They Ask, You Answer / The Big 5
Marcus Sheridan’s philosophy, born from saving his pool company in the 2008 recession by answering every question buyers asked that competitors avoided. The Big 5 are the topic categories with the highest purchase intent: cost and price, problems and drawbacks, versus and comparisons, reviews, and best-in-class. It is the most concrete "what topics do we create to drive revenue" decision rule in the field, and the hardest to follow, because it requires publishing honest answers (including prices and your own product’s limitations) that most organizations instinctively avoid.
Answer the five questions buyers actually search before they will talk to you.
Cost / Problems / Versus / Reviews / Best of
When to use this
- When the content plan feels safe and salesy but produces no pipeline, the Big 5 forces the topics buyers actually search.
- When sales spends every call answering the same questions, each one is an article that could have pre-sold the answer.
- When the organization is afraid to publish pricing, the framework reframes the debate around buyer trust.