In today’s digital world, for businesses to be successful, it is important to have a strong online presence. Improving your search marketing strategy will help elevate your business’s online presence as well as attract potential customers to your website. However, creating a thriving SEO marketing strategy might be a daunting task. In this article, we share three tools that will give you more insights into your customer’s behaviour and five tips on how to create a thriving search marketing strategy. Let’s get started!
Brand search: learn more about your customers preferences through what they search for
One of the most valuable sources of information that give insights into your customers’ preferences is looking at their online search activity. By analysing the keywords and phrases they use, you get a better understanding of what they are searching for. This way you get more knowledge of their interests, needs, and potential pain points. This information can be beneficial when creating targeted marketing campaigns, it can help create better products and services, and it might improve the overall customer experience. Let’s look at three different tools that will help you to get more knowledge about your customers’ preferences.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a tool that can give you detailed information about the keywords and phrases that drive traffic to your website. On top of that, with Google Analytics, it’s easy to learn more about the demographics and interests of your audience. By using Google Analytics, you can gain knowledge that can help you make data-driven decisions and improve your website and overall marketing efforts. Let’s look at three ways you can utilise Google Analytics to get to know more about your audience.
1.1 Set up goals and funnels
A goal is a specific action you want your (potential) customer to take on your website. Examples of actions are a purchase, filling out a contact form, or signing up for your newsletter. A funnel is the actual steps someone takes to complete those goals. You can track conversion rates and analyse your customers’ behaviour through these goals and funnels. These can be the starting point for your further analysis.
1.2 Use audience reports
Under the section ‘Audience’ in Google Analytics you can find more information about your users. This information includes demographics such as their age, gender, location, interests, and even their behaviour on your website. This can help you understand your target audience better; you find more answers to why they make certain decisions and which marketing campaigns and outings make them resonate with your brand most.
1.3 Analyse behaviour reports
Now that you have this information, you can start analysing behaviour reports. You do this in the section ‘Behaviour’ in Google Analytics; here you can see how your users interact with your website. You can get to know which pages are popular, how long users stay on certain pages, and how many pages they visit before they leave your website. This can help you optimise your website for a better user experience as well as getting a better understanding of your customers’ preferences.
Keyword research tools
Another way to get to know your audience’s preferences is by using keyword research tools. Tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush help identify the most searched-for keywords in your business’s market. Gaining knowledge of which words and phrases your target audience uses can help you understand your customer’s behaviour and preferences. Let’s look at three ways in which you can utilise a keyword research tool to get more insights into your target audience.
1.1 Identify relevant keywords
Keyword research tools help you identify the most relevant keywords and phrases that your target audience uses to find more information on your products and services. You can use these keywords and phrases as a base for your website’s content and your marketing campaigns. By doing this you can attract traffic towards your website and improve your visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
1.2 Understand your target audience’s search intent
To understand your customer’s preferences and behaviour, it’s imperative to understand the intent behind their search queries. Their search intent can vary from informational to navigational, to transactional intent. By understanding why your target audience is searching for something, you can tailor your website’s content and marketing messages to better meet their needs and preferences.
1.3 Discover new content ideas
Sometimes we get stuck when we are searching for new content ideas. Keyword research tools can help you out with this. By understanding what is relevant to your customer at this moment, you can better identify the gaps in your content and see where you can add additional and relevant information. This can help you create targeted and more effective marketing campaigns, improve your website’s content, and gain a competitive advantage in your industry.
Listening tools
Social listening tools, such as Hootsuite or Mention, can help you monitor the conversations your target audience have on your social media accounts. You can get more insights on what they say about your brand, your industry, and other trends and topics. Social listening tools help you get to know more about your target audience’s behaviour and preferences by letting you analyse what they say and do. How can you get more insights through social listening tools?
1.1 Monitor brand mentions
By monitoring social media conversations and seeing where and how your brand is mentioned, you can get more insights into how your (potential) customers are talking about your brand. By analysing these conversations you get a better insight into the sentiment towards your content. By tracking these mentions and by responding to your customer’s feedback, you can improve your brand’s reputation, get to know more about your customers, and build stronger relationships with them.
1.2 Track industry trends
Social listening tools can help you track trends and happenings in your industry which can help you stay up-to-date with the latest news, which you can incorporate in your marketing campaigns and content. By monitoring conversations, mentions, and hashtags related to your industry; you can identify new topics that can help foster growth and stay ahead of your competition by jumping on the bandwagon early.
1.3 Identify customer’s needs and preferences
Now you’ve gained more knowledge about trends and search queries, you can identify your customer’s needs and preferences. You do this by analysing the keywords that they are using in their conversations, mentions, and hashtags. Through this analysis, you can better understand their pain points, which will help you with creating more effective marketing campaigns that resonate with your target audience.
Tips to build a long term search strategy to boost your marketing strategy
Now that you know more about your customer’s preferences, behaviour, and search intent; you can use this as the backbone of your long-term search strategy. By implementing different tactics consistently over time you will be able to create steady growth, visibility, and exposure for your business. Let’s look at 5 tips you can keep in mind when creating your long-term search strategy.
1. Start with a website audit
A major part of a thriving SEO strategy is resolving any technical issues on your website as well as looking at pages that need improvement, such as internal linking and improving page speed. When you create your marketing strategy, it’s advisable to start with an SEO-website audit. This can include analysing your website structure, content quality, and keyword strategy.
2. Which tools can help you?
After having conducted a website audit and gotten insights into which steps you want to take to improve your SEO strategy, you can now look at which tools can give you more insights. We have discussed a few tools above; such as Google Analytics, keyword and listening tools. These tools can give you valuable insights into your website traffic, keyword rankings, and can give information on how your competitors are ranking. These tools can help you make data-driven decisions that will ultimately improve your search performance.
3. Using plug-ins on your website
Most CRM systems have SEO plugins available that can help optimise and automate your website’s content and structure. For WordPress, popular SEO plugins are Yoast SEO and All in One SEO pack. With these plugins, you can create better page titles, meta descriptions, and optimise your website’s overall search performance. Read more about SEO plugins here.
4. Focus on content quality
Qualitative content is a critical component of any successful search strategy. When you create content that is engaging, resonating with your target audience, and in line with their interests and needs; you can help elevate your search rankings. With content, you can drive more organic traffic to your website.
5. Be patient and persistent
Keep in mind that any search strategy is based on long-term goals, but with patience and persistence, you will reap the benefits of your efforts. Through continuously monitoring your efforts, staying up-to-date with latest trends, and keeping track of your audience’s preferences; you will be able to boost your marketing performance and drive more traffic towards your website. This way, you can create sustained growth for your business through your search marketing strategy.
Do you want to learn more about SEO?
Let’s look at how we can optimise your search engine rankings; we can do a free-of-cost audit of your website. Get in contact with us if you want to brainstorm or receive help with implementing tools and techniques. We are happy to assist your business in further growth and a future of new digital possibilities.
