We’ve said before that answering business questions in online Q&A sites is an effective marketing tool. Here’s one success story from Business.com Answers, our B2B question-and-answer forum, to back up that claim. Chris Countey, web marketing manager at Priceless Imprinters in Cherry Hill, NJ, started responding to questions on Business.com Answers last March. Within a few months, the company had seen more than $5,000 of new business from new customers who found him via Business.com Answers.  We asked him about his experience.

Business.com: Tell us about Priceless Imprinters.

Countey: We distribute promotional products and advertising specialties. We sell custom-imprinted products via our website www.PricelessImprinters.com and by telephone. We’re a small business and are always looking for ways to improve relationships with the other small businesses who happen to be our customers.

Business.com: Why did you start answering questions on Business.com Answers?

Countey: Actually, I found it when I was working on another startup business website; I thought participating would help the website owner establish an online presence more quickly. Seeing questions from real business owners really opened our eyes in terms of the issues regular people were facing when starting a new business. And that helped us create new, relevant content for her website.

Business.com: What kinds of questions do you look for?

Countey: The first type of question I look for relates in some way to Priceless Imprinters’ business. As an SEO professional working for a promotional products company, I want to answer questions that involve marketing and advertising. I also look for questions regarding general website development, SEO, design, software issues, and hardware issues. I try to answer anything I can, because I know I’ll be helping both the other business professionals and our own business.

ROI: Business.com Answers helped Chris Countey generate thousands in new business for Priceless Imprinters

Business.com: What results were you looking for, and what have you seen, from your participation in Business.com Answers?

Countey: I was pleasantly surprised to see traffic coming to our website from answers.business.com just a few days after I started answering questions. It’s been clear that the incoming traffic from answers.business.com has outpaced all other non-search-engine websites in terms of quality inbound links. We were even able to track new customers back to questions we had answered, which was really exciting. As you can imagine, I answered a lot more questions after that! The new business we’ve gotten directly from Business.com Answers is about $5,000 now and continues to go up.

Business.com: How much time do you typically spend reading new questions and posting responses?

Countey: I typically get emails with new questions daily [via the Business.com Answers category subscription feature] and try to respond as quickly as possible. Answering questions can take as little as five minutes if a link to another site will help the user more than I can, or up to 30 minutes if I need to provide a lot of detail.

Business.com: You post both answers and questions on Business.com Answers. Do you use other Q&A sites?

Countey: I’ve used hundreds of forums and help websites to ask questions about everything from SEO to how to change my oil. Unlike most of those other sites, I actually get an answer when I post a question on Business.com Answers. [See Countey’s Business.com Answers profile for links to the questions he’s asked and answered.]

Business.com: Does Priceless Imprinters use other social media?

Countey: Priceless Imprinters is active on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and several others. We also manage a blog about promotional products, which we update almost daily. We’re planning to establish a YouTube channel within the next few months.