Do you want leads ASAP? Quora Advertising is one of the best lead gene hack
Businesses live and die based on leads.
Nobody converts without leads. Nobody pays without modifications. Without payments, your business dies.
Generating leads is easier said than done, however.
After all, SEO takes a long time to impact your business. PPC shows different results.
Social media takes a lot of attention and banner advertising doesn't really work well these days.
What's the answer?
For some of you, Quora may be the next best lead hack out there.
By March 2016, the platform had up to 300 million monthly unique users.
However, I don't want to assume that you are familiar with the platform.
Perhaps you are new to Quora or have never heard of it.
So let's take a moment to talk exactly about what Quora is.
What is Quora?
Quora is a kind of social media platform, but it is vastly different from most of the others.
Quora is similar to Twitter in that you can follow other people, but it's nowhere near as free flowing.
It's similar to Facebook in that you can interact with other people, but not through direct messages.
Quora's individuality is what makes it so effective for lead generation.
In its simplest form, Quora is a social media platform for asking and answering questions.
You can play on either side of the coin. You can ask questions for an expert to answer, or you can answer questions that other people have asked.
When it comes to lead generation, you play more of an expert than a questioner.
Are you beginning to understand why the platform is so effective in controlling traffic and driving it to your website?
You can interact with your customers and prospects, answer their questions, and communicate with them in a way that no other social media site can.
However, these are just a few reasons.
Here are a few more.
Why is Quora good for Lead Gen?
Yes, you can use Quora to communicate with your customers.
But it's more than that.
After all, you can communicate with your customers in many different places.
Email, Facebook, and Twitter are just a few of the ways you can connect with your prospects over the Internet.
However, Quora offers something that helps it stand out from the other platforms.
Because it's the ability to interact with prospects and customers in one place where they ask the questions.
While email, Facebook, and Twitter are known to have low click, open, and reply rates, Quora does not.
With Quora, the consumer starts the interaction, not your company. This means that it is already invested in the conversation.
Your prospects and customers are already asking questions on Quora – questions to which you have the answers.
Here's another reason to consider Quora as a lead gene: Your audience is more likely to have a college degree, be a manager, and have higher incomes.
If this is your target audience, Quora is a good place.
By joining the platform and playing the role of the expert, you will quickly improve your brand's image in the eyes of your target audience and lead to leads on your website.
How exactly can you do that?
Here are 11 ways to get the most out of Quora.
1. Create a compelling profile
The very first thing to do on Quora is to upgrade your profile.
When someone sees you've answered a question, what will they do first?
Correctly. They will click on your profile to see who you are, where you work and what you are as an expert.
If a user clicks on your profile and sees something unoptimized, even if you answer a question with detail and expertise, they don't trust your opinion.
In other words, the answers you give for people are only as good as optimizing your profile.
This is what my profile looks like.
For the most part, Quora will walk you through all of the tweaks you need to create a trusted profile.
But let me highlight three important points.
First, see the "Forbes Top 10 Marketer and NY Times Best-Selling Author" section. That immediately creates a lot of authority.
People think, “Wow! This guy really knows what he's talking about. "
They want to do the same with your profile. Record some notable achievements in this section.
Second, look at the credentials and markers on the right side of the screen. Be sure to include your location and business title to add some personality.
And finally, choose your profile picture carefully.
When someone sees your profile picture, they form an opinion of you.
You could assume you are kind, arrogant, approachable, or lazy based on this little photo.
So you need to make sure you include an image that expresses how you want to be perceived.
Ideally, your profile picture will look professional, approachable, and smart.
Once you've tweaked your profile for visitors' eyes, you can move on to these next tips.
2. Follow the relevant Quora topics
Setting up your profile to communicate your expertise is the first step on your journey to Quora Lead Gen.
Next, you need to keep track of all the topics that apply directly to your target industry.
This way, Quora can keep you updated on relevant issues on a regular basis.
That means you don't have to go looking for them. You can just look at your home dashboard.
To keep track of different topics, type in all the topics in your industry that you want to study in the search bar.
Then click on the result with the word "Subject:" next to it.
This will take you to the topic page of your selected result. Now all you have to do is click "Follow Topic" on the right.
Quora will now notify you of any conversations underway on this topic.
Do the same with any other topics you want to follow. Remember, you want to choose as many topics in your industry as possible.
The more you follow, the more opportunities you will get to connect with customers and prospects and drive leads to your website.
3. Show your expertise in Quora
In answering other people's questions about Quora, you need to establish yourself as an expert.
You might answer a lot of questions, but you also need to give people a reason to trust those answers.
Unfortunately, they won't do it out of the kindness of their hearts alone.
There are several ways to build expertise in answering a question.
The first way is to make sure you have a professional looking profile picture. Something like that, for example.
You should also write like you are a professional who knows what he's talking about.
If you write like you deserve attention, more people will listen.
But if you write shyly, more people will be nervous about trusting you. This is what professional writing could be like for you.
The final way to build expertise with your answers is to first briefly explain why you are an expert.
Quickly explain why you know a lot about the subject or why people should trust you.
You are doing something similar to Da Zheng starting his answer.
Whichever tactic you use to establish yourself as an expert, take the extra time to explain why you know a lot about the subject at hand.
Then if people rate the answers positively, yours will be at the top.
4. Be really helpful
Remember, you must also be genuinely helpful before establishing yourself as an expert.
The people who have the largest following on Quora are the same people who provide authentically meaningful answers on topics they are actually familiar with.
The last thing you want to do is talk about why you are an expert, and then get a rough answer to the person's question.
You are the expert so be the expert.
Answer questions in a way that actually helps the people on the other side.
Otherwise you are wasting your time.
Consider the value Tanya Russell gives in her answer to a social media question.
Your answer is remarkably long and I couldn't capture the whole thing in a screenshot.
But here is the introduction.
It goes on like this for quite a while, delivering true value with each new point.
Your answers should do the same.
Consider this answer from Joyce del Rosario.
Again, this is just an introduction.
Joyce has lots of pictures, bold text, and helpful advice to guide her reader.
However, if you do the same, it will not only help your readers. It will also instill trust in your potential customers, build brand awareness, and even drive traffic to your website.
5. Reach out to your Quora followers
In Quora, you can only forward messages to people whose settings have been adjusted accordingly.
Unfortunately, this will severely limit the number of people you can contact privately.
However, you also have another option.
Instead of directly letting your prospects and clients know about their questions, wants, and pain, you can publicly ask them a question.
It's easy to do and a great way to learn about your target market.
All you have to do is click "Followers" on your profile page.
Then you will see a list that looks something like this.
Decide who you want to ask a question to and click their name.
This will take you to your profile. From there, you can click the “Ask a Question” prompt and get in touch with them.
You could ask them what they think of your company, what their favorite online tools are, or how they would rate your customer service.
And the best part is that since the question is public, other people can comment and engage in the thread as well.
6. Track your Quora Analytics
Unlike most social media platforms, Quora also has an analytics dashboard for all users.
You can see your number of upvotes, views and approvals in one place.
Reviewing this dashboard on a regular basis is critical to your Quora lead generation strategy.
After all, if you don't know how well your current tactic is working, you can't learn to adapt or iterate.
So make sure you check your stats dashboard at least once a week.
It is easy.
Just click on your profile picture in the top right corner of the screen. Then click on "Statistics".
You will see such a dashboard with valuable information to process.
If the numbers are good, try to figure out what you are doing right and repeat your actions.
When the numbers are low, identify what you're doing wrong and learn how to avoid similar mistakes in the future.
Either way, you can learn and review your marketing strategy.
7. Use trackback links
To take full advantage of Quora, you need to know what trackback links are.
Basically, it's the Quora version of the backlink or links that lead to your website from an external website.
In this case, this link tells Google that an external website trusts your URL, which can have a massive impact on your SEO.
In general, the more backlinks a website has, the better it ranks on Google.
Let me be clear now.
I'm not telling you to keep adding backlinks to your answers to make it annoying.
I just want you to be aware of trackback links so that you can tactfully include backlinks to your website in your Quora responses.
Remember, the whole point of answering questions about Quora is to provide real value. Adding hyperlinks in your responses will detract from the trust you have built with potential clients and customers.
This is what a trackback link looks like on my profile.
This is what it looks like in an answer to a question.
Add these links for an SEO benefit, but don't go too far. You want to include links that are really valuable to other users. Otherwise, leave them out.
8. Create content around Quora questions on your website
One of the greatest things about Quora is that it tells you what your target market is looking for.
Marketers often have a hard time discovering the real wants, worries, pain, and lack of knowledge of their ideal client.
With Quora, you can discover these things instantly.
All you have to do is enter your target industry or topic in the search bar.
Then click on the result you want with the word "Subject:" next to it.
This screen is displayed.
You can turn all of these questions into titles on your own website blog.
Since these are the questions people are asking about your industry, you will attract a lot of people by answering them.
Just take a title, change it up a bit, and create content around it.
9. Share your favorite Quora answers
As you study Quora more and more, some of your answers will be better than others.
Every now and then you will come across a gold mine of attention. Users will view, rate, and share your answer more than anyone else.
The last thing you want to do is waste all of that potential.
While your Quora followers are paying a lot of attention to the answer, you can get even more exposure by sharing the answer on your social media channels.
Go to your profile and click "Reply" on the left side of the screen.
Then find a particularly lucrative answer and click the share buttons in the lower right corner.
From there, you can share your answer, generate more traffic, and even drive traffic to your website if you add a backlink.
10. Automate your Quora process
After spending some time on Quora, you might get buried under piles of tedious and monotonous work. There is no avoiding spending hours researching relevant topics and following up on responses.
While Quora is relatively easy to navigate and has some impressive built-in analytics, it's a good idea to try ad hoc tools to streamline your workflow.
There aren't many tools out there that have the tracking and questioning capabilities you need. One of the few working solutions is QuestionsPro, software for automating lead generation on Quora.
The best thing about QuestionsPro is that you can find questions that are relevant to your website, Quora profile, or even a YouTube channel. This tool also has several valuable metrics that you can use to estimate the traffic that you will get by answering this or that question in Quora.
11. Use Quora ads
Most of the strategies listed here are organic: they answer questions and they increase traffic over time by providing value.
However, there is a faster Quora lead gen strategy: Quora Ads.
Just like with other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, Quora also lets you pay to reach audiences by paying.
The platform allows you to create ads based on goal, including conversions, traffic and, yes, lead gen. Then you define your budget, your target group and choose your bids.
Quora uses native ads, which makes the user experience less impactful.
Quora Ads can be used as a standalone strategy, or you can add some ads to some of the organic lead gen strategies mentioned above.
Conclusion
Quora is a fantastic platform to increase your company's bottom line.
You can generate the leads your business needs to survive and thrive.
However, to realize Quora's full potential, you need to know how to use it.
First, create a compelling profile and follow the relevant topics.
Then answer questions as you show your expertise and are really helpful.
Finally, ask your followers public questions, keep track of your analytics, use trackback links, create related content on your website and share your most popular answers on social media.
Don't forget about the Quora ads – they can be incredibly helpful in driving targeted leads to your website.
If you do all of these, few competitors can keep up with your lead-generating Quora activity.
How do you generate leads with Quora? Have you tried Quora Ads? What results did you see?