It’s true that conventional marketing channels don’t always work well because:

1. The competition can be too intense for some niches.
2. The niche can be too narrow, so one doesn’t get enough traffic.

Under such conditions our clients, as well as other business owners need to use as many unconventional marketing channels as possible to generate leads.

In this blog post, I will dwell on how to use Quora for lead generation.

Quora is a popular question-and-answer platform. Many marketers have already heard that Quora is good for marketing. Moreover, there is quite a number of blog posts explaining how to start using Quora.

But still, tech marketers often neglect Quora. Authors who write about Quora never answer two questions:

Is Quora really helpful for tech companies?

What should you do to get leads on Quora?

I took a look at 10 profiles of Quora writers being CEOs, CMOs, CTOs or just promoters of services and products in tech / IT sectors on Quora. I also examined case studies of companies sharing their success with Quora.

After my in-depth analysis, I found answers to these questions.

Why Quora is Good for Lead Generation?

There are a lot of marketers claiming that Quora is a fruitful marketing channel.

But are there any proofs that Quora works for lead generation?

The first assumption is the number of CEOs, CMOs and sales people from tech companies actively promoting corporate products or building their reputation on Quora.

These are profiles of Quora’s Most Viewed Writers in various IT topics.

1. Szymon Klimczak – CMO at Livechat. Topic: Customer Service
2. Sebastian Stadil – CEO at Scalr. Topic: Cloud Management
3. Shahrukh Riaz – CTO at Rolustech. CRM
4. Claudio Erba – CEO at Docebo. Topic: Learning Management Systems
5. Rob Long – VP Sales at Workable. Topic: ATC
6. William Medeiros – Blogger at SafeTorrent VPN. Topic: VPN
7. Joel Rivera – Business owner. Topics: Web development, WordPress, Web design
8. Mark F. Martin – CEO at SIPINK. Topic: VoIP
9. Jason Pat – Business owner at AccuWebHosting. Topic: Web Hosting
10. Jessica Zarter – Digital Marketer at Taskworld. Topic: Project Management

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You can find many CEOs and CMOs who actively use Quora if you enter your topic in the search bar on Quora and check the Most Viewed Writers section.

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Another reason to believe that Quora can be a fertile source of leads originates from case studies about Quora that business owners publish in their blogs.

Such as the story of Taskworld – a project managing system that reached the conversion rate of 11.44% on Quora.

Creately, a diagram software company, admitted that Quora is their third largest referral.

Scalr’s CEO reveals that Quora takes up a fare share of their leads.

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What to Do to Generate More Leads on Quora?

There are two major goals you need to stick to, if you want to generate leads on Quora.

Goal #1. You need to become the Most Viewed Writer and an expert in your niche.

According to Quora ranking, the system puts your answers higher if you’re an expert in your niche, you have a lot of views and people upvote your answers.

The higher the answer is, the more views you can get.

What matters:

• Valuable high-quality answers that are helpful
• Consistency in posting
• The number of upvotes and followers
• A good-looking profile
• Time (you can’t become the Most Viewed Writer in a week)

Goal #2. You need to share your website link in your answers from time to time.

Quora answers are ranked high in Google search results that means even more exposure for your content.

What matters: Regular answers and a link to your website where it fits in. Avoid spamming Quora.

How to Improve Your Quora Profile to Get Leads?

People are more likely to follow those having impressive profiles. Blank profiles are lame.

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Here are some tips on how to build a reputable profile on Quora:

#1. Use your real name & photo

Real name allows you to provide more info about yourself, social links etc. Fake names can be marked as spam on Quora.

#2. Include some words about your expertise in your Bio

Note that it’s better to mention your job position if it presents you as an expert – CEO, CMO, CTO.

#3. Add corporate website link to your Bio

Better link to a phrase. Do not copy-paste URL. E. g. Kraftblick, not http://kraftblick.com/.

Also you can add some social links and links to content like eBooks. Here is an example of how a well-written Quora profile can look like.

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Also pay attention to short descriptions you add to each topic.

This bio is what people see, when they read your answer. 

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By the way, no one said you should only use one profile on Quora. Check out how two guys from LiveChat managed to get ranked as #2 and #3 Top Writer in the Customer Service topic.

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How to Choose the Best Quora Topics and Questions?

Topics

Topics are categories of questions on Quora. Thus, all questions about CRM belong to the CRM topic. You can follow a topic to get all new questions to your answer list.

Remember that one of your goals is to become the Most Viewed Writer in your niche. Following 1-3 topics relevant to your business will help you do that.

If you feel you can provide regular answers for these topics without any difficulty, consider more topics you have expertise in.

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Questions

Pick up questions with more than 1,000 views. 

Such questions are the most important.

Here’s a simple example. William Medeiros is now the Top Writer in VPN with 7K views per month. Unlike his competitors, he has only answered 14 questions!

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William got so many views mostly because of his extensive useful answers, and upvotes of others. On top of that, the majority of questions had over 1,000 views.

You can check the number of views for a question in the Question stats table, just below the Related Questions section.

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Pay attention to recent questions.

Quora doesn’t place answers higher based on their recency. But if you answer a question earlier, there is a greater chance more people will see it before others provide more answers.

Here’s how you can find the questions needed:

• Put keywords in a search bar at the top of Quora page and find relevant questions.
• Open the topic and find the most followed and the most viewed questions.

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• Answer the same questions as your competitors.
• Answer “Questions for you” assigned by Quora.

A few more things about questions.

Post regularly.  Quora is a blend of content marketing and social media. You need to answer questions consistently. Better once a day.

Answer different kinds of questions. A lot of business owners go only for questions that allow direct self-promoting.

You can reply to more general questions in the relevant topics as well. Although, they won’t bring profit at once, they can result in many views.

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How to Refer to Your Website on Quora?

First thing you should know is that Quora can ban you for spam.

Second thing is that many people still promote their business there, oftentimes by referring to their website in most of their answers.

After analyzing a number of tech companies’ Quora writers, I differentiated 3 main approaches.

1. Wild Self Promotion

Some Quora writers almost always add a link to their company’s websites in their answers. They sacrifice the quality of answers over self-promotion and go for the quantity.

Pros:

– It is easier and more straightforward.

– Despite warning that it is a useless and bad practice, sometimes it works. Claudio Erba, one of the Top Writers in the Learning Management Software topic and Jessica Zarter, the Top Writer in the Project Management topic, seem to stick to this approach.

Cons:

– Quora may ban this kind of indirect spamming in the future.

– Less high-quality answers – less upvotes, less followers.

– You are less likely to be regarded as an expert in your niche.

2. High-Quality Posting

This approach is supported by Quora writers who don’t mention their own websites in their replies. They try to make answers as useful and unbiased as possible.

Joel Rivera, who is ranked high in Web Development and Web Design topics, never inserts his website URL in his responses. He leaves a great number of high-quality replies on various topics. The only place where he put a link to his website is his profile.

Pros:

– Users will appreciate your answers more. They will give you more upvotes, comment your answers, and follow you on Quora.

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Cons:

– Such an approach can take much more effort and time.

– There is often no immediate response in leads and traffic.

3. Rational Behavior and Occasional Self Promotion

This is done by Quora writers who give useful answers and refer to their websites where appropriate. Sometimes they answer questions on topics unrelated to the niche.

You can check Rob Long profile to see what I mean.

How To Refer to the Website Where Appropriate?

Here are some ways to do it.

Mention the link to your blog post to provide a more extended explanation of the issue. It’s one of the most natural ways to share links on Quora and it doesn’t look like blatant promotion.

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Share company’s cases and stories. While sharing your experience, add a corresponding link.

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Add your links as Footnotes. These are links you can provide at the end of the post for readers to check.

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Footnotes used to be forbidden on Quora, but now they are officially allowed. Still, there are certain restrictions on using them.

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How To Write Answers on Quora?

Read recommendations on how to write valuable answers on Quora blog: What does a good answer on Quora look like?

I would just add some observations regarding best answers.

• Long answers are better than the short ones.
• A thorough research with external links is more efficient than short uninformative answers.
• Images make your answer stand out. 

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• Add links to phrases (e.g. “6 Tech Marketers Mistakes”) instead of plain URLs (e.g. “http://kraftblick.com/blog/6-tech-marketers-mistakes”).
• Use numbered and bulleted lists.
• Structure your answers the way you would write a blog post.
• Split the answer in brief short paragraphs. Give each paragraph a subheading. Start and finish your answer with the summary of the main ideas.

In Conclusion

If you want to generate leads on Quora, you have to pursue two main goals: become the Most Viewed Writer in the topic relevant to your business and refer to your website in your answers in a natural way.

To achieve those goals, you can do the following:

• Create a Quora profile that shows your experience and proves you are a real person (social links, your website, photo).
• Answer questions with more views and followers, even if they are old.
• Give long insightful answers that are well structured.
• Refer to your website by adding links to relevant blog posts. Leave links at footnotes. Share your company’s case studies.
• Answer consistently.