Tips for Posting Answers for Answerbase Ecommerce Product Questions & Answers
When you're posting an answer in response to a customer question that came in related to your products, there are a few tips that we'd like to share which will help guide you on how to respond in order to ensure you're getting the most value from your Q&A content. The main focuses of answering a question should be the following:
We'll go through each of these items in this article to give you some tips so that you can get the most out of yoru Q&A engagement and content.
Respond with a Great Answer
When you answer questions through Answerbase, that answer is not only going to work for you to convert that first customer....but it will also work for you in order to answer that same question from any future visitor on your site as well as any visitors that come in to the content through organic search. Because of this, your return on investment (ROI) for posting a great answer goes well beyond just converting that first customer....so therefore it makes sense to spend just a little bit more time in making sure that your answer gives the customer a "wow, that was a great answer and experience" feeling.
By now we're sure you've heard of Google's "Helpful Content Update" where they made it clear that you should focus on "people first" content, not creating content for search engines...but rather have real people create content that helps real people (if you haven't heard about it, click here to read about it). They communicate that they don't care about the word count, they just want you to communicate valuable original expertise that satisfies the user's inquiry. As a result....great answers don't necessarily need to be long, we've seen answers that are only 3 lines long be featured snippets on Google results like this one:
We often get the question about "minimum length of an answer".....so if you're looking for just a bit of guidance on minimum length, we typically recommend at least 40-60 words because we've found that for almost any question that will be enough to show you have the answer and at least just a bit of context to support that you're knowledgeable on the topic. The average featured snippet has 40-60 words in it, so answering with a great answer that at least shows you spent some time/effort into a thoughtful answer....that should serve you well over time.
There is such thing as an answer that is TOO long, too salesy, etc.....so what you want to do is just make sure the question is answered but also gives them as much relevant information as necessary to put that answer in context and ensure that the user walks away thinking "wow, that store's representative knows a ton about this product and space". We DO NOT RECOMMEND providing just a one word answer or a one line answer. You may want to lead with a simple Yes or No, but spend just a few minutes and give some context to why it's a yes or a no....and that will help not only with the customer experience but be just a bit more meaty content that shows off your expertise on the topic. Google Recommends asking yourself..."Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge?". So, just make sure that with every answer, you've demonstrated that.
If you manage this well....you'll have a customer that not only walks away with a great answer but also is driven to purchase confidently from you knowing that they have the product that best fits their needs. This can help not only with the initial conversion but also in reducing your return rates....as quality and accurate answers to product questions is a great way to qualify that the product is a great fit for the customer's need and helps ensure that they not only buy the product....but keep it.
Upsell Other Products & Accessories When Appropriate
Answering the customer's questions well is going to be your best bet in converting the visitor to a paying customer, and one that is a happy customer. When answering product questions on Answerbase....within the answer, you have the ability to reference and link to other products and accessories which may compliment the product they are considering (or even be a better fit). You can reference a product and make sure you can insert links throughout that answer as seen here:
You can see that the text "Brooks Running Shoe" is a link to another shoe on the store which may be a fit for the customer based on their question. This way you can give them the answer that applies to the product they're looking at but also looking for opportunities to sell them other products in your inventory that may be a better fit. At the end of the day, they'll have a full picture of what options are available to them given their needs and select the option they like the best. You can also incorporate upselling into that process as well so you can introduce them to additional accessories that are available to them which they may also want to tack onto their purchase. Again....it's worth the time to do this because you're optimizing the final sale value not only for this customer, but all future customers with a similar question and those coming in through organic search. Even if it doesn't upsell this first customer, the content and answer will continue to work for you from that day forth in doing what it can to increase the value of the sales for your ecommerce store with valuable products for the customers.
Optimize the Content for Search and SEO
Finally, just be conscious that this answer will be valuable as a content piece for your site in order to optimize your site's SEO as well as drawing new traffic to this page. For this reason, we recommend that you just take a couple minutes to manage the following:
1) Brush Up the Question Text if Necessary
Answerbase provides the ability for you to edit the question that the user has submitted in case they've misspelled something or something wasn't grammatically correct. Most of the time these will just be cosmetic changes, we wouldn't recommend completely overhauling the text fo the question. There is value to having your content published in a manner that other customers would actually ask within, so sometimes the imperfections enhance the value of your content vs hurt it. In order to edit the question and how it's phrased you'll see that option above the question title as seen here:
Once you edit and save, rest assured that Answerbase will keep a log of all of the changes you've made and drafts that have been saved over time...you can see that option on the right:
You can revert back to a previous version (or the original version) at any time...or view what those were.
2) Include Links to Relevant Articles and Products Within Answers
If there are products to upsell (as mentioned above) or if you've created articles that are relevant and help support the answer, feel free to use the option to link up the text within your answers to those other pages. This helps with internal link building throughout your content and site so Google can recognize the anchor text of those links and that those key phrases are relevant to the destination pages. If this is done consistently, you'll be creating content on a continuous basis that is link building to the relevant products and content throughout your site.
3) Identify "Related Content" to Shower Visitors with Useful and Interesting Information
One way of adding links to other content within your site is within the answers, but Answerbase also has the ability to identify "Related Content". You'll see this as a tab when you're managing your question within your Answerbase Administration Portal as seen here:
You can add relevant articles and other pages that are related to the question that has been asked....which will display those articles on the Q&A landing pages so you can shower your visitors with relevant content and drive them deeper into your online store and experience.
Answerbase keeps track of how many times those articles/links have been displayed, how many clicks they've gotten, and the click through rate....and will ensure that the most relevant and engaged with content is prioritized in order to optimize results and conversions for your store.
We hope this article has been helpful in providing you with some tips on how to answer questions in a way that brings the most value for your online store. We encourage you to just put yourself in the mind of your customer, giving them the type of response that you would want yourself and leave you walking away with a "wow, that was a great experience" feeling. This will ensure that you're driving quality conversions, reducing bounce rates, and enhancing the SEO of your store through your Q&A engagement.
- Giving a great answer that actually answers the customer question
- Upsell the customer when it is appropriate
- Ensuring that the content is optimized for search
We'll go through each of these items in this article to give you some tips so that you can get the most out of yoru Q&A engagement and content.
Respond with a Great Answer
When you answer questions through Answerbase, that answer is not only going to work for you to convert that first customer....but it will also work for you in order to answer that same question from any future visitor on your site as well as any visitors that come in to the content through organic search. Because of this, your return on investment (ROI) for posting a great answer goes well beyond just converting that first customer....so therefore it makes sense to spend just a little bit more time in making sure that your answer gives the customer a "wow, that was a great answer and experience" feeling.
By now we're sure you've heard of Google's "Helpful Content Update" where they made it clear that you should focus on "people first" content, not creating content for search engines...but rather have real people create content that helps real people (if you haven't heard about it, click here to read about it). They communicate that they don't care about the word count, they just want you to communicate valuable original expertise that satisfies the user's inquiry. As a result....great answers don't necessarily need to be long, we've seen answers that are only 3 lines long be featured snippets on Google results like this one:
We often get the question about "minimum length of an answer".....so if you're looking for just a bit of guidance on minimum length, we typically recommend at least 40-60 words because we've found that for almost any question that will be enough to show you have the answer and at least just a bit of context to support that you're knowledgeable on the topic. The average featured snippet has 40-60 words in it, so answering with a great answer that at least shows you spent some time/effort into a thoughtful answer....that should serve you well over time.
There is such thing as an answer that is TOO long, too salesy, etc.....so what you want to do is just make sure the question is answered but also gives them as much relevant information as necessary to put that answer in context and ensure that the user walks away thinking "wow, that store's representative knows a ton about this product and space". We DO NOT RECOMMEND providing just a one word answer or a one line answer. You may want to lead with a simple Yes or No, but spend just a few minutes and give some context to why it's a yes or a no....and that will help not only with the customer experience but be just a bit more meaty content that shows off your expertise on the topic. Google Recommends asking yourself..."Does your content clearly demonstrate first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge?". So, just make sure that with every answer, you've demonstrated that.
If you manage this well....you'll have a customer that not only walks away with a great answer but also is driven to purchase confidently from you knowing that they have the product that best fits their needs. This can help not only with the initial conversion but also in reducing your return rates....as quality and accurate answers to product questions is a great way to qualify that the product is a great fit for the customer's need and helps ensure that they not only buy the product....but keep it.
Upsell Other Products & Accessories When Appropriate
Answering the customer's questions well is going to be your best bet in converting the visitor to a paying customer, and one that is a happy customer. When answering product questions on Answerbase....within the answer, you have the ability to reference and link to other products and accessories which may compliment the product they are considering (or even be a better fit). You can reference a product and make sure you can insert links throughout that answer as seen here:
You can see that the text "Brooks Running Shoe" is a link to another shoe on the store which may be a fit for the customer based on their question. This way you can give them the answer that applies to the product they're looking at but also looking for opportunities to sell them other products in your inventory that may be a better fit. At the end of the day, they'll have a full picture of what options are available to them given their needs and select the option they like the best. You can also incorporate upselling into that process as well so you can introduce them to additional accessories that are available to them which they may also want to tack onto their purchase. Again....it's worth the time to do this because you're optimizing the final sale value not only for this customer, but all future customers with a similar question and those coming in through organic search. Even if it doesn't upsell this first customer, the content and answer will continue to work for you from that day forth in doing what it can to increase the value of the sales for your ecommerce store with valuable products for the customers.
Optimize the Content for Search and SEO
Finally, just be conscious that this answer will be valuable as a content piece for your site in order to optimize your site's SEO as well as drawing new traffic to this page. For this reason, we recommend that you just take a couple minutes to manage the following:
1) Brush Up the Question Text if Necessary
Answerbase provides the ability for you to edit the question that the user has submitted in case they've misspelled something or something wasn't grammatically correct. Most of the time these will just be cosmetic changes, we wouldn't recommend completely overhauling the text fo the question. There is value to having your content published in a manner that other customers would actually ask within, so sometimes the imperfections enhance the value of your content vs hurt it. In order to edit the question and how it's phrased you'll see that option above the question title as seen here:
Once you edit and save, rest assured that Answerbase will keep a log of all of the changes you've made and drafts that have been saved over time...you can see that option on the right:
You can revert back to a previous version (or the original version) at any time...or view what those were.
2) Include Links to Relevant Articles and Products Within Answers
If there are products to upsell (as mentioned above) or if you've created articles that are relevant and help support the answer, feel free to use the option to link up the text within your answers to those other pages. This helps with internal link building throughout your content and site so Google can recognize the anchor text of those links and that those key phrases are relevant to the destination pages. If this is done consistently, you'll be creating content on a continuous basis that is link building to the relevant products and content throughout your site.
3) Identify "Related Content" to Shower Visitors with Useful and Interesting Information
One way of adding links to other content within your site is within the answers, but Answerbase also has the ability to identify "Related Content". You'll see this as a tab when you're managing your question within your Answerbase Administration Portal as seen here:
You can add relevant articles and other pages that are related to the question that has been asked....which will display those articles on the Q&A landing pages so you can shower your visitors with relevant content and drive them deeper into your online store and experience.
Answerbase keeps track of how many times those articles/links have been displayed, how many clicks they've gotten, and the click through rate....and will ensure that the most relevant and engaged with content is prioritized in order to optimize results and conversions for your store.
We hope this article has been helpful in providing you with some tips on how to answer questions in a way that brings the most value for your online store. We encourage you to just put yourself in the mind of your customer, giving them the type of response that you would want yourself and leave you walking away with a "wow, that was a great experience" feeling. This will ensure that you're driving quality conversions, reducing bounce rates, and enhancing the SEO of your store through your Q&A engagement.
