Reasons Why Your Business Needs A FAQ Page
One of the most important, valuable and powerful pieces of content on your website isn’t your contact us page – although that’s still a massive website must-have. It’s actually something that often goes overlooked. It’s the Frequently Asked Questions or FAQ page, and it’s one that businesses don’t always feature on their website when they really should.
In fact, many web users have come to expect the trusty FAQ page as a way to quickly find out more. Why? Because people are time poor, and want to know what you do and offer quickly, without navigating through pages of existing content or picking up the phone – most people just won’t bother.
A smartly constructed FAQ page is a great way to provide the information that people seek but also so much more! Here are some strong reasons why FAQ pages are good for you, your customers and your bottom line. If you’ve yet to implement one on your site, then this blog post is one you need to read.
SOME FAQ’s ABOUT FAQ PAGES
1. How will a FAQ page save time?
In business time equals money, and a well-constructed FAQ page will save you some of the many emails and phones calls fielding the same questions about your opening hours or return policy. Your FAQ page can do the talking for you and provide the nitty gritty on pricing and payment and other operational details. This information can also be a valuable way to manage expectations, which leads us to our next FAQ …
2. How can my FAQ manage the expectations of new customers?
Since a website is often the first point of contact a customer has with a brand, a well-developed FAQ page is the ideal place to communicate the terms and conditions of your product or service and manage expectations from the beginning. It’s always less awkward for customers to know now that after hours call out fees will be incurred or public holiday surcharges apply than finding out later.
3. How can I subtly sell my business’s products/services with a FAQ?
We’re glad you asked. There are so many ways that you can subtly sell with your FAQ page. Instead of a boring, mechanical set of Q&A’s it can be the place to inject the personality of your brand and answer the questions in a friendly and helpful way, helping to building a connection with your audience. But there are many other ways your FAQ page is a standalone sales tool in itself.
Practically anything you want to tell your customers about how good your service is, or the benefits of your products can be framed as a question that’s frequently asked. Customers don’t like feeling they are being sold at, but the beauty of providing information in questions and answer form is the information is about what you do (and don’t do.) This is information which is useful for the customer to know – and will actually be read, unlike overly promotional sales copy. If you are providing this information on your site in an FAQ page and your competitors aren’t, you already have an upper hand.
An example of a selling question:
QUESTION: ‘What is the best brand for a complete home theatre system?’
ANSWER: ‘X brand is a continually popular choice for its long lasting components, history of innovative features, durability and high quality sound and picture quality. Customers tell us they love their X brand we sell because it ticks all the boxes they typically look for when it comes to choosing a home theatre system’
Whatever the standout features of your business are, they should be incorporated into your FAQ along with how your business makes it easy for customers and all the selling points that you want to communicate. If it’s that you don’t include credit card fees consider a question like:
QUESTION: Are there any credit card surcharges or other fees?
ANSWER: No, we don’t believe in charging you for the privilege of using your own money. We gladly accept all payment options and will never include any hidden fees or surcharges in our prices.
4. How can FAQ pages overcome objections and misconceptions?
As well as communicating benefits and features of your products and services in your FAQ and answering questions that can address selling points, your FAQ can also address the darker ideas in the minds of your customers and turn around anything that could be preventing them from giving you their business. There are many questions you can overcome objections or misconceptions about your product or industry and have a non-obvious humble brag about your business. An example of this is:
QUESTION: Why is your service more expensive than your competitors?
ANSWER: While some of our services are more expensive than our competitors, we offer a complete service that includes delivery, removal of all old equipment and complete installation which many other services do not. We are also able to be there within the same day of your enquiry.
This question shows that you can overcome any objections by differentiating the service that you provide and at the same time highlighting the benefits of choosing your service over another.
5. How can I make my FAQ page search engine friendly?
Another major reason your website should use a FAQ page is to leverage search engine enquiries on questions people ask related to your industry. Since web users ask Google and other search engines millions of questions each day, if your company answers these in a useful and thoughtful way you can capitalise on this search engine traffic, and pick up extra customers along the way. An example of a search engine friendly question for a carpet cleaning business would be:
QUESTION: How do you remove red wine stains from carpet?
The answer could provide some DIY techniques to remove wine stains including using vinegar or baking soda and using a blotting technique over a rubbing motion. You can then mention professional carpet cleaning can often be the best way to completely remove stubborn stains, tying the solution as part of the service that your business offers.
The benefit of answering questions that people are searching for on your website is that potential customers can find your business through their internet travels, and it positively positions your brand as a company that really wants to help and provide assistance where they can. You might not get them as a customer the first time, but they’ll be more likely to think of you first when they need a carpet cleaning service since they’ve already heard about you.
6. How should my FAQ page be structured?
It’s important that FAQ pages aren’t overly long. Visitors want bite sized information that they can quickly digest. That’s one of the main reasons why they are on the page in the first place. If there are many questions that relate to a similar theme, these should be included in a category like ‘Pricing and Payment Questions’ ‘X Product/Service Questions,’ etc. By doing this people can find the questions most relevant to them at a quick glance.
When deciding what questions to answer the most important questions should be a mix of the ones that are commonly asked such as ‘Do I need to be home for carpet cleaning’ along with useful practical questions like payment, time frames, and a few powerful selling questions like were outlined above. Some examples of companies with effectively structured FAQ pages are Office Works and University of NSW Admissions
By implementing a well-structured, planned and thoughtful FAQ page, you can develop a very useful piece of content for your site, and a standalone selling tool – one that is often overlooked, and just as often – not developed as effectively as it could be.
If you need a help developing your FAQ page, or other pieces of powerful content for your site, Media Heroes are your SEO marketing experts and can tell the story of your business with our in house content writing service.
Get in touch with the Media Heroes team today on 1800 GO HERO for a content strategy tailored to the needs of your business.
