Quora is a truly unique platform from a content marketer’s perspective, but as one of the most visited websites on the internet, it’s definitely worth developing a designated social media content strategy. When used correctly, Quora will help you build significant authority in your industry, drive traffic to your website and other social media, and even gain mentions across the web on platforms that regularly reference Quora topics, like Forbes.

Make Your Quora Profile Work for You

Profiles on Quora are well-designed to benefit the contributor. Be sure to fill out each section of your profile as completely as possible. In your description, put your brand info in the first 50 characters, which will be shown alongside your answers to questions. The “Knows About” section can help you find questions to answer that are relevant to your expertise.

Run a Dummy Ad Campaign

You can run ads on Quora, but the ad creator can serve an alternative purpose. Make an ad account and create a “dummy” campaign. Use the target questioning option with strong keywords to find questions that are relevant and have a high volume of views. You can click straight through to the questions from there or select the “answer later” option to save them in a list you can access when you’re ready to create content.

Analyze the Answer Market

If there’s a lot of competition within your industry on Quora, you can make things easier on yourself and your brand by finding a place where you can carve out a niche. Consider what your audience needs, the questions they’re asking, and the answers they’re looking for. Compare that to what’s already available, not specifically the answers, but the categories that have strong responses and hefty competition. See if you can find a niche where competition is less dense, and your answers can shine a little brighter.

Put a Spin on It

A lot of the time, your answer is going to be the same no matter where your readers are in their buyer’s journey but getting an idea of the mindset of your audience can help you tailor your approach to be more well-received and memorable. There are three primary stages to the buyer’s journey: awareness, consideration, and decision.

The awareness stage is when your reader has just figured out that he or she has a problem. This is the perfect opportunity for brand awareness and establishing a relationship. Quora makes it easy at this stage because the reader is looking for information and you have it.

In the consideration stage, your reader is looking at the available solutions. You should focus on building your credibility and introducing your solution without being salesy. The approach here is “I can help you” not “buy now!”

Track your performance.

Depending on your goals, certain key performance indicators (KPIs) can help you track your progress and define success. KPIs are metrics or data points that indicate the performance of each piece of content and your account as a whole. By following your progress regularly, you can address weak performance and play into your strengths to reach your goals faster.

Post Quora Answers Where Your Audience Will See Them

It can be quite tempting to answer as many questions as possible on Quora, but you’ll get better returns for the Tim you invest if you’re selective and take your time. Once you have a solid list of relevant questions, sift through them to find questions that have a high followers-to-answers ratio or only have unsatisfactory or poorly-written answers. Look for questions that have an emotional aspect, as those tend to offer more opportunity for genuine, valuable content. Your final list of questions should be relevant to the expertise you offer in your bio. Make sure you select “answer later” for the questions in your list or you risk losing them.

Here are a few super popular Quora threads that happen to talk about content and marketing:

• What are the best ways to do content marketing?
• What are the best tools for content marketing?
• Does content marketing actually work?

Answer Quora Questions with Useful Answers

Again, it’s tempting to jump in and start answering questions, but unless you’re hit with inspiration, it’s better to take your time preparing your content. Quora is quality over quantity when it comes to return on investment of time. Prioritize opportunities for really showing your stuff, where you can add something new and valuable to the conversation. Snatch up every chance to really solve a problem for a large number of people. Stay away from fluff. Readers aren’t there to be entertained; they’re there to have their questions answered. Add links only where appropriate, but do add links where appropriate.

Suggest Edits

Another feature of Quora is suggesting edits to existing answers. If you find a relevant question that meets your criteria but has an answer that’s almost perfect, suggest an edit to the answer if you have something genuinely valuable to add. This will allow you to ride the coattails of the top answer contributors while making yourself look like a superior authority.