GoDaddy sure is making the headlines these days. Though people are mainly incensed about the fickleness of their stance on the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), what has been playing over and over in my head is Joost deValk’s post …
There’s some serious momentum growing in the digital marketing world and companies world-wide are scrambling to figure out one of the most important pieces for success: content. What better way to close the gap between early maturity model stages and a path to greater profitability than learning from top experts who have already “been there, [...]
This is a harmless “hairball” post I had as a draft. Me: Hey, they added me to popurls.com! My wife: Never heard of it. (pause) Had you heard of it before? Me: Yeah. Wife: Really? Me: Yeah! Wife: (with an extra helping of sarcasm) Really? Me: Yes! Wife: (dripping with condescension) You’re a very important [...]
If we?re targeting keywords, getting good traffic as a result, but not converting as much traffic as we?d like, then it might be due to a market validation problem.
Basic keyword research typically involves looking at the nature of the web site, creating a list of terms that describe the offers being made, expanding the keyword list out using keyword research tools, and then targeting those keyword terms.
However, if that?s all a search marketer does, and fails to get conversions and engagement as a result, then they might be asking the wrong questions.
Asking The Right Questions
Consider Coca-Cola.
Coca Cola undertook extensive market testing and research before they introduced ?New Coke?, yet New Coke failed miserably. Their competitors, Pepsi, used a blind taste test, asking people if they preferred Coke or Pepsi. Coca Cola ran their own testing, and the results were not good. The majority preferred Pepsi.
However, the problem in asking people to take just one sip and compare was to ask the wrong question. People may have preferred the first sip of Pepsi, but they preferred the less sweet Coke when they consumed an entire glass. In ?Inside Coca-Cola: A CEO's Life Story of Building the World's Most Popular Brand?, Neville Isdell also postulates that new coke failed because original coke was about the iconic. It was linked to history. It wasn?t just about the taste of the first sip, it was also about the place of Coke in culture. There was a lot more to it than the first, sugary hit.
Coca Cola asked the wrong questions. Getting the context right was important if they were to understand the answers.
If you?ve designed relevant landing pages but not getting the conversion rate you desire, no matter how much split/run testing you do, or if you?ve managed to rank #1 for your chosen term, and you?ve written some great copy, but the traffic just keeps bouncing away, then it might be a problem with positioning in the market.
These market validation ideas apply mostly to search marketers who build their own sites, but it?s also applicable to marketers working on client sites if those client sites have poor targeting. Bolting on search marketing won?t do much good if a site is making substandard, or redundant offers.
Market Validation
?Market Validation? was a concept defined by Rob Adams in his book ?If You Build It They Will Come?. It?s the process of figuring out if a market exists before you go to the expense and time of filling that market. Market validation is typically used by entrepreneurs in order to determine if they should enter a market, however the more general aspects can also be applied to search marketing.
Two aspects that are particularly useful for search marketers, especially those marketers who care what happens after the click, is a market analysis - to determine what stage in the market the business is at - and a competitive analysis. Armed with this information, they?ll know how to best pitch the offer, which, when combined with effective copywriting and calls to action should increase engagement and conversion.
Market Stage
Entrepreneurs are concerned with the growth rate of a market sector.
Typically, entrepreneurs want to get into fast rising, new markets, as opposed to mature or sunset markets. It?s difficult for new entrants to compete with incumbents, as doing so involves high costs. It is estimated that the cost of taking a customer off a competitor is typically three to ten times the cost of acquiring a new customer.
Try to figure out the stage of growth of the market. If the site operates in a mature market, with multiple competitors, then aspects such as price and features are important. In a mature market, the site you?re working with should be competitive on these aspects, else a top ranking position and compelling copy won?t help much, as the buyer will likely be comparing offers.
Similarly, if the client is competitive in these areas, then it pays to push these aspects hard in your copy and calls to action. For example, if a mobile phone site focused, first and foremost, on buyer education, it probably won?t do as well as a site that focuses on price and features. Generally speaking, buyers in this mature market sector don?t need to be educated on the merits of a mobile phone. They?re probably mainly interested in looks, availability, price and features.
If your client is in a fast growing new market, then there?s typically a lot more buyer education involved. People need to be convinced of new offers, so consider making your copy more education focused in these niches.
For example, when the iPhone came out, it didn?t have any direct competition. Apple didn?t need to push hard on price or features - there were cheaper phones, and there were phones that could do some things better, but there was nothing directly comparable in the smartphone market. Only recently, now that the market has matured, are Apple focusing on price with the introduction of lower priced entry level phones. This is a characteristic of more mature markets with high levels of competition and price pressure.
Since mobile phone penetration has reached almost saturation levels in Europe and the United Kingdom, mobile service providers are focusing attention on the 55?65 and 65-plus segment to improve usage and penetration. Their high disposable incomes and their ability to devote time to new habits are seen as a lucrative market opportunity. 5 At the other end of the demographic scale, Red Bull has built a following among youth worldwide.
Identify what stage the business is at, and adjust your approach based on the strengths or weaknesses of that market.
Market Segment
The more specific the keyword, the more the keyword is likely to identify subcategories within broader markets. For example, a travel agent could target a general term like ?hotels in Spain?, or the more specific ?luxury hotels in Marbella?.
Look for competitive strengths a business may have in a submarket and consider focusing search marketing efforts in these areas first. An easy-win builds confidence. Is this submarket fast-growing? Even better. Build both confidence and revenue. It may lead to more of the business being refocused around these submarkets.
Are there some submarkets that have decent keyword volume, but they?re mature? Ensure that you have some competitive advantage in terms of pricing and features before devoting too much time targeting them.
Even if the traffic isn't particularly high in some submarkets, at very least you?ll have earned the engagement metrics Google likes to see, and likely built some brand reputation in these submarkets that can then be leveraged into other submarkets.
Lifecycles
Determine the audience in term of product lifecycle.
Are you targeting keyword areas relating to new products? If so, you?re most likely talking to early adopters. Therefore, the pitch is likely to involve aspects such as education, being first, desirability, being forward-thinking, and standing out from the crowd. The pitch is less likely to focus on negating buyer risk.
If you?re dealing with a business later in the lifecycle, then you?ll likely be talking more about price and comparing and differentiating features.
Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis is perhaps the most important, yet often overlooked, aspect of SEO/PPC.
Top rankings can be a waste of time if direct competitors are more competitive on features, price, service and brand recognition. Buyers will compare these aspects clicking from link to link, or will use third-party comparison sites, a sure signal of a mature market.
Find out what competitors are doing. And what they?re not doing. Try creating a competitive matrix:
A competitive matrix is an analysis tool that helps you establish your company's competitive advantage. It provides an easy-to-read portrait of your competitive landscape and your position in the marketplace. The matrix can be just a simple chart. In the left column, you list the main features and benefits of your product or service. On the top row, you list your company and the names of your competitors. Then fill in the chart with the appropriate information for each company. For example, if you own a dry cleaning service, you might list the different services you offer or the quick turnaround you provide on items (24 hours), and then note how your competitors fail at these features.
If there are competitors, then obviously a market exists. Compare your competitors against as many keyword terms as possible, and see how well they?re doing in each keyword area. Not just in terms of ranking, but in terms of their offer and the maturity of the market. If there are numerous competitors gunning for the same keyword terms, then determine if your offer is strong enough that should you beat their rankings, you can still stand up to a side-by-side feature, service and price comparison. Is there a submarket in which they are weak? Would you be better off devoting your time and energy to this submarket?
Examine their pitch. In any competitive niche, the pitch made by those occupying the top three spots in Adwords over time is likely to be the most relevant to the audience. If their pitch wasn?t relevant, it?s unlikely they could remain in those positions, due to quality score metrics, and the financial strength to keep outbidding competitors. There are exceptions i.e. competitors running losses for some reason, but generally, it?s safe to assume they?re doing something right.
Are they talking price? Features? Are they using video? Are they using long copy? Are they using people in their photographs? How big is their text? What?s the path to ordering? Do they highlight a phone number, or do they bury it? Pull their offer, and presentation of that offer, apart.
Make a note of everything the top three or four sites Adwords sites are doing and then emulate the commonalities. This gives you a strong baseline for further experimentation, testing and positioning on the SEO side. Keep in mind it?s not good enough to beat these competitors by a small margin. Incumbents often have brand awareness and customer bases (high trust levels), so to counter that, your should be considerably better. A ?better offer? can mean superior price or features, but it can also be better service levels, a more specific solution, or a fresh new angle on an existing solution.
Also consider substitutions.
If a buyer can substitute a product or service, then this offers a potential opportunity. For example, lets say a buyer has a transportation problem. They could buy a car to solve that problem. Or, they could lease a car on a pay-per-drive model. The pay-per-drive model is a substitution threat for car sellers. If you take a step back and determine what problem the visitor trying to solve, as opposed to leaping to conclusions about the obvious keyword that describes that solution, then you might find rich, unmined substitution keywords. Perhaps your offer can be repackaged slightly differently in order to mine a substitution keyword stream.
Of course, people don?t always buy on price and features, even if the market is mature, but they still need a compelling value proposition. One example is organic produce. It?s typically more expensive, and the ?features? are the same, but the context is different. The produce is sold on environmental values.
So look for value propositions that customers might respond to, but competitors aren?t taking advantage of. Or you can extend the ones they use. Now that Google is coming from behind with their own Motorola phones they are extending Apple's designed in California with made in America.
Summary
There are many links on the page a searcher can click. The more mature the market, the more relevant search results they?re likely to encounter, and those results, both PPC and natural search are likely to match their intent. At that point, getting the offer right is important. If you can?t compete in terms of offer, try looking for submarkets and position there, instead.
I hope this article has given you some new angles to explore. A good reference book on the topic of market validation, and the inspiration for this article, is ?If You Build It They Will Come?, by Rob Adams.
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Have you ever wanted a resource to learn inbound marketing or a place your team can reference marketing best practices? Well, we hope you do a backflip over Moz Academy. If you have a Moz Subscription, check it out now!
Subscription-based content
At Moz we produce a wealth of free content in the blog, our guides, Q&A, and pretty much everywhere on the site. We want to do something special for Moz subscribers by transforming our free content and reinventing it for Moz Academy. You could probably scour the Moz Blog and other websites to obtain the information in Moz Academy, but we think having it easily digestible and all in one place is a huge win for Moz subscribers. Moz is excited to add the simplicity and power of Moz Academy to the list of Moz subscription benefits.
Why create an inbound marketing school?
Moz is extremely passionate about educating our community. In fact, our entire business started as a blog where people could learn about SEO. Moz Academy gives subscribers the power to be better marketers, which will enable them to use our products in more depth and with greater confidence. We want to provide a hub of marketing knowledge that will create a stronger community where people can teach each other while using the Academy as a frame of reference. One could say that Moz Academy is the Mr. Miyagi of inbound marketing. The key to this project is empowering you to kick even more butt than you already do!
We hope Moz Academy turns into the one-stop-shop for inbound knowledge for Moz subscribers. Everyone on the team is committed to continually refreshing content and adding new lessons. Again, we really want this to be the easiest and most comprehensive place to learn internet marketing on the web.
Furthermore, we’ve designed each lesson with empathy in mind; they will be easily digestible and considerate of your time. That means you can drop in whenever you like and have comfortable breakpoints if you’re brain is exploding with inbound marketing knowledge.
Wait, how do I use Moz Academy?
Moz Academy is easy to use! Check out these six simple steps:
Step 5: Enjoy a video and/or read the lesson below it!
Step 6: Crane kick.
What lessons do you have right now?
We're starting with the following lessons:
Inbound Marketing
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Link Building
Social Media
Content Marketing
We plan to add a lot more! Look for lessons on local SEO, community management, video marketing, email marketing and web analytics. Yup, it's going to be pretty sweet!
Well, Moz, what's next for Moz Academy?
The future of Moz Academy really depends on how everyone uses it. In the next few months, we want to create a good foundation for beginners and subsequently build up to intermediate-level content. Eventually, we'd like to have sections for beginners lessons, intermediate lessons, and advanced lessons. Keep your eyes peeled, because we’ll be releasing a lot of new stuff! Some of our longer-term goals for Moz Academy are to have interactive quizzes and some sort of gamification. Yes, we know you'd like to track your progress and unlock achievements. That way you can show off how awesome you are at Moz Academy!
Eventually, we want Moz Academy to look more like Treehouse and Code School’s online learning platforms. We have a long way to go, but are excited about the journey to get there. With your help and feedback, we can make Moz Academy something awesome. Thanks in advance, and enjoy!
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In the ecommerce world, predictive analytics can be effective for product recommendations, but there are many more applications. This week’s infographic looks at how Netflix and Pandora recommend content, and OK Cupid and Twitter match people. Want a closer look? Click to enlarge Infographic credit: LatticeEngines
At Moz, we love using premium SEO Tools (especially our own). Paid tools are essential when you need advanced features, increased limits, historical features, or online support.
For other tasks, a free tool does the trick.
Below you'll find an interactive list of 100 best completely free tools, tools with both free and paid options, and free trials. Simply select the checkbox for the area you're working in, and view the tools forr that category.
Worried about Google's Penguin algorithm hitting you for over-optimized anchor text? Simply type in your URL for a full report of which links might raise flags.
Rapportive works with your Gmail inbox to give you near-instant rich contact information for almost everyone you want to reach. A must-have for marketers.
Ontolo offers a suite of link building software and a few helpful productivity tools for link builders. The remove duplicates tool solves a common problem.
If you've never scraped a webpage, you're missing out. Scraper for Chrome puts the power of simple web scraping in your hands without the need for code.
Use this tool to check for duplicate content issues. The Similar Page Checker will give you a score of how closely the HTML of two pages resemble each other.
How much reach and social authority do your followers have? How about the people you're trying to connect with? The free Social Authority API will tell you.
Every SEO loves Ubersuggest for its ease of use and wealth of keyword research ideas. Utilizing the power of Google Suggest, it returns hundreds of potential results.
Virant offers a number of high quality SEO tools to the public. These are often the same tools developed for the Virant team, opened up for public use.
Winner of the ugliest-SEO-tool-on-the-planet award, Xenu is also one of the most useful. Crawl entire sites, find broken links, create sitemaps, and more.
One of the more popular link research tools, Ahrefs offers a large index and nice anchor text distribution charts. Mostly a paid tool, but they offer some free data.
Link Research, Competitive Intelligence, Link Building
You've probably seen Majestic SEO link charts all over the Internet. Great crawling technology combined with several free options make for great link research.
Link Research, Moz, Competitive Intelligence, Link Building
When Google and Yahoo started removing backlink data from the public, Moz built Open Site Explorer to fill a huge need. See backlinks, anchor text, popularity metrics and more.
Impressive competitive intelligence across a number of online industries. Competitor website stats are hard to come by, but Similar Web does a good job.
Finding local citations is key to local SEO. Whitespark offers a number of free and paid solutions to find the local citations to rise above the competition.
Tools Suite, Diagnostic, Moz, Rank Tracking, Social
The flagship of the Moz software suite, Moz Analytics offers a dashboard of all your important marketing data in one place with actionable analytics for better marketing.
A powerful keyword research suite used by many top marketers, Wordtracker offers a generous free trial option.
What's your favorite free tool?
Narrowing a list down to the 100 best SEO tools and resources is not an easy challenge. Although I visited hundreds of webpages to compile this list, these four resources offered particular value:
Despite researching hundreds of tools, a few great ones didn't make the list. What's your favorite free SEO tool? Let us know in the comments below.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
