Since content (quality content!) plays an important part in a lot of marketing and branding initiatives, it’s always a great idea to think of wider concepts for creating that content. Rather than trying to anticipate the content your business needs to create one piece at a time, an effective approach is to go wider with themes or subjects and fulfill those goals.
Often times, this concepting (and scheduling) process is called an editorial calendar. But sometimes for smaller businesses especially, this can be too daunting of a task (and sometimes unnecessary). Today’s article discusses a great concept for creating quality content that will build your authority, strengthen your brand, and get you noticed by potential clients and search engines alike.
What’s an FAQ?
FAQ is an acronym that stands for Frequently Asked Questions. There are many types of FAQs and the best companies (and their websites!) have very user-friendly FAQ ‘systems’ in place that anticipate any problems, concerns, or questions their customers may have. The most inclusive FAQs are even broken into sections or chapters, that discuss specific areas of the business. For example, questions about the products and/or services, are separated from the intricacies of the purchasing process, which are separated from questions you customers may have AFTER they purchased your product or service (warranty, product care, maintenance, etc).
Small Business FAQs Examples
If your company provides a succinct solution to a problem (via a service or product) you can have an FAQ specifically answering questions about the problems (specific scenarios) that you are providing a solution for. Phew. That’s a mouthful. Let me put it another way by using an example.
A Home Improvement company (plumber, painter, electrician, contractor, whatever) can answer questions about scenarios where their clients need a fix. Anything from leaky faucets to damaged hardwood floors. You get the idea. This not only provides you quality content for your website (and search engines) {Did you know that more than 80% of long tail keyword phrases are in the form of a QUESTION?} but it also gives your brand and company an authoritative demeanor. Knowledge is power, and if your customers think (know!) that your company has the answers to the questions they are asking (without having to put much effort into it – like calling for example) then you are that much more likely to get their business – and their referrals.
Another small business FAQ example is using it to define concepts or scenarios for you customers. For example, a Real Estate company could define concepts by answering questions like “What is a short sale?” or “What is a foreclosure?”.
Lastly, planning FAQ content will also get you much more in tune with your sales or service front liners and your customers’ needs. The person who answers the calls in your company for example, or your support team, or your service department (if they are experience and have been paying attention) can concept many of the questions you need to answer because they’ve been answering those questions in person for years!
The Follow Through
Planning is stage one. Content Creation is stage two. Integration (or publishing) is stage three. You definitely want to put your FAQ content on your website. Think of “teasing” it out one question at a time on social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc). Or you can use Social Media to gather questions for you to answer….ASK your customers and you shall receive because they always will have questions.
Your company should also consider printing a FAQ piece (brochure, insert, etc) that you can handout or provide at your front desk.
Southern Tide Media specializes in web development, content generation, and creative print services. So…if you need help with your follow through, give us a call 910-209-6154 or Contact Us today.
