No matter the size of a company, regardless of which niche it’s in, small businesses share similar goals: they want to establish thought leadership and build leads. While there are lots of ways business owners can accomplish this, a good way to start is by focusing on one platform in particular.
Quora can sometimes go overlooked by businesses for its value and access to leads, but it’s actually an integral part of a solid content marketing system. It’s easy to sweep the platform under the rug when so many other titan platforms seemingly reign superior. However, Quora can do wonders for a business. Below are three ways using Quora can earn thought leadership and leads.
How Quora Builds Thought Leadership
Try to think of Quora as a small business blog. There are tons of blogs out there. A good chunk may not be in a particular niche, but a decent number are. What this means for businesses is that content needs to be even more informative than anything else out there. Quora answers sort of share the same sentiment; a lot of people in a niche publish valuable answers for readers. So, forthcoming answers need to be on par with the previous ones.
Therefore, Quora can be an awesome tool to increase thought leadership so long as responses provide the same kind of relevant, useful content often found in a blog post. All responses should serve as a gateway to expertise while giving readers actionable information.
As illustrated here, we provide readers with the kind of information they’re looking for in our Quora answers. We don’t beat around the bush or shove a sales pitch down anyone’s throat. To build thought leadership on Quora, answers need to supply readers with valuable advice and information.
How Quora Drives Referral Traffic to a Site
Quora also serves as a wonderful tool for attracting target audiences. While it’s true that answers should provide relevant content, there’s no shame in directing traffic back to a site through links and CTAs.
The above snippet comes from a question we answered regarding how to use visuals in content marketing. We thoroughly explained which kinds of visuals creators can include and how they fit into your overall content marketing system. By providing value and then linking to a piece, readers have the option to learn more about a business. This way, they already know that the company is knowledgeable and don’t feel like they’re being pitched to.
Business owners can also dress up their CTAs however they like. It’s more than fine to include a link back to a web page, but answers that also include contact information are good ways to drive traffic. However, it’s worth noting that these practices can sometimes be seen as too sales-y, which is why they’re best not overused.
How Quora Increases Online Presence
Naturally, the more questions a business answers, the better its chances are of getting noticed online. Having a solid following across a multitude of social platforms is a surefire way to increase trustworthiness and boost thought leadership.
An online presence also significantly increases outbound marketing leads. When businesses establish thought leadership through guest posts, Quora responses, blog content, and social media, outbound leads slowly start to increase. CTAs and killer content encourages more traction from target audiences, which leads to site views, newsletter signups and incoming calls.
To get a better sense of how Quora responses fare, it’s simple enough to check in on profile statistics.
It’s easy to look up weekly or even monthly data on Quora. The site provides every user with analytics into how their responses perform. Quora also allows users to see how many monthly views they received and how much their content has been viewed overall.
Additionally, the third column represents the number of shares responses get across an allotted period of time. The more valuable an answer is, the more inclined readers are to share it with their audiences. This grants more exposure and acts as a signal to future readers that a certain piece of content was good enough to get shared. More shares and attention to a piece can also lead to an incentive to check out even more work from a business.
Final Thoughts
Quora is a terrific tool for businesses, though it’s seemingly overlooked. Plenty of niches don’t take full advantage of social engagement and forum commenting for total exposure. Small businesses need to attack every angle in order to increase thought leadership and make a name for themselves. In order to get ahead, business owners should strategize their marketing by:
offering solid advice on Quora
engaging with readers
driving traffic back to a company website
including clever CTAs
building brand awareness
When a company tackles these angles, target audiences can come in droves to check out social media profiles, blogs, and most importantly, contact pages.
Elijah Masek-Kelly is Co-Founder of bContent.io, PowerfulOutreach.com, and Article-Writing.Co. He has over 7+ Years of experience in digital marketing and is an active contributor to publications like HubSpot Marketing Blog, Foundr, Business.com, Business2Community, SocialMediaToday, and many other sites.
