This is an article “The stages audiences go through in your online content funnel” by Marc Primo Warren
If you really think about the results of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, you'll soon realize that you are not just counting numbers but people who have the potential to give you their loyalty or change their mind in a split second.
It's easy to project the outcome we want, but even the best marketers sometimes forget how these people can be fickle when it comes to brand preferences. This is evident by how sites that rank on Google’s search results can quickly change. It’s important to maintain your rank on the platform as 67.60% of all the clicks go to the first five results on the first page.
Understanding this early will help you create more valuable content within your marketing funnel to make their experiences with you more engaging while turning clicks into conversions.
In this article, let's take a different approach from the perspective of your target audience and have a walkthrough on the type of content you should be providing them within the various phases of your marketing funnel.
Creating awareness for your brand
Imagine having a pest control household problem involving ants in the kitchen and being unable to resolve the situation no matter what insecticide you try. Suddenly, you chance upon a new brand that offers you a promising new and unique solution you haven't tried before. Anyone will surely jump at the chance to try it out. That is, if they stumble upon the brand in their search results.
Every marketing funnel starts with the awareness stage. Otherwise, all continuing efforts will be futile if nobody knows what you are talking about online. The key is to plant the seeds of discovery, familiarity, and understanding via efficient content management.
However, creating content for awareness is not as easy as it seems. It would help if you balanced out what you want to tell new audiences so that you do not overwhelm them with other information they won't need for now. Besides, you'll have more chances if you succeed in getting them to jump into your brand's customer journey.
Remember, only 3.5% of those visiting eCommerce sites end in purchases. Try to make your content for awareness strong in its on-page SEO elements while also appealing and geared towards conversion.
Always offer them unique solutions that they need using the best keywords you can find. You can perform both traditional market research and modern digital analytics. Search for the right long-tail keywords using the various online platforms, and get trends from Google Analytics for better SEO. With every content piece you develop, make sure you can make them aware of the problem without pressuring them toward making a purchase. That's old school strategy that usually doesn't work anymore.
If you can create buyer personas from your research efforts, all the better. You have to get into the head of the exact audience you're trying to target and figure out what you can offer them to make your content for awareness valuable. If you can convince your audiences that you understand them from the awareness stage, you can easily guide them into the next phase, where they can consider your brand a viable solution to their problem.
Encourage them to consider your offer
Once you are confident with the content you have developed for your awareness stage, the next phase in your funnel should focus on how you can help your audience solve their problems. The consideration stage, after all, should be where they can find what they are really looking for in every search bar entry – solutions.
Feeding your audience with SEO-efficient content that offers them options and answers to their most pressing questions further reiterates how you want to help them genuinely. This strategy is evident in how organic search drives 53.3% of all website traffic, meaning your PPC ads will not be enough to keep you on the search engine results pages (SERPs). In every SEO endeavor, paid ads or search engine marketing (SEM) should always go hand in hand with your organic ads.
Keep your content empathic and credible, but most importantly, let it speak to them in their tone. It might be hard to convince console gamers to try and buy PC parts, but you can certainly make them consider the idea by presenting more value propositions in your content.
Try to approach your audience in a way that tells them you have ample knowledge of their niche and share a couple of your insights to help them consider. One thing you should always note is that call-to-action statements always belong here in the consideration stage. Depending on how valuable your content is and how effective your SEO efforts reach the right crowd, you can quickly push your audience towards the next and most crucial stage in your funnel – decision.
Push your audience to make a purchase
Finally, we have reached your primary marketing funnel's last and most important stage – decision. While awareness gives you more visibility online and consideration pulls your audience in towards your brand, the final stage your audience will go through should empower them to make a call.
The challenge is to turn the clicks into conversions, and the only way you can do this is by adjusting your content development from blog and article formats to landing pages that sell. If you regularly review your SEO analytics and keyword performance, you can easily correlate how the three stages perform leading up to increasing your customers.
Keep an open mind about consulting professional SEO services to capitalize on your SEO efforts and ensure an increase in conversions. This year, around 75% of businesses that spend at least $500 on external SEO services per month saw signs of growth. These digital services had also become essential, especially throughout the pandemic when more consumers preferred online interactions.
To boost your SEO efforts for your eCommerce platform, focus on getting top rank on Google's SERPs by optimizing your product or service images with meta tags. Familiarize yourself with the continually evolving features of the platform, such as Google Lens, Maps, and Shopping. Strengthening your organic content with these features that make them easier to find, scan, and be appreciated makes your chances of landing loyal customers higher than simply winging it with paid ads.
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