Know-How Exchange : Our Forum

Another option: if people don't want to fill out a form, then up the minimum point value of the question. That'll encourage people to complete the intake form but allow for those that don't/can't.

My experience (in the consulting world) suggests that most clients/people simply want to ask their question(s) and get fast responses. Instant gratification.

They lose interest quickly when you start asking important -- often strategic -- questions. The number of questions that are abandoned bears this out. I think the volume of questions on KHE will go down quickly if we require more detail up-front.

Think about the objectives of this forum. For MarketingProfs it's to get new members. They certainly don't want to make it more difficult to ask a question. And for most of us, it's to share our knowledge and experience in hopes that we'll ultimately land a new client/customer. In essence, we're giving free samples of what we want to sell.

What would be the advantage (for either MarketingProfs or the KHE experts) to make it more difficult for a person to ask a question?

When people don't provide enough information up-front, that's our opportunity to teach them about marketing, to ask some questions that will help them understand what we do, and ultimately to guide them to the answers they need/want (even when those are different from the answers to the original questions).

The better folks understand marketing, the more likely they are to seek expert help now and in the future. That's a great opportunity for us. Let's not mess with a formula that's working.

Mgoodman brings up a good point, but maybe not the total reason people contribute to these answers. He says the people responding are doing it to get business. I agree, to some degree, but I also believe we do it to enhance our own skills.

It made me wonder, just how much business contributors really get from this exercise. I haven't received one dollar from answering questions here. How about the rest of you?

Also, I am not sure what the strategic goals of MP are but, of course, they need to make money by having new members. Quality attracts quality and some of these questions are absolutely absurd. I especially dislike it when a person who is starting a marketing service company asks questions about marketing a grade school kid could answer. It makes the whole forum look less than professional.

Dear Ryan,

I agree with pretty much all of what's already been said. I'd like to
see more information in questions, perhaps as a mandatory part of the question submission process.

Or perhaps having people GIVE a certain number of answers or clock
up a certain number of points BEFORE they're permitted to pose questions? This might weed out some of the one liners and riffraff, thereby improving the quality of the questions, which, in theory, could lead to better answers.

In sales, which customer do you prefer to deal with? The one that simply has no clue and wants the wind, the stars, and the moon for nought? Or the client that's willing to spend a little extra time and effort to explain what they need and what they're prepared to pay for?

The aggravation and refund rate of the first kind of customer saps one's will to live, whereas dealing with the second can make life fun.

Surely the same rule applies to questioners here, many of whom sign up, ask one poorly thought out question—the answers to which they sometimes get all pissy assed about, before they then vanish without adding to the debate elsewhere.

As for instant gratification and making it more difficult to ask a question? I think it might be easier to get a more useful answer with more detail in the question. If people post half-assed or poorly thought-out questions, surely they'll get skinny answers.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

Go to Google and enter the search term "tagline for new realtor." See what comes up as the top result. (For those who are really lazy, it's MarketingProfs KHE.)

So when a new realtor searches for help, there's a good chance they'll end up on the KHE and become a member. (MarketingProfs wins.)

Then they ask their question, and it's not likely to be terribly sophisticated because they're not professional marketers ... maybe they don't have a clue what marketing is all about. They just want a tagline because they think it's a good idea to have one. Or they've seen taglines on other realtors' signs, and figure it can't hurt.

They don't search the archives because they don't even know there ARE archives. They don't read the guidelines because they don't know there ARE guidelines. They just want to ask their question and get a tagline so they can order business cards next week and get started selling real estate.

We respond ... either with some suggestions or with questions about their strategy, their market, their target audience, etc. We resist the temptation to become annoyed because we've "seen this movie before," but for them it's the first time they've come to KHE and perhaps the first time they've even thought about marketing.

So why wouldn't we gently help them understand what they're up against, what the role of a tagline is, and how they can improve their chances of success as new realtors?

And the better we do that, the better each of us will look next time someone searches the archives, enters a Google search and finds KHE, or considers whether they might want to hire some professional marketing help. (WE win.)

W.M.M.A. I am here everyday, but like you I just don't partisipate like I once did, mainly because so many questions are sill. At least in my eyes. So I comment when I feel I have something to contribute to someone who cares.

Don't you have to become a member of MarketingProfs to post a question? And once you become a member, don't you get the weekly newsletter forever ... or until you pro-actively unsubscribe?

When MarketingProfs touts membership of 367,000+, does that include all the people who ask a question and abandon (but don't unsubscribe)? Or do you have to visit once a year to remain a member?

Many good points by all. Jumping in late here, while I would love to have a form, I agree with those who say it would discourage new users. From experience with clients, I can say that just because you have a form doesn't mean that people will answer everything and do it well. Then of course if you "reject" it for incomplete info, well, then that's a REALLY negative user experience, isn't it? Not the way we want to welcome new users/members.

One suggestion I would offer is to have a means for the experts to ask clarifying questions without negatively impacting their "responded/accepted" ratio. In answering questions, some of us are selective for the reasons cited above, but also because we use the "accepted answer" as a way to track whether our answers are helpful or not. There are times when I might ask a poster for more information, but don't do so because that post will most certainly not be "accepted," so it will be logged as an unaccepted response. (If I am being too competitive here, please feel free to slap my virtual hand).

1. prhyatt: It's been my experience that asking for clarification is usually rewarded with accepted answers. Not always, but usually. I usually reassure the asker, though, that we need the information if we're going to do a good job for them. That explanation may make the exchange more positive.

2. carrie77: I would think that there might be an indirect financial benefit from non-paying members through higher advertising rates. Advertisers presumably pay on a per-thousand basis, so more eyeballs on the site would translate to greater revenue. It's not direct, but I suspect there IS some value.

Further, I would think that new paying members start off by being non-paying members, then upgrading at some point. So the bigger the pool of non-paying members, the greater the chances of landing new paying members.

Net, I'd guess that growing the non-paying membership has some [indirect] value for MarketingProfs.