As part of our SEJ interview series, Andrew Beckman of Location3 joins us to discuss how we as marketers have the ability to influence every step of the online purchasing process.
I began the interview by asking Andrew how Google’s ‘not provided’ keyword data has hindered the ability to know what consumers are looking for online. However, Andrew makes a strong case for why that is not even among the top things we should be concerned about as online marketers.
There are more steps towards influencing a consumer to make a purchase beyond just having the right keywords in place. Understanding every step of the buyer’s journey will help you make more sales, even without the valuable keyword data we used to have access to.
Hear Andrew explain more about this in the video below:
Here are some key takeaways from the video:
- There are many different touch-points along the consumer’s journey to making a purchase. A Google search is just one of those touch-points.
- Creating content to be indexed in Google is one touch-point, as mentioned. There’s also paid advertisements, social media, and retargeting advertisements.
- Andrew believes Google made the shift to encrypted search data so that search engine marketers learn how to diversify their efforts. With the Google Display Network and social networks like Google+, Google is offering marketers a variety of avenues to reach customers.
- Influencing the purchase process every step of the way is necessary these days because customers are looking beyond the search engines for information that will ultimately lead them to make the decision of whether or not to buy a product or service.
Please visit SEJ’s YouTube page for more video interviews.
