Content Marketing Success: Why Answering Questions Sells

Do you want more sales?

Is content marketing a part of your strategy?

To explore how to create content that sells, I interview Marcus Sheridan.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode, I interview Marcus Sheridan, a blogger, podcaster, and keynote speaker who specializes in content and inbound marketing. He's known as "The Sales Lion," and is the author of the brand-new book, They Ask You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today's Digital Consumer.

Marcus explores how to market and sell with content.

You'll discover how the right content can overcome buyers' fears.

Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Content Marketing Success
Marcus' Story

Marcus began learning about content marketing during the 2008 market crash. Within 48 hours, his swimming pool business, River Pools, lost a quarter of a million dollars after five clients pulled their deposits. By January 2009, three consultants had suggested filing for bankruptcy. However, if Marcus filed, he and his partners would lose their homes and their 16 employees would lose their jobs.

Marcus knew he had to generate more trust, traffic, leads, and sales than ever, and he had no money to do it. So he looked at the Internet. Marcus read all about inbound marketing, content, and blogging. He learned that addressing his prospects' questions, issues, fears, worries, and concerns on the business website could help the business be successful.

In March 2009, Marcus told his two business partners that the company needed to live by a new philosophy: "They Ask. You Answer." Marcus brainstormed all of the questions he'd ever been asked and found that the major questions were often ones businesses don't like to answer online.

Committed to the new philosophy, however, Marcus began writing blog posts about customers' questions, including the good, the bad, and the ugly. The company became committed to answering questions more consistently and transparently than anybody in their space.

Listen to the show to discover how this new approach transformed the website's traffic, leads, and sales.

Online Content Overload

Now that many websites have taken the same approach to content that Marcus did, I ask Marcus what advice he would give to any business owner concerned that approaches to website content have changed.

Marcus says he's really bothered when businesses assume they shouldn't share their philosophies or content because they think everything has already been said. Those businesses are letting other people in their industry create the content.

Business leaders also think they shouldn't share content because their content isn't amazing. Marcus disagrees and notes that initially his writing and video content were bad. However, he kept going and now his content is good.

Listen to the show to hear what false idea Marcus says everyone believes.

The Five Subjects That Make a Difference

In any industry, Marcus says buyers want to discuss five subjects as they research a company, product, or service online, and addressing these subjects on your website will help you reach your marketing goals.

Cost questions
Problems questions (what the drawbacks and issues are)
Comparisons (your product versus another)
Best of (for example, the best marketing automation software)
Reviews

However, Marcus finds that businesses don't like to talk about these topics on their websites. As a result, they lose customers. Most people research cost online before they buy and get frustrated when they can't find that informa...