The short answer
Write down the five main reasons someone would pick a business like yours. For each reason, write three different ways a person might ask for it. That gives you 15 questions. Each one should carry a clear need and a limit (a place, a price, a size, a deadline). None of them should contain your name.
Why the questions matter more than the tool
If you test with bad questions, you get a flattering or useless result. "Is Harbour Tea Co any good?" tells you what an assistant knows about Harbour Tea Co. It does not tell you whether a stranger who wants loose-leaf tea will ever hear of it.
People also word the same wish in very different ways. In a follow-up test, SparkToro had 142 volunteers write their own prompt for the same goal, buying headphones. It reported a very low overall similarity between the prompts, 0.081 on its measure. So one wording is never enough. We use three wordings per need.
Step 1: list the decisions your customers make
Think about the last ten customers. Why did each choose you, or someone else? Write the reasons as short needs, in the customer's words. For a fictional shop, Harbour Tea Co at example.com, the needs might be:
- Buy a gift for a tea lover.
- Find loose-leaf tea with no added flavour.
- Get tea delivered fast to a small town.
- Pick a caffeine-free evening tea.
- Compare a subscription with buying one-off.
Aim for five. If you have more, keep the ones that bring in the most money or that you most want to win.
Step 2: give each need a limit
A need with no limit gets a generic answer. Add one real constraint: a place, a budget, a time, a size, a condition. "Tea gift" becomes "a tea gift for a colleague, under 30 dollars, that can arrive before Friday".
Step 3: write three wordings
For each need, write:
- A plain request: "Where can I buy loose-leaf tea with no added flavour online?"
- A comparison: "What is the difference between ordering tea from a small shop and from a big retailer?"
- A situation: "My dad only drinks plain black tea and I live far away. What should I send him?"
Keep each question between about 8 and 30 words. Write it the way you would say it to a friend. Avoid keywords stuffed together.
Step 4: take your name out
Search your list for your business name, your domain and any short form of it. Remove them. If an assistant only names you when asked about you, that is not a buying question.
The one exception: keep a few separate fact questions that do name you, such as "What are Harbour Tea Co's delivery charges?" Keep these in their own list. They test whether the facts are right, not whether you are chosen.
A template you can copy
Business category: ______________
Place customers come from: ______________
Need 1: ______________ Limit: ______________
Wording A (plain request): ______________
Wording B (comparison): ______________
Wording C (situation): ______________
Need 2: ... (repeat to Need 5)
Fact questions (name us):
F1: ______________
F2: ______________Where to find the real words
Your best material is not in your head. Look at:
- The questions customers ask by email, chat or phone.
- The words in your own reviews, and in reviews of your competitors.
- What people ask in forums and groups where your customers gather.
- The search phrases in your own site search, if you have one.
Copy the shape of what you find, not the exact sentence. Real people mention a budget, a worry or a deadline. Your questions should too.
How to check it worked
Read each question out loud and ask these things:
- Could a stranger who has never heard of us type this?
- Does it have a clear need and a limit?
- Does it avoid our name, our domain and our product names?
- Are the three wordings of one need really different from each other?
- Is there any placeholder left, such as a square bracket or an "X"?
If a question fails any of these, rewrite it.
What this won't do
Your own list is a guess about how customers talk. It is a good guess if it comes from real customer messages, sales calls and reviews, and a weak one if it comes from your own head. It is also tied to one language and one place. Questions that work for customers in your home country may not work elsewhere.
Even good questions will not make an assistant name you. They only let you see fairly whether it does.
Our free tool, the buyer question generator, drafts 15 questions like this from your category, audience, place and price. Edit its output. It is a starting point.