In his post, "Advanced Keyword Research — The power of understanding your visitors”, Hamlet Batista takes the reader step by step through the process of researching keywords for your target audience. It’s a great article with some great tools. Be sure to check out (and bookmark) the full article. In his post, the first step is, of course, to identify your target audience or visitors.
Over and over again, marketing experts EVERYWHERE beg and plead with business owners to begin with their target audience in mind. A much touted key to success is to write copy with the end user in mind instead of writing copy for the search engines. After all, heavy traffic without conversions to sales is not the key to a profitable online experience. But writing with the end user in mind eventually leads us back to targeting a niche market.
An interesting thing happens when you start thinking of your target audience… you begin to include elements in your copy that reduce customer anxiety.
Gee, go figure. People need to establish a relationship (aka TRUST) with you before they hand over their credit card information!
I’ve written an entire book (Beyond the Niche) to help business owners to walk a mile in their customers’ shoes before they write a word of marketing copy. If you’re making a Minor Sale… then trust isn’t as big of an issue for you to overcome with your potential customers. However, if you’re making a MAJOR SALE... then the rules of the game change dramatically.
It amazes me how many companies want “everyone” to be their target audience. That just won’t work, and close-minded (or else, balloons-in-the-sky minded) managers and business owners think that their product or service will be the one that appeals to everyone in the entire world. This is a great point about not writing for the search engines – that’s what marketers are doing nowadays because that is what their bosses think they want.