If you have ever studied search engine
optimization, then you'll know that most educators place
tremendous importance on performing good keyword research.
After all, it's true that we need to optimize our pages
for the best phrases, or we will never realize our true
traffic potential. It's all about trying to attract the
ideal audience of searchers to our Web site. Is that not
what most of people do? They build a Web site offering
their business services, then they say to themselves "How
do I get traffic to my site?" For many Web site owners,
their source of traffic is an after-thought.
It's much wiser, to first try and discover
what keyword phrases people are searching for on the major
search engines and then optimize Web content for those
specific phrases. However, there are still further regions
to explore that go beyond keyword research. Let's call
it researching the "behavior" of your target audience.
The difference between keyword research
and behavioral research is that keyword research keeps
us in a rather technical mode and focused on finding out
what words people are entering while searching. Behavioral
research has the added advantage of enlightenment and
understanding that not only reveals what keyword phrases
are being used, but why those keywords are being used.
Give this some careful thought. What
could possibly be more important than getting inside the
head of your target audience and discovering what they
really want? Once we understand exactly what someone is
looking for, we can give them exactly what they want.
Think "behavior." Every day, people around the world use
the Internet as a tool for a vast array of purposes. A
study of behaviors can carry you much deeper into understanding
the desires of your target audience and ultimately, an
understanding of what kind of useful content to provide
for them.
While most people are thinking about
what keywords to use, try to expand your scope to focus
and discover the fullest possible picture of what your
customer REALLY wants, what they really are doing, by
simply studying their searching behavior on the major
search engines.
Why make all this fuss about behavior
trends anyway? What creates behavioral trends? Think about
it this way. If you can discover how a certain target
audience is using the Internet, then chances are the rest
of your target audience may be doing exactly the same
thing. This is not only helpful with respect to the ideal
keyword phrase selection but also may be helpful to your
writing style. How you communicate to a grandmother will
have a completely different spin than how you communicate
with a sports enthusiast looking for sports scores or
a photographer searching for a place to review several
different lenses.
If you happened to learn that a grandmother
is shopping online to buy a gift for her daughter's newborn
baby, then what are the chances of there being many other
grandmothers doing the same thing. If enough grandmothers
are doing this in real life every day, it creates a trend.
So lets get down to talking about behaviors then.
Some people have already realized that
online consumers are searching for price comparisons online.
Wouldn't it be useful to know exactly what prices or what
products people are comparing? How easily could you take
advantage of this information by creating ideal content
within a retail site, that compares exactly these things
that people are searching for and want to know! Not only
that, but suppose you could research those exact products
and determine fairly quickly where the biggest "window
of opportunity" would be for you?
Reasons why your visitors buy:
Can you explain why I should buy from
you? Invariably the client can often point out a number
of important reasons why you might buy from him instead
of the guy down the street. What you want to do is try
asking a series of questions to help profile the client's
target audience. After all, this is the most important
group to try and understand....the "target audience".
Online or offline, most human beings have certain mindsets
which can trigger buying. The challenge however, is we
often behave a certain way without ever giving an ounce
of thought to the REAL REASON why we buy. If we
understand the real reason that that visitors respond,
we can suddenly write much more effectively for the human
brain as well as the search engine robots.
Let's start by listing a 5 simple
reasons that will trigger buying decisions:
- People will buy to save money
- People will also buy to make money
- People will buy something if it saves them time
- People will buy a product or service if it makes life
easier
- People will buy something if it improves their
safety
Okay, now in each of these 5 examples,
ask yourself the following questions:
- If people will buy to save money -
then ask yourself...
if your product or service saves them any money?
(This is a trigger)
- If people buy to make money
then ask yourself...
does your product or service offer your audience any
opportunities to earn?
- If people buy to save time
then ask yourself...
....how might this apply to what you offer?
- If people buy to make life easier
then ask yourself...
are you able to name some improved conveniences?
- If people buy to improve safety,
then ask yourself...
does your product improve security or make
people feel safer?
You can see how having an understanding
WHY people buy, can actually change the way you
present your content. These types of questions will often
help you with writing much more compelling copy because
you are writing with a focus that includes a reason to
respond now.
Are these the only reasons why people
buy? Absolutely not!
Start by creating a list of your own
"triggers" or things that caused you to "make up your
mind" to buy.
The more you explore your target audience's
mindset, the more fascinating this can become. Of course
we have not even touched on a fraction of the many "triggers"
that are at work in people's minds when they are reading
Web pages.
If you want some more buying triggers
to consider:
- People will buy to for specific brands (usually it
has to do with prestige)
- People will buy to educate themselves
- People will buy to improve their health
- People will buy to settle their fears
- People will buy to have some fun
- People will buy to satisfy their curiosity
- People will buy to streamline their processes
- People will buy to prove they are right about some
issue
- People will buy to improve their image or appearance
- People will buy to improve their quality of life
- People will buy to uniquely set themselves apart from
the crowd
