Blogging Basics – Answering Presales Questions

Let’s refine your blogging skills to help build your online community. The next topic in this series is using presales questions as blogging topics. Why only list a bunch of FAQ on one page when you can expand?

If you missed the last post, it’s all about defining your industry’s terms or jargon.

What Are Presales Questions?

Presales questions are the questions you get while a customer is in their buying journey. Just like there are no first-click leads on social, there are no first-click sales on the Internet. Wait. What?

Yes, it’s true. No one does a Google search, sees your product, and immediately purchases it. That’s the genie in the lamp. The mirage. The siren song of sales.

We hear that it takes 8-10 touches before you can get a sale. I’ve read there are 7. Some people say, it takes 8 touches just to be a lead. Either way, there are many stages of the buyer’s journey. And not every buyer has the same journey.

“What’s more, when leads are passed from marketing to sales, they’re expected to be “sales-ready,” or at the decision-making stage in the buying journey. But the myriad of paths to purchase make it increasingly challenging to effectively qualify leads as sales-ready.”

Fergal Glynn

So, while planning your content strategy, answer questions your buyers may have before the purchase. These are presales questions.

Presales Questions and Content Marketing

Presales questions are gold when it comes to blogging topics for your business. They come right to your inbox — usually — or through your support channels.

You don’t have to do market research or brainstorming sessions. The question is literally in someone’s email inbox — unanswered.

Your website is a valuable tool for your potential customer as well as your sales department. The best way for marketing and sales to get along is if marketing provides tools for the sales team — that convert.

Why Go Beyond the FAQ Page?

In my secretarial days, we had a rule about things that go in the miscellaneous file. If there were more than three of “Acme Tire Sales” in the “Misc” file, then we would make a new file for “Acme Tire Sales.”

That’s a good rule of thumb for frequently asked questions (FAQ). So, if you continuously get questions about which basket works best for your best-selling e-bike, then maybe answer it on your FAQ page.

So, when should you go beyond the FAQ page?

FAQ pages are best suited for answers that are one to two sentences long. If the answer you provide on your FAQ page doesn’t curb the questions, there are a few possible reasons.

Firstly, people may not find the answer during their search. This could be a technical issue or an SEO problem. Either way, the FAQ page isn’t being seen.

Secondly, if your answer has even more words they have to google (jargon), then it’s not a helpful answer.

But there is a third possibility.

The third possibility is that the answer requires a longer explanation, maybe even an analogy, to help your potential customer understand why they should buy your e-bike, download your app, or sign up for your service.

In that case, why not expand your answer in 300 – 500 words? Make it a blog post. You can even link to it from your FAQ page (yay for internal linking).

As an added bonus, a well-written blog post should lessen the amount of phone or email calls and reduce friction in the sales process. Your sales department and your bottom line will thank you.

Engage Your Community

Content marketing or blogging (see what I did there?) brings people to your site — which helps build your community. With PeepSo, you can host a growing and thriving community. How will you engage your community?

Brought to you by Bridget Willard

Marketing Consultant & Strategic Partner. Keynote Speaker. Author. CEO. I’d love to train your team how to effectively use social media.