Using an FAQ page to boost lead quality

It’s one thing to generate leads or enquiries with your website, but it’s quite another to generate qualified sales leads.

If you’ve every run an Internet-based business, or get a significant number of leads from the Internet, then you’ll know what I’m talking about. It can be frustrating to get email enquiries, only to find that most of them take up too much of your time without leading to any sales.

These “low-quality” leads normally come from someone who…

• Doesn’t yet understand how you can help them
• Is merely asking a routine question that is answered clearly on your website
• Approaches you very tentatively, almost defensively, with a great deal of resistance toward proceeding further

If you get a lot of this type of enquiry, then your website isn’t really doing its job (or people aren’t reading it properly - that happens a lot too ). A good lead generation website will relieve you of much of the burden associated with attracting new business, not produce extra “busywork” that wastes your time.

That’s where a good FAQ page can help.

FAQ pages - an easy way to increase your lead quality and quantity

A good FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page should achieve three things:

1. Reinforce your USP - the reason why your target customer would be foolish not to deal with you over your competitors
2. Clarify and reinforce your website content. It’s often easier to find answers to common questions in a list of FAQ’s than to scour through individual web pages.
3. Raise and address common objections. If you’re more expensive than the opposition, say so, and explain why. If you only offer 3 varieties and your competitor offers 10, explain why. You won’t convince everyone that your way is best, but at least you can filter out many of the people who wouldn’t be interested in your solution anyway.

Striving for Authenticity

Sometimes it’s tempting to answer the questions that you wish customers asked. It reminds me of the Simpsons episode “Two cars in every garage, three eyes on every fish” when Lisa is cajoled into asking prepared questions to boost Mr Burns’ likeability with the voting public:

Mr. Burns - your campaign seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train. Why are you so popular?

I recommend trying your hardest to keep your FAQ questions authentic. Overly obvious self-promotion will tend to diminish your credibility. I sometimes find it useful to get a third party to read FAQ content and provide feedback before deciding on the final draft of an FAQ page (or any sales copy, for that matter).

A non-exhaustive list of sample FAQ questions

Here’s a list of FAQ questions that could appear on most types of lead-generation website:

• What do you do?
• Who do you work with?
• How are you different?
• How can you help me?
• What do your services cost?
• How long have you been in business?
• What are your credentials?
• How many people are in your organisation?

Of course, there will also be a bunch of questions that relate to your specific industry. I’m often asked if we do telemarketing or direct sales for clients (we don’t), so those questions are included in our FAQ.

FAQs as a filter

FAQs are a good filter, and an easy way to boost your average lead quality. They should also boost your volume of high-quality sales leads.

Yes, you’ll still get people who don’t read your FAQ page and who contact you with routine questions, but that’s a part of being in business.

One final point: questions are a natural part of the buying process. It’s common for ready-to-buy prospects to ask a few questions before going ahead with a purchase. What I’m talking about here is systematizing the routine so you can handle the exceptions with greater thoroughness.

Will Swayne

P.S. I’m currently writing a newsletter on more advanced methods of pre-qualifying sales leads. It will be coming out in Janurary, so if you’re not a member of my list and you’d like to get this info, sign up free here.

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