Finding new customers is high on the wish list for most business executives, particularly those in sales or marketing. Keeping existing customers is equal with finding new ones. Both are often looking for your brand online, but only a small percentage of companies are doing a good job of getting found.
The above video is not on the exact subject from the blog post, but close.
This is because most online marketing, specifically, search engine optimization (SEO) is aimed at ranking for non-branded keywords and phrases. The important, but relatively generic, phrases you think your customer is most likely to search or a phrase your competitor’s site outranks your site. According to a post on the Orbit Media blog, How To Find All Your Branded Keywords In Seconds (plus 9 ways to Optimize for them), there are three types of key phrases.
- Informational Queries: 80%
- Transactional Queries: 10%
- Branded / Navigational Queries: 10%
Tweet This: How Branded Keywords Will Get You New Customers
With informational queries making up the majority, it is no wonder that SEO professionals go after that bucket of words and phrases. Of the three, branded phrases are still a big one. “The branded keywords are usually ignored by SEOs. But actually, they provide powerful insights for marketers and website planners. Brand searches are a secret weapon for content strategists because they hold powerful clues about our audience,” says well-known marketing and SEO expert, Andy Crestodina, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Orbit Media in Chicago.
What’s a branded keyphrase?
Crestodina explains that “A branded keyphrase is a search term that includes the name of a brand name, a variation of a brand name or the name of a specific product… They are [also] called navigational queries because people who search for brands are usually trying to get to a specific company website or webpage. This explains why these phrases have ultra-high click through rates.”
50% or more of people who search for brands click on the top ranking webpage. And it’s usually the brand. —Source: Advanced Web Rankings as mentioned by Orbit Media
It is an action-packed post with ideas and insights for, Andy concedes, mostly large businesses, but I would posit that small businesses can benefit. Much of what Andy is sharing is, at its core, search intent. People are looking to solve a problem and if you have built a brand, particularly a local, well-recognized one, and your customers will add your brand name with their problem when they search.
Google My Business Profiles
For example, searches might look like this:
- Brand + hours
- Brand + address
- Brand + price
- Brand + location
These often pop up in what is known as the knowledge panel. The search is often via voice with the Google Assistant or maybe Siri. Customers see the knowledge panel and do not even need to click through to your site. That’s both a good and a bad thing as you need to provide information in that profile that answers your customer’s question.
Most readers will not be surprised that my favorite part of Andy’s post is the part about how to better use YouTube (or in his example, how to use it at all – as he explains what Toyota is NOT doing on the video site).
Here is his example:
“You own a Toyota Prius and the battery is dead. You need to jump start it, but when you open the hood, you don’t see the battery in the usual spot, so you take out your phone and do a quick search using a branded keyword: “how to jump a Prius.” You find dozens of helpful videos. Some of them have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. But where is Toyota? Why aren’t they here to help?”
I won’t leave you hanging, Andy gives the answers on how to find out what people are searching on YouTube:
- You can use the “YouTube” tab in KeywordTool.io and look for each of your products.
- Or just search for your products on YouTube and see what’s getting viewed!
If your business is like my business (or most), finding new customers and keeping existing ones is a top priority. My advice is head over to Andy Crestodina’s Orbit Media blog and read this post: How To Find All Your Branded Keywords In Seconds (plus 9 ways to Optimize for them). Actually, spend some time there and read as many as you can; There’s gold in his content that can directly help you get people to your website and blog.