How to grow your business online by predicting customer needs
It is easy to become overly focused on one aspect of your website – providing a conversion or sale. The immediate revenue generating aspect. Whilst this is obviously an extremely important function of your website, you will not necessarily be able to build your brand loyalty and increase the life-time value of each customer if you don’t also cater for their other wants and needs.
Our clients often ask us to carry out keyword search intent and content gap analysis that will increase the amount of people visiting their sites that can be converted online. Our job is basically to understand what potential customers are looking for online before they make a conversion or purchase, and what content could be added to the site to best compete for this traffic.
For example, an excel training provider should be building layers of content on their site to target the search terms that a potential customer is using:
Layer 1 – brand search
- ‘Brand name’ training
- ‘Brand name’ reviews
- ‘Brand name’ course near me
- ‘Brand name’ course coming up
- ‘Brand name’ course prices
- ‘Brand name’ book online
Layer 2 – research
- Excel training courses
- Excel training courses London/Bristol/Manchester
- Excel training courses online
Layer 3 – refined research by type
- Basic excel training courses
- Advanced excel training course
- One day excel course
- Excel course evening
Layer 4 – refined research by sector
- Excel courses for accountants
- Excel courses for data analysts
- Excel courses for lawyers
- Excel courses for engineers
- Excel courses for human resources
Layer 5 – awareness
- Excel tutorial YouTube
- How can I learn Microsoft excel
- How do you make a spreadsheet in excel
- How do I create a formula in excel
But this is only part of a customer’s journey. Increasingly people are expecting a lot more out of the brands they do business with – they want assistance at every step – so you need to make sure your website caters for the whole journey. Traditionally this is known as customer lifetime value marketing (CLV) and not that many brands are successfully exploiting this online. CLV measures the value a person brings to a business across all of their interactions over time – not just a single transaction.
So whilst the excel training provider should have quality content for the above types of keywords at the awareness, research, consideration, refining and buying points in a user journey, they should also spend time and effort creating content that serves a user’s life-time, to win that often elusive but powerful asset – brand loyalty. So for example:
Layer 6 – useful information
- What preparation is needed for ‘course x’
- On the day ‘course x’
- How do I get to ‘course x’
- Who will I meet at ‘course x’
- What’s for lunch at ‘course x’
- Accommodation for ‘course x’
- What is there to do in ‘course location’
Layer 7– user needs
- ‘Course x’ documentation
- ‘Course x’ revision
- ‘Course x’ example worksheets
- ‘Course x’ test
Layer 8 – user loyalty
- Professional development after ‘course x’
- Finding a job after ‘course x’
- ‘Course x’ training certificate
- ‘Brand name’ loyalty points
Today’s search-savvy consumers will look for this type of help or information online first – without having to call or email or online chat. They will make this type of search in a search engine, or on your website’s internal search, social media or video channels. The CLV winners will have predicted these touchpoints – where they can connect and strengthen the relationship with their customers, over the competition.
We’ve found that when our clients generate content focused on an entire user journey they can really increase CLV and brand reputation… and ultimately long-term growth and revenue. The bottom line is that people respond to brands that understand and accurately predict their needs.
If you would like any more information on how we can help you create content that increases the life-time value and loyalty of your customers, please get in contact with our search intent and keyword modelling team at Varn on 01225 560660.
