2.4 A Quick Introduction to Search

Finally, we’re in the last episode of this chapter that is focussed on giving you a strong marketing foundation before we get to the fun, meaty bit – blogging 

So let’s talk a little more about inbound marketing, but specifically focused on your target audience. 

As a marketer, and yes that’s who you are, understanding your target audience is extremely important. So let’s see how you can manage that. 

Let’s say you work for a store that sells fishing gear. What is it with us and fishing gear? Our entire team has gone fishing a grand total of 0 times in our lives but anyway, let’s stick with the example. So you work at this fishing gear store. 

Based off what we just looked at, we know that if you want to write a blog that actually draws traffic, you need to understand your audience. The easiest way to understand your audience is through the marketing funnel.

Okay pause. The marketing funnel is a very important term that most people don’t understand. You are not most people. 

The marketing funnel is the principle that any business’ audience falls into 3 categories. 

Awareness, consideration and decision. 

People in the awareness bucket either don't know about your brand or product or are just getting to know about it.

People in the consideration bucket are aware about your brand and are probably warming up to make a purchase. 

People in the decision bucket, know about your brand and have considered it and are probably just on the last stage of making the decision to make a purchase. Makes sense?

Now, how does this categorisation help you? Well, simply put – it will give you a starting point from where you can understand what your 3 audiences might be looking for. Take your fishing gear example -

People in the awareness bucket are probably not really into fishing but enjoy exploring the possibility of going fishing. So they’re likely to be searching for stuff like -

1. Is fishing safe?
2. Where can I go fishing near Bangalore?
3. Does it take a lot of time to catch fish?

I know some of these questions are silly, but you'd be amazed at what people search for. I mean, would you show your search history to anyone else on the planet?? Hmm, I didn't think so.

The second kind of people are in the consideration bucket. They’ve been thinking about fishing for some time now and  genuinely considering trying it out. They would have searches like -

1. What kind of gear do you need to fish?
2. What kind of weather is good for fishing?
3. Fishing camps or guided fishing near me.

Notice something? The searches are getting more specific and informed.

The last category is the decision category. People in this category are ready to buy. Their searches will be a lot more informed, specific and decision ready. It will probably look like -

1. Nylon fishing line.
2. Carbon fiber fishing rods.
3. Fishing floats

These searches show that the person knows about the gear and is clearly looking to make a purchase. 

This is the best way for you to categorize your audience. Categorisation helps you write blogs that are specific to each part of the audience and it’s really just as simple as this. 

Marketing is simple. It’s how you can be intentional about reaching the right audience and with the right message. 

And that brings us to the end of this chapter. We’re getting closer and closer to you writing your first blog but we have a bit more prep to do before that so I will see you in the next episode.