Backstory
A year ago, when I have just joined CodingNinjas, a startup that’s been profitable since day 0 but hasn’t done any kind of extensive and intentional marketing at all, I was happy because of the two reasons:
1. I have finally found a startup with a team that cared about the business, not the overestimated startup BS-culture
2. As a marketer, I had no chances of messing up something that’s been working perfectly well.
I was the first marketing hire in the history of the business that has been munching on referral leads for two years but was definitely ready to try something new, something much tastier.
The plan was to focus on content marketing, grow the domain authority and start getting more search traffic. But while we were setting up an effective content production pipeline, we’ve noticed one very odd trend: we were getting a slow but steady stream of leads who claimed they’ve found out about us from Quora.
Aleks, our CEO, remembered that a few months ago he accidentally saw a question about CodingNinjas competitors and decided to write a quick answer since it was exactly in his field of expertise.
Naturally, we decided that it wouldn’t hurt to give Quora a try and throw in some horse powers into writing more answers to similar questions. Since then, here’s how our Quora traffic has grown over the past year:
1. I have finally found a startup with a team that cared about the business, not the overestimated startup BS-culture
2. As a marketer, I had no chances of messing up something that’s been working perfectly well.
I was the first marketing hire in the history of the business that has been munching on referral leads for two years but was definitely ready to try something new, something much tastier.
The plan was to focus on content marketing, grow the domain authority and start getting more search traffic. But while we were setting up an effective content production pipeline, we’ve noticed one very odd trend: we were getting a slow but steady stream of leads who claimed they’ve found out about us from Quora.
Aleks, our CEO, remembered that a few months ago he accidentally saw a question about CodingNinjas competitors and decided to write a quick answer since it was exactly in his field of expertise.
Naturally, we decided that it wouldn’t hurt to give Quora a try and throw in some horse powers into writing more answers to similar questions. Since then, here’s how our Quora traffic has grown over the past year:
First results
Quora is among these unusual ways to bring free traffic to your website. Soon enough we realized that Quora has set itself up for becoming our number one stable source of leads, so we decided it was time to study it better, experiment a little and find the patterns that would make this chunk of work easy and transparent enough to scale.
We’ve done some A/B tests to find the perfect length of answers, how formatting affected the ranking, and whether it made sense to answer the less popular questions or focus on the topics that were a bit out of our reach but still somewhat related to what we do as a business.
Not to bore you with the details, I’ll sum our most important findings up in the shortest way possible.
We’ve done some A/B tests to find the perfect length of answers, how formatting affected the ranking, and whether it made sense to answer the less popular questions or focus on the topics that were a bit out of our reach but still somewhat related to what we do as a business.
Not to bore you with the details, I’ll sum our most important findings up in the shortest way possible.
Which questions to answer?
Probably the most important thing you should care about on Quora is how to choose the questions that may bring you the most and the best leads. While every business is different, and there is no universal advice other than “When not sure — A/B test!”, I can speak for the businesses similar to CodingNinjas.
To give you a little more context, CodingNinjas is a platform for hiring vetted freelance developers on demand. Our key competencies are:
- testing developers who apply to join our network
- matching them to the clients’ projects based on their skillsets and availability
- live support ready to do whatever it takes to make sure every project meets all the requirements and deadlines
And our target audience consists of two major segments: owners of digital marketing and web agencies, and marketers that work for online businesses. Of course, those are not the only clients we work with, but after taking a deeper, more meaningful look into our KPIs, we realized those were the people who tend to become the most loyal customers who bring us the biggest share of revenue compared to all the other customer segments.
To be honest, I’m telling you all these things just to lead to one simple idea: no one can stop you from going on Quora without knowing who your prospective customers are, what they care about, and how they end up learning about your business when they are in their natural habitat.
But I can’t emphasize enough, how much easier it would make your life if you did the prep work before even starting to write your first posts on any kind of social media.
Here’s why: once you know your customers’ journey you begin to understand all the steps they go through on their way to your landing page, blog post, or gated content. And that’s how you know where to catch them. If you’ve never done such analysis before, or need a bit refreshment, I strongly recommend reading this article on how to create high-converting sales funnels which covers all the basics of customer journey.
In case with CodingNinjas, we realized our best shot would be to follow the simple principle of producing the content designed specifically for each stage of customer awareness funnel:
To give you a little more context, CodingNinjas is a platform for hiring vetted freelance developers on demand. Our key competencies are:
- testing developers who apply to join our network
- matching them to the clients’ projects based on their skillsets and availability
- live support ready to do whatever it takes to make sure every project meets all the requirements and deadlines
And our target audience consists of two major segments: owners of digital marketing and web agencies, and marketers that work for online businesses. Of course, those are not the only clients we work with, but after taking a deeper, more meaningful look into our KPIs, we realized those were the people who tend to become the most loyal customers who bring us the biggest share of revenue compared to all the other customer segments.
To be honest, I’m telling you all these things just to lead to one simple idea: no one can stop you from going on Quora without knowing who your prospective customers are, what they care about, and how they end up learning about your business when they are in their natural habitat.
But I can’t emphasize enough, how much easier it would make your life if you did the prep work before even starting to write your first posts on any kind of social media.
Here’s why: once you know your customers’ journey you begin to understand all the steps they go through on their way to your landing page, blog post, or gated content. And that’s how you know where to catch them. If you’ve never done such analysis before, or need a bit refreshment, I strongly recommend reading this article on how to create high-converting sales funnels which covers all the basics of customer journey.
In case with CodingNinjas, we realized our best shot would be to follow the simple principle of producing the content designed specifically for each stage of customer awareness funnel:
In order to do that, we’ve defined the biggest struggles our target audience faced on each of those stages. Then, we chose several questions with similar stats for each awareness stage and answered them following the same formatting and structural guidelines, so the results we’d be getting wouldn’t be affected much by the quality of content we produced.
The conclusions were quite definite: we were getting conversions only from the content that was covering the last two awareness stages — the solution- and product-aware. And this rule proved to be right for every marketer who has tried using our framework for Quora.
We have written an explicit guide on Quora marketing for dummies, where I explain in detail how to choose the right questions, and I’ll share the link to it at the end of this article.
The conclusions were quite definite: we were getting conversions only from the content that was covering the last two awareness stages — the solution- and product-aware. And this rule proved to be right for every marketer who has tried using our framework for Quora.
We have written an explicit guide on Quora marketing for dummies, where I explain in detail how to choose the right questions, and I’ll share the link to it at the end of this article.
Quora algorithm
The best thing about Quora is that, despite the fact that a lot of marketers and business owners use it for promotional purposes (just like you’re about to do), their team works really hard on maintaining the quality of the content produced by the community. And they pretty much nail it with a little help from their awesomely designed algorithm.
Now, of course, they keep the exact way it works in a strict secret. But, if you carefully read through their community guidelines and follow through with some experiments, you will be able to work your way around all the people competing with you over the honor of being the author of the best-ranked answers.
Answer rankings on Quora are just as important for getting traffic as your rankings for specific keywords in the SEO. The lower your answer is ranked — the less traffic, and less leads you will be getting. For example, here’s what you’ll see if you open any random question on Quora:
Now, of course, they keep the exact way it works in a strict secret. But, if you carefully read through their community guidelines and follow through with some experiments, you will be able to work your way around all the people competing with you over the honor of being the author of the best-ranked answers.
Answer rankings on Quora are just as important for getting traffic as your rankings for specific keywords in the SEO. The lower your answer is ranked — the less traffic, and less leads you will be getting. For example, here’s what you’ll see if you open any random question on Quora:
As you see, this world is even crueler than the search engines: you only get to see one answer on the first screen. That means, that if the first answer user sees upon opening the question page is good enough, it’s like the rest of the answers never even existed in the first place.
In many ways, Quora’s algorithm is similar to the ground rules for creating content optimized for search engines, with little differences:
- Your answer has to be related to the topic and provide valuable information
- Include the keywords from the question when writing the answer
- Make it around 800 words long
- Use links to trusted sources or other questions
- Mention other Quora users
- Use different text formatting and lists
- Don’t forget about images
Two other things that affect how high your answers rank are community engagement (upvotes, downvotes, comments and how many people read your content), and your profile’s authority.
Profile authority is something you need to build up from scratch. If you want to rank higher answering questions on specific topics, you should do the following things:
- Add these topics in your “Knows About” section
- Answer as many questions on this and similar topics as you can
- Create valuable and engaging content that gets upvotes
- React to as many requests to answer the questions on your topics as you can
In many ways, Quora’s algorithm is similar to the ground rules for creating content optimized for search engines, with little differences:
- Your answer has to be related to the topic and provide valuable information
- Include the keywords from the question when writing the answer
- Make it around 800 words long
- Use links to trusted sources or other questions
- Mention other Quora users
- Use different text formatting and lists
- Don’t forget about images
Two other things that affect how high your answers rank are community engagement (upvotes, downvotes, comments and how many people read your content), and your profile’s authority.
Profile authority is something you need to build up from scratch. If you want to rank higher answering questions on specific topics, you should do the following things:
- Add these topics in your “Knows About” section
- Answer as many questions on this and similar topics as you can
- Create valuable and engaging content that gets upvotes
- React to as many requests to answer the questions on your topics as you can
Cheating
When you’re just starting out with your lead generation from Quora, you have to understand that just like any other type of content marketing, you’re unlikely to get any instant results. It’s a long game, but if you stick around, you will be rewarded with a constant and stable lead source that won’t require as much input later on.
Still, the temptation to cheat is not going anywhere. After all, we’re the growth hackers, it’s in our blood to strive for the better and faster solutions. Well, if you’re thinking about cheating on Quora, I’ll have to disappoint you: they’re just as good in preventing fraud as they’re in detecting and promoting the best content for their community.
Two most common types of cheating on Quora are paid upvotes and sockpuppeting. You can find an enormous amount of “upvoting clubs” and Fiverr deals where you can get 100 upvotes for 5 bucks. And you can also create a ton of fake accounts and act out a whole performance where you ask yourself different questions, thank for providing the valuable information and upvote your own answers. You can, yes! But not for long. Quora analyzes many different factors and signs to detect these most popular scams, and while you can come up with ways around that alarm system, in the end, remember these two things:
● If you get caught, your accounts will be permanently banned, and all of the hard work you put in will vanish
● It will probably require much more efforts than playing honest
Still, the temptation to cheat is not going anywhere. After all, we’re the growth hackers, it’s in our blood to strive for the better and faster solutions. Well, if you’re thinking about cheating on Quora, I’ll have to disappoint you: they’re just as good in preventing fraud as they’re in detecting and promoting the best content for their community.
Two most common types of cheating on Quora are paid upvotes and sockpuppeting. You can find an enormous amount of “upvoting clubs” and Fiverr deals where you can get 100 upvotes for 5 bucks. And you can also create a ton of fake accounts and act out a whole performance where you ask yourself different questions, thank for providing the valuable information and upvote your own answers. You can, yes! But not for long. Quora analyzes many different factors and signs to detect these most popular scams, and while you can come up with ways around that alarm system, in the end, remember these two things:
● If you get caught, your accounts will be permanently banned, and all of the hard work you put in will vanish
● It will probably require much more efforts than playing honest
Fast start
If you want to dive in right away and start getting your first clients from Quora, I recommend reading our full guide on lead generation from Quora. Or, at least, following this checklist:
- Do the prep work
❏ Analyze your target audience
❏ Choose the customer segments that bring you the most profits
❏ Imagine what’s the customer journey is like for them
❏ Determine which questions on Quora represent the last two stages of customer awareness
- Create and optimize your profile
❏ Select a corporate headshot for a polished and professional appearance
❏ Write a nice profile summary (you can use your elevator pitch)
❏ You can use your company logo or any other images in your profile description
❏ Don’t forget about a link to your landing page
❏ Add topics to your “Knows About” section
❏ Select a “Pinned Answer” you want your page visitors to see
- Produce awesome content
❏ Answer the questions that hit your customers pain points
❏ Write answers optimized for Quora algorithms
❏ Frequently react to requests to answer
❏ Try to grow your audience organically
❏ Remain focused on a single topic at a time
❏ Edit Answer Wiki, when available
- Do the prep work
❏ Analyze your target audience
❏ Choose the customer segments that bring you the most profits
❏ Imagine what’s the customer journey is like for them
❏ Determine which questions on Quora represent the last two stages of customer awareness
- Create and optimize your profile
❏ Select a corporate headshot for a polished and professional appearance
❏ Write a nice profile summary (you can use your elevator pitch)
❏ You can use your company logo or any other images in your profile description
❏ Don’t forget about a link to your landing page
❏ Add topics to your “Knows About” section
❏ Select a “Pinned Answer” you want your page visitors to see
- Produce awesome content
❏ Answer the questions that hit your customers pain points
❏ Write answers optimized for Quora algorithms
❏ Frequently react to requests to answer
❏ Try to grow your audience organically
❏ Remain focused on a single topic at a time
❏ Edit Answer Wiki, when available
So, how do you build your personal brand, drive qualified traffic to your site and get leads with Quora?
If not done yet, I recommend you start incorporating Quora to your content marketing mix. By building your profile on Quora and answering relevant questions with insightful answers, you will build your online personal and it will help you become an influencer and an authority in your industry.As I’ve mentioned above, Quora does require a lot of work and time to master, but it’s 100 times worth the hustle simply because it’s one of a very few places where you can get both an opportunity to produce native content and target it at the prospective customers who are looking for solutions right now.
Quora is one of those growth hacks I suggest any startups, SMBs or entrepreneurs to use.
Growth Hackers is probably one of the best customer acquisition agencies helps companies, entrepreneurs and founders build their brand online, generate leads, increase conversions and revenue. We can help you get leads from Quora but not only. Indeed, we can also help you with copywriting, social media marketing, email marketing and more. If you want to strengthening your online brand, get more leads, users and sales contact Growth Hackers right away so we can start growing your brand shortly.
Ksenia Larina
I am the content strategist at CodingNinjas — the platform for hiring vetted freelance developers on demand. We help marketers and agencies hire better programmers, and share everything we learn about marketing on our way to becoming your next freelance talent vendor.
1 Comment
Hi Ksenia, I love Quora. I started using it daily for 6 months before I received any traffic but I stayed with it and now it’s my number 1 or 2 source of traffic. I suggested it to a client but they gave up within a week, I felt so bad. If only they kept on.
I’ve been tagged a few times as spam but I put in request and they untagged me and said I was caught up in bots. Thanks for sharing your experience here about Quora.