How’s that for a head-scratcher of a headline? Another way to state it would be that “... the Answer is Answers.” What I’m getting at is that at the end of the day, the primary reason visitors come to your website is to get their questions answered. “Can it do what I need it to do?” “Is it as cool as it looks in the ad?” “Does it come with a warranty?” “How much does it cost?”
Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to impress our prospects that we fail to give them the simple, straightforward answers they crave. And in a world where the average attention span has reportedly dropped below that of a goldfish (a mere eight seconds of focus), this failing can be a revenue killer.
5 Tips for Creating a Fantastic FAQ
Behold, the lowly Frequently Asked Questions page. Historically no more than an afterthought, its importance is growing as fast as our patience is shrinking. While every page on your website should be designed to answer key questions, the FAQ exists to do nothing but. And therein lies its value.
If you don’t have an FAQ page, or you haven’t revised yours in years, here are five tips for making it a prospect-pleasing one-stop shop:
- Organize it logically. Your FAQ may be able to answer any question your website visitor could ever ask. But if they can’t find the answer, the page is worthless. Grouping related questions into common sense categories will help prospects locate the information they need. A search function can be very useful as well.
- Only display questions that are truly frequently asked. Some companies pepper their FAQ with questions they’d LIKE for people to ask as it gives them an excuse for sharing whatever information they feel is important. Today’s consumer sees right through that, however, and will quickly lose faith in any answers on the page.
- Don’t forget to be visual. We tend to think of FAQs as “text question, text answer.” But sometimes (quite often, actually) the best answer is a visual one. Diagrams, flowcharts, photos, etc. are all valid FAQ responses.
- Use the prospect/customer’s language. An FAQ answer filled with obscure jargon, dense technical prose, or any other kind of dialect that is tough to digest can be worse than no answer at all, as it tends to frustrate and irritate the reader. Be sure you understand how your customers talk and reply in kind.
- Avoid overkill. You can have too much of a good thing. No matter how well you organize your FAQ, if it gets too big, people will struggle to find what they’re looking for.
Answer, and You Shall Receive (More Business)
A well-designed, well-maintained FAQ can be a huge help to your website visitors and a huge asset to your company. If you’ve got questions about how to develop one to support your inbound marketing, content marketing, website design or HubSpot efforts, give us a call. We help clients engage and enlighten their target personas and thereby grow their sales. We’d love to help you do the same.
