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On your website, that is??
Of course, the first thing to consider is ‘are you answering questions at all at the moment’? It is possible that even if you are, they are the wrong questions, not the ones your potential customers want the answers for.
Potential Customers
I think that many business owners forget this point. After all, when someone new arrives on your website, they are not customers, just potential customers, and converting them is no mean feat…
You need to be able to supply them with what they want, but as X other businesses can do this too, why should this potential customer pick you?
There are many reasons no doubt, but one way that is certain to help push them a bit further in your direction is to show that you understand their pains and needs, and the best way to demonstrate this is to answer the questions that they want answers for.
Easy, you might say, but what if I don’t know what these questions are?
If you find yourself in this unfortunate situation, then I would be a bit worried, as it may be a sign that you don’t really understand your customer’s needs, and if this is the case, how can you prove to them that you can help them?
But don’t worry too much, as I reckon with a bit of thought, you can come up with a whole load of questions, ones you have been asked in the past. All you have to do then is to write them all down, with the best, clearest answer you can, and hey presto, the situation is saved.
Plus, there is an amazing fool-proof way of finding out the questions that are being asked, which is the subject of my next post.
The way you write the answer is also important
Answering questions is important, but the way you write also needs to be considered. These days, people (and therefore Google) prefer to ingest information in a conversational manner, they even ask questions in this manner when using Voice Search.
But what does this mean in practice, how do you write in a ‘conversational manner’ and why is going to be even more important in 2014?
There are numerous articles and tips available on the web here, or then again, you may just choose to use a good copywriter (just make sure that they understand your audience).
The most important thing here is to understand the motives of your customers, their pain points and what they need help with. Then you can explain how you can help by extolling the Benefits your offering has, benefits that solve their issues. One tip here is to read back your Benefit statements and answer the question ‘So what’. If can do this in a positive manner, then you will be on the right track. I have even seen this method used to ‘explain why you should pick them’ – see https://www.copywritematters.com/customer-centric-copywriting-tips/ .
As you (that word is SO IMPORTANT) will see, swapping ‘Me’, ‘I’, ‘Us’ or ‘We’ for YOU turns the conversation into one geared for the reader, it being more personal and more friendly.
You (here I go again) also have to make sure that you use the same words and phrases that your customers use, rather than the ones you think are important. In other words ‘speak in the same language as if you were chatting on the phone’ and never confuse anyone with jargon (unless you clearly explain what the words mean in a language the reader can understand).
The Opposite of Self-Centred Copy
Whether you intend it or not, if you write using lots of We’s and I’s it can come across as a bit of an ego trip. After all, in the end, people are not interested in you or your service other than ‘how it can solve their problem’ or ‘teach them something new’.
One of the tricks here is to use an Emotional Heading, one that resonates with the motives, the ‘user intent’ to use a Google phrase; the reason why in fact they are reading your copy in the first place.
For instance, say someone is desperate to find a way of being able to ‘get through’ to a child in their teens? Having a title like ‘Tips for communicating with your teen’ or ‘5 secrets for communicating with your teenager’ is bound to instantly strike a note. Also, note the use of the word YOUR in both instances, Do you get the picture here?
Outcomes are more important than Features
This is really another way of talking about Benefits, but it may be easier for some to understand.
I saw a great example about a Yoga course. It offered 30 lessons, which was nice, but you would need ask a lot of ‘So What’ questions to get down to the real reason for taking the course (one which answers the user intent behind the search for a Yoga course in the first place). This being that once you have attended the lessons, that you would have improved your bodies strength and flexibility, calmed your mind and connected with your inner self in a far deeper way.
For me, that is SOME outcome and is what you need to talk about when answering questions like ‘why should I take your course?’
As for the reason it is becoming more important in 2024, well that is all down to Google’s new ‘Search Generative Experience’.
A part of the change will be that Google is likely to rank websites that use conversational language higher than those that don’t. And as they will be employing some really clever AI tools too, if you are seen to be answering people’s questions, then you will get another point or two.
Points mean rankings
As ever, the more points your pages get, the more likely you are to show up when someone searches for a relevant term, and that means you could get another chance to convert that ‘Potential customer’ into a REAL one.
For more information on So just how good are you at answering questions talk to Serendipity Online Marketing Ltd