Why Understanding your Target Market is Essential in an SEO Strategy

A lot of things go into the implementation of search engine optimisation, but if you are not ranking highly on search engines or cannot be found on the first page, then you are doing something wrong. It does not even matter if you use targeted keywords that your target audience can use to find your website.

One crucial component that could enhance your SEO strategy has to do with identifying and understanding your target market. When you identify your audience, understand them and know their pain points, you will be able to create valuable content they will appreciate since the content will address whatever problems or challenges they are facing in their lives.

When your target audience begins to observe that your content is tailored to their respective needs and that you care more about their well-being than the state of their wallet, then they will be more likely to become dedicated and return customers. Some of them may even recommend your products or services to their friends or share your content on social media networks. That will culminate in more visits from other people who may be interested in what you have to offer.

SEO and marketing is not one size fits all

If you don’t strive to tailor every social media post, adverts as well as all the other components of your marketing strategy to your target market, then everything becomes a useless venture.

A perfect understanding of your audience will help you decide on the type of content you should create, when to share it as well as how to share it. But before you can understand who your audience is, you need to know who they are.

Steps to understanding your target market

1. Take a look at demographics such as age, gender, location and income size.
2. Examine you selling points and determine what makes your brand unique within your industry:

• What are you offering to your customers?
• Why should they come to you as opposed to your competitors?

3. When you identify your major selling points, you will have an inkling of how your customers think or reason.
4. Examine your existing audience and do your best to analyse who they are. What are their likes and dislikes? What pushes them to make purchase decisions?

You can obtain valuable data by doing the following:

• Collecting your target market’s e-mail addresses via opt-in pages and then follow them up with surveys.
• Purchase high-quality CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software.
• Get hold of demographic information when they purchase your products or services.

At times, analysing your own organisation could make you turn a blind eye to something that you feel is irrelevant but turns out to be vital in the behaviour of your audience. Enlist the help of outsiders or third-party vendors who will look at your processes and internal jargons with clear eyes and unbiased minds as they will end up providing some useful insights on your products, organisation, services or practices that you have overlooked.

Generate a profile of your audience. Make a list of their goals, traits, etc. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and try to picture what they could be typing into search engines when looking for solutions to their problems.

This invaluable data will be useful in helping you generate tailored content.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

Implementing a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy is crucial if you want to generate high-quality, organic leads. This is possible only when you have a thorough understanding of your target market, and then create as well as apply data-driven and strategic plans for effective marketing of your products and services on your website. At the Digital School of Marketing, we understand how important it is – to the success of your business – to generate qualified leads. In our SEO Course, we’ll show you how to do this – and so much more. Read more here.