May 28, 2008

How to understand and target your core customers through search engine optimization

Inspired Search is a new approach to search engine optimization that looks at search in a deeper more meaningful way. As marketers in the age of Google and the long tail we are all looking for when the next wave is coming and when to ride it through and anticipating the right moment to dive in. Whether it is Social Media, Blogging, You Tube, or Google we have many choices for tools that we can leverage to market our products and services. What tactics should we use and who should we target and when? How can we be innovative using these new tools and at the same moment use search engine optimization in the most effective way possible?

The answer to those questions I would suggest that you start to rebuild your search program around your customer’s motivations. Maximize what you are currently doing, do more and give more thought about what you do and how you do it. If that sounds like a riddle – the answer is a little hidden – put more thought into your SEO strategy, and refocus your efforts on getting more targeted results. You’ll need to get in touch with those inspired and motivated by your products and services. Use all the platforms and new technologies available to you but remember the best tool for you to use is your unique understanding of your customer and their motivations.

The goal of an Inspired Search program is to reach core customers - customers that buy, prospects that engage, and leads that deliver new business. Inspired Search creates a process where you identify the needs, motivation and inspirations of those core customers and serve them, and then put an ongoing strategy in place that keeps feeding the needs of that audience with content that is both useful and targeted to their search terms.

The process starts with something called The Niche Magazine Principle. The Niche Magazine Principle is the lens through which you can view your customers and they more importantly can view you. Begin to think of the Website content you serve your vistors and prospects as the content for a niche magazine. Your audience of readers (searchers) has a variety of interests, ideas, and motivations (search terms) and they may stumble across your niche magazine (website) through word of mouth, at the newsstand (The Web) or through a search for something (Google.) Your niche magazine needs to be focused on the content related to your brand in a way that is appealing to readers (this includes both visitor and search engines.) The more fresh and engaging your content and the more relevant it is to their motivations and needs, the more likely it will be higher in a search result and in turn will bring a new visitor or repeat visitor to your site.

The key part of The Niche Magazine Principle is that the content on your site has to be niche. Readers have to have a need for a magazine for it to exist. The content has to provide some value to them, it can’t be too broad that it eliminates any interest they may have in your site. They might know they have a need or they may not know they need you. For example someone might be searching for a hotel in Boston, and they may be wanting to take a vacation, they might not know what type of hotel they want – something nice that’s close to the area they want to visit, that’s available during a certain time. Suddenly they stumble on hotel that’s pet friendly when they weren't looking for it.

There is a connection made. This is an example of a primary and secondary need (it translates into primary and secondary keywords and key phrases.) This reader was searching for terms related to hotels and Boston when they found a hotel that welcomed pets. In fact, they were thinking of leaving their pet at home but now they will bring it and stay at the hotel. They are excited. This reader has become a subscriber to the hotel's niche magazine – they have become a customer by virtue of their motivations and inspirations.

To bring in core customers, you need to think about your websites as niche magazines and your customers as readers. This could also be called IOV. How can you provide information of value? Ask yourself, how can I inspire my customers today? How can I understand my customers at a deeper motivational level as to what they really want, and what they are looking for and how can I reach them and how can I serve them once they arrive on the site?

To tap into The Power of Inspired Search, you need to perform extensive analysis on your audience of potential readers and subscribers, what are their main avenues and search terms (primary) and then what are the tangential ways they might find you (secondary?) What could get them inspired about your products and services and what topics do they need to learn more about? Picture a wheel with spokes, the primary terms are the spokes and the spaces in between the secondary terms. Place yourself in the mind of each searcher and develop a profile of each type of customer. Develop terms for each customer that can guide them back to your website, then focus on the most valuable customers. .

Then you must develop a framework for your niche content magazine, what are the areas within your website that serve the mission of your readers and subscribers? How often can you develop content, what are the pieces of content that you can include? How can you interact with them? This exercise forces you to think about what content would be necessary to support the searches of customers.

An Inspired Search means just what it says; it is the type of search that has the power to create a customer relationship based on motivation. It is complex, but sounds simple at the surface, and the Internet and Google specifically, has enabled all businesses to play a role and capture their motivated customers and inspired searchers at the exact moment when their motivations have caused them to take action.

Let me know what you think.

Francis McGovern

Please email us or contact us directly at 617-816-2969

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