243: Marcus Sheridan On How To Get Results With Your Blog

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Five subjects determine whether content actually generates sales: cost, problems, comparisons, reviews, and best-of lists. Marcus Sheridan calls these the Big Five, and they work because every buyer wants to understand all five before purchasing.

Marcus started a swimming pool company in 2001 and was preparing to file for bankruptcy in early 2009 when the market crashed. He rebuilt it into the most-trafficked swimming pool website in the world and the largest fiberglass pool installer in the US, then turned the method into a consulting business now part of Impact, where he gives roughly 70 keynotes a year.

Below is each of the Big Five, why they are bottom-of-funnel rather than top, and the content matrix that turns them into a year of work in a couple of hours.

Key takeaways

• The Big Five are cost, problems, comparisons, reviews, and best-of lists. All five sit at the bottom of the funnel.
• One article on what a fiberglass pool costs generated over $6 million in sales.
• An article on fiberglass pool problems became the top traffic-driving keyword every year and produced a couple million in sales.
• Marcus wrote a best-of list of his own competitors and excluded himself, which generated $150,000 in a single year.
• Put a “see why it costs this much” link under the price on product pages to decommoditize what you sell.
• Present the negatives first, then explain who the product genuinely suits.
• A titled video next to a form typically lifts conversions 80% to 90%, sometimes 150% to 200%.
• His floor for content length is 750 words, with 1,000 preferred.

How Marcus Sheridan saved his pool company with content

Marcus founded a swimming pool company out of college with two friends in 2001. Things went reasonably well until the 2008 crash, and by early 2009 he expected to go out of business and was preparing to file for bankruptcy.

Reading about inbound marketing, content marketing, and blogging, what he took away in his own words was simple. Obsess over your customers’ questions, address them honestly and transparently through text and video on your website, and you might save the business.

He named the philosophy “They Ask, You Answer” and committed to being the best teacher in the world on fiberglass pools.

The company became the web entity of pools, the most-trafficked swimming pool site in the business, and eventually the largest US installer of fiberglass pools. He still owns a third of it.

Writing about what he was doing attracted companies asking him to teach it and conferences asking him to speak, which snowballed into a full-time speaking and consulting business by 2012.

His observation on the crash is that none of it would have happened without it, despite it being the most stressful period of his life.

The Big Five: what buyers actually search before buying

Within about six months of starting, clear patterns emerged in which content moved the needle on sales and search and which did not.

These are bottom of the funnel, which is where Marcus argues you should start rather than at the top. The common mistake is producing fluffy top-of-funnel content.

His underlying point is psychological. Buyers today do not want to make a mistake, and these five subjects are what make them feel informed and at ease.

Big Five #1: Cost

Putting a price on your product page does not count as talking about cost. Buyers want to understand what drives the number.

When Marcus started, nobody had addressed what a fiberglass swimming pool costs on their website, because businesses fear giving information to competitors or scaring buyers away.

So he wrote about all of it: the factors driving cost up, what keeps it down, the different packages available, and why some companies are expensive while others are cheap.

That single article has generated over $6 million in sales, and still ranks first for essentially any variation of what an inground or fiberglass pool costs.

His rule for ecommerce is that any significant product in your catalog should have a definitive article and video on what that type of product costs. Skip it and you never compete in search, and you risk commoditizing the thing you sell.

The link most ecommerce sites are missing

Marcus’s specific tactic: put a small arrow and link under the price reading “see why it costs this much,” pointing to an article and video explaining the cost factors.

That decommoditizes the product and adds real value for the visitor. Most ecommerce product pages are cut and dry by comparison.

He describes the normal shopping experience as broken. You find prices on the ecommerce site, leave to research cost factors somewhere unrelated, then return. That is a conversion loss the site is choosing to accept.

My concern was sending people off the product page. His answer is opening it in a separate window and split testing it, and that anyone paying attention to their cart page conversion rates already knows how much they lose there.

A well-formatted popup with a link to the full article works too, and his philosophy is not treating people as though they are dumb. Given the choice between keeping visitors ignorant and hoping that lifts conversion, or letting them learn more in the moment, he takes the second.

Someone who reads it and stays is more serious anyway.

Using cost content to state who the product is for

This is where you can be genuinely transparent. Marcus’s framing sounds like: this is not the most expensive option and it should not be, this is for the person looking for the middle of the road who wants these three things and is fine without those, and if that is you, this is a great fit.

Most companies do not communicate that way. They state what it is without ever saying who it is for and who it is not for.

Big Five #2: Problems

Once a buyer decides they want something, the next question is how it could go wrong. That is usually why they seek out reviews, and depending on reviews to answer it is a flawed position.

Get in front of it yourself.

Nobody in the pool industry had addressed the problems with fiberglass pools, because they were afraid to name the elephant. Marcus’s view is that the best way to resolve a concern is to address it before it becomes one.

Every year since, the top keyword phrase driving leads to the site has been fiberglass pool problems. That article has produced a couple million dollars in sales.

He extended the same logic to every recurring negative question: do fiberglass pools pop out of the ground, are fiberglass pools cheap, and so on.

How to phrase the negatives

Present the ugly first, then explain who it suits.

His pool version runs: fiberglass pools are not for everybody, they do not get wider than 16 feet, longer than 40 feet, or deeper than 8 feet, and you cannot customize them however you want. If you need bigger or fully custom, this is probably not a good fit.

Then: if you want a low maintenance pool that lasts a lifetime within those dimensions and you can find a shape that fits, this might be perfect for you.

The buyer nods along or shakes their head, and both outcomes are fine. You do not want people buying products that are wrong for them, and selling with integrity means informing them well enough not to make a mistake.

The critical constraint is that you cannot be biased. You cannot become the trusted source while being visibly one-sided.

How to find the problems worth addressing

The best keyword tool is listening well. Beyond that, search negative reviews of the product category to see what people actually say.

Some formulations are universal: is this product cheap, how long does it last, an honest review of this product.

Marcus points out you can double up, combining a longevity question with a review question in one piece for more effect.

My own favorite example of this done well is Saddleback Leather, which points out the flaws in leather, educates you on the types, then demonstrates their own product’s durability. Marcus’s addition: other good leather exists, and unless you show it, it does not exist.

Big Five #3: Comparisons

Every product means somebody is considering a comparative item. For Marcus that was fiberglass versus concrete pools and fiberglass versus vinyl.

No fiberglass pool company addressed concrete pools, on the theory that not mentioning your biggest competitor keeps buyers from learning it exists. Marcus calls that about the stupidest mindset possible, given he was asked the question daily.

He compared them honestly without declaring one better, because that would be a lie, and framed it as helping the reader decide which suits them, with genuine pros and cons for each.

To find these, go to Google and search your product plus “versus” or “compared to.” In ecommerce, the equivalent signal is what people who viewed this item also searched for.

The common failure is one-sidedness. Opening a comparison video by explaining why your option is really the only choice does not induce trust.

Answering the saturation objection

Some people conclude the space is already flooded with comparison content. Marcus considers that a scarcity mentality for two reasons.

Answering these questions forces you to become a dramatically better communicator and to know your own products better. And visitors arriving on your site get your opinion rather than everyone else’s.

Big Five #4 and #5: Reviews and best-of lists

Most companies leave reviews entirely to others. Marcus argues you should be in that conversation, and go further by targeting your competitors’ review searches too.

His example: a couple told him they liked him and asked, if they did not buy from him, whether he could recommend anyone else. Most companies respond that there is nobody quite like them, which the buyer immediately discounts.

He went home and wrote an article on the best pool builders in Richmond, Virginia, with ratings and reviews of five companies.

He deliberately left himself off the list. Someone reading it on his website is already considering him, and including yourself in your own best-of list signals bias, which costs you the credibility the whole approach depends on.

How to write about competitors without attacking them

Stick to facts and avoid injecting opinion. Marcus described each competitor using information taken directly from their own website: founded in 1972, located in this area, specializing in vinyl liner pools with an emphasis on automatic covers, also installs fiberglass, has a full service department.

He expresses no negatives. If a company ever does, it should be sourced from an outside article, and even then he is extremely careful.

The result is that searching for reviews of one of his major Richmond competitors returns his article in the first or second position.

A customer told him she was about to sign a contract with that competitor, researched them first, found his article, concluded these people are honest, and called him. That article generated $150,000 in sales in one year.

The objection that this introduces buyers to your competition is silly, because it takes them under a second to find your competitors anyway. Consumer ignorance stopped being a viable strategy.

Adapting best-of lists for ecommerce

For an ecommerce product, Marcus would include his own items and be explicit about it.

His framing: we get asked constantly about other brands we think are good, and because we believe in educating customers over simply selling to them, here is an honest assessment of the top ten brands in this category. Two of these we sell, and we sell them because we believe in them, so we have included them alongside eight we do not.

Two extensions worth noting. Products you do not sell can carry affiliate arrangements.

And indirect categories work well. A pool company writing about pool heaters reaches people who may also be buying a pool. A pet sitter writing about the best local veterinarians reaches people who likely need pet sitting, while getting on those vets’ radar.

Include the year where you can, and update it as time passes.

The content matrix: a year of content in two hours

Build a grid. Across the top, list your major products or services. Down the left side, list the Big Five: cost, problems, versus, reviews, and best.

Then fill in every cost question, every comparison question, and every negative question associated with each product.

With ten products you do not get 50 pieces of content. You get a couple hundred, because a single product usually generates multiple versus articles and multiple cost articles.

A couple of hours of focused work produces potentially 12 to 24 months of content across text and video.

Why this is an SEO play

Marcus does not call it SEO, and functionally that is what it is, because Google’s obsession is answering the question more specifically and relevantly than anyone else.

Every client in their first year sees no less than 10x traffic growth.

His content length floor is 750 words as the bare minimum, with 1,000 preferred, since the average number one ranked page exceeds 1,000 words. My own view is that 1,500 to 2,000 is closer to right, and he agrees 750 is the low bar of low bars.

Why beautiful websites often convert worse

Marcus’s blunt observation is that many website designers are artistic rather than conversion-focused, which is why redesigns frequently reduce conversions.

He groups conversions and user experience together, since good UX done properly produces conversions rather than fighting them. His experience is consistently that better education increases conversion.

So education comes first and visual design second. Where he does push hard is video: most businesses should think of themselves as media companies, and any major product without a robust video explaining who it is for and who it is not for is missing the psychological mark.

The titled video next to a form

Placing a video next to a form on a landing page lifts conversions roughly 80% to 90% on average, and Marcus has seen 150% to 200%.

The part companies get wrong is not titling the video. A video sitting next to a form is not enough.

Title it something like “should you fill out this form” or “see exactly what will happen if you fill out this form.”

The video should address the four fears people have about forms: are you going to call me constantly, are you going to spam me, what will you do with my information, and what does this process actually look like.

Deliver it calmly and conversationally, then close with an invitation to fill out the form.

He recommends the same approach on ecommerce checkout pages, and stresses split testing rather than taking his word for it.

You can find Marcus’s book They Ask, You Answer, which Mashable rated the number one marketing book of 2017, at major booksellers.

Frequently asked questions

What is They Ask You Answer?

A content marketing philosophy from Marcus Sheridan built on obsessively answering the questions your customers actually ask, honestly and transparently, through text and video on your own website. He used it to rebuild a pool company facing bankruptcy in 2009.

What are the Big Five content topics?

Cost, problems, comparisons, reviews, and best-of lists. All five are bottom-of-funnel subjects that buyers research before purchasing, which is why they generate sales rather than just traffic.

Should you publish your prices on your website?

Yes, and listing a price is not the same as addressing cost. Buyers want to understand what drives the number up or down, what packages exist, and why some companies charge more, and Marcus’s article on that generated over $6 million in sales.

Should you write about your product’s problems?

Yes. Addressing negatives before they become concerns is how you own that conversation instead of leaving it to competitors and review sites, and Marcus’s article on fiberglass pool problems became his top lead-generating page every year.

Should you review your competitors on your own website?

Marcus does, sticking strictly to facts drawn from competitors’ own websites without injecting opinion. His best-of list for local pool builders, which deliberately excluded his own company, generated $150,000 in one year.

How long should your content be to rank?

Marcus sets 750 words as an absolute floor with 1,000 preferred, since the average top-ranking page exceeds 1,000 words. In practice 1,500 to 2,000 words is a more realistic target for competitive terms.

Does adding video to a landing page increase conversions?

Marcus sees roughly 80% to 90% average lift from a video placed next to a form, and up to 150% to 200% in some cases. The video must be titled something like “should you fill out this form” and must address the viewer’s fears about spam, calls, and privacy.

Does a beautiful website design improve conversions?

Often the opposite, because many designers optimize for appearance rather than conversion. Marcus prioritizes education and user experience first, treating visual design as secondary.