You may have heard the myth that ostriches bury their head in the sand when they’re stressed. Everyone can still see them, and they look like cowards – and not very smart ones, either.
Many small businesses are ostriches and don’t even realize it. They know what their customers want to know, but they’re scared to talk about it. Silence won’t solve your problems. It will hurt you.
At CSI Accounting & Payroll, we’ve advised small businesses on best practices for nearly 60 years. In the past few years, we’ve adopted our own transparency policy with They Ask, You Answer, and we encourage our clients to do the same. Here, we’ll discuss:
A few years ago, I was looking for a specific used car. It was my first big purchase, and I was scared of getting ripped off. Every time a listing was posted, I’d check on the details that mattered the most to me. To my surprise, most sites didn’t show all of those details. If I needed to reach out to get that information, I just moved on to the next listing.
Finally, I saw a detailed listing for my car. It had:
This might not have been the best deal, but it felt honest. So I reached out and bought the car. Other dealerships’ cars might have been in perfect condition with low miles, great salespeople, and even lower prices than what I paid. But because they didn’t show me that, they never heard from me. And I have no regrets.
If you’re not talking about hard truths, you’ll never know about most of your potential customers. You’ll lose them before they ever call you. This can all be avoided with They Ask, You Answer.
They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan mentions trust erosion (how silence feels shady) and addressing what others in your industry refuse to address. They don’t know that scaring away the wrong people by being honest doesn’t hurt them.
You become the trusted voice in your industry by asking your own experts about the Big Five topics:
(In these sections, fill in each blank with a product, service, industry, and/or brand name.)
If your prices aren’t clearly listed on your website, visitors will leave within seconds. Write about it using titles like “Cost of X”.
Here’s the thing. You don’t need to give a specific number. Just talk about a range, an average, your industry’s pricing, and why it costs what it costs. But if you want more leads, you’ll need a cost estimator (like priceguide.ai) for your website. Visitors submit their information to see their estimate, which can generate 300% more leads than sites without an estimator.
Your potential customers are using search terms like “Problems With X”. So why not be the first company to talk about it? Whether it’s posting about your competitors or even yourself, this will drive traffic to your website. Put rumors to rest… or get ahead of ones that are true. What’s controversial in your industry?
Similarly, people often search “X vs. Y” or “X vs. Y vs. Z”. That means, for example, you should compare:
Then, within all of those categories, you should compare:
(And more… the possibilities are endless.)
Now, aim for terms like “X Reviews / Ratings”.
If you plug in your company’s name, that term will pull up your online reviews from different sites, but it can also pull up an honest review that you write about yourself. Be sure to also use customer reviews to build trust. Just like writing about problems, you can get ahead of misconceptions.
It doesn’t stop there! If you use popular terms for your competitors (like their company name or a product’s name), anyone who’s searching for them will also be brought to your website.
“Best X” or “Top 10 X” are popular searches that can attract all of the traffic that’s searching for your competitors. The former best practice was to not include yourself in the list (to build credibility and sound unbiased), but now with AI pulling the wording from lists, it’s best to include yourself as well.
A few years ago, CSI stumbled across They Ask, You Answer. We took the plunge right away.
I moved into the Content Manager role to write articles. I started by asking basic questions, and we built our Learning Center. We use the Big Five to address our industry, direct and indirect competitors, the government, and much more. I even made a Pricing Calculator. We used to think accounting services were too complex for this, but by giving estimated ballpark ranges, we’re seeing more leads than ever.
We hired a Videographer and prioritized YouTube. Then, a HubSpot & Website Specialist to track our progress and pave the user journey on our website. Our Consultants began to send articles and videos to prospects before meeting to build trust. They can be very specific to a prospect’s situation, showing we understand them.
So, the overall results? More leads. Better-qualified leads. More trust. Fewer repetitive questions. More deals. Bigger deal sizes. Happier clients. Happier employees.
At CSI, we provide marketing advice (and a variety of other topics) to our monthly accounting clients. Since this principle worked for us, we tell our clients about it to help them succeed, too. I challenge you to write about a taboo topic related to your industry this week. Be bold and build trust!
Now that you know about the cost of silence, how They Ask, You Answer prevents ostrich marketing, and how we use it at CSI, are you ready to check out our monthly accounting services? If so, please consider CSI Accounting & Payroll! To see if we can be a good fit for your business, click the button below for a free consultation:
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