Here’s how to use search engines to get into the minds of your audience

Getting to know your audience can be tough. Sure, you can create personas to outline the segments of your audience, but often these personas are built from consumer surveys or offline research (like talking to your sales team or talking directly to customers).

The problem with surveys and offline research is:

  • They’re often expensive (and time consuming)

  • They’re slow (who wants to collect and collate survey data?)

  • They’re intrusive and bother your audience (how many times have you been asked to complete a survey?)

  • Results can be inaccurate (with users providing intentionally false answers or submitting what they think marketers want to hear)

This is where search engine insight can be powerful.

 

Search engine insights: A better way to understand your audience

What most people don’t realise, is that search engine insights and analytics aren’t just for SEOs and Google Ads experts building lists of words to target people with. 

They’re helpful for anyone trying to understand their audience. 

Why? Because people type questions into Google that they’d never tell a customer survey.

Google’s keyword suggestion tool (the little drop-down that pops up when you’re making a google search query) is basically a way to get free and instant access to what customers are looking for online. 

This means that it can be a true (and amazing) source of information on what people really want to know, and on what they think about your brand.

Sounding too hard? Don’t worry — we’ll show you how below.

 

How to use search data to understand your audience

Google’s suggestions are powered by the aggregation of all data from ordinary searchers across the world.

 
google-suggest.gif
 

They’re ordered from top to bottom based on the popularity of the search, and it’s delivered in real-time, giving you instant access to the data (it’s already sounding better than surveys isn’t it?). 

It’s a simple and effective way to read the mind of your target audience.

 

Keyword research: Where to start

If you’re interested in diving into the depths of your audience’s thoughts, we recommend starting with answerthepublic.com — it’s a brilliant tool that will help you to categorise the different answers, and to get you thinking. Plus, the visuals look pretty impressive if you want to share them with key stakeholders.

As an example — here’s a search insights result from answerthepublic.com which looks at the who, when, where, how and why of ‘digital strategy’

digital strategy questions diagram

If you need help getting started, here’s a link to a handy infographic from searchlistening.com that will guide you on how to use the tool (just a heads up — they ask for your details to download it — but, still, it’s a great download)

search listening diagram
 

Keyword research: We can help

Digging into all of the ways people search (to find clues about how people perceive your brand) can take a long time. If you don’t have the energy, we can do it for you, completing keyword research as part of an SEO audit.

We’ll give you data that shows you how people are discussing key topics related to your brand, and your business. We’ll talk you through it and help you put it to use either in the form of a content plan, or as an informative piece to guide your brand strategy.

 

Get in touch

If you’re feeling a bit bamboozled and need help understanding how search engine insight all works — we’re here to help. Get in touch for an obligation-free chat on 1300 692 007 or send us a message and we’ll get back to you.