Search Engine Optimization

This is the Research part of our conversion optimization series. In this article we talk about research.

Research is key to conversion optimization. It arms you with knowledge which helps creative juices. Look at this part as a preparation for an exam. If you don’t prepare – you fail the exam. If you don’t research for your site – it fails. You can get lucky, but hoping for the best is foolish.

Proper research arms you with: Insight into the product/service. Ability to create strong arguments in your copy, supported by facts. Knowledge of the questions/concerns your customers have. Ability to answer questions in a way your customers prefer, and discharge their concerns. Knowledge of your rivals and their best/worst techniques.

There are 3 parts to research.

• Industry Research
• Customer Research
• Competition Research

If you’re a pro in your industry, you can ignore the “Industry Research” part and focus on competition and customers. If you think you know enough, still give it a shot. You may find tricks that you didn’t know before.

Industry Research

Industry research encompasses knowledge of the industry jargon, main players, products, services, features, benefits and the process.

There are two information sources available. Internet and books. Use both of them.

If you’re new to the field, go out and Google basic info about the stuff you’re engaged in. Pretty straight forward and you’ll find plenty of info. Once you get the basics, get some books on the topic. You can buy them on eBay, Amazon or get them in your library. Get books that offer two perspectives. For example, if you offer real estate services, get one for “consumers” and one for “businesses”. This will enhance your knowledge of the subject from both perspectives and enable you to be more creative in your copywriting, design and development.

Stay up to date. Subscribe to the latest news updates in your industry. You can find sites that specialize in your industry news or use Google News.

Head out to university portals and dig through white papers related to your field. Find all the resources here. You might get an idea or a different perspective on things.

The goal is to arm yourself with strong knowledge of the subject. This will help you in copywriting, since you’ll be creative in your features / benefit list and will be able to present stronger arguments than “we’re a leading, best of breed, customer focused, peoples company”.

Customer Research

Customer research is the trickiest part of all. You will have to identify what your customers want and how they want it. A lot of sites fail to do this. Just look around and you’ll see. The we-we illness is rampant, mixed with blunt features that don’t make sense to a person who barely knows anything about whatever you’re offering. Customer research will help you speak on the same tongue with your prospective clients.

Where to go for customer research? Start with what you already have.

Quote:

“Who should be involved in these discussions? Marketing, of course. But often the best uncover insights come from sales people and customer service people, individuals who have daily encounters with customers and understand their questions and concerns.”

So start with your internal knowledge. Get a team from customer service, reception, marketing, etc. Sit and make everyone jot down all possible questions customers ask and concerns they indicate. Then organize and combine everything together. Questions that appear from several participants may be ones that need to be answered first.

The problem comes if you’re small, and research by yourself. In this case, you have to rely on your own customer knowledge and outside sources.

Good place are keywords. Keywords uncover intentions your customers have. Each keyword typed into a search engine is question your customer has.

Example

By digging through keywords you can spot questions and concerns your potential customer have.

We’ve covered this before. You can read articles to find out in detail how keywords uncover customer intentions.

• Using keyword commands to get into the Brains of your Customers
• Keyword Marketing Research
• Answering Anticipated Questions

• Website Architecture Part 4

• Information and Copy Structure for Different Personality Types

Here(link coming soon), you can find a list of best keyword research tools both for SEO and marketing research.

Blogs / Social Networks / Forums

Customers get together and talk about you and your industry. They love, they hate and they gossip.

Forums. Find forums where your customers sit and participate in the conversation with them. Don’t lurk around, but talk to them. You can mask yourself as another customer.

Blogs. Find A-class bloggers, follow what they say about the industry and products in general. They are usually leading online customer voices, with plenty of comments to dig through.

Social Networks / Social Bookmarks. Search for groups related to whatever you do. Talk and listen.

By talking with your customers you’ll get into the right mind set and feel more intuitively on what to talk about in your copy / copies.

In the next issue we talk about competition research.