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Jennifer Osborne at Search Engine People wrote an interesting post about the importance of understanding how your target audience searches. She describes how a 40-year old is not only going to be searching for a different product than a 17-year old, she may also perform any keyword search quite differently.
For instance: If you’re looking for a hair cut, do you look up “beauty salon” in the phone book or type “hair cut [city name]” into Google?
The 40-year old has spent her lifetime looking things up by category. The 17-year old has never had to do so. It makes a difference.
You can read Jennifer’s article, here: Dude, I’m Phaaaaaat!
How do you search? Do you tend to categorize or jump straight to an advanced keyword search to find what you’re looking for?
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on Feb 1st, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I have learned to change how I search for information. Moving to the Internet age made searching more dynamic and, in most ways, easier.
This is an interesting post since I was just thinking about how we search online while walking to work. I have been thinking about a highly targeted online marketing program that could be taught to a niche market. Since many of the customers in this market do their search online, it is critical to understand HOW they do their searches. We have to put ourselves in the mind of our customer to know how to reach them.
on Feb 1st, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I didn’t realize how much my habits had changed until I read Jennifer’s post. My phone books get more use as impromptu toddler booster seats than as a resources to find a phone number or address. And when was the last time we looked anything up in a card catalog at the library?
Your marketing program idea sounds interesting. What are you doing to gain a better understanding of how your market searches?
Thanks for stopping by, Jim!
on Feb 6th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Good question. I’ve started by informally asking people, “If you were looking for X, where would you start?” The answer has been almost 100% “on the net” with an occasional “ask a friend if they know a good X”.
Second, I am reading everything about this industry that I can get my hands on. There are a couple reports on how to market in this industry, but not a lot of great detail and almost no consensus.
My next step, since I am not actively in the market, will be to partner with someone who is. I need an expert that can help me develop this program and understands the industry. I have a number of marketing strategies, but I need to test them and be sure they are effective. So I see a trial run coming in the near future.
Things are really in the brainstorming stage. I will have to make a huge commitment if I want to make this happen. I think the potential is excellent, but it will mean a huge investment of time. We will see.
on Feb 6th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Brainstorming - that’s the best part! I wish you the best if you decide to move forward with it. It sounds like you’re proceeding wisely with market research and caution.
I’ve got to tell you … I’m so curious about what your market might be! And I’m just as sure that you’re keeping it under wraps for good reason
on Jul 23rd, 2008 at 12:21 pm
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