The Keywords That Sell
You've thoroughly researched your keywords. The
keywords you've chosen relate to your business..
You've worked really hard to get good rankings. You've
paid for lots of PPC listings.
The traffic is coming to your site, but the sales
just aren't happening.. You're just not getting the
conversions. A top reason for this situation is overlooking
the sales cycle when you are selecting keywords.
The sales cycle is a series of levels that a normal
customer will go through when making the decision
to purchase. The first sep is the customer's impression
of a product, or the beginning awareness of a need,
or solution to a problem that a product could appease.
The steps of the sales cycle continue through research
and evaluation of the product or problem to the last
step, which is the customer's decision to buy.
Internet marketers are able to approximate the
stage the customer is in. They do this by looking
at the keywords the customer uses in their search.
For example, perhaps you want to purchase a new
printer. You might search on "printers" to
get some ideas. After you get a broad outline of
the marketplace, you drilldown to get more specific
information. If price is the motivator, you might
look for "cheap printers", or you may have run accross
some color printers, so you search for "color laser
printers".
Now you are honing in on a brand, or even a model.
Perhaps the Samsung CLP-510N. You see, you're
moving through the sales cycle from the initial
evaluation to the close.
You are doing this with multiple searches. If you
were taking to a sales person, you would be asking
the questions of him rather than the multiple search
process..
Finally, you've decided that you want a " Samsung
CLP-510N", but with free delivery.
You can see that the key words "printers" or "color
laser printers" will not convert the sale nearly
as well as "free delivery Samsung CLP-510N".
In other words, tight customer targeting is very
rewarding. Of course you can trget customers at any
stage of the sales cycle. Even the customer who is
just beginning the process. You really want to keep
the cost of the initial searches low to make up for
the low conversion rates. You can afford to invest
more time and money in the searches that are
more specific. The ones that point to the final stages
of the sales cycle.
SALES VS MARKETING
Consider the distinction between sales and marketing.
Sales looks at the customer as an individual, and
meets their needs, step by step, through to close.
Marketing, on the other hand, is looking at broad
market segments.
Marketers generate a list of keywords, based on
subject and traffic numbers, and then optimise or
buy PPC listings in order to grab a share of that
traffic. This works, especially if your goal is to
generate traffic volume, however there are smarter
ways to operate if your mission is to cut straight
to the chase and close the deal. Keyword targeting
at the tail end of the sales cycle can lead to higher
conversion rates, often with less effort and expense.
Compare the effort and expense of getting first page
placement for "fax machines" with that
of getting placement for "brother fax-685mc
free delivery". Never mind that there isn’t
a great deal of search volume for very specific terms.
Apply this strategy through your entire product range
and it should soon pay dividends. Search engine placements
should be easier to maintain, and more cost effective,
than if you target more generic terms.
STATS
Statistics and tracking are your best weapons. Tag
your visitors and watch what they do. Which visitors
convert? What type of queries were they using? Look
for patterns. If buyers were often looking for "free
shipping" options, then you may have found a
niche that your competitors are missing out on.
Know thy customer. And know where they are in the
sales cycle. Here is a step by step on how to compile
a keyword list. |
