london #b3seminar: how search & content strategy impact the decision making process - joe...

Welcome to…

Search, Content Strategy and the decision making

process

Joseph Griffiths – Head of Search

Where is Google going?

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It’s not always about links.

How long do you have to engage a user?

3.8 secondsJacob Nielson – useit.com

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Your design 3.8 seconds to establish…

Relevance• Are you right for me?• Have you answered my

question?

Trust• Do you look credible?• Can I trust you with my

money?

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Or else…

The user returned to search. You did not satisfytheir objectives.

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Return to SearchYou have a few seconds to get the visitors attention and persuade them that they have arrived at a site that will answer their query

If they go back to Google that’s a negative signal

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Dwell Time?

“Your goal should be that when a visitor lands on your page, the content answers all of their needs, encouraging their next action to remain with you. If your content does not encourage them to remain with you, they will leave. The search engines can get a sense of this by watching the dwell time. ” Duanne Forrester - Bing

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New Guidelines

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Think about user intentNot every consumer wants to buy something

How do customers not looking to buy products use search?

It is crucial for brands to interact with consumers at every stage of their decision making process in different ways

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Consumer decision making process

Need Recognition &

Problem Awareness

Information Search

Evaluation of Alternatives

PurchasePost-Purchase

Evaluation

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There are big benefits to those who consider this, they interact with users on multiple touch points of their journey.

This builds brand awareness and affinity as you are a mainstay of their entire process.

?!Building brand awareness and trust

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Problem AwarenessMind-set:

Need Recognition &

Problem Awareness

Information Search

Evaluation of Alternatives

PurchasePost-Purchase

Evaluation

“Building and managing a website to sell my

products is too expensive for my small business.”

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How can content helpBy backing up other marketing activity online

Make it absolutely clear what your product or service does, what problems it solves and why people should buy it

Videos can be a great way to do this, but not on their own

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Example needed

Information SearchMind-set:

Need Recognition & Problem Awareness

Information Search

Evaluation of Alternatives

PurchasePost-Purchase

Evaluation

“I know I want to buy a new car, but I don’t know what options are out there

for families.”

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How do people use search engines?70% of all searches are ‘long tail searches’

These are question related searches and are searched for less than 100 times per month

15% of searches are brand new searches

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Top line benefits

Acquisition of customers through long tail searches#1

Increased engagement of these customers and existing ones thorough useful and informative content#2

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What information do your customers want? Analytics – internal site search

Q&A sites

Google suggest

Forums

Social media

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Evaluation of Alternatives

Need Recognition & Problem Awareness

Information Search

Evaluation of Alternatives

PurchasePost-Purchase

Evaluation

“I know I want to buy a family car, but I don’t know

which is the best model”

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Where do you compare brands?

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The comparison landscape

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How can you influence this?Rank a favourable comparison

If selling multiple products (e.g. a car dealer), look to create your own comparison or buyers guides to be the solution to consumers comparative queries

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The review landscapeDo a search for ‘[brand] review’

If you are selling ‘high involvement’ products or services then potential customers are likely to do this

This needs to be dominated with good reviews

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How can you influence this?

BEWAREFake reviews are illegal.

But you can set up an internal review process to then funnel happy customers to review your brand on review websites.

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Brand search landscapeNegative reviews or coverage appearing in search results?

Make sure you dominate branded search results with favourable reviews, social profiles and positive articles.

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Purchase

Need Recognition & Problem Awareness

Information Search

Evaluation of Alternatives

PurchasePost-Purchase

Evaluation

“I want to purchase as easily as possible”

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User experienceMake the purchase process as painless as humanly possible.

Remove any stumbling blocks that could cause issues.

AB test everything.

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Trust signalsThese are very much needed along the purchase process.

Users can be dubious buying online so you need to alleviate any potential issues with this by gaining trust at every stage of the purchase process

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Post-Purchase Evaluation

Need Recognition & Problem Awareness

Information Search

Evaluation of Alternatives

PurchasePost-Purchase

Evaluation

“Am I happy withmy purchase?”

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Schema and reviewsAll happy customers should be encouraged to review the product or your brand.

Make sure these are legitimate, take learning from Amazon

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Post-Purchase ContentDepending on the product, user guides or more information could be VERY useful to these users.

Content is a great way of increasing your retention rates and solving any issues before they decide to head to your customer service teams

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Summary

Determine your customers decision making process and full user journey, apply the framework to reality

#1

Get into the mind-set of your consumers#2

#3 Cater your content experience depending on their mind-set

Thank you

Joseph.griffiths@branded3.com @B3joseph Branded3.com @Branded_3