the technical attributes of your website – in other words, we need to know where the faults are, if any and what we will need to do in order to go about correcting these. The fault findings are for both the Search Engines and the user experience of your customers. In auditing your site we also determine how well the tagging and tracking are set up and what needs to be improved to ensure all content is accurately tracked and reported on.
Step 2. We use industry-based tools to establish where the gaps and relevant opportunities are in your website content. It is not hard to determine why the leaders in your market are leading and where the content opportunities are for you to make up some easy ground.
Step 3. Then by conducting in-depth workshops with you and your team, we will be able to establish what questions you are, and you are not answering with the content on your site. By understanding the questions you or your team have got from customers over time, it will be quite evident where the content focus will be needed most. It’s during this step we need to review the ‘all about you’ content for repurposing into answering the buyer’s questions.
Step 4. We then formulate a content marketing calendar that works for the seasonality and normal peaks and troughs of your business. Setting the content priorities to get you the best response in the fastest possible time.
Step 5. We get to work on the required content pieces and website fixes, with optimisation of same, keeping you informed with regular reports, meetings and phone calls at every stage.
Which businesses is the They Ask You Answer philosophy right for?
Here’s a quick guide to the type and size of businesses this will work for:
- You have a considered purchase, in other words, customers generally do a good bit of research before they would buy your product or service.
- As a business owner, you are committed to long-term growth and are willing to invest in it – basically, you have a forward plan and realistic resources to support the growth.
- You are aware that you will likely have to invest 5%-10% of your revenue growth goals to achieve the desired results.
- Your business has a minimum turnover or potential turnover of $5m within a 12 month period.
- It works well for both B2B or B2C type businesses.
- Your business has a defined business development strategy that has an appropriate level of resources being applied to it.
As a note, because our agency has finite resources to apply to this, we only want to work with prospective clients that are willing to totally commit to the content philosophy of They Ask You Answer.
In saying this here’s a previous blog we wrote on the Big 5 content ideas, it will give you a good idea of the type of content we will be focussing on and that you will need to be prepared to fully commit to.
As we said, this isn’t something to ponder on, if you are serious about becoming an industry leader, it’s something to pounce on.
