Answerbase HelpGetting Started with Answerbase for Ecommerce
Thanks for choosing Answerbase for your business. This guide goes over a few foundational elements to consider as you get started with configuring your Answerbase account and customizing your solution.
Answerbase's Goal
We have customers who are converting up to 75% of the product questions answered through Answerbase into a sale, and we've doubled the organic search traffic to some stores as their Q&A content is pulling up in results similar to this:
Our goal is to help you do the same thing for your store, so that all of your product knowledge and expertise can be used to increase conversions, grow organic search traffic, and reduce costs by answering product questions automatically as your Q&A knowledge base builds up. Let's talk about how you can get Answerbase integrated into your site....
Consider Answerbase's Managed Integration Services
Answerbase can manage your integration for you! Submit a Request for an Integration Quote and Answerbase's engineers who are familiar with your platform and template can manage the integration for you.
If you'd like to manage the integration yourself, follow these steps:
1) Configure Your Answerbase Ecommerce Settings
In your administration site, navigate to "System Settings > Ecommerce Module" to configure your foundational ecommerce settings before you install into your store.
One of the most important settings to manage before you install is saving the "Website" value which is the domain of your store is, so we recognize that as a valid place to show your widget. Without this value identified, when you install your widget it won't recognize the URL that the widget is loading on and the widget won't recognize the product attribution to new questions appropriately. Make sure you fill out that setting along with any other preferential settings on that page. Now you're ready to install the Q&A widget on your product page.
2) Integrate Product Questions and Answers into Your Product Page
Your next step is to get our "Q&A Widget" installed into your product page, so you can start engaging your customers with product questions and answers. You can customize the widget as you'd like, but here is an example of what a product page Q&A widget can look like:
We recommend that you place this widget under the product description or within a new tab on your product page, so that customers can ask any follow-up questions they have about your products that aren't addressed within the product details or description. If you've installed through an App store through one of the popular SaaS ecommerce platforms (Shopify, Bigcommerce, etc.) then this step may already be done for you. If you haven't, there are a couple quick steps to manage that.
You can find our widget under the main navigation under "Integration > Q&A Widget" within your Answerbase administration site. Grab that widget code and place it within your product page template where desired.
A couple notes on effectively integrating our widget:
Testing Your Ecommerce Q&A Integration into Your Product Pages
After you've tested and everything looks and works ok....you'll be notified when your customers ask you new questions.
We do have a couple other widgets which we encourage you to install as well, which will ensure you get the most engagement and can effectively track conversions that your Q&A activity assists with.
3) Import Any Existing Product Q&A Content (Optional)
Use our easy import process in order to seed your database with quality product Q&A content right from the start, which will save you time and increase engagement for your initial users. You may have content from a previous product Q&A software provider, or you may just have a collection of common questions that your customers have been asking through your contact form or other customer support channels. This content is valuable for both conversion and SEO, and you can easily import it into Answerbase so after you integrate your existing Q&A threads can show on your product pages.
Follow these steps to import your product Q&A content into Answerbase:
4) Review Our Ecommerce Q&A Administration Overview
Once you're product Q&A widget is imported, Answerbase will notify you when a new question is asked about your products. From that notification, you'll be lead to Answerbase's administration site where you can see the new question and respond to it. If you'd like an overview of our administration tools, please review our Administration Overview for Ecommerce Product Q&A.
Once you've accomplished the above, you've set the foundation for customer engagement and search traffic growth. We recommend that you see how engagement goes over your trial period and Contact Us if you're needing any other assistance.
Answerbase's Goal
We have customers who are converting up to 75% of the product questions answered through Answerbase into a sale, and we've doubled the organic search traffic to some stores as their Q&A content is pulling up in results similar to this:
Our goal is to help you do the same thing for your store, so that all of your product knowledge and expertise can be used to increase conversions, grow organic search traffic, and reduce costs by answering product questions automatically as your Q&A knowledge base builds up. Let's talk about how you can get Answerbase integrated into your site....
Consider Answerbase's Managed Integration Services
Answerbase can manage your integration for you! Submit a Request for an Integration Quote and Answerbase's engineers who are familiar with your platform and template can manage the integration for you.
If you'd like to manage the integration yourself, follow these steps:
1) Configure Your Answerbase Ecommerce Settings
In your administration site, navigate to "System Settings > Ecommerce Module" to configure your foundational ecommerce settings before you install into your store.
One of the most important settings to manage before you install is saving the "Website" value which is the domain of your store is, so we recognize that as a valid place to show your widget. Without this value identified, when you install your widget it won't recognize the URL that the widget is loading on and the widget won't recognize the product attribution to new questions appropriately. Make sure you fill out that setting along with any other preferential settings on that page. Now you're ready to install the Q&A widget on your product page.
2) Integrate Product Questions and Answers into Your Product Page
Your next step is to get our "Q&A Widget" installed into your product page, so you can start engaging your customers with product questions and answers. You can customize the widget as you'd like, but here is an example of what a product page Q&A widget can look like:
We recommend that you place this widget under the product description or within a new tab on your product page, so that customers can ask any follow-up questions they have about your products that aren't addressed within the product details or description. If you've installed through an App store through one of the popular SaaS ecommerce platforms (Shopify, Bigcommerce, etc.) then this step may already be done for you. If you haven't, there are a couple quick steps to manage that.
You can find our widget under the main navigation under "Integration > Q&A Widget" within your Answerbase administration site. Grab that widget code and place it within your product page template where desired.
A couple notes on effectively integrating our widget:
- Ecommerce Parameters: Ensure that when you place the widget code within your site, you need to ensure that when your product page renders, the product parameters within the widget script needs to be populated with the appropriate product information including product id (sku), product title, product description, product URL, and product image URL. This let's the widget know what product the page is related to and then we attribute any new questions asked from that page to the appropriate product, as well as ensure that the appropriate Q&A threads are showing on that page. Answerbase will save (and subsequently update) all product information on our end based on what you pass as those parameters, so there is no need for you to import or sync any product information into Answerbase. See our Ecommerce Widget Installation Instructions for details on parameters that we'll need you to pass into the widget code for an effective ecommerce integration.
- Auto-Suggesting Answers from Product Information: You can configure Answerbase's widget so that if a customer asks a question about information you've already provided in your product description and specifications, Answerbase can auto-suggest that information to the user so they get their answer immediately and you don't have to answer questions about information you've already provided. Please read this article on how to auto-suggest answers from product details and specifications for details on how to configure that.
- Other Widget Parameters: As long as you're populating the product parameters into the widget, that is all you'll need for the ecommerce integration. If you'd like to see what other items you can control on the widget, see our Widget Installation Guide for a full list of parameters that our widget supports, which will allow you to configure your widget so it looks and acts as you'd like.
Testing Your Ecommerce Q&A Integration into Your Product Pages
After you've tested and everything looks and works ok....you'll be notified when your customers ask you new questions.
We do have a couple other widgets which we encourage you to install as well, which will ensure you get the most engagement and can effectively track conversions that your Q&A activity assists with.
- Product Page Call to Action Widget: This widget is typically placed next to the review summary underneath the title of a product page, where customers can see how many Q&A threads are available for that product and gives them the ability to pose their own question. You can see our Guide to Install the Call to Action Widget for instructions on how to install. The widget is typically placed just below the product title, alongside a summary of the reviews for the product. You can see an example of how this widget looks here where you see that there are 5 questions answered about the product and the ability to ask their own question.
- Conversion Tracking: In your administration site, if you go under "System Settings > Ecommerce Module > Tracking Code", you can place tracking code on your order confirmation page which allows Answerbase to track how many sales your Q&A content is assisting in as well as the value of those orders. You can see our Guide to Install Ecommerce Tracking Code Here. This helps ensure you're getting a healthy ROI and can assist with optimizing your content and activity to get you the best results.
- Enable Customer Answers: If you'd like to enable customers to answer questions about products that they've purchased, you'll want to insert our "Subscription Widget" in your order confirmation page. View our documentation on how to insert your subscription widget for details about the the widget and it's parameters. That widget will allow users to subscribe to receiving notifications when new questions are asked about products they've purchased, and they can take part in valuable content creation that will benefit your company.
3) Import Any Existing Product Q&A Content (Optional)
Use our easy import process in order to seed your database with quality product Q&A content right from the start, which will save you time and increase engagement for your initial users. You may have content from a previous product Q&A software provider, or you may just have a collection of common questions that your customers have been asking through your contact form or other customer support channels. This content is valuable for both conversion and SEO, and you can easily import it into Answerbase so after you integrate your existing Q&A threads can show on your product pages.
Follow these steps to import your product Q&A content into Answerbase:
- Importing Any Users (if necessary): If you don't have any specific user attribution to your product Q&A, you can skip this step and only import the Q&A content. If your Q&A content is tied to existing users, then you'll want to import the users that are associated with your Q&A content first so we know who to associate the questions and answers to. In your administration site, see under "Users > Import Users" where you can see our CSV import template and formatting guide, and import the users who were responsible for posting the Q&A content. This will allow us to associate the Q&A content to the appropriate users when you import the content.
- Importing Product Q&A Content: Under "Content" you'll see the option to "Import Content". Here you can see our CSV template and formatting guide for the content, which allows you to import your existing product Q&A content and ensure that valuable content is available for future customers browsing your products.
4) Review Our Ecommerce Q&A Administration Overview
Once you're product Q&A widget is imported, Answerbase will notify you when a new question is asked about your products. From that notification, you'll be lead to Answerbase's administration site where you can see the new question and respond to it. If you'd like an overview of our administration tools, please review our Administration Overview for Ecommerce Product Q&A.
Once you've accomplished the above, you've set the foundation for customer engagement and search traffic growth. We recommend that you see how engagement goes over your trial period and Contact Us if you're needing any other assistance.
