Applying the They Ask You Answer content framework: Lessons from a tough first six months
By Nick Burrage, Managing Director, The Ambitions Agency
Like many people I had a mind explosion when I first read They Ask You Answer and I just knew that it was the final piece of the puzzle that I had been searching for. We had a reasonable website and we were doing our digital marketing well but the content wasn’t engaging and more to the point, I hated writing it!
I realised with They Ask You Answer that I would enjoy writing content since I understood the point of it and I was writing for humans rather than the dreaded Google.
As a coach I have seen our clients’ struggles and certainly had a fair few of my own on the way so I thought it would be useful to share the challenges and some tips and tricks on what has worked for us in our first six months of applying They Ask You Answer.
Website isn’t ready to go
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 struggle to 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 in digital marketing terms.
Not sure what to write about
An issue we found in the early days was that there can be a bit of tension between what the search engine experts want us to write about – hitting big ranking keywords etc vs the blogs that we want to write as They Ask You Answer people!
It quite often happens that the important questions around your business sector or industry are not the ones being massively searched on Google. I simply suggest that a compromise is reached and you cover both to some extent and obviously make sure to write where both needs overlap.
Content production is a huge pain
The real magic number with content production is 3 blogs a week and this is very very difficult. Certainly at first it takes an inordinate amount of time but let me assure everyone that you will get better at it!
I recently wrote a long piece on Linkedin about all the hacks I have used here but for brevity’s sake here they are:
- If a blog title bores you and you put off writing it, then dump it – move on!
- Enjoy being a teacher – keep it super simple and helpful
- Use Subheads as a little reward as you progress through your article
- Block time to write but don’t set any goals – ‘I will write for 40 minutes’ gets done whereas ‘I will write a blog before lunch’ gets put off for another day.
- Get inspired – find an angle that makes you passionate about a subject.
- Use voice dictation – I write blogs while I walk the dog.
Videos need to be perfect so they never get done.
No they don’t. Just make a lot of them. State the purpose of the video at the start and make people a promise about what they will get out of it. Then just go. Never stop even if you fluff it. Always complete it. Then go again. They’ll get better.
The content manager issue
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.
The quickest win
Adding content into your sales process is an almost immediate win and we certainly found it to be incredibly beneficial. In our case we added in a 94 question questionnaire which all prospects have to complete. The team thought I was mad but it has been a roaring success and we now get people phoning up to ask to use our ‘scoping tool’ which they’ve been told about. (That’s our questionnaire)
Use answers to those questions to drive people to read more content and so the process can begin from the very early days or weeks of your They Ask You Answer Journey.
Special Support for ActionCOACH Cheltenham
I only became a Certified They Ask You Answer Coach thanks to my Action Coach suggesting I read the book. So I’m a huge fan and will always do whatever it takes to support fellow ActionCOACH fans.
So if you are struggling and a chat would help then do simply drop me a line. I’d love to hear about your challenges and always enjoy talking about these issues.
In the coming months we’ll introduce some more accessible training for individuals or solopreneurs alongside the main Enterprise Training. It’s all detailed on our website.
https://theambitionsagency.com/digital-marketing-company/nick-burrage/
Nick Burrage
I started out creating TV, press and poster campaigns for brands such as Ford, Carlsberg and Ariel at Saatchi & Saatchi and other agencies in London. Upon leaving London and setting up my own company, I soon discovered that the real power no longer lay in a well-crafted headline but in powerful web content. The trouble was that I didn’t want to write the dull stuff I was told to by the SEO experts.
I started reading books on the subject and when I finally found a system that was fun to do and worked brilliantly, I became such a fan that I ended up speaking to the author, Marcus Sheridan, and becoming his first ever coach outside the US.
BIG NEWS!
See Marcus Sheridan LIVE on stage
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