SEO in Ottawa and Marketing Personas to Grow Website Traffic

  

 Email Article  

Tweet  

  

  

 delicious  

  

  

It's time to talk SEO and today we're going to start with some info that's slightly different but keeps in mind that your SEO (search engine optimization) actions should grow website traffic that is of a targeted nature. Specifically, we'll talk about SEO in Ottawa (if you don't know this already, IME is located in the Ottawa, Canada region) but everything we offer is applicable to your business and location as well. So how will this post differ from other SEO information? Like most material online, there will be some links to other information on longtail keywords (for example) and links to other posts that were intended to help you with your SEO efforts, but how this will differ is that today we're going to talk about your marketing persona (or personas) and how it relates to SEO. This is a little more advanced information, but you know your customer and target audience best and making that audience crystal clear is an important step in developing outstanding SEO results.

There's a great deal of talk about SEO. There are blog posts, online articles, free tools etc. and one thing we'd like to make clear is that while it's important, it's one among seven inbound marketing elements that are all relevant to turning your company's website or web presence into a business development asset that works for you by generating online leads. There are many companies that offer SEO services in Ottawa and they can be helpful in performing some work that, if done properly should help generate website traffic for you. However, if you were to focus on SEO without addressing the other inbound marketing elements and actions, while you may increase the traffic to your website, it's doubtful that you would significantly impact the business you generate from your work because getting more traffic isn't the only thing that matters. Unfortunately there are a lot of businesses that have bought into a single solution provider like SEO help or social media services and many feel that there money was wasted to a large extent. Don't misunderstand what we're saying here, there are excellent companies offering single solution services, and they can get solid "single solution" results, but todays modern marketing strategy, isn't single solution oriented, at least not for the most part. (there are always exceptions right?) That's why inbound marketing's integrated and comprehensive approach is being adopted by more and more companies, at the end of the day, you want business growth and inbound marketing delivers.

Marketing personas...hmmmm. When is the last time you brainstormed on your target audience? Maybe it's time to revisit this activity because you'll likely find new ways to apply SEO tactics that will grow website traffic with visitors more likely to convert on your website because you're speaking they're language. Plain and simple, the more detailed you make your marketing persona, the more likely it is that your SEO efforts will be effective. Other successful companies review the marketing persona regularly and either add or delete characteristics as things change. Want a process to do this?

4 Steps to Re-inventing Your Company's Marketing Persona For SEO 

1. Brainstorm about "who is the customer?"- Think of industry vertical, size of company, their specific need or needs related to your company's solution, who the person is within that company that is your decision maker or influencer, male, female, age, married, single, kids, vehicle, recreational activities, charitable habits, preferred music and the list goes on. Don't think that anything you know about your current customers or prospects is insignificant, just brainstorm with as many people as possible on this project, sales, marketing, product development, customer service basically anyone who has or will 'touch' a customer or prospect. By the way, you may want to simmer this process, one company puts up a whiteboard for a week, and everyone adds post-it notes as they think of something...not a bad idea!
2. Group all of the similar characteristics and personas identified by your brainstorming- You may have a number of different personas that apply to your business. We've used the example of a hotel previously for longtail keyword development, and we'll use it here for marketing personas. Hotels can serve many different clients, families, business travellers, conventioneers and a myriad of others. Grouping together all of the various traits etc. will clarify who the persona or personas are.
3. Prioritize which persona matters most- It's pretty challenging to be all things to all people or in this case personas, so establishing one or two key personas to focus on is important as it simplifies your efforts.
4. Create your persona- Really! Get a picture (there are lots on the internet that are available by the way!) and name them and create a life for them. Post them on your wall with their story. The more that you know them, the easier it is to speak to them, understand their issues, interpret their actions etc. The more concrete you can make this persona, the better you'll be able to target your SEO actions.

Well, that's our starting point. In our next post we'll begin looking at some of the specific details of applying some SEO actions that will grow website traffic but that are based on a marketing persona approach.

We're at the edge of the future!