Using Personas to Boost Online Marketing and SEO
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Transcript of Using Personas to Boost Online Marketing and SEO
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Using Personas to Boost Online Marke2ng and SEO
Wednesday, September 21, 2011 Speakers:
Vanessa Fox, Search Engine Land, Erez Barak, Op2fy
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Vanessa Fox, Search Engine Land
» Vanessa Fox is a contribu4ng editor to Search Engine Land and author of the book Marke&ng in the Age of Google.
» She owns Nine By Blue, which provides educa4on, consul4ng, and tools for building search best prac4ces into organiza4ons at the technical and strategic level.
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
What is SEO?
§ Using search data to build a comprehensive and effec2ve product and content strategy
§ Engaging with your audience before they interact with your brand or site — at the search box
§ Connec2ng with the right audience and deligh2ng them
§ Taking advantage of the right data to measure, adjust, and improve
What is UX?
§ Figuring out who your users or customers are, and how they think
§ GeRng clarity on, and transla2ng, your business into:
• Goals that make sense for your team
• A design and development process that works
• Products and services that wil l appeal to your users
§ Crea2ng clear cal ls to ac2on
§ Designing things that make sense to regular people
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Personas
“ PERSONAS ARE NOT R EA L P EOPLE… THEY ARE HYPOTHET I CA L ARCHETYPE S OF ACTUAL USERS… DEF INED W I TH S IGN I F I CANT R IGOR AND PREC I S ION . ”
— ALAN COOPER’S DEFINITION
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
PERSONAS LOOK L I KE DESCR IPT IONS OF PEOPLE…BECAUSE THAT ’ S WHAT THEY ARE
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
SEO and UX Overlap
Goal Clarification
Prioritized Ad Hoc Personas
Feature Brainstorms & Prioritization
Experience Design
Wireframes, Content
Strategy, Etc.
Competitive Analysis &
UX Strategy Conversion
Search Rank
And Display Page Content
(Audience Need) Conversion and
Motivation
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
CREATING SEARCHER PERSONAS
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
The Process
3X3 s4cky notes
1 yellow pad per par4cipant + a few pads in other colors
2 easel-‐size s4cky pads
extra-‐fine black sharpies
1 per par4cipant
large markers
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
CLARIFY BUSINESS GOALS
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
What is the project goal? What does success look like? What is the brand objec2ve? How do you want your audience to perceive you? What is your value proposi2on? What can you offer the user? Why should the user care?
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
MAP AUDIENCES TO CONVERSION EVENTS AND MOTIVATIONS
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
What are the conversion events and engagement events? What makes you money and what brings people back? Who are the key audiences? What events map to what audiences? What mo2vates these audiences? Why do they want to do the things you want them to do?
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
DRAFT PERSONAS
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
• One user per s2cky note • Include the person + the goal
(or ac2vity or ac2on or problem)
The yellow s2cky exercise
IT manager assigned to
research possible outsourced solu4ons and
recommend one
IT guy assigned to install the new
so`ware
Office worker who just wants it to be easy to find the documents
she needs
Small business owner who can’t imagine this
being worth the investment
person + goal, ac4vity, ac4on, or problem
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
What problems does your target audience have? What tasks are they trying to accomplish?
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Professions Vanity
Categoriza2on Exercise
Geo + Job Type
Category Category Category Category
Audience Need
Audience Need Audience Need
Audience Need Audience Need
Audience Need
Audience Need
Audience Need
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Experienced Practitioners Dabblers
Sample: YogaSpot.com
Newbies
I want to start doing yoga
I need answers to specific questions
I want to customize my
own yoga classes
I need work on specific areas
of my body
Executive who travels a lot
and wants ways to stretch
New yoga student who doesn’t know what ‘asana’
means
Newbie looking for local yoga
classes
Mom looking for yoga to do
with kids
Runner strained back
and heard yoga would help
Experienced practitioner
who wants to create her own
class
Practitioner who needs a
‘quick’ routine to do before
work
Pregnant woman wants yoga routines
I want to practice yoga
on my schedule
Busy mom who wants to find time for yoga
but can’t
Use the pa_erns to create persona skeletons
Even though you want target specific needs (you’ll target broader, high volume search terms), it’s helpful to think about what your audience is really thinking to help understand their mo4va4on, engage with them, and get them to convert.
See SITE Goals - Persona Session.docx for details.
Persona 1
• Needs
Persona 2
• Needs
Persona 3
• Needs
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Becky Busy
• I need a way to do yoga that fits into my schedule
• I want to do yoga away from the studio
• I want alterna4ves to hour-‐long prac4ces
• I want a way to augment the yoga I do now
Pete Purposeful
• I need to address an injury
• I want to try yoga before I ‘buy in’ completely
• I need to learn more
• I want to know that this will work
Olivia Ohm
• I want to customize my own classes
• I want to bring yoga everywhere with me
• I want to learn about teaching yoga
• I want to connect with other people who love yoga
Sample: YogaSpot.com
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Validate and Expand With Keyword Research
Compe22ve research • What topics is the compe22on targe2ng?
• What queries does the compe22on buy AdWords for?
• What does the compe22on blog about/send email about?
Social media • What are people talking about related to your topic area on Twi_er, Facebook, ver2cal discussion forums,
Q&A sites
Insights and trends • What are spiking/high volume queries according to Google Insights?
• What informa2on is contained in industry reports/market research
Keyword research • What are people searching for and how are they searching?
http://www.ninebyblue.com/marketing-in-the-age-of-google/keyword-research-tools-marketing-in-the-age-of-google/
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
CATEGORIZE KEYWORD CLUSTERS
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
CREATE PERSONAS
24
Developing Search Strategy
1. Determine which personas are most important to the business
2. Map query clusters to personas
3. Determine priority of each cluster for the important personas
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Meet Becky. Becky Busy is a 33-‐year-‐old mother of two
kids in elementary school. She works in sales for a pharmaceu2cal company (she took 2me off when the kids were very small, but now she’s back to work). Like everyone she knows, she juggles about a zillion ac2vi2es, deadlines, schedules, goals, responsibili2es...she’s the classic modern mom.
Before she had kids, Becky put a lot of effort into her own health and well-‐being, but it’s a lot harder now that she has kids. She wants to take care of herself and ‘model’ a healthy lifestyle for the kids, but she also wants to take 2me for herself just because it feels good and makes her happy. She has a lot of stress at work and exercise helps her manage.
Becky took several yoga classes at her old gym, and she really liked it. It really was a workout too! She thinks that yoga would be a really perfect way to get back into exercising again, but she simply can’t imagine commiRng to a class at a studio. She knows that the only way she’ll really do yoga is if she can fit it in whenever she finds some 2me.
BECKY BUSY WEIGHTED SCORE: PRIORITY:
“I’d love to do yoga again, but I can’t imagine how I’ll fit it in!
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Task Becky
wants to accomplish
Sample search queries
What we can provide to help her accomplish her
task
“Oh, by the way...” (what we can offer that she might not think to ask for)
What we want them to do
(related to biz goal)
Why she’ll do it Success metrics
I want to do yoga at home / not in a studio
yoga dvd yoga video yoga books …
“About doing yoga at home” “Like a library of DVDs, always at your disposal” “Always fresh books in your library…grow with you…”
Save and track progress. Professional advice on best videos for you. Beyond beginner, intermediate, advanced. It doesn’t have to take an hour.
Watch a video BECOME A MEMBER
• It’s free • Easy to try • Monitor progress • Customizing
materials that are relevant to you
• # videos watched • # pages viewed • Creating a free
account • Saving/favorite • SUBSCRIBING
I want online yoga videos
yoga online yoga classes online yoga online workouts …
videos “workouts”
One stop shop for yoga videos. Not all teachers are created equal. Save and track progress. Customizability/personalized advice.
Same as above
• Free • Lots of content • Air of authority • Monitoring
progress • Centralized
resource
Same as above
I’m looking for a specific yoga pose
yoga poses yoga postures yoga asanas (individual poses in spreadsheet)
Specific videos / articles related to single poses Browsable library of poses Multiple definitions at different levels of detail
We can also give you full workouts with each pose. We can give you beginner to advanced training. You can track your mastery of poses.
Attract visitors, even people looking for simple definitions
• Easy, accurate, comprehensive
• Access to a full browsable library
• Return visits • Sharing • Watching second
video (after searched-for video)
I have a specific question about yoga
what is difference between pilates and yoga? can yoga help with fibromyalgia? can you do yoga when pregnant?
Comprehensive blog / knowledge base Discussion / ask the expert
Try it now! Videos related to questions. This is the place to get all your yoga questions answered.
Be in top three visited yoga sites on the web
• It’s free to come back
• Comprehensive and credible information
• There’s a live person to ask
• Return visits • Reading more
than one article • sharing • Subscribe to RSS • Watch a video
“I’d love to do yoga again, but I can’t imagine how I’ll fit it in! Becky Busy
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Priori2zing Query Categories
§ How well does the cluster relate to the overall business goal/message?
§ Based on intent, how likely is searcher to convert? § How compe22ve is the query cluster? (What sites rank now)
§ How difficult would it be to add features/func2onality to the site to address this searcher need?
§ Is this cluster best served by an overall site message, landing page/category, set of blog posts, about page, or other component?
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
MAPPING PERSONAS & QUERY CLUSTERS TO SITE CONTENT
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Mapping Query Clusters to Pages
1. Use “what we can provide” sec4on to determine what content is needed
2. For exis4ng sites, work backwards from page to find which “what we provide” it matches
3. For this, you can determine: § gaps (new pages needed)
§ adjustments (edits to exis4ng pages needed)
§ consolida4on (when mul4ple pages fill the same need)
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Task Norm wants to accomplish
Target Pages
I want to build my first website
hip://www.microso`.com/web/webmatrix/ hip://www.microso`.com/web/webmatrix/features.aspx hip://www.microso`.com/web/gallery/install.aspx?appid=webmatrix hip://www.microso`.com/web/post/web-‐development-‐101-‐using-‐webmatrix
I’d like to learn to program in ASP.NET
hip://www.microso`.com/web/planorm/framework.aspx hip://www.microso`.com/web/downloads/planorm.aspx
I’m looking for a hos2ng provider
hip://www.microso`.com/web/hos4ng/home hip://www.microso`.com/web/hos4ng/Hos4ngProvider/Details/465 hip://www.microso`.com/web/hos4ng/Hos4ngProvider/Details/276 (and other specific hos4ng provider pages)
“I’m excited about developing applications, but where do I
start?” Norm Novice
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
What Terminal Does Alaska Fly Into LAX?
Audience Conversion Event Motivator Non-Member Provide Correct Information and
Make Passenger Happy Visitor Goal
Member Provide Correct Information Sign up for Alerts
Be alerted if there’s a gate change or delay
Search Rank
And Display Page Content
(Audience Need) Conversion and
Motivation
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Sign up for an alert on your phone if the gate changes or the flight is delayed!
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Things To Remember When Designing Each Page
33
What is the goal of this page? For the searcher? For your organiza=on?
Does the page func2on as the entry of the site? Is the organiza=on and site purpose obvious at a glance?
Does the page clearly help searcher accomplish task? Searchers have lots of other search results!
Does the page compel conversion? What’s the call to ac=on?
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Set Metrics
34
§ Segment search analy4cs by cluster so you can monitor engagement and conversion metrics for each separately.
§ Use market opportunity calcula4ons for very rough calcula4ons of the traffic you should expect based on keyword volumes.
§ Monitor this over 4me (if you are gesng the rankings you expect, are you gesng the subsequent traffic).
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Tamara Adlin | @tamaraadlin adlininc.com
Vanessa Fox | @vanessafox vanessafox.com | ninebyblue.com
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Erez Barak, Op2fy
» Erez Barak is Vice President of Products and Co-‐Founder at Op4fy;
» Frequent speaker at industry events. » Prior to Op4fy, Erez was a director of product marke4ng in HP’s So`ware business unit.
» He was recently named among the Top 25 Innovators in 2010 by Seaile Business Magazine.
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Five Steps to Using Search Personas
» Know Your Audience » Understand Audience Pain Points
» Provide Real Solu2ons » Be Compelling
» Know Your Data
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Step 1: Know Your Audience
» Iden2fy target audience most likely to turn into customers » Ask yourself: Who's my perfect buyer?
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Step 1: Know Your Audience Example: Segmenta4on by Nielsen
Source: http://www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Default.jsp?ID=20
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Step 1: Know Your Audience Example: Segmenta4on by Nielsen
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Step 2: Understand Audience Pain Points
» Understand Your Audience's Pain Point(s) & Learn How They Search to Solve Them
» Ask: How would your target customer ar2culate their need for this in terms of keywords? How do they search?
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Step 2: Understand Audience Pain Points Example: Twiier Trends
Source: http://tweetstats.com/trends
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Step 2: Understand Audience Pain Points Example: Ask.com
Source: http://www.ask.com
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Step 3: Provide Real Solu2ons
» Create great content that’s well op2mized for search engines, but . . .
» . . . also meets the needs of your target customer » Map “pain” keywords to “solu2on” pages
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Step 3: Provide Real Solu2ons Example: Mapping of “solu4on” pages to “pain” keywords
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Step 3: Provide Real Solu2ons Example: Mapping of “pain” keywords to ranking pages
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Step 4: Be Compelling
» Offer a call to ac2on that compels the searcher to dive deeper into your conversion funnel
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Step 4: Be Compelling Example: Landing Page Tes4ng
Source: http://www.attentionwizard.com/Case-Studies/credo-mobile.html
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Step 5: Know Your Data
» Regularly tracking performance metrics that help demonstrate the efficacy of these campaigns
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
What do I need to track in Real Time ?
» SEO Indicators » Keyword Ranks » Rank Trends over 4me » Ranking in mul4ple
engines
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
What do I need to track in Real Time? » Business Indicators
» Pageviews » Visitors » Conversion » Revenue
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
Key Takeaways » Use Search Personas to align SEO strategy with business
goals
» Framework makes for easy, repeatable process
» Measurement in real 2me is key to success
» Rank isn’t enough! Measure real business impact
©2011 Third Door Media, Inc.
More Resources
• Full Recording h_p://www.op2fy.net/webinars/search-‐personas-‐to-‐boost-‐search-‐marke2ng/
• Other Op2fy Webinars h_p://www.op2fy.net/category/webinars/
• Online Marke2ng Resources h_p://www.op2fy.net/internet-‐marke2ng/op2fy-‐resources/
• Op2fy Lead Genera2on Blog h_p://www.op2fy.net/blog/
• Op2fy 14-‐day Free Trial h_p://www.op2fy.net/sign-‐up