Mapping Keywords to the Sales Funnel. How to use an audience-first approach when researching keywords to target for SEO and content campaigns

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Eleanore Hawkins
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1 Mapping Keywords to the Sales Funnel How to use an audience-first approach when researching keywords to target for SEO and content campaigns

4 Mapping Keywords to the Sales Funnel How to use an audience-first approach when researching keywords to target for SEO and content campaigns

5 Keyword Research Keyword research is the practice of identifying which phrases are used on search engines when people are looking for information. Entails assessing keywords by: Search volume Relative competitiveness Business value Search Intent

6 NOTE: "popular" search terms (Fat Head/ Chunky Middle) actually make up less than 30% of the searches performed on the web. The remaining 70% are in what's called the "long tail" of search. Collectively, the long tail terms actually comprise the majority of the world's demand for information in search engines.

7 The Classic Sales Funnel A sales funnel is a marketing system. It's the "ideal" process you intend your customers to experience as they go from Prospect to Lead to Customer to Repeat Buyer.

9 FOOTNOTE: The Roles of Marketing and Sales Have Shifted

of the sales funnel (or buyer s journey ) helps marketers to better understand what users are actually

10 MAP KEYWORDS TO NEED STATES Mapping Keywords to the Sales Funnel [flowers] [when do roses bloom] [what flowers for a first date] [buying chrysanthemums] [flower a month club] Mapping keywords to the phases of the sales funnel (or buyer s journey ) helps marketers to better understand what users are actually looking to accomplish/find with their initial search and helps to inform a site s overall content strategy.

11 Examples of Keyword Mapping

12 Our Funnel Stages 1. Awareness - Discover an idea/concept/need 2. Interest - Education and information; Understanding value proposition 3. Consideration - Build trust with you; understand the benefit of your brand; evaluate specifc use cases 4. Conversion - Perform desired goal (completed sale, filled lead applicaiton form, newsletter signup) 5. Retention - Maintain relationship, earn customer referrals

13 Funnel Mapping Steps Build your Searcher Intent Matrix (outline provided by TAG) 2. Identify your user segment and target category (focus on top business priority) 3. Build your sub-categories throughout each stage of the funnel (using your own site data, industry forums, competitors sites, Google Suggest, Google Trends) 4. Combine your category keyword and sub-category keywords and run them through UberSuggest 5. Copy and paste the results of each Category/Sub-Category combo into the MasterList tab

14 Funnel Mapping Steps Get search volume and suggested bid data for your list of keywords 7. Download the list from the Planner and add to a new tab in your Matrix 8. Pull search volume and suggested bid data to your MasterList dataset 9. Map keywords to specific pages 10. Build your content strategy for each page

15 Today s Example:

16 Step1: Build your Searcher Intent Matrix Template available for download here Example with client info here

18 Step 2: Identify your user segment and target category For today s exercise, the user segment will be non-professional soccer players Based on a quick review of the site, it seems safe to assume that soccer cleats are a top priority and so we ll make that our target category. Add these to your spreadsheet Example client:

19 Step 3: Build your sub-categories throughout each stage of the funnel Browse your site s categories, typically they ll give you a good idea (Looking at the site, we can see there are soccer cleats available for kids, for women, etc.) Review your company s sales call logs/online chat logs Analyze top industry forums - what questions are people asking? - what are their issues? Review your competitors - where are they ranking? (SEMrush, KeywordSpy) Use SEO Tools (Google Trends, Google Suggest)

20 Google Suggest Go to Google and type Soccer cleats and don t hit enter! Do any of the results Google Suggest give you any ideas about sub categories to add? We see a result for toddlers, let s add that to our Awareness list

22 A NOTE ON VERSUS Be careful with versus content when building your sub-cats in the stages Note the vs sub-category in the Consideration phase A search such as soccer cleats vs football cleats could very well be someone in an awareness stage who wants to know if there even is a difference (do I even need to buy a new pair for a different sport?) - The same could be said for indoor vs outdoor soccer cleats Whereas a search like puma soccer cleats vs nike is someone who is in fact in the consideration phase, and is trying to determine between brand

23 Step 4: Combine your category keyword and subcategory keywords and run them through UberSuggest (or KeywordTool.io if you prefer) Step 5: Copy and paste the results of each Category/Sub- Category combo into the MasterList tab

26 When adding how to type queries in UberSuggest Add a * to capture the different types of questions:

27 To get these outcomes:

28 Step 6: Get search volume and suggested bid data for your list of keywords

29 searchengineland. com/googleofficially-throttlingkeyword-plannerdata-lowspendingadwordsaccounts

33 Step 7: Download the list from Google Keyword Planner (or KeywordTool.io, etc) and add to PlannerList tab Volume isn t everything, but it s important to understand For keywords that show zero results, use the 5 for monthly search volume

34 Step 8: Pull search volume and suggested bid data to your MasterList dataset * Use VLOOKUP to program your Master List tab to pull the data from the PlannerList tab - eg. =VLOOKUP(A2,PlannerList!A:D,2,FALSE) (more on VLOOKUP )

35 Step 9: Map keywords to specific pages Keywords are already grouped by funnel stage Now start grouping keywords into smaller subsets based on the best page to target them on your site

36 Step 10: Build your content strategy for each page Once you know your subset keywords and target pages, it is time to build out content

Spoiler Alert: It s in disarray

Spoiler Alert: It s in disarray Most keyword research is just a list of keywords and search volumes. That s not strategic enough for any initiative let alone Organic Search or Content Marketing. Some keyword