The Rise of User Intent Insights
There’s been a surge in interest in this topic of user intent in the last 5 years.
Search engine optimizers want to understand keyword usage and what content to create. But user intent touches on all aspects of marketing and business strategy.
Brand managers too want a keen understanding of customer’s preferences and what brand messaging fits to their liking. You’ll find everyone has their own angle on this topic, but your first immersion should be more general, and bring you to a deeper awareness of what customers are really after when they arrive at your website.
User intent is a deep topic with emotional complexity and filled with a cluster of wants and personal impressions. However, we can generally find the most significant core drivers to focus on. I think you’ll find this info on user intent psychology helpful in developing your content strategy.
However, a content strategist must try to understand it, and do the mental gymnastics required to get on top of it. Because, if we don’t understand what the customer really wants, our marketing is going to miss the mark, and waste a lot of time and money.
Beyond the 3 Basic Types of Intent
Do a search on the user intent topic and you’ll find an endless rehashing of the basic 3 kinds of user intent: informational, transactional, and navigational. But these alone don’t tell you much, because most searchers and shoppers intend to do all 3. We’ll do better by looking for the end, and then backtracking to the start of their journey. It’s all about them.
What we’re looking for is more is the end goal, the experience and value they are visualizing as they view your content and consider your product.
Definition of User Intent: the underlying motive or drive of a consumer is to buy a product/service/brand that supports their personal worth and philosophy — one that is the perfect representation of their beliefs, self-image, and supports their self-esteem. This view involves the what, who, how, why, when, and where questions they silently might ask.
The Quest for Emotional Satisfaction
People arriving on your site aren’t pursuing features, but instead, are looking for a solution to a specific need – an emotional gap/emptiness to be fulfilled. What they’re searching for on Google is only a conscious representation of what they really want. The keywords they used could be about many, many benefits they’re interested. They’re just a clue to what they really seek.
For instance, if we type in “vacation tour package Italy” are we actually just wanting a package of tickets?
Or do we really want:
- a feeling of being in sophisticated places that our peer group says are essential
- to explore the many splendors of a foreign country and experience another culture to transform ourselves
- to get away to a place where we can escape ourselves
- to visit a place that we’ve seen in pictures and videos so many times through decades of our lives
- to taste the culture, food, and drinks of an interesting place against spectacular visual backdrops
- to go hiking in the Alps
- to share an experience with others via a tour
- to break out of a rut and prove to ourselves we are masters of our lives
- to compare prices of vacation packages online to see if we can afford it
- to shop in Venice
- to see ancient ruins and feel like a part of the human race
- to discover what a vacation in Italy is about and what it might include
So the point to be made is there are a lot of “micro-intents” that might all come into play. And this might confuse us. A content strategist has to nail down the most important and fashion content that resonates to them.
The Benefits of User-Intent to Marketing
If your content matches what Google believes they want, you should expertise and they trust you as the author, then your page might rank high. If your content matches what the user is actually interested in, they may engage with your content and make contact you for more info and encouragement. And if your brand matches their trust/wants/expectations and your product matches their budget, they might purchase.
User intent is a lot of matchmaking really.
And isn’t it interesting (maybe not to salespeople), that when customers agree that your product is exactly what they’re looking for, and yet they don’t buy it! At this point, salespeople seek therapy. In fact, after visiting my website and enjoying some powerful marketing content, are you ready to hire me? Why not? (my website’s crappy, I’m not using cool buzzwords, I don’t demonstrate enough credible real-life examples, I’m missing custom video services, I’m not ranking #1 on Google, or you don’t really know me yet).
Personalization is Really About Intent Matching
Marketers today talk about brand values and personalization, and this hints at the power of personal meaning and preferences — sort of the discriminating tastes of the prospect.
And just a note here is that this is about the human voice of a brand, that of a personal best friend who makes the prospect’s life more vivid, positive, and meaningful. Customers do buy your brand, not a product. It’s a brand that seems to fulfill those deep unconscious prejudices that are so personal and vital to them.
With respect to travel services and products, the user-intent relates to the consumer’s core drive to purchase something that will maintain or improve their lives. As in the previous example, they can purchase an Italy vacation tour package to maintain their joy of life or our view of themselves (self-image), or to create a new dimension or rewarding experience — personal transformation — to get to a better version of themselves.
When we make their status quo both comfortable and their future more promising it can move them along the sales funnel.
The key thing for your product/brand and your content strategy then, is to tie it to the customer’s reference group and the end values they’re wanting. That satisfies the end goal. Then, they may rationalize everything back to the present, and you won’t have to do any further work. Wouldn’t that be nice!
The 6 W’s of User Intent:
- why – to impress the owner, investors, friends and family members to make them feel good.
- how – matching their view of the process of satisfaction.
- when – the period when they’re convinced of your brand’s significance and trustworthiness as the only one for them.
- what – the vision of fulfillment and satisfaction they see, which fills needs they want filled (pain points, goals).
- where — the place where the satisfaction takes place.
- who — the brand, people, providers and friends/family inside the dream of satisfaction in their minds, as they commit to your offering.
Which of the W’s Is Most Important?
Out of all these objectives, it is Who that’s most influential because if they don’t feel sympatico with you, that you belong in their club, they won’t buy from you.
We need to create create an image of sympatico with our target customers, remove any tone of threat they might perceive, and accentuate the significant value you might bring to their special club. This creates trust, reliability, comfort, harmony, and hope. And it helps them bring value to those in their inner circle of influencers/friends/family.
A brand becomes significant when it proves it fits with the customer’s beliefs and their personal values. The winning brand has no threats in it, and seems to support the personal philosophy of the person.
Being the Perfect Solution
The consumer wants their perfect solution, but also to feel they trust the provider and that this provider is the most significant provider in the marketplace and expresses an “only one for me” message. Trusted, exclusive, most significant is the higher priority that colors the whole content experience for them.
And when we say “their perfect solution” what does this mean? It’s personal, prejudiced, and limited.
Getting past consumer/prospect’s psychological prejudices is important. This is resolved by clear brand values and how you demonstrate those values. The style or voice of your content is the “reading between the lines” about where your brand is sympatico with them. It could be your web design, font, photos, messaging, keyword use, and pain points subtlely discussed.
What if hinting at their pain points is more to their liking than spelling them all out in the article?
⦁ Trust – your voice, topics values are similar to theirs and they respect them. Does your product talk the talk and walk the walk?
⦁ Significance – your brand is the epitome of the ideal product/service
⦁ Exclusiveness – the belief that they are the number customer and they believe you are a perfect match for all their info/product priorities.
People search and buy relative to a frame of reference, an orientation about the goal they envision — their expectations. So user-intent is a sophisticated mix of intentions that are a frame of reference for the content experience they respect.
They intend to observe only the brand/service that matches their prejudices. You can provide all the info, direction, and navigation choices, and not have a sale or lead. It’s because the brand experience they want and expect is missing.
So the brand experience is the message and the promise, more than benefits.
What they’re looking for are signals within the right content from a source they respect — the brand they actually do want to buy from. For instance, let’s say you give them 3 choices of airlines for your Italy trip — Russian airlines, Italy airlines, or United Airlines? Which will they choose?
So, being the one they want to buy from, the most significant brand, is the key to user-intent based strategy.
Whether you’re a Realtor, software company, travel company, hotel, destination, or an ecommerce website, it’s being the most emotionally and personally significant one that gets the sale.
User Intent Content
Our content has to drill down into the who, what, why, how, where and when of the ultimate experience the shopper is searching for. When we get the very best match, we get results.
Your stats and content testing if possible, can help you isolate the important variables.
Content strategy isn’t easy. Those who don’t dig in, will never get this right. Guessing is the pits!
Try these insights in your content strategy and watch your engagement stats — time on page, clicks, progress, and sales rise.
Here are some additional resources you may find helpful:
What is user intent: https://www.coveo.com/blog/what-is-user-intent/
Consumer consciousness: https://searchengineland.com/seo-guide-user-intent-429687
SEO search intent basics: https://www.similarweb.com/blog/marketing/seo/search-intent/
Call Gord now at 416 998 6246 and let’s understand your customer’s intent better.
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