059 Stop Repeating Yourself! Link It!
We’re talking about how to stop drowning in repeat client questions by turning your website into your 24/7 answer machine.
Quick Quiz Time 🥳
What’s the biggest benefit of putting frequently asked questions on your website?
A) You look fancy
B) You get fewer followers
C) You save time and energy by answering once
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Correct Answer: C You save time and energy by answering once - Your potential customers want answers! They may not remember what the answer was, but they remember who gave it to them 🧡
059 Stop Repeating Yourself! Link It!
If you're stuck on reply-repeat with your clients, it's time to turn your FAQs into a business asset. Learn how to answer once and link forever using your website, blogs, videos, and even your podcast.
If you're fielding the same questions across your inbox, DMs, and comments, it's time to scale your answers. This episode walks through how to pre-empt those repetitive convos by building a living knowledge base on your website. From strategic blog posts to snack-sized videos and even audio snippets, you’ll learn how to serve your clients without sacrificing your sanity.
🎧 Listen To Next:
053 Get Stuff Done Smarter: Assistive Technology
057 Who's Buying? Ask and Find Out
The magic here is not just in having a blog or a site, it's in using it smartly. That means keeping it updated, answering real questions your audience asks, and using simple, clear language that mirrors how they speak. Plus, Zoë shares tips on making your URLs user-friendly and your posts searchable, both for clients and Google.
Best part? This method frees up your time to work with the clients who are ready to pay you for your expertise. Want to stop the never-ending Q&A loop and start getting serious about your time? Book a 15-minute free call with Zoë from the Video Confidence Coach to start building your brand ecosystem.
What Was Discussed This Episode + Timecodes:
00:00 - The Tuesday-night stress spiral: endless client questions and inbox dread.
06:00 - The three-answer formula: blog post, video, and audio options to meet every learning style.
12:00 - Why your website needs love and how social media’s pay-to-play model is costing you.
18:00 - Handling persistent askers gracefully and converting them into paying clients.
24:00 - Creating shareable URLs and writing for humans (and search robots).
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Zoë Wood 00:00
What we're covering today is to fix that great overwhelm pain point for you regarding and say it with me now answering the same questions over and over again. If you're tired of the old cookie cutter marketing advice and want to take your personal brand to the next level with bold, actionable strategies that truly reflect you. You're in the right place. Let's untangle your marketing mayhem with zo the video confidence coach on the unboring your brand podcast, unboring your brand was recorded on waterung land. Imagine this. It is late night on a Tuesday night. It's still the start of the week, but you are so tired and overwhelmed, you find yourself going through your email inbox again with more and more questions from clients, from potential clients, from people who may, I don't know they may be competitors, who knows at this point, but the fact is, you have all of these questions, of which you have already provided answers over and over and over again, and you're just so tired, so overwhelmed, and you're feeling that there is no end in sight to answer all of these questions, not just in your email box mind you, but in your DMS, on all of your social media platforms, on your website, you're just so bogged down with answering the same questions over and over again about your business, about your industry, about your opinions on things. What do you do? Well, if there, if this resonates with you. I have an answer for you because, of course, I do got an answer to these questions, put it on your website. So now what I'm going to describe to you as the remedy to this scenario that I just pitched to you at the start of this episode is going to require a little bit of work. And when I say a little bit of work, I mean, is going to require a little bit of strategy and planning and forethought and a little bit of action taking on your behalf. But if you put this work in now, you are going to reap the rewards for years to come. You are not going to constantly feel bogged down by answering these same questions over and over again, because and listen to me now, you are going to put these answers on your website. You are going to answer these questions as succinctly, as quickly as you can either, well, not in either, but in all these formats. You are going to answer these questions in a blog post. So a longer version of how to answer this particular question, you are going to provide a video minimum, 30 seconds, probably a lot longer, to be honest, depending on the type of question that you're answering. And then from there, you are going to create an audio only version, possibly in a podcast, if you've already got one, or to be able to then use that audio in the future when you do have a podcast or an audio only format, the reason that you cover these different areas of providing answers to these questions is because some people may not have the opportunity to be able to read a full board post, some people may not have the opportunity to listen to a full podcast, but to watch a two to three minute video answering their questions, that's what they're going to need. And people research your customers, whether you want to admit it or not, are researching they're researching you. They're researching your collaborators. They're researching your competitors. They are researching because they want to answer. They want a solution to their problem, and you, with the work that you do, either in your business or your personal brand, are providing that solution so to make sure that you can provide the answers to their problems in a very easy, succinct and fully controllable environment. For you, what fits all that criteria? It is your website. Now, for some people that I've worked with in the past, and actually quite recently, to be honest, a couple of people, they've updated they like made their website five years ago, have not updated it since, and have no interest in updating it. And I'm going to tell you now, I don't think that's going to work for you. With the amount of effort and time that you put into marketing yourself, marketing your brand, marketing your the work that you do, if your website is not up to date. That is a big detraction from you, but also just your website is a place that you can fully control. Yes, you may have a lot of eyeballs and a lot of interest via your social media channels, but that's not going to stay the same, because the owners. Of those social media platforms own the content that you put on there. They control who gets to see them, and if you do not pay them money, either now or later, they're going to reduce that reach, what we call organic reach, to lower and lower and lower. For example, that is definitely seen by a lot of my clients on Facebook, for example, that the posts that they were able to put up five years ago are getting next to no traction now. Why? Because they want you to pay money. They need to make money, and these platforms need to grow in order to, you know, pay off their stockholders and pay off their investors. They've been doing it for a while, and they're going to continue to do so. So if that money is going to be better spent somewhere, it's better to spend it on your website. Now I'm not saying that you need to avoid advertising altogether. When it comes to thinking about, Oh, I should run some ads. Where are those ads running to are those ads running to your website, that website that you have not invested more time and money in. Did you see where I'm going with this? So back to the question at hand, Zo, when it comes to websites, and specifically blog post now, I've recently been researching a little bit into this method myself. A lot of people think that blog posts, which are essentially long form written content regarding a specific topic or answer to a specific question, people think that that is very passe, that that's very old hat, mainly just because blogs have been around since, I don't want to say, the start of the internet, but since the internet has been, you know, publicly available, and blogs have been used as a way of, you know, curating information and showcasing your knowledge on the subject. And that is still the case. Now, of course, there are other elements outside of that, regarding AI Search and Google and Microsoft doing their best not to allow people to actually go to your website to find this information. But that's not what we're covering today. What we're covering today is to fix that great overwhelm pain point for you regarding and say it with me now answering the same questions over and over again. Usually you are providing the same answer to those questions. Sometimes it's a little bit more detailed, depending on the problem they've actually presented it to you, but to be able to put those answers that you are giving into the three formats that I mentioned before, so a long form, written post for the machines, so for SEO, and also for the people that really want a definitive long form answer. And when I say long form, I mean more than say, I'd say 800 words, 800 to 1200 words. Now, of course, this very much varies on different industries, but these words allow people to gain insight into the way that you do business, and also gets the questions answered. Being able to provide this answer in both the written format as well as a video format allows the different types of people who learn best. Some people learn best by hearing some people learn best by seeing some people learn best by actually doing the things in front of them, and in if that is possible, video kind of covers all of those elements of a way of someone learns more. And the way that this works in practice is by when someone asks you this question or asks you question that is relevant to this particular topic. All you need to do is send them a link to that page of your website and say, Hey, I've answered your question here. Here it is. They will then click that link. They will read that information. And if say, for example, they don't have a specific, you know, they don't, they don't get the exact piece of information that they want from you, which, of course, we highly doubt, because you're providing the answer to this, you know, answer to this question as generic enough as possible. So of course, you don't get sued, and of course you don't. You're not providing falsehood information, but you're providing this information in a format that is able to answer people's questions, and again, like I said, those questions that you answer over and over and over again to be able to provide it in a nice, clear, concise format, and if they have questions after that, because, again, you've provided the answer, that's this. These next few steps can be at your discretion. If you have time and energy to be able to respond. You can continue the conversation if, like a lot of small business owners and personal brand builders, you do not have time and or energy to be able to do this. You can make that quite clear without being rude. I want to stress that without being rude, you can communicate and say, Hey, I don't have to. Time. Sorry. Hey, thank you so much for your questions. Again, if they've read the information and they have not got what they wanted out of it at the end of each of your blog posts, and you can prompt people quite easily by using a message that you can copy and paste over and over again that essentially says, if you're interested in wanting to discuss more about your business, I have a 15 minute free consultation time. Just book in a time to chat.
Speaker 1 10:30
Done. Now this may seem, for a couple of
Zoë Wood 10:34
the people that I've worked with, this issue has particularly come up where they think, Oh, they they just think, I'm palming them off. They just think, I'm just think I'm just ignoring them. They just I'm pushing them away because I'm not answering their questions here and them in the platform that they choose. And I'm going to stress to this now that is not what's happening. What is happening is that people want an answer to their problem. They want to find a solution. And if they've gotten to the point where they've reached out to you, they are very hot as a lead. They are someone who is genuinely interested in you because they've researched you. They're not contacting you if they haven't researched you. And this is becoming more and more apparent over time as more people who like don't really want to make calls my generation, essentially, they're going to do more research about you and your company and the work that you do. So if they're reaching out to you, that is a very good sign. But for those of us who get a lot of people who reach out to them, or, for example, one of the people that I've worked with in the past, who a lot of their clientele, are in that older demographic where they're quite happy to pick up a phone and give you a call and have a bit of a chat about whatever their problem is. And sometimes, if you've got the time and energy, you can just answer those questions. But if it's becoming quite a pain for you, like again, again, if that pain is coming up for you repeatedly, to be able to have a process where you ask people that, oh, I've already like, thank you so much for your question. It's you know, thank you so much for your question. Here is an answer. I've answered it in this blog post. Check it out on the link, and they will follow it, read up, and they will get their answer. They will get their answer of what they want need to know. And they will take the next step. They will then buy a product from you. They will then secure a service from you. And if there is more questions, they will then ask you, or they will, as I recommend, especially with blog posts and again, your website, you have full control over this. Prompting people to book in a time to chat with you, especially if you're a service provider, is absolute gold, because, again, these people who are booking times with you are hot leads. Are people who have researched you. They've interacted with you and you've been nice and polite, answered all of their questions. They are more likely to buy from you, sign up with you ongoing purchases from you because you provided the answers. Yes, you weren't able to sit with them at nine o'clock at night to be able to answer their questions as they came up. But you don't have time and energy for that. You're focusing on your family. You're focusing on your friends, you're focusing on yourself for downtime in, say, a moment like that. And when you're providing those answers, and you're linking people to information that you already have, you're providing them that answer. That's what they want, that's what they need. And for those very rare instances, now, I've worked with a couple of people now who have gone through this particular process, and they every now and again, you have a couple of people who just won't, it's not exactly take no from an answer, but it's more that they're just they want you to spoon feed it to them. And of course, you do the whole aeroplane spoon thing by giving them the the website link. And of course, sometimes these people will just be like, Oh, I read that. It didn't answer my question. Here's my question. And what you can do from there is then specifically point out, oh, no, we did answer it. It's in, you know, the heading, you know, it's in chapter number it's no, it's no, it's in heading number two, right here, it's right there. It's called like, maybe you use a different word, or you do use a different phrase, you can then point it out to them. And of course, some people are just determined to not listen to you, to not engage with you. And of course, now you have the power to be able to decide whether or not, of course, with your energy and your discretion, to be able to say, hey, it seems like you really, you know, really, need particular answers to your specific case. Please book in a time to chat with me, and I'll be happy. I'll be happy to answer and answer all your questions. Then you. You've given them an out, you've given them a clear sense of direction. And if they don't take that opportunity, it's clear that they don't really want to work with they don't really want to work with you or find the solution to their problem, because maybe they don't want to pay you money. And if that's the case, sure you don't need your time. And if they are in that position where, and of course, not all of us have cash for everything that we want to do at every any given time. In those positions, you have been nothing but cordial. You have been nothing but nice. And in those positions, you they need to work within your time frame because you are busy. So they need to work in time that you have, and say, for example, with a lot of services, providers that I work with, to be able to provide a 15 minute, 30 minute is probably the stretch I would recommend for people to get a hold of you and secure your time for 15 minutes, and then they can answer all of their questions. Then there you are. You have they have your attention for those 15 minutes. Once those 15 minutes are up, then they have to start paying for that attention. And I'm not saying that to be mean. I'm not saying that to be crass. I'm saying that because your time is money, you are running this business by yourself, or you're running this business on behalf of your employees, you need to make sure that your time is used effectively, and for that time to be used effectively, you need to be able to reduce the amount of times where you are doing things over and over and over again, being able to build processes so at the point where you can delegate it to other people, they know what they need to do. They have a clear step they have a clear step breakdown, and they don't need to ask you too many questions to get the outcome that you need. And that is the same thing for your clients, and specifically your potential clients. They just want to have the answers to their problems, and if you can provide that in a really clear and succinct way. They're going to like you, they're going to like you more, they're going to trust you more, and they're going to purchase from you. Now, of course, some people want something for nothing, but in my experience, that isn't everyone. That is as very select few. Sometimes they show their colours a lot more earlier than you would expect. But in situations like that, you would learn, and you would be able to see the signs, and again, be able to provide really clear next steps of, hey, don't have time to chat right now. I'm currently at a conference, or it was nice to see you at the conference. I'm answering. Here is an answer to a couple of the questions that you asked. If you want to. You know, if you have any more questions, feel free to book in a time with me to chat again. You're not brushing them off, you're not telling them to f off, you're giving them really clear next steps, and if they don't take it, that is okay. For a couple of clients I worked with, they did feel a little bit hurt that they went through this whole process and then people didn't book with them, and that's okay, because they're not always going to book with you, but like, that's just the case when it comes to the people that you get in as leads. So leads are people that you bring into your business. Not everyone is going to be the right fit for you, and that is a good thing, because if everyone was the right fit for you, you would be wasting a whole lot of time, whole lot of money and a whole lot of energy. The people who are able to get through that process come at the other end and say, hey, it was really nice. Thank you for answering all my questions. You know, answering it in both all the formats that I need to be able to learn and grow regarding solving this problem for me and my 15 minutes with you were awesome. I want to book in more time with you. I'm going to go to the top of your products or services because I have seen the value that you've given me, and I want to spend my money with you. That's who you are, baby, that's the energy that you need, and especially with the work that we do with the video confidence coach, it's not just a I will do everything for you. Here is everything goodbye like it's a relationship. And I don't know about you, but I'm fairly picky with my relationships, so I want them to work as well as they can. I want to communicate easily and simply as I can with my my clients. So for someone to become my client, they need to be doing a good job. I love you. Last thing I will touch on regarding website specifically now, of course, if, like I said, if you are someone who has not updated your website and has not even logged into your website in the past 356, years, I would say that's a priority for you. In regards to, like I said, your website is your platform that you have full control over things to keep in mind when making these answers to these questions in these either blog posts or web page formats, I highly recommend it making really easy to share and reference. So that's why it's easier to use a blog, because you can search blogs, as opposed to searching. Your entire website, you can use search in a certain blog to be able to find particular categories or answers to things being able to use so the web address so when you type in something, so say, for example, if you're typing in VCC, dot training, slash whatever you want, to try and find that is what is known as a URL slug. So that last part after the slash. So you've come to my website, and then at the top of the domain, it'll say, you know, VCC, dot training slash. And I have multiple of different areas of my website that relate to different answers to be able to provide people answers to their questions, usually in the form of podcasts or live streams, like what you possibly are listening or watching now, or if you're listening on the podcast or watching on the podcast, I should say you will find them in my podcast areas to be able to do that. Then I make sure that that slug is really nice and clear, making sure that I answer people's questions with that URL slug of like, what does Vcc do? Like, really simple things like that. Like, so that when people search it up on Google, on Bing, or whatever search platform they use, I will then show up because the URL slug matches what they're looking for. And making sure that when you write these answers, both in written form and video and podcast form, to make sure that you speak in a way that your clients understand, to make sure that you're using the same language, and making sure that you are clear, so that they are understanding of where you're coming from. I work specifically, I work with women and non binary folk who are usually around the 40 to 60 age range, people who have had a career and a life before they start building their personal brand, before they started their personal business. Or maybe someone that they're maybe a business that they've been running for a very long time, and they want to make a pivot regarding their marketing. That is who I work with. And these people are intelligent. These people are articulate, but still, if I use a lot of acronyms and a lot of really long words, that is going to overwhelm them, especially when they just want a simple answer to their problem. So to do that, I change the way that I speak, which is a little harder, so you don't have to do that yourself. But when it comes to the written work that I do, I make sure it is incredibly clear. I make sure that it is very straightforward and has a step by step process, so that I don't overwhelm the people that I work with or potentially want to work with. And this is also helpful, not just for your customers or your potential customers, but also for the robots who are crawling the internet, like Google, Bing, all those other search platforms and other places, to be able to get an idea of what you do, to know that you are a credible source of information, because the work that you do to be able to feed these robots and make it easier for them to understand that what you're saying is True, what you're saying is relevant to the work that you do there. They're going to then feed more information and more people to you, because you are a credible source of information. That, of course, is a definitely another podcast episode that we can talk about. But in that meantime, I want to thank you so much for listening or watching the video confidence coach cast. By now, I may have changed the biz the name of this podcast. I'm still, honestly at the time of recording, still figuring out what I want to actually change the podcast name to. I'm thinking of something alliterative and something that relates to the personal branding, video marketing side of what I do, but that is for future zo to figure out and confirm later on. So thank you again, and I look forward to seeing you or hearing from you at the next podcast. Bye. Thank you for listening or watching unloring your brand. You can find detailed show notes with tools offers and episode transcriptions. Just click the first link in the description or go to Vcc dot training slash podcast, get involved and ask me anything about personal branding, video strategy, or just a friendly Small Business chat via my email, g'day at Vcc dot training, that is G, D, A, y at V cc, dot training, the video confidence coach, would like to acknowledge and Pay my respects to the wadawurrung people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which I record my podcast, I pay my respects to their elders. Past and present. I stand with the traditional custodians of these lands and working towards a more equal future. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land. Look forward to me chatting at you next week. Superstars.
The above livestream episode description and transcript were generated together human knowledge + ai.
Who is your host?
Feeling stuck trying to build a personal brand that actually turns heads? Women and non-binary super-stars deserve more than just a cookie-cutter approach to their worries. Zoë Wood the Video Confidence Coach untangles your marketing mayhem, helping you own the camera, craft killer video strategies, and connect with your audience like never before. You’ll leave with the tools to show up, stand out, and smash your goals.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
Smashing Your Marketing Mayhem With Killer Video Strategies 🧡
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*Please note that this podcast was previously called THE "Video Confidence Coachcast" and the "Do Video Podcast" previous to 2025. THANK-YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING AS I TRANSITION THE BRAND TO BE MORE CONSISTANT FOR YOUR LISTENING AND WATCHING PLEASURE.