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Matching Keywords to User Intent

11/13/2018

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In search marketing, keyword intent is everything. Whether we're making a content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) strategy or setting up a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign—if we can’t identify keyword intent, a ton of time and money can go down the drain. More specifically, knowing a users intent can mean a conversion rate of 1% v. 5%, or a page 1 ranking v. a page 5 ranking.

After all, Google obviously knows a users intent (or at least pretends to). It's part of our job to learn from them, and make sure we plan accordingly.

Keyword Research

After identifying target markets, goals and other key performance indicators (KPI), one of the initial steps to any search campaign is keyword research. This can be done manually or with Google Keyword Planner (if you want biased results), but in my opinion, this is the #1 function that paid SEO tools have going for them.

We use Ahrefs on a regular basis, but additional free tools we sometimes use include:

  • Answer the Public
  • UberSuggest
  • Moz Keyword Planner (10 free searches/day)
  • Keywords Everywhere

Pay Attention to These Keyword Metrics

Many of these tools make the automation of keyword research a bit simpler, and have metrics associated with keywords that can give us an insight into search intent. For example, Ahrefs tells us an average cost-per-click (CPC) as well as organic clicks-per-search (CPS).
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Only 4 out of 100 searches end with a click through to a website for the search term "James Van Der Beek age". That's because this is easy information for Google to display, without needing someone to visit a website.

The alternative is a keyword that can contain multiple clicks to websites per search.
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'Custom t shirts' averages 1.2 CPS, or 120 website visits per 100 searches. This is because it's a transactional keyword—someone is shopping or possibly price browsing trying to find the best quality and price for custom t shirts.

Types of Search & User Intent

The difference between the two keywords is the user intent. When it comes to intent, in the search world, we typically separate keywords into three categories—informational, branded/navigational, and transactional. While each of these categories can come in handy depending on the goals of a specific campaign, we need to know what to look for when finding a keyword to target.

Informational Keywords

Informational keywords typically take up the majority of an SEO content creator's time. These are keywords where the main goal of a user is to acquire a piece of knowledge—whether that's as easy as the age of their favorite Dawson's Creek character or as challenging as a recipe for paella, the goal is the transfer of information.
We can see informational queries coming in a variety of types, such as:

  • When is Labor Day
  • Where is the closest cafe
  • What is a Puli
  • Tips for staying hydrated in the heat
  • How to stay warm in Milwaukee in December

The common theme for informational keywords? They are typically questions or at least can be rephrased to become a question. 'Best Paella Recipe' for example can (and commonly is) turned into 'How Do I Make Paella'.

Optimizing for Informational Keywords

If these three buckets weren’t enough to determine user intent we typically break informational keywords down a little further into 'Clicks' and 'No Clicks'—which is as straightforward as it sounds.

'No Click' informational keywords: Questions that Google can answer with a simple knowledge graph or featured snippet are becoming more and more extinct in content marketing strategies. If only 4 out of 100 searchers actually click through to a result, why would we invest time and energy building content and links just to lose clicks to a search result?
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On top of that, with Google testing out no-result search results by only showing featured snippets for certain searches, these are almost inevitably going to be a lost cause.
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'Click' informational keywords: Keywords that don't have a concrete answer often times elicit one or more CPC, and these are keywords worth targeting. While they may not be as well converting as a transactional keyword, informational keywords can play a huge role in content marketing and brand awareness.

Sticking with the keyword 'best paella recipe'—if a restaurant can draw traffic to their website based on this keyword, think about what it can tell them about users. They're interested in spanish cuisine, cooking, and finding quality dishes. Wouldn't it be great if we could filter that by location and advertise to that exact group of people? Spoiler alert, we can!

What search marketers have to do is watch out for queries that seem informational, but are actually more navigational.

If a brand is owning the entire first page of Google search results for a search query, it's more likely than not that Google is viewing that result as navigational/branded, meaning we'll have a very hard time gaining any traffic for that content.

Optimizing for Branded & Navigational User Intent

Navigational user intent is a bit more straightforward. We also refer to this as branded intent, because most of the time a user will know exactly where they want to go.

Examples of branded navigational intent include:

  • UW Credit Union Login
  • Facebook
  • City of Milwaukee Website

The majority of the time, users already have a location online they know they want to get to, they just don't know (or are too lazy) to type in the URL.

When navigational keywords get interesting...

From an SEO standpoint, unless your brand is being typed in the search bar, you're probably not going to rank on the first page of Google. There are times that Indeed or Glassdoor may come in the organic results, but a competitor will have a hard time ranking for those types of keywords at all.

A fun and interesting way to steal some high-intent traffic is by bidding on competitors branded search terms. Of course, you have to be careful and think through this strategy—if a social media startup starts bidding on the search term 'Facebook', users who click on a page that isn't Facebook aren't going to stay on that site, meaning you just paid for a user to immediately leave your website. On the other hand, if you're seeing conversions coming in and have a positive return on investment (ROI), go for it!
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Transactional Intent Keywords

The final type of keyword we see have transactional intent. These keywords are great for anyone in PPC because they show a user is either in the shopping phase, or ready to purchase.

Transactional intent keywords often include words such as:

  • Buy
  • Compare
  • Sale
  • Coupon
  • Cheap

At this point, a user has moved down the purchase funnel and is closer to checking out than any other keyword category.

During this phase, we should still give users information, it just needs to be the information they're truly searching for. Shipping information, return policy, a comparison document highlighting benefits, or whatever a user is looking for to help them make their decision.

If you're ever curious if a keyword is considered transactional, just let Google guide your decision. If all you're seeing are organic results and possibly a featured snippet, it's more than likely informational. If on the other hand you're seeing an over abundance of ads (see below), it's likely considered transactional.
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Make Sure Content Matches Your Search Intent

In the end, we need to make sure the content we're trying to get in front of users is actually matching user and search intent.

If our target keyword is "Increase My SEO Rankings"—while we do see ads at the top of the page, every organic result on the first page of Google is blog posts, this tells us that it is a keyword with informational intent. We're going to have an extremely hard time ranking an SEO service page for a term like this.

‘SEO Services in Milwaukee’, on the other hand, shows all local businesses either featuring their homepage or their SEO service page. This is closer to a transactional keyword, and we should target this keyword with a service page.

In the end, making sure the way you plan and write your content to write the intent of a particular keyword is going to save you time, energy and money.
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Using Social Media for Business Development

9/17/2018

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Social media has many attributes and successful intentions within an overall marketing plan. Finding the right goal for you and your business is the most important first step, especially as you seek to understand and determine return on investment for your social media implementation. Often, a goal for social media is increased number of customers, clients, or conversions. How do I use social media to achieve this goal is often a question. What tactics should I use? How do I know if it is working? When should I adjust my strategy?

Stay Connected with Your Prospects

Social media channels were developed with the intent to have conversations and interactions. Consider using your social media channels as additional touch points for your prospect list or those in your current sales pipeline. If you see someone share an article on LinkedIn, make sure to comment on it. Commenting on a prospective client's article serves as an additional reminder of you and your company. Perhaps, the prospect shares that he or she has received a specific award on their Facebook page. Don’t forget to reference the award in your next follow up phone call or email. Knowledge is power and information is valuable.

Find the Right Prospects

Are you targeting a specific sized company or an industry in particular? LinkedIn’s platform allows you to apply filters to search and sort your connections and their connections to narrow down the right person. If you are specifically looking to find attorneys in Chicago, Illinois, you can leverage LinkedIn to narrow your audience.

​Here's how to leverage LinkedIn's connection filter:

1. First, apply your location filter. ​​
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2. Then, turn on your industry filter to just be law and legal services. ​​
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3. Next, determine if you want to filter your specific connections (1st degree) or connections of your connections (2nd). You now have a list of prospects from your network or a list of people who can make introductions on your behalf.
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4. Determine who is the appropriate point of contact and start reaching out.
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Advertise to Your Ideal Audience

Social media advertising is a valuable opportunity to get your message or call to action in front of the right group of people. Whether you’re looking to target a specific location, age range, hobby, interest, or someone who has already shown interest in your website and didn’t convert — social media allows you to place your message in front of those targeted individuals through paid advertising platforms. 

Amplify the Reach of Your Message

Use your company’s social media platforms as a starting point for sharing content with your audience. Share or retweet the messages that your company shares on their various social media channels to your own audience. Add your own insights or personalize them to you and your network. Tag someone that you might think would find the information valuable or useful. ​

Consistency is Key to Success

Be consistent with your sharing and activity on social media. Don’t overwhelm your audience by inundating them with 15 different updates in one day or — on the other end of the spectrum — by becoming inactive for several weeks. Focus on your goal at hand for social media and don’t get caught in the vacuum that might exist if you aren’t focused. Allocate the necessary amount of time during your week to spend on these types of activities and keep them an integral part of the business development plan for your team.

How have you engaged with your customers and prospects on social media lately? 
What are some exciting  insights informing your own social media marketing strategies? 

​Let us know in the comments.
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4 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Facebook Advertisements

8/27/2018

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If you’re looking for new ways to get your content in front of more people, it’s time to consider investing in Facebook advertisements. Facebook advertising allows you to get your content not just in front of more people, but in front of the RIGHT people. Below, we discuss 4 tips you should consider in order to get the most out of your Facebook advertisements.

1. Determine Your Target Audience 

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It’s appealing to think your content could be seen by hundreds, or even thousands of people. However, it won’t matter if thousands of people see your ad if they’re not the right audience. For example, if you want to advertise wedding planning services, but you send the ad to all users in Chicago, IL aged 18-65, you’re probably not going to have a lot of success.

Within Facebook ads, you have the ability to really narrow down the audience in order to reach the most interested users. Facebook has a great feature called Audience Insights, which allows you to learn more about your audience. You’ll be able to get information like demographics, page likes, location, Facebook usage, and purchase activity. In order to achieve a return on your investment, it’s crucial to determine your target audience and tailor your message to those viewers.

2. Choose the Right Visual

Once you determine your target audience and message, it’s time to think about ad creative. Whether you’re including a photo or video, be sure to have your intended audience in mind. Are you targeting women aged 25-35? Consider that when selecting the appropriate photo. Use authentic photos over stock photography whenever possible.

It’s important to mention that Facebook has strict rules when it comes to how much text can exist on your image. Try to include most of the text within the body of the post, rather than on the ad’s image. Images that include text will be subject to review by Facebook before approval. For more information about text in ad images click here.
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3. Optimize for the Intended Result

In order to determine if your ad was successful, you’ll need to figure out what your intended result is. You may be focused on engagement (link clicks, likes, etc.), or maybe you’re hoping to get more people to sign up for your company newsletter. Whatever your goal is, be sure to keep that in mind when evaluating the results of your ad.
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4. Monitor Your Ads Performance and Make Adjustments If Necessary

You’ve determined your goal and published your ad, but you’re not done yet! Now that your ad is running, you’ll want to periodically evaluate the results and make adjustments if necessary. You will be able to see results in real time and make changes whenever you’d like. For example, if you notice your reach is low you may want to consider adjusting your audience targeting parameters.

Facebook advertising is an incredibly valuable tool used by many businesses today.  We hope you’ll use these four tips when strategizing for your next Facebook advertisement.

​Comment below or
contact us with any questions, we’d love to hear from you!
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How to Increase Email Open Rates with A/B Testing

5/29/2018

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It is of vital importance to modify your email marketing in accordance with ongoing trends. But with so many marketers using emails to promote their brand, how can you set yourself apart? The answer is, by testing your options.

What is A/B Testing?

A/B testing for email marketing, also known as split testing, is a method of working out which of two email campaign options is the most effective. In layman's terms, email A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of an email with changes to only one element. Applying this method in your marketing efforts will help you determine which element is giving you the highest open rate and conversion. 

The effectiveness of A/B testing lies in the fact that even though there isn’t a drastic change happening in the email by changing a single element, there can be a tremendous change in the metrics collected after the campaign is sent out. In this blog post, we will focus on improving open rates for your email marketing campaigns. 

What Elements Can Be A/B Tested?

Each email blast is set up with a multitude of different components and there is an opportunity to test every one of them. The two most common components tested for improving open rates are the subject line and send time.

How Do You Prepare for A/B Testing?

Before you move ahead with conducting A/B testing, it is important to chart out your strategy and ask these questions:

  • What component will be tested?

  • What is the size of your test group?

  • What will be the time period between the send time and analysis time

  • the metrics to analyze the winning campaign?

After you have answered these questions and successfully put together your A/B test, you can use the following tips into practice to improve the effectiveness of your A/B testing.
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  1. Have a hypothesis: Your hypothesis is the starting point of an A/B testing This is where you assume a particular reason behind your current email performance and based on this hypothesis, you take steps to improve it.

  2. Frame your test according to your goal: Set up one test for each of the elements and pitch your winning email based on increased open rates.

  3. Ensure consistency: Ensure that the variation between the two elements is not entirely different in your test campaigns. For instance, subject lines “Special offer! Buy today” and “We have a special offer just for you!” is a good variation.

  4. Segment your list: A/B testing needs to be conducted between your subscribers that are like-minded. If you don’t segment your email list before sending your A/B testing, your results are going to be affected since the engagement rate might be skewed.

  5. Split the list wisely: Your test segments need to be large enough to reach statistical relevance. So, before you test your email campaign, check if the list is large enough for an A/B split.
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  6. Learn from your past: Evaluate campaigns from the past that are relevant to each other and analyze what has worked best versus what did not.

Analyze the Data

A/B testing can be taxing the first few tries, but experts in email marketing consistently use it to serve nothing but the best to their subscribers and thereby increase open rates. Comparing and analyzing data from your tests will help you take the guess work out of your marketing efforts with tailored user experiences. 

Are you planning to conduct A/B testing in your next email marketing campaign? Or are you having trouble getting started? Let us know about your experience in the comments below or contact us directly to learn more!
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