By: Jay Lipe, EmergeMarketing.com
FAQ pages are quickly becoming a standard convention for service firm websites. But in this article I’d like to broaden your appreciation of a FAQ page to what I believe it really is: a high-return, low-cost marketing tool that can address a broad range of marketing, sales and service tasks.
Reasons every service firm should have a FAQ page
1. A FAQ helps potential buyers educate and prequalify themselves – As visitors land on your site, some of them naturally wish to learn how your capabilities can help them. Enter the FAQ. With an eye towards creating FAQs that anticipate and answer a prospects most pressing questions, you can actually move the sales dialogue along—without committing any labor to the selling process. For example, if your FAQ page features questions like "What is the profile of a best fit client for your firm?", “What kinds of projects does your firm specialize in?” and “What do you typically charge for a project?” you can both educate and prequalify prospects with your FAQ.
2. A content-rich FAQ page reduces demands on your support staff- FAQ pages evolved from a product manufacturer’s need to free up their customer service staffs from routine customer questions. By surfing a FAQ page for questions and answers, a potentially confused (thus potentially dissatisfied) customer could find the answer to their question and not burden your service staff. The same principle applies to any service firm. The easier you make it for prospects and buyers to serve themselves, the more satisfied they become working with your firm.
3. A FAQ acts as a great internal training device - Imagine the HR director for your firm who is training a roomful of new hires. Imagine that as part of her standard orientation, she calls up your firm’s FAQ page online and walks the new recruits through each FAQ. In a matter of 20 minutes, she can educate recruits on the most fundamental marketing and service issues of your firm such as “What makes our firm different from all others in the market?” and “Who do I go to if I have a service problem?”, and as a result train a new group of marketing ambassadors.
4. A FAQ page can help optimize your website’s internal links – If you look at Amazon’s Investor Relations page (http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-faq ), you’ll see that not only does it provide answers to the most relevant questions, but it also provides relevant internal links back to sections of the Amazon site—in other words, Google Juice.
The most common questions to include in your FAQ, and how to group them
Kick off your FAQ page by saying: Below is a list of questions we are frequently asked. Click on each question in order to get the answer. Feel free to contact us with any additional questions at (800) 555-1212 or tbd@tbd.com.
Follow this with FAQs that are lumped together into logical groupings. The first of these is…
FAQs that answer prospect questions
Prospective clients have very different questions about your firm versus clients. Most prospect questions revolve around why they should do business with your firm. Here are some standard FAQs in this area:
• Why would my organization need to hire an architectural firm (or marketing agency, or engineering firm, or consulting firm)?
• What does an architectural firm (or marketing agency, or engineering firm, or consulting firm) do
• How is (Your firm) different from all other firms in your industry?
• What's the profile of an ideal client for (Your firm)?
• What reasonable outcomes can I expect from working with (Your firm)?
• Why would I choose (Your firm) over one of the larger firms?
• What do you charge? How do you bill? What are your terms?
• Do you guarantee your work?
• What steps are necessary before we can start working together?
FAQs that answer course-of-business questions
FAQs can also be used to manage relationships with clients well after the ink has dried on the contract. Another set of FAQs should deal with the common questions clients have during the course of working on a project with your firm.
These course-of-business FAQs include:
• Who is assigned to our account?
• How often do we meet? Where do we meet?
• What are our responsibilities during the project?
• What are your responsibilities during the project?
• Where do I go to get my service issues addressed?
• How often will our company meet with yours during the project?
• What recourse do we have to terminate a relationship once our work begins?
• What options do we have to continue working with you after the project is complete?
How to find the answers to FAQs that stump you
If you don’t have all the answers to FAQs at your fingertips, you might try these avenues to find more information:
• Sales and customer service field reps
• Sales reports
• Customer service feedback forms
• Customer service phone recordings
• Company chat room responses
• Company blog comments.
If your firm produces a consumer product, you may even uncover some unique consumer questions residing on consumer feedback sites like E-pinions.com (www.epinions.com ). For one of my clients – a national lawn and garden manufacturer – I unearthed some terrific testimonial quotes for one of their products when I searched the brand name at Epinions.com.
If you can’t find enough FAQ information using these, why not take this opportunity to reach out to your clients? You could email a smattering of your best clients with an email that goes something like this:
Hi,
We at (Your firm) are developing a FAQ page for our website and are wondering if we could get your input. Would you have time to answer two brief questions?:
1. What were the most common questions you had about our firm before becoming a client?
2. What kinds of questions do you routinely ask about our firm after becoming a client?
Sincerely,
Your Name
Your Firm, Inc.
You’d be surprised how many people will actually help you when you reach out to them for help like this.
Some tips on formatting your FAQ page
In my view, FAQ’s work best when each FAQ leads off with a question. It’s now a standard convention to write FAQs this way. However, Google Reader’s FAQ page (http://www.google.com/help/reader/publishers.html) doesn’t follow this format and I find the page a bit more difficult to navigate.
If your page has just a few FAQs on it, five or less, just list the questions with the responding answer in random order on the page and let visitors scroll to find the FAQ they’re looking for. But if your firm has more than five FAQ’s, start off with a “table of contents” that lists all the questions in a hyperlink format. Then, after the visitor clicks on the question they want answered, they dynamically jump to the answer further down on the page.
For those pages with multiple FAQs, consider sequencing your FAQs. Chronologically sequencing your FAQs means that the first FAQs would deal with prospect questions they want answered before doing business with you. The next section of FAQ’s would cover the stage of signing a contract with your firm. And the last section might deal with common post-sale FAQs.
When writing the FAQs themselves, I’ve found that formatting the questions differently from the answers (e.g. italicizing the question and using a standard font for the answer) is a handy way for the reader to distinguish between the two parts of every FAQ.
Categorizing a whole bunch of FAQs
When you arrive at the IRS’s FAQ page (http://www.irs.gov/faqs/index.html), you’re confronted with hundreds of frequently asked questions (I have about a hundred myself). How do they organize and categorize all these FAQs? Quite well, I think. They group their hundreds of FAQs by category, subcategory and even by keyword.
Another service organization, the U.S. Copyright Office, sorts all its FAQs by major subheading http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/ . So, if you have a question about registering your work, you scroll down to the heading marked “Registering a Work”. Then under that heading you’ll find over 15 specific FAQs including “How do I register my copyright?”, “Where can I get application forms?” and “Can I file online?”
One thing I’d like to see more on FAQ pages is a question at the very end of the FAQ page that says “Didn’t find the FAQ you were looking for? Email us and we’ll consider adding it”. In this age of Web 2.0 why not reach out to your market and seeks its opinion?
Henry Kissinger once said “Any fact that needs to be disclosed should be put out now because otherwise the bleeding will not end.” I’d like to alter that slightly to read “Any FAQ should be put out now so the buying can begin”. If you’re like most service firms I work with, you struggle every day to generate marketing tools that are low cost, high ROI: ones that move a buyer to a sale, and keep current clients by strengthening the relationship. Consider adding a FAQ page to your marketing toolkit because it can do all this and more.
Author bio
Jay Lipe, president of EmergeMarketing.com, has helped hundreds of small businesses and Fortune 500 clients grow through strategic marketing plans and programs. He’s also the author of a new e-book How to Write a Marketing Plan That Wins New Clients and Grows Your Business which can be found at http://www.emergemarketing.com/marketing-plan-ebook/. Sign up for his free e-newsletter “Marketing Tips & Tools” at www.emergemarketing.com, or contact him at lipe@emergemarketing.com.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Cultivating Fans Online
By: Marcia Yudkin, Creative Marketing Solutions
According to a Recording Industry of America survey, about 7 in 10 music fans do not become aware of the news that their favorite performer has released a new record. Substitute "new product" or "new service" in that statistic and you have the plight of most businesses. Whether you sell diet counseling or electric drills, collecting and nurturing enthusiasts requires little or no money online and pays off handsomely.
It's important to note that fans need not be paying customers. Admirers who will never directly pay you a dime may recommend you repeatedly to buyers, to the media, to industry heavyweights or to investors.
Here's the strategy in broadest terms. In every situation where you have the opportunity to make an impression on people interested in your area of expertise, you offer them the option of joining your email list. Then you stay in touch with them regularly, reinforcing their impression of your competence and becoming trusted and familiar to them. At that point they'll practically mobilize themselves to act like fans, either buying from you themselves or telling others to do so.
And now here are some techniques that help channel casual, one-time contact into an enduring fan relationship.
• Your email signature. Exchanging email just once about business can turn someone into a subscriber when you append a few lines tempting someone to add themselves to your list. For instance: "For a free weekly dose of motivation to stay on your diet, subscribe to Slim Thinking at www.easydieting.com." Enable the automatic signature feature in your email software so that this gets tacked on the end without you having to remember it.
• Your business cards. If you can squeeze it on - there's almost always room on the back - add a suggestion on your business card similar to the one in your email signature. That way, people who meet you at a networking event will see your prompt to subscribe when they get home and look through their stack of cards.
• Your voice-mail message. Image consultant Mary Lou Andre of Organization by Design does this especially well. If you call her office after hours you hear this recording, in part: "While on our site, we hope you'll sign up to receive our Dressing Well Tip of the Week, which is delivered free of charge each Monday to your electronic mailbox. If you leave your email address on our voice-mail system, we'll be happy to sign you up directly."
• Your brochures or flyers. If you speak, as I do, or man a booth at trade shows, hand out something giving attendees a reason for them to get onto your list. "For free solutions to common drilling problems five days a week, sign up for The Daily Drill at http://www.thedailydrill.com." My brochure includes the contents of two sample Marketing Minute texts along with instructions for subscribing.
• An invitation at your web site. Too many sites ask people to type in their email address without a description of the contents of the subscription and its benefits, not to mention privacy reassurances. Those extra elements make a big difference in turning first-time visitors to your web site into quality registrants.
• Your signature in online forums or discussion lists. For instance, a web designer includes an invitation for you to enter her sphere of influence when she posts to discussion lists:
Martha Retallick
Web Design That Works - Lrpdesigns
Unbiased Internet book reviews- delivered to you!
FREE subscriptions at:
http://www.Lrpdesigns.com/subscribe.html
Once you collect a solid core of followers, maintain their favor by providing them regularly with useful information. In 2000, I tapped the power of my fan club by telling subscribers to my weekly newsletter, The Marketing Minute, that my new book, Internet Marketing for Less than $500/Year, had just been posted on Amazon.com, with the rock-bottom rank of 1,559,153. About 30 hours after I pressed the "send" button to my fans, I checked the same book page and my new book had shot up to 6,000-something.
Imagine hundreds of people marching off to their local hardware stores to ask for your drills - because you had laid the groundwork for that effect among your email brood!
Copyright 2001 Marcia Yudkin. All rights reserved.
According to a Recording Industry of America survey, about 7 in 10 music fans do not become aware of the news that their favorite performer has released a new record. Substitute "new product" or "new service" in that statistic and you have the plight of most businesses. Whether you sell diet counseling or electric drills, collecting and nurturing enthusiasts requires little or no money online and pays off handsomely.
It's important to note that fans need not be paying customers. Admirers who will never directly pay you a dime may recommend you repeatedly to buyers, to the media, to industry heavyweights or to investors.
Here's the strategy in broadest terms. In every situation where you have the opportunity to make an impression on people interested in your area of expertise, you offer them the option of joining your email list. Then you stay in touch with them regularly, reinforcing their impression of your competence and becoming trusted and familiar to them. At that point they'll practically mobilize themselves to act like fans, either buying from you themselves or telling others to do so.
And now here are some techniques that help channel casual, one-time contact into an enduring fan relationship.
• Your email signature. Exchanging email just once about business can turn someone into a subscriber when you append a few lines tempting someone to add themselves to your list. For instance: "For a free weekly dose of motivation to stay on your diet, subscribe to Slim Thinking at www.easydieting.com." Enable the automatic signature feature in your email software so that this gets tacked on the end without you having to remember it.
• Your business cards. If you can squeeze it on - there's almost always room on the back - add a suggestion on your business card similar to the one in your email signature. That way, people who meet you at a networking event will see your prompt to subscribe when they get home and look through their stack of cards.
• Your voice-mail message. Image consultant Mary Lou Andre of Organization by Design does this especially well. If you call her office after hours you hear this recording, in part: "While on our site, we hope you'll sign up to receive our Dressing Well Tip of the Week, which is delivered free of charge each Monday to your electronic mailbox. If you leave your email address on our voice-mail system, we'll be happy to sign you up directly."
• Your brochures or flyers. If you speak, as I do, or man a booth at trade shows, hand out something giving attendees a reason for them to get onto your list. "For free solutions to common drilling problems five days a week, sign up for The Daily Drill at http://www.thedailydrill.com." My brochure includes the contents of two sample Marketing Minute texts along with instructions for subscribing.
• An invitation at your web site. Too many sites ask people to type in their email address without a description of the contents of the subscription and its benefits, not to mention privacy reassurances. Those extra elements make a big difference in turning first-time visitors to your web site into quality registrants.
• Your signature in online forums or discussion lists. For instance, a web designer includes an invitation for you to enter her sphere of influence when she posts to discussion lists:
Martha Retallick
Web Design That Works - Lrpdesigns
Unbiased Internet book reviews- delivered to you!
FREE subscriptions at:
http://www.Lrpdesigns.com/subscribe.html
Once you collect a solid core of followers, maintain their favor by providing them regularly with useful information. In 2000, I tapped the power of my fan club by telling subscribers to my weekly newsletter, The Marketing Minute, that my new book, Internet Marketing for Less than $500/Year, had just been posted on Amazon.com, with the rock-bottom rank of 1,559,153. About 30 hours after I pressed the "send" button to my fans, I checked the same book page and my new book had shot up to 6,000-something.
Imagine hundreds of people marching off to their local hardware stores to ask for your drills - because you had laid the groundwork for that effect among your email brood!
Copyright 2001 Marcia Yudkin. All rights reserved.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
2010 Postal Rate Increase - Fuzzy Math?
The USPS service recently recommended an average postal increase of 5.6%. In their view this will help close the gap on the red ink trail they have been leaving behind them. I am not sure what reality they are operating in, but it is not the same one the rest of the businesses are in.
A postal rate increase will do nothing more than extend their losses into upcoming quarters and put one more nail in the coffin of the direct mail industry. Have they even attempted to speak to their customers? As a one time heavy direct mailer I can let them know that the way to get our business back is not to raise the postal rates further.
The math they are using is A x B = Profit with A being amount of mail sent and B being the price to send that mail. In any scenario if you decide to choose B that has a direct affect on A, but in their math the new equation looks like this: A x (B x 5.6%) = Profit. The price has risen 5.6% and and the amount of mail stays the same, which in turn results in more profit... or less of a loss as the case may be.
Unfortunately, that completely ignores the effect that the amount of mail will decrease as the postal rate increases. The Law of Demand is a common economic principle telling us that the higher a price goes the less demand for that product there will be.
Taking the law of demand into account the USPS can bank on losing another batch of customers this year based on their price increase. Unfortunately that will continue the spiral affect that they have been seeing for years now.
Instead of trying to squeeze more money out of the customers that they still have, it may be time to investigate how they can sign on new customers or win previous customers back. Again, opening up a dialogue with previous customers or prospects would be a great start and probably eye opening.
The USPS is not the only industry facing threats from technology, but they do seem to be one of the most stubborn in their responses to the threat. Direct Mailers, keep letting your USPS representatives know what this will do to your volumes this year. Maybe the point will get across.
A postal rate increase will do nothing more than extend their losses into upcoming quarters and put one more nail in the coffin of the direct mail industry. Have they even attempted to speak to their customers? As a one time heavy direct mailer I can let them know that the way to get our business back is not to raise the postal rates further.
The math they are using is A x B = Profit with A being amount of mail sent and B being the price to send that mail. In any scenario if you decide to choose B that has a direct affect on A, but in their math the new equation looks like this: A x (B x 5.6%) = Profit. The price has risen 5.6% and and the amount of mail stays the same, which in turn results in more profit... or less of a loss as the case may be.
Unfortunately, that completely ignores the effect that the amount of mail will decrease as the postal rate increases. The Law of Demand is a common economic principle telling us that the higher a price goes the less demand for that product there will be.
Taking the law of demand into account the USPS can bank on losing another batch of customers this year based on their price increase. Unfortunately that will continue the spiral affect that they have been seeing for years now.
Instead of trying to squeeze more money out of the customers that they still have, it may be time to investigate how they can sign on new customers or win previous customers back. Again, opening up a dialogue with previous customers or prospects would be a great start and probably eye opening.
The USPS is not the only industry facing threats from technology, but they do seem to be one of the most stubborn in their responses to the threat. Direct Mailers, keep letting your USPS representatives know what this will do to your volumes this year. Maybe the point will get across.
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