Effectively communicating with your audience requires a decent understanding of human behaviour and psychology. You certainly don’t have to be a licensed psychotherapist, but if you can’t at least relate to your audience, you’re dead in the water.
On the flip side, if you know what emotional drives propel your prospects to act, you’re in a fantastic place. Armed with such knowledge, you can better serve your audience while also better serving your business. It’s a win / win situation through and through.
By understanding what your market is searching for, you can get inside the heads of your audience and respond accordingly.
Language
When people search for solutions to problems or even for particular products, they tend to use everyday conversational language. For instance, your audience might type phrases like “Where can I find a good graphics card in Melbourne” into Google, rather than “graphics card Melbourne”.
Conversational language, even in the digital space, makes the experience feel more human. People like convenience and speed, but they also like connection. Using “human” language helps to create that connected, personalised experience.
Any complete SEO strategy will have your business ranking for the conversational phrases your audience typically uses, not just the keywords you want to rank for.
Intent
People search with an end goal in mind, or at least, with a vague notion of a desired result. Your business needs to meet your audience’s intentions head on, going above and beyond expectation.
When you’re looking into your audience’s search terms, always ask yourself, “What would bring the most value possible to this individual?” Your content, website, product and everything else needs to completely satisfy your audience’s intent.
You should also be asking yourself which stage of the process your consumers are in. Are they doing initial research, or have they made a decision? Search terms can reveal what kind of questions your audience is interested in, and by extension, what kind of information you should be sharing with them.
Expectation
Your audience expects your content to reach a certain standard. Content and product standards are dictated by market averages, and if you fall behind your competitors from the start, you’ll never achieve the market share you’re looking for.
To rank well for search terms, your content should be long, fresh and engaging. Certainly easier said than done, but that’s why entire content marketing departments exist. Your content should constantly be updated, and it should speak to the anticipated pain points you expect your audience to be experiencing based on what they’re searching for.
By living up to your audience’s expectations, being aware of the language they like to use and helping them reach their intent, you’ll craft a robust and effective SEO strategy that your audience will be grateful for.
