CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE & THE IMPACT ON SEARCH

CASIE  GILLETTE  •  DIRECTOR  OF  ONLINE  MARKETING  •  KOMARKETING  

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I  just  got  back  from  London.  It’s  a  place  I’ve  never  been  and  I  needed  to  figure  out  where  to  stay,  how  to  get  around,  what  to  see,  where  to  eat,  …etc.  Before  when  I  was  planning  my  trip,  I  did  a  lot  of  searching.  I  looked  at  Trip  Advisor,  read  reviews,  talked  to  friends  and  I  asked  my  social  media  connecOons  for  recommendaOons.  When  I  was  there,  I  pulled  up  Yelp  and  asked  the  concierge.  It  was  a  lot  of  asking  &  a  lot  of  reading  reviews.  More  than  ever,  I  relied  on  not  just  my  connecOons  but  random  strangers  to  help  me  plan  my  trip.  And  it  turns  out  I’m  not  alone  in  this.  

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70% OF PEOPLE CONSULT REVIEWS & RATINGS BEFORE PURCHASING

- BUSINESSWEEK

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15+ MILLION CONSUMERS CONSULT SOCIAL MEDIA BEFORE MAKING PURCHASE DECISIONS

– KNOWLEDGE WEEK

79% OF CONSUMERS TRUST ONLINE REVIEWS AS MUCH AS PERSONAL RECOMMENDATIONS

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- BRIGHTLOCAL  

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If  you  take  a  look  at  TwiSer,  you’ll  see  tons  of  people  asking  for  recommendaOons.  

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This  doesn’t  just  apply  to  travel  though.  People  are  asking  about  products  and  services.  It’s  B2B  and  B2C.  

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There  are  also  sites  like  Quora,  which  are  dedicated  to  helping  people  find  informaOon  by  asking  their  peers.  

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GET MONEY  

This  stuff  maSers  because  it  translates  to  real  money.  Consumer  purchasing  decisions  are  being  heavily  influenced  by  others.  

90% OF CUSTOMERS SAY BUYING DECISIONS ARE INFLUENCED BY ONLINE REVIEWS

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– DIMENSIONAL RESEARCH

77% OF CONSUMERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BUY A NEW PRODUCT WHEN LEARNING ABOUT IT FROM FRIENDS OR FAMILY

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- NIELSEN

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Customers  now  have  the  power  and  this  is  exciOng.  With  social  media,  blogs  and  the  ability  to  be  connected  24/7,  we  as  consumers  have  a  much  bigger  voice.  But…the  flip  side  of  that  is  businesses  no  longer  get  to  dictate  their  messaging  and  what  people  are  saying  about  them,  especially  when  it  comes  to  their  online  presence.  

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And  the  boSom  line  is  this  include  search.  People  are  searching  in  new  ways.  They  are  searching  for  answers  and  opinions  versus  simply  searching  for  a  product.  

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And  that’s  not  where  it  ends.  The  search  results  themselves  have  changed.  Take  for  example  “hotels  in  London”  –  that  SERP  is  no  longer  a  list  of  hotels  in  London.  Instead  search  results  are  showing  review  sites  and  recommendaOons.  As  search  marketers,  our  job  just  got  more  complicated.  We  are  not  just  working  to  be  listed  in  the  search  results,  we  now  have  to  figure  out  how  to  make  sure  our  businesses  are  listed  in  the  results  within  the  results.  

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And  the  staOsOcs  we  just  saw  tell  us  those  results  must  be  posiOve.    

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Because  we  don’t  want  this…  

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Or  this…  

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What  we  do  want  is  this.  

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We  want  people  to  talk  about  our  business  and  be  so  passionate  about  our  company  that  they  are  willing  to  taSoo  our  logo  on  themselves.    

THIS IS SEARCH.

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But  despite  the  changes,  search  inevitably  comes  back  to  the  basics:  Keywords,  Content  &  Links  

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Keywords  are  the  foundaOon  of  any  SEO  strategy  and  there’s  something  really  important  happening  here  -­‐  the  way  people  are  searching  is  changing.  For  a  long  Ome,  people  searched  in  a  very  broad  way.  They  used  one  or  two  keywords  and  then  based  on  the  results,  they  clarified  their  search.  Today  that’s  different.  People  understand  search  engines  much  beSer  and  they  know  that  search  engines  can  answer  their  quesOons  and  their  intent  beSer  than  every  before.    

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40% USE MORE THAN THREE WORDS  

via Statista

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KNOWLEDGE GRAPH  

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ANSWER BOXES  

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And  this  is  where  the  customer  comes  in.  You  need  to  know  what  quesOons  your  customers  are  asking  and  offer  content  that  answers  it.  You  need  to  know  intent.  How  are  your  customers  talking  about  you  online?  How  are  they  talking  about  your  product  or  service  or  compeOtor  or  industry?    

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CASE STUDY  

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CASE STUDY  Client  A  sells  cabinets.  But  it  turns  out  cabinets  was  not  the  right  term.  Their  customers  were  talking  about  them  using  words  like  “industrial”  and  “heavy-­‐duty.”  Which  forced  us  to  change  our  strategy  and  the  content  on  the  page.  

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2013   2015  2014  

50% INCREASE IN ORGANIC TRAFFIC  

CABINETS  

INDUSTRIAL  CABINETS  

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2013   2015  2014  

50% INCREASE IN ORGANIC CONVERSIONS  

CABINETS  

INDUSTRIAL  CABINETS  

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Talk  to  your  customers  whenever  you  have  a  chance.  Along  with  that,  start  finding  out  what  people  are  saying  on  the  web.  Check  review  sites.  Take  a  look  at  how  the  site  is  describing  your  product  or  service,  and  how  customers  are  talking  about  you.  Find  out  what  the  negaOves  are  and  what  the  posiOves  are.  These  will  help  inform  your  keyword  strategy  but  more  so  your  content.  

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Look  at  referral  traffic.  Actually  go  to  the  sites  and  see  how  they  are  talking  about  you.  

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AddiOonally,  use  tools!  Tools  like  FAQFox  and  SERPstat  show  you  what  quesOons  people  are  asking.    

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Monitor  social  media  for  your  brand  terms  but  don’t  forget  about  industry  terms  &  compeOtor  names.  Understand  what  people  are  asking  about,  what  problems  they  are  having,  and  what  terms  they  are  using  to  describe  products.  

CONTENT

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CONTENT  

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There  is  a  disconnect  between  the  content  on  the  site  and  the  content  users  want  to  see.  

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CASE STUDY  

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Client  B  had  a  very  product  focused  site.  It  wasn’t  targeted  to  what  their  customers  needed  or  the  quesOons  their  customers  were  actually  asking.    

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We  found  the  Spiceworks  community  had  tons  of  quesOons  around  their  product  and  industry.  We  took  these  quesOons  and  created  arOcles.    

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Month  1  

53% INCREASE IN ORGANIC TRAFFIC  

NEW  CONTENT  

Month  2   Month  3  

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As  you  think  about  content  creaOon,  take  into  consideraOon  what  people  are  asking.  

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Talk  to  you  customer  support  team.  

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Find  out  what’s  already  driving  traffic  to  you  site  using  analyOcs.  

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Buzzsumo  can  show  you  top  content  on  your  site  or  your  compeOtors  to  help  you  understand  what  your  customers  like.  

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Content  markeOng  must  have  markeOng.    

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Which  social  networks  drive  the  most  traffic  to  your  site?    

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3%  of  customers  drive  90%  of  social  engagement.  Find  the  3%  of  people  interested  in  talking  about  you.  

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IdenOfy  relevant  hashtags  that  are  being  used  to  promote  your  content.  

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LINK BUILDING SUCKS

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These  are  links!  They  were  driven  by  posiOve  customer  experiences.  

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50 BLOGGERS = 100 LINKS

To  help  build  Client  C’s  brand,  we  targeted  customers  with  influenOal  blogs.  We  sent  them  products  and  in  return,  we  generated  over  100  links  on  relevant  sites.  

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Say  thank  you.  

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Send  your  customers  thank  you  cards.  

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CALL ME  Call  your  customers  to  check  in.  Ask  how  you  can  help  and  thank  them  for  being  a  customer.  

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Show  your  customers  you  appreciate  them  by  promoOng  them  on  your  own  site.  

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POST  Find  people  you  already  have  relaOonships  with  and  idenOfy  any  guest  post  opportuniOes.  

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Ask  for  reviews.  People  are  more  likely  to  review  your  product  or  service  if  you  just  ask.  

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THIS IS SEARCH.

Our  jobs  aren’t  easy  and  with  all  of  the  changes  in  technology  and  how  people  search,  these  challenges  aren’t  going  away.  But  the  good  news  is  it’s  exciOng  and  we  as  customers  have  the  insight  into  what  we  want  from  businesses.  The  key  is  translaOng  that  to  your  exisOng  adverOsing  and  search  markeOng  programs.    

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THANKS! CASIE  GILLETTE  •  DIRECTOR  OF  ONLINE  MARKETING  •  KOMARKETING