Content Marketing Success: Why Answering Questions Sells

Do you want more sales?

Is content marketing a part of your strategy?

To explore how to create content that sells, I interview Marcus Sheridan.

More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode, I interview Marcus Sheridan, a blogger, podcaster, and keynote speaker who specializes in content and inbound marketing. He’s known as “The Sales Lion,” and is the author of the brand-new book, They Ask You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today’s Digital Consumer.

Marcus explores how to market and sell with content.

You’ll discover how the right content can overcome buyers’ fears.

Share your feedback, read the show notes, and get the links mentioned in this episode below.

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Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:

Content Marketing Success

Marcus’ Story

Marcus began learning about content marketing during the 2008 market crash. Within 48 hours, his swimming pool business, River Pools, lost a quarter of a million dollars after five clients pulled their deposits. By January 2009, three consultants had suggested filing for bankruptcy. However, if Marcus filed, he and his partners would lose their homes and their 16 employees would lose their jobs.

Marcus knew he had to generate more trust, traffic, leads, and sales than ever, and he had no money to do it. So he looked at the Internet. Marcus read all about inbound marketing, content, and blogging. He learned that addressing his prospects’ questions, issues, fears, worries, and concerns on the business website could help the business be successful.

In March 2009, Marcus told his two business partners that the company needed to live by a new philosophy: “They Ask. You Answer.” Marcus brainstormed all of the questions he’d ever been asked and found that the major questions were often ones businesses don’t like to answer online.

Committed to the new philosophy, however, Marcus began writing blog posts about customers’ questions, including the good, the bad, and the ugly. The company became committed to answering questions more consistently and transparently than anybody in their space.

Marcus’ They Ask You Answer content philosophy changed the entire business.

Listen to the show to discover how this new approach transformed the website’s traffic, leads, and sales.

Online Content Overload

Now that many websites have taken the same approach to content that Marcus did, I ask Marcus what advice he would give to any business owner concerned that approaches to website content have changed.

Marcus says he’s really bothered when businesses assume they shouldn’t share their philosophies or content because they think everything has already been said. Those businesses are letting other people in their industry create the content.

Business leaders also think they shouldn’t share content because their content isn’t amazing. Marcus disagrees and notes that initially his writing and video content were bad. However, he kept going and now his content is good.

Listen to the show to hear what false idea Marcus says everyone believes.

There are five key subjects to address.

The Five Subjects That Make a Difference

In any industry, Marcus says buyers want to discuss five subjects as they research a company, product, or service online, and addressing these subjects on your website will help you reach your marketing goals.

• Cost questions
• Problems questions (what the drawbacks and issues are)
• Comparisons (your product versus another)
• Best of (for example, the best marketing automation software)
• Reviews

However, Marcus finds that businesses don’t like to talk about these topics on their websites. As a result, they lose customers. Most people research cost online before they buy and get frustrated when they can’t find that information. Customers will call the first business that answers cost questions online.

Buyers don’t call businesses that don’t offer information about price because buyers know the company has the answer but is simply withholding it. Marcus emphasizes that buyers feel like the company is hiding something and the company loses the customer’s trust. People give companies money because of trust.

Listen to the show to learn what percentage of every audience Marcus says doesn’t talk about cost and price.

Why No One Talks About Cost and Price

Marcus believes companies don’t talk about cost and price for three reasons:

• The first reason is because the company has a very customized solution. Every job is different, and prices aren’t set. However, these same businesses are able to explain what drives up the cost of their goods or services or what keeps costs low.
• Second is the competition will find out the company’s price. However, in reality, every business already knows its competition’s pricing.
• The third reason is the company is more expensive than the marketplace and talking about their cost and price might scare customers away. However, not addressing price is what actually scares customers away.

Many business owners object to discussing costs.

Talking about cost doesn’t mean you need to give a price list on your website. Marcus says that the River Pools website answers the question “How much does a fiberglass pool cost?” by explaining the options and accessories, what drives the cost up or down, different price ranges, and the packages that would dictate those ranges. Ultimately, the 1,000-word answer is, “It depends.”

Immediately after sharing that post about cost, Marcus received phone calls from buyers who said, “Finally, somebody was willing to address this question. I feel like I trust you guys already.” Also, within days, the post became the first search result for anything related to the cost of a pool. That’s still the case.

River Pools’ answer to “How much does a fiberglass pool cost?” comes up first when people search.

Based on advanced analytics and lead tracking, Marcus says the article about pool costs has generated more than $3.5 million in revenue. One article saved the business, his home, and his employees’ jobs, and he never said how much a fiberglass pool costs.

Listen to the show to hear what I suggest as a fourth objection to revealing cost and Marcus’ response.

How to Get Buy-In From Sales and Management

Marcus says the number-one email he receives comes from marketers who want to produce video and articles but don’t have the necessary subject-matter expertise or support from sales and management.

To get buy-in, Marcus says that sales and management need to learn the value of content. For instance, Simon Sinek believes that to create a culture in which your organization sees itself as teaching or problem-solving (which is essentially what content marketing does), you must help people in your organization with three essential elements: the what, the how, and the why.

Because buy-in is so important, Marcus doesn’t take on a client unless they start with a workshop where he explains the what, how, and why. The workshop can have as many marketers as the company wants (they don’t even need to be there), but the sales team and at least one person from the leadership team must attend. When sales teams see how content can make their jobs dramatically easier, salespeople want to be a part of marketing.

Listen to the show to learn what happens when Marcus asks the leadership in most organizations to define content marketing.

Advice for Creating Video Content

I ask Marcus to share his advice for creating content, even for people who aren’t great writers. Marcus says that someone in sales might not be a good writer, but is a communicator. With a little coaching on video, sales teams can be great.

Every company that wants to be seen as the Wikipedia of their space must have a content manager who owns the task of producing content and is able to write, edit, interview, and hopefully produce decent video.

If you’re a solopreneur, you’re the content manager. However, bigger companies need a dedicated content manager because employees who are already fulfilling several other roles can’t realistically manage the content too. Slightly larger companies may even have a content manager and a videographer.

Marcus shares tips for creating your own video content.

Marcus recommends companies do interview-based videos because people aren’t good at talking to cameras naturally.

The interviewer keeps the conversation flowing and makes the interviewee, who’s the salesperson and subject-matter expert, look smart. Both the interviewer and interviewee are on camera, and they want to acknowledge the camera to some extent. Marcus recommends that both people stand instead of sitting in chairs so they’re more animated. Also, if you have a product you can show, be sure to include it in the video.

Marcus says his team will produce on average 20 videos for a company in three hours. To achieve this level of output, Marcus says that his team follows two main rules.

First, no matter what you say throughout the take, you aren’t allowed to stop. The moment someone thinks they can stop, they stop a lot more, because they become more worried about messing up than about going forward. Second, you can do a second take. When you start the day, for the first hour or two you might record one, two, or maybe three takes. By the end of the day, more than 50% of the videos are done in one take.

After you produce the video that shows off the sales team’s expertise, the buy-in from the sales team increases. The sales team likes having content to share with prospects, and the silos separating marketing from sales, management, and engineering start to disappear.

Listen to the show to discover the best place to find a good content manager.

How to Create Content That Overcomes Buyer Fears

Marcus emphasizes that when content marketing is fluff, it won’t produce results. For instance, an article about “Five fun games to play in your swimming pool” is fluff, because the article doesn’t address whether that person wants to buy a pool. They may just be having a party in the YMCA pool on Saturday.

Marcus says your content should answer bottom-of-the-funnel questions:

• When people search for “How much does a fiberglass pool cost?”, you know they’re going to spend money on an in-ground pool.
• A search for “fiberglass versus concrete pools” is a good comparison-based question.
• When people search for “Who are the best fiberglass pool builders in Virginia?”, you know they’re getting a pool, they want fiberglass, and they live in Virginia.
• If users look for “the problems with fiberglass pools”, you know they want a pool and are vetting them because want to see whether fiberglass is a good fit.

Most companies, Marcus says, never address the elephants in the room; the things they see as hindrances. However, the smartest companies take the elephant that’s in the corner and bring it to the front of the room and say, “This is our elephant. Does anyone have an issue with it?”

To convey the tone and style of this content, Marcus uses fiberglass pools as an example. Marcus says he would begin a video or an article with, “Fiberglass pools are not for everybody. In fact, there are times when other types of pools are a better fit. For example, a fiberglass pool doesn’t get wider than 16 feet, it doesn’t get longer than 40 feet, and it doesn’t get deeper than 8 feet. You also can’t customize it. But if you’re looking for a low-maintenance pool that’s less than 16×40 and less than 8 feet deep, and you can find a shape and size that fits your needs, it might be a great choice for you.” The content needs to weigh the pros and cons to get the elephant out of the way, and can usually do so in 800 to 1,000 words.

They Ask You Answer by Marcus Sheridan.

I ask if there’s an industry where this approach doesn’t work. Marcus responds by asking, “Is there an industry where great teaching, communication, and problem-solving don’t matter?” People in B2G (the government space) might say everything is RFP-based. However, Marcus has B2G clients and says the government is doing a surprising amount of procurement through the Internet. Plus, this online procurement is growing, especially as more Millennials enter the procurement space.

Marcus says his book, They Ask You Answer, is a philosophy of business. It’s transparent and honest. He knows customers will have these conversations with somebody, whether the topic is about the good, bad, or ugly. Marcus wants that conversation to be with him so he can have some control in the conversation. His approach dictates the way you communicate online, as well as the way you sell offline.

Listen to the show to hear why Marcus is so passionate about this topic.

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What do you think? What are your thoughts on content marketing? Please leave your comments below.

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Do You Have Access to the Right People?

Selling requires it. And one crucial step will get you past the new gatekeepers.

In the past, the gatekeepers—people who can grant or deny access to a recognized authority within a company—were receptionists, administrative assistants, executive administrators or the personal assistants. But that has changed. Technology has allowed companies to reduce clerical staffing, and the prevalence of consensus decision-making means many individuals can veto your pitch and many must collectively say yes. Today you have to adopt new tactics for getting past the new-generation gatekeepers.

Here’s what you’re up against:

The admin staff might have been replaced with an even more difficult gatekeeper: voice mail. You’ve been here before, haven’t you? You’ve called. You’ve navigated the phone system options to reach an important contact’s extension. You’ve left message after message. Your messages have been completely ignored. That’s one tough gatekeeper.

Or if you face a human obstacle, this gatekeeper probably doesn’t have a title that indicates that he or she fills that role. Instead the new gatekeeper can be any person whom your contact trusts to vet salespeople before meeting with them.

For example, one of my clients is the president and CEO of his company. Good luck getting him on the telephone or securing a meeting with him by contacting him directly. If you want to reach him, you are going to need to get past at least one of his gatekeepers, the very best being his vice president of marketing. My client trusts her implicitly, and if she says you are worthy of a meeting, you get the meeting. If she says you aren’t, then you are finished. He has other gatekeepers, too. His chief operations officer is a second example. Two additional gatekeepers are lower-level managers who have proved that they know who is worth seeing and who isn’t. All of these gatekeepers have the keys to the castle, and if you play your cards right, they’ll guide you through to see their boss.

Whether you are trying to get past a digital or human gatekeeper, the test for you is the same. Pass the test, and you are in. Fail the test, and you will be kept outside.

Open the Gates

The test is whether you can prove you are a value creator.

To get past any type of gatekeeper, you have to offer something valuable to the person you are trying to meet. Your clients aren’t sitting around waiting for salespeople to call and offer to come in and pitch them their products, services or solutions. Clients have raised the stakes. The price of admission is your ability to help produce better results, and you must have a value proposition for your meeting request that proves you can walk your talk.

Let’s look at the digital gatekeepers first.

In the past, you might have left a message that sounded something like this: “Hi, Jane. This is Chris with XYZ Widgets. We are the leading name in widgets, and I’d like to come out, introduce myself and my product, and show you how our widgets can make a difference for you.”

Jane will hit delete before she even finishes listening to your voice mail. That message is all about you. There is no value in it for Jane. Jane didn’t wake up this morning and think, I hope some salesperson will call to pitch me their products today. That never happens.

Your new and improved message needs to sound like this: “Hi, Jane. This is Chris with XYZ Widgets. I am calling you today to schedule a meeting where I can share with you the three biggest challenges you and your industry are going to face this year and what you can do about them. Listen, even if you never buy anything from me or XYZ, I promise the information I share with you is going to help you navigate those challenges. It will change some of the decisions you make. I’ll follow up this voice mail with an email to get on your schedule and try to reach you on the phone again tomorrow.”

This message is different. It indicates that you have value to offer beyond pitching your product. You and your product can help Jane navigate her challenges, and you establish yourself as a value creator by focusing on delivering your ideas and insights. There is no reason to wait for Jane to call you back; she didn’t commit to doing so by listening to your voice mail. Your promise to call her back lets Jane know you aren’t giving up or going away.

Now let’s look at human gatekeepers.

Regardless of who answers the phone when you reach out to prospects, you will have to prove you are worth letting through.

The problem most folks have here is the same problem they have with voice mail: Their pitches don’t demonstrate value. They sound like this: “Hi. I am trying to reach Jane.” The reply is often, “May I tell her who is calling?” The salesperson says, “Yes, this is Chris with XYZ Widgets.” The gatekeeper asks the dreaded follow-up question, the one that strikes fear in the non-value-creating salesperson’s heart, “May I tell Jane what this is regarding?” The answer from most salespeople almost always sounds very much like the voice mail: “I’d like to introduce myself and my service.”

Instead, you need to lead with a killer value proposition. Say, “Hi, this is Chris with XYZ Widgets. I am calling to schedule an appointment with Jane. We’ve discovered three challenges that companies in your space are struggling with now and want to share the three best ways to deal with those challenges. Jane is going to want to see this, and it is going to help her navigate this tricky landscape. Can you put me through to Jane?” It helps a lot to name the three challenges so the gatekeeper gets a sense of what is at stake and the compelling nature of your call.

It has never been easy to get past a gatekeeper, and it’s more difficult today than it was just a decade ago. But switching from pitching to instead providing real value—your insights and ideas that can benefit your prospects—is key to opening that gate and meeting with valuable contacts.

Know Problems and Offer Solutions

Creating a compelling value proposition that gets you past the gatekeeper can sound like magic, but the process really isn’t all that difficult.

First, identify the two or three problems that your clients face. What are their biggest challenges? Where are they struggling? What has changed in their world, and what impact is that having on their business? If you want to know how to compel someone, find out what is already compelling them. Make a list of those challenges.

Second, it’s really handy to have new stories, statistics and industry opinions about those challenges and their impact. When you have these conversations, you need to be armed with the facts. Facts are stubborn things. It’s easy for a prospect to disagree with a salesperson about his or her industry and the political, social, technological or cultural changes that are impacting their business; it’s much more difficult to argue with unbiased facts (customer demographics or return-on-investment statistics, for instance) and the opinions of industry thought leaders.

Finally, you need to provide answers. Share what you can do to help your customers with their challenges. Once you sit with them face to face, your clients are going to ask how you can help. And once you’ve made the case for change by sharing the problems and the surrounding facts, they will be very interested in how you can help.

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