The 5 big problems [and solutions] with implementing They Ask You Answer

byNick Burrage/December 19, 2023/inContent Marketing, They Ask You Answer

When I first read ‘They Ask You Answer’, I knew that it was exactly what I had been looking for. We had a good website and great digital marketing but the content wasn’t really landing and more to the point I hated creating it!

Once I realised that I could write honest helpful stuff for humans rather than the dreaded Google, I fell in love with content creation. When I saw the power it had I fell even deeper.

Website fails Core Web Vitals test from Google

A very common problem that we find is that clients arrive with a website that is not fit for purpose. In simple terms: it fails Google’s Core Web Vitals.

I think that things were a little easier in Marcus’s early days in 2012 in the sense that Google wasn’t so absolutely brutal with a slow website or website they didn’t pass core vitals.

These days it’s very different – if your website is slow Google will not rank you so along with a whole host of other tick box items you really do need to have a website that’s fast and ready to go and passes Core Web Vitals.

SEO experts vs Humans

If you have an SEO strategy in place then it may well not indicate the same topics as They Ask You Answer does. SEO requires hitting the big keywords whereas the questions you want to answer as a They Ask You Answer writer may differ. It can create tension between you and your SEO team!

Some points to remember:

Your content is not just about Google
The early wins ( see below) with a great They Ask YoU Answer Content strategy are nothing to do with Google but are about the vital pieces of content that will whizz people through your sales process.

Action: Always start with sales enablement content

A well answered question will drive web traffic

Whatever the SEO people’s research tells them, answering a question that people are asking will get you web traffic. It may not show on tools such as SEMrush.com but rest assured that once Google realises you are doing a good job it will send people your way.

Action: Answer the important questions next

You’ve got a lot of blogs to write

There’s plenty of opportunity to make everyone happy. The golden rule of blogs is that you hit three a week. That’s over 150 each year. There will be time to hit those big keywords and you may be surprised how often you agree with the SEO experts.

Action: Be patient – add the big keyword blogs into the mix.

Content production is a challenge

Hitting the magic 3 articles a week is very tough. At first especially.

I recently posted on Linkedin about all the hacks I have used here but for brevity’s sake here they are:

Don’t be afraid to dump a blog that bores you. It’ll probably bore your reader too.
Being a teacher is rewarding – write simple and helpful posts.
Use Subheads as a little reward as you progress through your article
Use time blocking: ‘I will write for 40 minutes’ gets done whereas ‘I will write a blog before lunch’ gets put off for another day.
Make sure you are inspired, passionate or opinionated – it’ll make writing easy.
Use voice dictation and smash out a blog while you are doing chores or, in my case, walking the dog.

Videos don’t need to be perfect. They need to be done.

The first video you make will be terrible, the second a little less terrible. Don’t wait for perfection – just jump in and get into a habit. One tip: never stop during a video – always finish it. It’ll help instil good habits and save you from wasting 5 takes. State the promise of a video and the purpose at the start to help your viewers:

E.g. ‘Watch this video to find why you should be using turmeric in your cooking (purpose). By the end you will understand the three key health benefits of this magical spice.’ (promise)

You need a content manager but…

This is a tough one because to really succeed you will need a dedicated content manager but they are expensive – certainly at the start. I think there’s great value in you as a business owner or marketing leader doing that job yourself even for a short period so you understand the ins and outs of it.

A quick win from day one

The quickest win – from day 1 – is to add content into your sales process. Marcus’s rule at River Pools is that until you have read 30 pieces of content you don’t get a home visit. He created the rule from data: the numbers were clear when he looked back at previous pool purchases – all the purchasers had read 30 articles. When a meeting was unsuccessful, sure enough, folks had read far less or none at all.

Could you add a questionnaire to your sales process?

All new enquiries at the agency are required to fill in a 94 part questionnaire. The team thought that it would harm sales but in fact it has had the opposite effect. It means that initial meetings are highly productive – the prospective client rightly feels deeply understood

Action: Build a questionnaire for your business and test it out.

Could you assign your prospect some homework (called assignment selling in They Ask You Answer)

If an initial meeting or a questionnaire reveals that your prospect has concerns in a certain area then make sure you have two or three articles or videos that you can send them to cover this area. It is far preferable for both parties that they can digest complicated and important information in their own time rather than in the heat of a one-to-one meeting.

Action: make sure you have videos that cover common questions that occur in the sales process.

Get complete They Ask You Answer Mastery

The Ambitions Agency’s coach, Nick Burrage is the first UK Certified Coach for They Ask You Answer.

Trained by Marcus and his team, Nick will take your entire business on a transformational journey over 18 months during which you will see Sales and Marketing come together as a unified team and the entire business join forces in a new content focussed ethos. Typical results see traffic multiply by 2000% and leads go up by over 1000%. You can find many case studies here.

GET FULL DIGITAL MARKETING MASTERY FOR YOUR BUSINESS – CERTIFIED MASTERY OF THEY ASK YOU ANSWER AND SEE HUGE RESULTS. START TODAY BY BOOKING A CALL WITH COACH NICK.

Schedule a call with Nick Contact us