HOW TO: Listen Online to Find Content Topics that Lead Prospects to Your Website

Customers love valuable, specific, no-nonsense, problem-solving content that’s easily accessible on the Web.  Content  that answers questions, saves time or helps to meet goals.   As a business owner, creating and publishing strong web content is a key marketing tactic at your disposal.

You’ll want an ongoing process to create and publish web site content that attracts customers with problems your products and services can solve.  Sounds pretty cut and dried, right?

Well, how do you decide what to write about?  How do you find the specific, compelling topics that your customers are grappling with?  I thought you might ask.  I just happen to have some ideas.

‘Listen’ to online conversations.

First, you “listen” to the online conversation.  Monitor what’s being discussed, asked, requested, and debated.  Then you create valuable content that fills the gaps.

Here are some steps that will get you started on finding and monitoring the conversations taking place online among your prospects and customers.

Research your keywords.

1. List the keywords you’re currently using in your website content to help prospects find your products and services.  Then do some homework.  Use a tool to see how frequently your keyword choices are actually used by people in a search. Google offers one free tool.

• Try Keyword Tool from Google to research the frequency and competitiveness of each term. (Note: Use this tool even if you’re not doing a Google AdWords campaign.)
• If you search in Google on Keyword Tool, you’ll get a result with ‘KeywordToolExternal’.
• Review the AdWords ‘advanced tips for using the Keyword Tool’ here
• Check out your competitors’ sites for other keyword ideas.
• Ask customers & prospects what terms/keywords they use to search for industry info.
• Decide on the keywords you determine are most popular with your prospects and customers.

2. Talk with your customers about how they search for info and answers online.  Ask them about the sites they use to get help.  Also find out which terms (keywords) they plug into search engines to find answers online.

• During your ongoing customer conversations, ask about today’s top goals and obstacles.
• When talking with prospects try to uncover the range of issues that are on their minds.
• Keep track of the actual terms they use to describe problems/issues.  As an expert in your field, you may use different terms/keywords (jargon) than your customers and prospects commonly use.
• When asking for their favorite industry web sites or search terms, have your researched list ready to prompt them if needed.

3. Test your list of ‘target’ keywords with online tools.  Try out different online tools to keep up with relevant mentions/discussions on social media and industry sites.

Find the sites most popular with your target market.

1. Using the target keyword list you’ve created, identify social media and other websites popular in your industry by seeing where these terms appear.  Use web searches to see where your chosen keywords are appearing.  You may discover some new sites popular with your target customers.
2. Use your Google account, sign in and set up Google Alerts labeled “Alerts” for the keywords you want to research.  Google Alerts are email notifications delivered to your email when mentions of your industry topics  (your keywords) are posted online.  This is a fast, free and easy way to find some online communities/sites that you may not know about where your customers and prospects are gathering.

3. For so-called “real time search” on the microblogging site Twitter you can plug your keywords into the search page of Twitter, and see who is ‘Tweeting”/talking about your industry.  There are tons of other tools of this type.  (Now maybe your prospective customers are not on Twitter–only one way to find out…)  Regular  search engine searches may or may not return Twitter results, so some Twitter-specific research is a good step for you to take.  If your competitors are active on a new social media site, that’s a good fact to know.

• • Mashable has a list of other Twitter search tools here.  I love Mashable, The Social Media Guide.  They are always my first stop to get a handle on new services, tools and tips that me help navigate the social media and social networking space.

4. Try out multiple tools that notify you when and the website address of where your company’s/industry’s keywords appear.

5. Follow them for a couple of weeks to see what’s percolating online.  You may be surprised by where or how your customers and prospects are interacting online.

Identify your industry’s influential bloggers.

See what topics are being discussed, commented on by blog readers. These tools can help:

Technorati  Advanced Search for industry blogs with the most  “authority” (highest number of other blogs that link to the blog).

Alltop top blogs by industry

Google Blog Search

Tip: When you find a blogger that has a good following (lots of readers, active comments) in your space, check out their “blogroll” usually on a sidebar for blogs they follow. You’ll find other blogs that fit your audience to investigate.

Track your competitors.

Set up Google Alerts for your competitors’ company name, products.  Find out what sites they are being mentioned on or participating on.  Determine if you want to participate there or not.

Check in with industry forums, social networking sites where your customers hang out, share opinions, ask questions.  Find out what is on their minds. Here are some examples of sites other than FaceBook where customers, businesses, users congregate.  If your target audience uses products/services in these segments, you may be able to learn about what’s on their minds.  Even if you’re not competing with Sony or Intuit.

• LinkedIn Answers
• Texas Instruments Engineering Forum https://community.ti.com/forums/
• Consumer electronics: Sony Backstage
• Small business:  Intuit’s legendary online communities for Turbotax, Quick Books, etc. here

You now have a set of tools to keep up with what’s being discussed in your industry online.  Continue to monitor the sites you’ve identified.  Look for the online topics that aren’t being answered appropriately.

Create strong content on a regular basis and post it to your website.  If you have a Web Analytics tool, track carefully to see which type of content is most viewed by your web visitors or ask your web developer for help.

There are tons of great tools out there.  These are a good starting point.  Any other suggestions?