Anyone who has read a book on content marketing has probably come across the case study of River Pools & Spas. If not, a quick google search will return several results on the success they achieved with content marketing. It’s the story of how a fibreglass pools company was struggling in the 2009 worldwide recessions. Staring in the face of bankruptcy, they turned to content marketing and turned their fortunes around. Not only did they stay in business, while the majority of pool builders lost 50 to 75% of their sales, their sales increased while they dramatically cut their advertising costs.
The incredible thing about the River Pools & Spas case study was the simplicity of their approach. They didn’t create an overly complicated or confusing content strategy, but instead, they stuck to the basics. We can adequately summarise their content strategy in a single sentence. They answered every conceivable question a customer could have had about swimming pools.
What Would Answering Every Conceivable Question Achieve?
They provided potential customers with an incredibly useful service while simultaneously positioning themselves as a world-leading authority on the subject of swimming pools. The logic is that by providing this free service to your customers, they will later reward you with their business. Most people would prefer to buy a pool from the company that has answered all of their questions and appears to be the leading authority on a subject.
Answering questions helps their audience move along the buyer journey. Building a swimming pool is a significant investment. Naturally, potential customers have a lot of questions. If you answer every last one of their queries without them needing to leave your website, you’ve given yourself a high chance of winning that person’s business. Not only have you removed any need for them to check the websites of other pool builders, you have more than satisfied any doubts about whether or not you are the right company for the job.
In our article on the subject of content strategy, we talk about answering the question “what does our target audience want or need from us?”. In this case, the answer is an expert knowledge of the subject of your business. We also asked the question, “what can you give your audience that nobody else can?”. The answer would again be your vast level of specialised knowledge. The critical thing to note is that you’re proactive. You’re not waiting for your audience to ask you any questions, you’re pre-empting the questions before your audience asks them. Being proactive paints your business in a good light. It also shows your audience that you understand their needs and frustrations. Ultimately this builds goodwill and trust.
Another benefit is SEO. The more questions you answer, the more pages you’re putting on your website, and the more likely what you’re writing about is going to match somebody’s search engine query. Similarly, you will likely obtain free backlinks and social media shares as people are linking to your useful and helpful content.
“Inevitably I Would Quickly Run Out Of Questions To Answer”
Head over to the River Pools & Spas blog it’s still the perfect example of content marketing done right. To this day, they’re answering every conceivable question a customer could have about swimming pools. For instance, as of today (16/03/2020), the last two posts on the River Pools and Spas blog are answering questions about how swimming pools would be affected by the coronavirus pandemic that is currently sweeping across the world.
If you keep scrolling back through the blog, the content is still coming. Naturally, once they answered the essential questions, you can see that they needed to think harder about new subjects. Some pieces of content cover a precise topic like “How to Repair a Tear in a Vinyl Pool Liner”. Other pieces are relevant to a specific moment in time like “Yes, Swimming Pools are Safe from Coronavirus”. While some articles are specific to certain geographic areas like “Building a Swimming Pool in Virginia Beach? Here Are 6 Things You Should Know”.
If you start running out of topics, ask yourself the following three questions.
1) What is relevant now?
2) What precise questions have I not answered?
3) What can I write that is relevant to a particular area?
Getting Started With This Approach Yourself
The first step is to know your customer or audience. You’re going to be covering every conceivable question, but it’s good to start with the most critical queries. These will often be the questions you’re asked the most frequently by customers. Think back and write down every question a customer has ever asked you. Once you’ve done that, start adding run on questions. You can then start thinking of new logical questions that you haven’t covered.
Finally, break your business down into subcategories and think of specific questions. Doing this should give you at least 100 topics! Perhaps more. If you’re writing two articles a week that’s content for a year!
Rather than trying to answer several questions in one article split them out into separate posts. Doing so will provide your website with a better structure and adds additional pages which helps your SEO. Keep a directory of the questions on your website. Grouping similar questions together so your audience can easily find what they’re looking for on the index.
Give each question the time it deserves. Your goal is not to quickly answer as many questions as possible. Your goal is to position yourself as the leading authority on the subject. You cannot become the leading authority by rushing your answers. The answer to each question has to be the best answer available on the internet.
Conclusion
One of the most significant benefits of this exercise is that it encourages you to put yourself in the shoes of your customer. The more you understand your customers, the better you can serve them and adapt to their needs. Even if you’ve already got a slightly different content strategy in place, this is a great exercise to start. In addition to any content you have already planned, dedicate one article a week to answering common questions. In no time at all, you will see the results!
Great piece! Answering questions I see asked on facebook or quora or reddit with content is one of my favorite ways to generate ideas. I also always try to answer as many relevant questions as I can in each article, which I think has helped me rank better as Google moves toward voice-oriented search.