'Net Features : iAcquire

Persona-Driven Data In Focus

Administrator — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:42:00 GMT

As part of their upcoming webinar hosted in partnership with Experian Marketing Services, we had the chance to sit down with iAcquire, a digital brand strategy and marketing services agency that offers SEO, reputation management, content marketing, digital PR and social media marketing services.

Here, a team of marketing and strategy practitioners discusses the importance of persona-driven research cross-functionally within digital marketing. Read on to get insight into market research, content, social media and SEO -- and how all of these channels can be driven by persona data:

Market Research

Norris Rowley, Jr., Market Research Manager at iAcquire -- and seven-year veteran at The Nielsen Company -- shares the value research can bring to a business' overall marketing ROI:

Why is market research an important element to the marketing mix?

Marketing is an essential action that incorporates the entire business and is vitally important to the health of any business. Market research views the entire business from the customer's viewpoint, taking into account every aspect of the client marketing mix - from the website (product), distribution channels and engagement tactics.
What areas of marketing can benefit from persona research and how can they benefit?

All forms marketing can benefit from persona research, from on-page SEO to traditional marketing. While some areas of marketing can use persona research in an instant actionable way (i.e. audience targeting and precise messaging) other forms of marketing can use persona research as a pure market research tool to build a strategy upon.

For example, I use persona research as a base for a client's social campaign, mobile marketing and organic search to detail for a client exactly who their audience is and how to engage them correctly. However when I use persona research for brand development or traditional marketing I use persona research to help shape a client's messaging and how they should target the brand to a particular segment.

How can persona data help customers' needs be met?

The persona data provides our clients with a behind-the-curtain look at who their audience is made up of, and how those demographics relate to their products. With that data, clients can better tailor their messaging to target that particular segment of the audience.

SEO

iAcquire's resident SEO, Tom Harari shares insight into organic search driven by persona research:

What, in essence, is persona-driven SEO?

Persona driven SEO is just that - optimizing your content, both on and off site with your audience segments in mind. Are you optimizing for keywords, or for customers? If the answer is the latter, how can you know for sure that you're speaking to your audience's needs and pain points without first understanding who your audience is.

What are five things enterprise brands can do to engage persona-driven SEO?

1. Incorporate SEO into the wider marketing strategy at the beginning, not the end.

2. Challenge your SEO team to compare their audience findings with that of the strategy team - do they align?

3. Forgot antiquated concepts of SEO like meta keywords and keyword density. Instead, look for content that resonates with the personas.

4. Use principles of Latent Semantic Indexing to incorporate semantically related words that support pages' topical themes.

5. Always be testing. Audience research and personas are just the first step. It doesn't end there -- constantly look to test assumptions validate which personas convert better. A/B tests and multivariate testing are crucial to accomplish this.

How can brands use consumer insights to identify link building prospects at scale?

Consumer insights help the marketing team understand where their target audience spends their time online, which in turn means your team knows which publications and influencers are needed to establish relationships with.

Can you use persona data for on-page SEO? If so, how?

Persona data touches almost all aspects of on-page SEO - from informing information architecture decisions, to copy, sites that are built for users to engage with and come back to will do well in organic search.

Content Strategy

Devin Asaro, Content Strategist at iAcquire shares the importance of persona research in the enterprise content game:

Why does the "one-size-fits-all" approach to on-page content not work?

Different clients have different goals for their content, and all websites are different - especially when it comes to the way they engage their audience. A site targeting primarily older users will utilize an entirely different strategy than one trying to engage a younger audience.

How many personas should be targeted when creating web copy? How do you diversify content to fulfill multiple buyer personas?

There isn't a definite rule here. Some companies who offer a wide range of products -Target, for instance - are going to have way more relevant personas than a company like Venus, which has a much narrower target audience. You should target as many personas as are relevant to your audience -but there is a tipping point.

Some personas are in direct conflict with one another when it comes to the content they respond to. Targeting too many personas at once can lead to lackluster, middle-ground content. Go after your big fish.

When in the process should you lean on persona-driven research in the content cycle? What is the first step a business should take?

If you're going to do it right, persona driven research will factor into every strategic decision you make with "enterprise content". Integrated keyword and persona research should be the first step in the content cycle - that comes in the content strategy cycle, way before content creation starts. If you're creating content that isn't informed by that data -either because you don't have it or because you're not consulting it -then you're not really doing persona-driven content strategy.

What type of data is the most important in persona-driven on-page content on an enterprise's website?

Need states are incredibly important, because they should be the inverse of your offerings. If client needs "A", you need to align your messaging so that it reflects the fact that you offer. Figuring out what customers want, and what they need, is essential to persona-driven research.

Do you craft your content with behavior-based assumptions in mind? If so, how do you do this?

You design your site and its content based on how you think the user is going to behave. Luckily, UX is a well-developed field with a lot of research informing what we know about online behavior, so I certainly wouldn't call them assumptions (because you know what those do).

We make research-based assessments for all of our content and UI/UX decisions at iAcquire - and then we test them to see if we were right. If we weren't (or we see places where we can improve) we make adjustments. It starts as an art but it becomes a science. Within our agency, we use tools such as Experian Market Research and Nielsen data to really deep dive into our agency's and client's persona research.

How do you tailor specific calls to action to each persona?

You look for the divisions within that persona that make it complex. Personas aren't individuals - they're types. Look for issues inconsistencies or circumstances that divide the various subgroups within your target persona, and address your call to action there. If, for instance, you know that your persona comprises higher income people of both major political parties, and you're writing a blog post, a question regarding taxes is likely to spark engagement. It doesn't need to be controversial, but it does need to address users in a complex way, or they simply won't care.

If your call to action isn't focused on sharing or engagement, but rather driving action within your site -say, to get someone to sign up for a newsletter, the call to action should offer a benefit specific to that persona's need states. This isn't a difficult thing to figure out if you've done your persona research.

Social Media

Megan Brown, Social Media Strategist at iAcquire unveils the link between persona-driven research and social media:

How do you use persona research for social media?

I seek out data that details the online behavior of personas - what blogs they visit, how much time they may spend on a social network, what they click on and more - which helps brands tailor both messaging and placement in order to guarantee a higher engagement rate. The behavioral and demographic data also helps me decide which social influencers can drive action from these personas, and I create relationships with these influencers to serve as brand ambassadors.

How does digital engagement shift from persona to persona on social networks?

Engagement shifts from network to network rather than persona to persona. Social networks are not one size fits all. This means that certain networks are better for certain tactics brands, organizations or influencers use to engage. For example, Pinterest is visual based -therefore, it is a great platform to engage with your customers through images, infographics and video content. Twitter is better for delivering short, to the point messaging designed to catch a reader's attention - and brands still must leave room for users to add their own thoughts so they will re-share it with their friends. So, networks themselves inherently attract a certain type of persona - however, the demographic or details of these personas may be very different, even if their online behavior or way they consume messaging is similar.

So, networks themselves inherently attract a certain type of persona - however, the demographic or details of these personas may be very different, even if their online behavior or way they consume messaging is similar.

Does an archetypical social persona exist? If so what do they look like and how do they engage digitally?

No, there is no archetypical social persona. Social networks are always changing -- that means how personas use and consume their content is changing as well. Certain alterations may bring in new personas to use social, other changes might turn some personas off to specific social networks or even social as a whole. That's why it is so important to continue to monitor and measure audience behavior and use social listening to your advantage to retain certain personas or capture new personas entering the social sphere.
Why does social media research need to come before execution?

If you don't know who your audience is, what they like, how they consume messaging, where they live online, what types of messaging they prefer, how they access social networks, who they have conversations with on these networks, who on these networks drives action from them.... You're basically throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks. Guess and check is a waste of money, time, and energy - especially when there are tools to access and analyze the research needed to create a successful campaign.

Want more information on persona research and digital strategy? Tune into Experian Marketing Services and iAcquire's complimentary webinar, Persona-driven search strategy drives better results on Thursday, March 14 at 2:00 p.m. EST. This webinar will help determine the best ways to build a campaign strategy, ultimately leading to a better customer experience and increased traffic.

Attention SEOs & CEOs – SEO Grew Up

Administrator — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 20:15:00 GMT

By Joe Griffin, Co-founder and CEO at iAcquire

We all compare SEO to paid search in one facet or another. Many try to force SEO into an ad model. By looking at keyword search volume, existing rankings and click-through rate assumptions, one can build a financial model to demonstrate a hypothetical uptick in organic search traffic assuming certain on-page and off-page SEO tactics yield a “predictable” result.

It’s a good exercise. It gets numbers on paper. It helps open up the eyes of those higher-ups that don’t understand SEO and its ability to generate revenue. So, in that capacity it’s a good exercise. But, SEO isn’t just about driving revenue. It’s about brand building, reputation management and good ol’ fashion PR.

Here are specific tips below for brand managers and SEOs, and a list of why SEO is so sustainable and scalable for CEOs.

SEO is PR

Different organizations and departments budget and frame SEO differently. SEO may stem from the PR budget, the IT budget or a specialized search budget. In many cases a “search” budget is the last place SEO should come from – at least in those cases where it is being compared directly to paid search.

But why is SEO a PR initiative?

Well, first of all, SEO is not a media buy. SEO is not a direct marketing or direct response initiative (contrary to popular belief), and SEO is not generally considered a branding initiative – though I think it often should be.

Like traditional PR, SEO earns adoration by ensuring a brand is “naturally visible.” Because SEO cannot be “purchased” and because it must be “earned” it falls under the PR bucket.

This is why many digital agencies now bucket SEO under “earned media”.

PR is deployed to generate sales and loyalty through brand awareness, placement and sentiment. PR attempts to put a brand’s voice in front of an audience receptive to that message. PR wants to be sincere, but like all marketing initiatives it requires aggressive techniques. SEO holds dear these same principles.

SEO is The Most Sustainable Digital PR Medium. Here’s Why:

1. Visibility

The majority of the human populace with buying power use search engines as the primary source to find information. More than 11 billion searches per month occur on Google alone as of December 2012.

2. Organic Share of Voice

Consumers widely consider a search engines top ranked results to be the most relevant and authoritative pages on the web.

3. Inbound Interaction

When people discover a brand in an inbound manner that website becomes an interactive journey. A well-defined content strategy and intelligent UI make for a marketers perfect dream.

4. Scale

Search activity is massive across every major industry, and easily represents a 7-9-figure revenue opportunity. That kind of scale is hard to come by in a sustainable way. Search has it.

5. Branding & Reputation Management

Big brands receive hundreds of thousands of “branded” organic search referrals each month. When someone searches “Apple” they are introduced to a portfolio of headlines and links. Those headlines and links impact searcher perception. Controlling that message has demonstrable value.

Why Doesn’t SEO Have A Bigger Budget?

Because SEO is generally not understood as PR, it simply does not have access to those traditional PR dollars. SEO has been estimated to draw around $3 billion of “media spend”, so it’s not small potatoes. That number might be substantially higher if you consider salaries supporting SEO initiatives. The PR media spend is estimated at only $5 billion per year, but much of that is still “traditional” PR.

Take some of the “traditional” PR budget, account for the already 33 percent-plus year-over-year shift to digital, and you can see how SEO might easily consume a $10 billion per year media/marketing spend by 2015.

There was an interesting article written on CNN Money by Gregory Galant, CEO of Muck Rack. Gregory tells a similar story around social media’s advancement and the connection to digital PR. Social Media is more rapidly being defined as PR, and I agree with that definition. I think SEO also needs that definition.

However, in my mind PR is often misunderstood as ”the pitch process” that goes on when marketers try to get a journalist to tell their story or feature their brand. I view that as only a piece of PR.

To me, PR is more about controlling brand perception, and that’s why I think organic search is totally misunderstood as it relates to PR.

In addition to cannibalizing traditional PR dollars, SEO also stands to gain from the ever-growing search budget. The vast majority of the search media spend is plugged into paid search currently, and that may never change, but as marketers become more sophisticated I’d expect that SEO begins sharing in a larger slice of the pie – especially when you consider the role that content marketing plays in SEO. There’s a conversation still going on though that needs to change. It sounds a lot like this: ”Dear Agency/Vendor, we’d love to be aggressive with SEO, but it’s really hard for me to get budget because it’s not quantifiable like paid search.”

What Can Brand Managers Do About This?

1. Master Analytics

If you aren’t an expert at Google Analytics or Omniture (or whatever you use) then you are doing it wrong. If you can’t fully assess the impact of organic search you will have a significantly smaller opportunity to create an SEO funding revolution without your organization.

2. Master Goal Assessment

Once you’ve dominated analytics you must ensure you are measuring the right goals (and sometimes this step is actually the first step). Goals aren’t always the same. It’s not just about ranking for that big head term, and in fact, that’s often the wrong strategy. It’s generally best to work from the top down. Your goal is rarely to rank for “x keyword.” Your goal is generally to “realize x market share, revenue or leads from the Internet; notably Search.” You have to develop a strategy, and then tactics after you’ve identified your goals. And, you have to do more than just identify the goal – you have to make sure every stakeholder is on the same page with what that goal is.

3. Baseline Everything

Rankings

• Tools like SearchMetrics, SpyFu and SEMRush can help you determine where you are currently proficient.

• Tools like AuthorityLabs, SEOmoz Rank Tracker and Advanced Web Ranking can help you track rankings across hundreds or thousands of keywords – use Google Keyword Tool to find all of your keywords.

• Tools like Conductor’s Searchlight or seoClarity can give you further insight into big keyword sets and competitor analysis. These tools are generally used by larger enterprises.

Backlinks

• Open Site Explorer (OSE), Majestic SEO, Blekko (use hashtag /SEO) and Link Diagnosis can tell you how many links you have and who links to you – among many other data points.

Organic Traffic and Leads/Sales

• You need a monthly spreadsheet showing total organic referrers by search engine including sales and/or leads. Do this for each month individually in your sheet – not an aggregate number. You need to show the trend.

• You need to detail this data in total for each month, but also breakout “branded” keywords and “non-branded” keywords.

• Also, because Google will hide keyword data (not provided) for up to 50 percent of your inbound keyword referrers you may have to do some extrapolations to understand your true branded vs. non-branded mix. In other words, if 50 percent of your 100,000 visitors are branded, 25 percent is non-branded, and 25 percent is not provided, you may have to assume that 2/3 of your visible data set is branded, which is then applied to the 25 percent not provided number. For clarity, you would assume that approx. 16,5000 of your 25,000 “not provided” keyword referrers are branded.

• You’ll want to compare this year over year. You should also overlay general market trends by looking at Google Trends. If you’re flat year over year, but the market has shifted downward by 20 percent, then you’re actually up.

4. Create an Executive Reporting Template

Tailoring executive reporting is perhaps the most important role of the smart SEO. Great results not communicated means great SEO that has no value. This is a post in itself, so I’ll expand at another time, and perhaps provide a template.

5. Identify Your Core Strategy Then Brainstorm Tactics

Since you already understand your goals, now you need to define your core strategy. Do the research, brainstorm, and develop a strategy. Then, worry about the tactical measures you must take to execute on that strategy. There a million great posts out there addressing these matters. I’d start with SEOMoz or the iAcquire blog.

6. Create a Presentation, Allocate the Time and Bring in the Shareholders

If you expect to be treated seriously, you need a serious audience and you need a serious presentation. Spend the time required to develop a concrete plan, do your research and work hard to knock their socks off. If you’re really vested you might even hire a graphic designer, or convince in-house creative to help you.

Let’s Start Taking SEO More Seriously

If you follow through on this properly, time it right and pitch it well you have set yourself up for success (assuming your company wants to be disruptive in digital, and understands the need to shift dollars and marketing strategy to the Internet).

SEO is PR. It’s the face of your brand. It’s the biggest, most sustainable way to stay in front of ready audience. Don’t ignore it. Play by the rules, but be aggressive and win. Good luck, and may your SEO game be strong.

I’d love to hear what others think – please comment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joe Griffin is the Co-founder and CEO at iAcquire, a digital marketing firm based in New York City and Phoenix. Joe works closely with the company's executive team to ensure the vision, service, technology, and support departments work in sync to deliver a best-in-class solution for iAcquire's clients. Prior to founding iAcquire, Joe co-founded another search marketing firm which was acquired by Web.com, and before that he spent three years with iCrossing where he led ad agency business development and later created their paid search division. Joe writes at joegriffin.me and the iAcquire blog, tweets at @joegriffin and lives on G+ here.