With so many options of social channels – LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Reddit, TikTok, and Quora – B2B marketers are having a hard time deciding which one to prioritize. And while Quora may not be suitable for everyone (which may actually be to your advantage), you’re missing out if you’re not already using it. Here’s why. 

Quora is an excellent tool if you’re looking to share and find information, especially if you’re looking for your next B2B marketing campaign. You can get the word out about your product or service to a variety of people and get them excited about it. 

In this article, you’ll learn about: 

  • the platform
  • the results you can expect by being present on Quora
  • how to use it in B2B marketing, some best practices, and what not to do on the platform
  • how to increase your reach with Quora.

Let’s begin!   

What is Quora? 

Quora is a community-driven question and answer platform that allows you to interact with a diverse user base and content. The content is exclusively user-generated and curated by its audience. Its audience comprises 300+ million active visitors monthly, sharing, asking for tips and answering questions, talking about their community, products, research, and learning about the world around them. 

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People are generally more open on the platform, inquisitive, and receptive to new products. There are over 400,000 topics to explore, which vary from marketing to business to the environment. It’s a fairly easy platform to use and an excellent way to create a name for yourself and your brand. Let’s get into some basics and stats: 

  • Quorans – members who ask and answer questions on the platform. 
  • Community and micro-communities – you can follow other members or pages of interest; there are up (↑) and down (↓) votes (similar to Reddit) on answers and comments, an option to share with friends or other members or to privately message other members or followers. Great answers receive upvotes; a lot of upvotes push an answer to the top of the response list. Conversely, answers with many downvotes aren’t prioritized for others to see. 
  • The content and shared knowledge is “evergreen” – a question doesn’t get lost among the million other ones; you can find it months, even years later. 
  • People spend twice as much time on Quora than they do on LinkedIn, which is fantastic news for your business. 
  • There are about four million questions posted on Quora daily.
  • Quorans are highly educated, 65% of members have a college degree (take this into account when you’re thinking about your strategy). 

What Results to Expect by Being Present on Quora 

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You can build a powerful platform to promote your company and project yourself as an expert in your field. The platform has certain qualities that other research-type platforms don’t, including:

  • You can build your personal brand with personalized posts since they get more attention than just marketing ads. You may even direct members to your other social accounts directly from Quora, strengthening your presence across multiple platforms. 
  • Allows you to showcase your expertise by sharing and contributing to a conversation.
  • It’s full of audiences asking pertinent questions and seeking professional advice from brands (like yours). You yourself can ask questions daily and get answers instantly, shortening time to start conversations with potential customers or brand advocates.
  • You have access to a considerable amount of user-generated content that you can use to your advantage for inbound/influencer marketing. With such a significant reach (up there with Twitter, Reddit, and Pinterest), your answers can reach new audiences that you may not find on other platforms. 
  • You don’t need a big budget to get brand engagement or distribute content, especially when comparing it to LinkedIn, which is getting expensive, or Facebook, where you also need a substantial budget to ensure relevant users see your brand page. 
  • You can increase your exposure by contacting other members without needing an advertising plan, instantly establishing meaningful business relationships.  
  • It’s an excellent (free) source of new traffic acquisition and lead generation because it allows you to create momentum for brand awareness, loyalty, and equity.  
  • You can establish thought leadership through a strong profile that showcases your expertise and credibility. 56% of B2B marketers want to position their company as a thought leader, and Quora is your chance to do so.    

How to Use Quora in B2B Marketing

Follow these main tactics for your B2B marketing campaign: 

  • Add your website link to get traffic organically – add links to your answers or directly to your profile bio. Remember to only add links to answers when relevant, not advertise your website (you’ll probably get downvoted for this). Make sure you don’t add too many links either – Quora moderators reduce the reach of your answer when you add too many links with no added value, so you won’t rank at the top, and you may be sanctioned for spam. Remember, 98% of your visitors leave without converting, so add value to their lives to reconnect with some of them. 
  • Engage with customers who leave reviews – whether positive or negative, reviews help you create a trustworthy brand image when you interact accordingly. Follow your customers, ask them specific questions, and let them know how and if you’re making a pain point better. In this way, customers will be more receptive to your brand. 97% of consumers say that customer reviews influence their purchasing decisions. 
  • Engage with your community frequently –  follow influencers like the “most viewed writers” for your preferred topics. For example, if you’re searching for lead generation, follow the most viewed writers of this topic to get an idea of their writing style, what kind of questions they’re answering, and how often they write answers. Take note of how the community responds, which questions get the most views, and when you can add value and input. If you can’t find a particular question on Quora, ask it and provide the answer (great for company FAQs). 
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Quora Best Practices

Your strategy for marketing on Quora should be structured to represent your brand and product image and your company goals. To ensure you’re using the platform correctly for marketing, follow these best practices

  1. Create a good bio and optimize your profile – introduce yourself and what you do, add a “short and sweet” description to establish your credibility and expertise, and also attract attention. You can choose to share things like your current location, education level, and employment/business. Add a call to action (CTA) since Quora allows you to add links in your profile bio. Consider adding some type of social proof or a link to other social accounts, or a guide or video about your business for more exposure. 
  1. Identify good questions – search for questions on Quora related to your niche (you can be as broad or as specific as you want) and see what other thought leaders in your industry are asking to get inspired. When thinking of questions, stick to the 80/20 rule – 80% of your content should help your audience, while the other 20% can showcase your brand. Pro tip: spend one to three hours every week reviewing industry analyses, the latest trends, and key statistics related to your brand and competition so you can identify good questions. 
  1. Prioritize questions – start by looking for questions you know the answer to, even look for questions that are similar to blog topics you’ve already covered. You’ll be able to repurpose valuable, in-depth insights in a short amount of time. 
  1. Provide high-quality answers and diversify your reach – valuable Quora answers contain pictures (Unsplash is recommended since Quora’s editor doesn’t have an attribution indicator in their answers). Ensure you’re formatting your answers like you format your blog posts to make it easy to read for your audience. This also means posting easy-to-read sentences that are grammar-free (use a tool like Grammarly for spell checking). If your answers aren’t formatted or easy to read, Quora’s automated quality check tool will hide your answers. Additionally, ensure your answer includes a good mix of educational and promotional content (80/20). Remember to include citations when needed. Finally, when answering a question, keep the following three things in mind: 
    1. present the problem
    2. why does it matter to your audience?
    3. how do you solve it?

Pro tip: your followers can check which questions you answered, so answer some that aren’t directly associated with your industry for diverse reach.

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  1. Gain authority and establish trust with your followers – consider making Quora your “source of truth” for FAQs related to your business. Ask and answer a list of FAQs and link them to the FAQ page of your website. Or you may even link to Quora testimonials or other social proof on your website. Link any content on Quora that helps people understand what it is that you do to lead to better rankings, word-of-mouth popularity, direct visits, and establishing trust with your followers. 

What NOT to do on Quora 

To ensure you’re not being banned or harming your brand: 

  • Don’t link to your personal brand on Quora if it doesn’t specifically enhance the questions or answers you give – and remember that linking to your personal brand should be accompanied by a citation and to help support the answer to a question. “Visit my site” generic messages will likely be seen as spam. Don’t do a “one-off” marketing campaign, either; invest the proper time and energy into building rapport with your audience.  
  • Don’t post too many personal links for your blog – you can, and absolutely should, link to your blog articles, as long as it’s relevant and adds value. But keep in mind that repeatedly posting the same information or intentionally linking on posts simply to gain visibility will most likely be seen as spam. The same Quora quality check tool that checks for grammar and spelling mistakes checks for content that doesn’t add value too. 
  • Don’t have inappropriate conversations – keep questions and answers professional and don’t lie. This is a given, but the platform has even gotten a bad rep for this, so don’t be one of those people. Additionally, try staying away from heavier topics such as religion, money, or politics, as these are sensitive subjects to some, and you may offend or anger someone. Remember, Quorans respond better to an honest and creative presentation. 
  • Don’t judge and don’t be jealous of others – members work hard to abide by common decency rules, so don’t attempt to dehumanize anyone. You want to inform, not polarize. Authenticity and “true self” are increasingly important, especially among Gen Z’s and millennials. Especially seeing as how 78% of Quora members are between the ages of 18 and 34. 

How to Increase Your Reach with Quora

  • Quora Ads – businesses on Quora see an average of four times more conversions compared to other platforms. As mentioned earlier, leverage your ads with your answers that are organically upvoted to boost their performance. With Quora Ads, you can choose objectives such as lead generation, awareness, traffic, app installs, or conversions. You can also define your budget and audience, and it’s relatively simple to get started. Ads start at just $5 per day. 
  • Be consistent – follow in Jason Lemkin’s footsteps, who started by answering two to three questions a day, five to seven days a week. Even 50+ million views and many years later, he’s still going strong. You can start answering one to two questions a day as often as you can to gain traction. It may be hard at first, but set a time in your calendar, make it a habit, and then keep going.   
  • Cross promotion – you can leverage Quora to expand the reach of your brand or product. This connects you to potential customers on other marketing channels. You may choose to work with companies providing marketing promotion services (like MoPeak), or attempt the traditional way of cross promotion – promote another expert’s product or service and reach out to them so they can promote yours. 54% of companies say that cross promotions drive more than 20% of total company revenue. 

Conclusion 

Remember to constantly track your content’s performance. Thankfully, Quora has its own analytics feature that allows you to see how many people upvoted or viewed the questions you answer(ed). By analyzing their performance frequently, you’ll be able to tweak your approach, improving your overall performance on the platform and increasing your chances of being seen.

Whatever you learn on Quora can apply to other communities too. Remember to always be professional, ask and answer questions truthfully and creatively to add value, and stay in touch with your community in a friendly and positive manner. B2B products or services are complex, but the expertise you provide through Quora can help customers through the buying process and establish trust with your audience. When you use Quora correctly, you will have many benefits to reap from it.