Key Takeaways
- Listen to Your Audience Beyond the Data: Marketers should be listening to client and customer feedback to uncover valuable opportunities that can be turned into digital marketing actions.
- Capitalize on User-Generated Content (UGC): While it might seem like a gamble, creating a space in your own backyard for user engagement—such as forums and review sections—can significantly boost your website performance. Google’s recent emphasis on discussions and reviews shows that UGC can outperform traditional content in search rankings, making it a valuable strategy for fostering community and increasing visibility.
- Tailor Content to Regional Preferences: Understanding and using regional terminology in your content can enhance search relevance. Hyper-local content can benefit both local and broader search performance, underscoring the importance of aligning content with regional audience needs.
As I stood there meeting all these great marketers from around the midwest discussing the presentation I was about to give, how the topic came about, and when to expect the next Google Algorithm Update, I was simultaneously looking outside of the window scanning the sky on a beautiful Milwaukee evening. Why? Because I’m a birder. I get an unusual amount of satisfaction from studying, searching for, and finally identifying species of birds in the field.
There was a Chimney Swift darting past, a host of house sparrows, and I could hear the "kyow kyow kyow” of the ring-billed gulls probably circling overhead out of sight. In fact, coming from Chicago, I know my gull sounds quite well, meaning that (according to the rules of the American Birding Association) I could add “Ring-Billed Gull” to my newly-formed Milwaukee species list, without even seeing it! This is called birding by ear, and is a skill that takes a very long time to master.
What does any of this have to do with digital marketing? Well, like birders, marketers spend so much time using our tools and getting lost in data that sometimes we forget that just stopping and listening can lead to huge opportunities and success.
Topic and Keyword Research
Targeting topics and keywords for content creation is something that often starts on third party SEO tools like Semrush, seoClarity, or ahrefs. But the need to go beyond this normal process became clear to me around March of 2024, a period of huge Google updates where content became the focal point of discussion. I wanted to go back and reassess my content creation process. While third party SEO tools are essential to our work, it’s important to realize they all have their limitations in keyword/topic research. Depending on how these tools get their data, some tools may have outdated data, seasonality, user biases, language variations and so on. For me, these imperfections highlighted the need to introduce a different approach.
Shortly after, I was In a client meeting, and instead of diving into reports and data as usual, I chose to listen more closely to the client's recent projects and happenings. While listening to him talk all about what the team has been up to, I heard him mention a project that I hadn’t heard of before. It was a very niche topic, and all of the SEO tools reported “no data”. But I didn’t let this discourage me. I had already seen the value in it because I heard the client talk all about it. We went ahead and wrote an article related to that niche project, and to this day it is the highest converting page on the website.
This shift in approach reflects the idea that by truly listening, one can uncover valuable insights that might be missed if solely focused on tools and numbers. Let your clients or customers speak, and try to listen for:
- Topics and keywords for content creation
- Backlink opportunities
- Content refresh ideas
Where to Start Listening
When planning a birding trip, the first step is knowing where to go. Unfortunately your chance of seeing tens of new species in your backyard are pretty slim, so you have to “go” birding. Now, you can go to your local park and probably see 10-15 species, or you can go to a bird preserve and see 20-30 new species. Similarly, when going out to understand your audience, you have a lot of different options on-and-offline.
Hotspots for Audience Listening
- Direct user feedback (Form Fills, Call Tracking, In-person conversations): One of the best ways to listen for new topic ideas, what your website users are looking for, and any new or trending topics you can cover
- Reddit and other Forums: These are places where a certain subset of your potential users congregate to give honest, unfiltered opinions, feedback, and ask questions related to just about any industry. This is also a great place to see anybody talking directly about your website by looking for backlinks from reddit.com or quora.com
- Reviews of your and competitors’ businesses: Although a bit more difficult to find, some reviews of businesses (whether on Google, Yelp, industry-specific platforms like TripAdvisor, etc) can provide valuable feedback on what users enjoy, or don’t enjoy about a certain business
- Top 10 ___ in ___ articles: Looking for trends in why certain businesses are considered the best. What aspects of the business are highlighted in these articles, do you or your clients’ businesses share the same traits? Are you highlighting those traits enough in your digital marketing?
Marketers should be actively listening at these places to stay in tune with their audience's needs and opinions, much like birders track bird activity in promising locations.
Setting Up The Birdfeeder (The UGC Debate)
While many birders are passionate about their feeders, I avoid them—not so much because of any ethical stance, but out of fear of disappointment. Setting up a bird feeder often leads to frustrations like attracting nothing but squirrels or dealing with aggressive birds like blue jays and grackles. There's even the possibility of a predator like a Cooper's Hawk swooping in and dismembering a bird. This ties into digital marketing through the concept of user-generated content (UGC). Instead of solely going out to find what your audience is saying, you can create spaces where they come to you, much like a bird feeder attracts birds to your yard. Google’s recent focus on forums, discussions, and reviews in search rankings shows the growing value of UGC as it applies to SEO. These platforms are becoming increasingly prominent in search results, often outranking more traditional, authoritative sites. Just as a well-placed bird feeder can attract a variety of birds, creating spaces for user-generated content can draw in valuable audience insights and engagement.
While many birders are passionate about their feeders, I avoid them—not so much because of any ethical stance, but out of fear of disappointment.
It’s important to recognize that while not every industry or website can feasibly incorporate UGC, it's worth considering if there’s any potential to build a community around your brand. Google’s algorithms may shift, and UGC could fluctuate in organic rank, but engaging with your audience and fostering discussions on your platform can always be an option to increase community engagement with your brand. Even if the outcome isn't immediate or as expected—akin to setting up a bird feeder and initially attracting only squirrels—there may still be value in the effort.
Regional Trends (Targeting Your Audience)
When birding, distinguishing between similar species, like the black-capped and Carolina chickadees, can be challenging until you consider their geographic ranges. For instance, in Milwaukee, a chickadee is almost certainly a black-capped due to regional distribution of that species. This concept extends to language and regional differences in digital search behavior. For example, in the Midwest, a snack might be called "Puppy Chow," while in California, it's known as "Muddy Buddies." This regional variance directly affects search results: queries for "Muddy Buddies" and "Puppy Chow" can yield different results, with each term influencing which recipes rank higher.
The key takeaway here is to understand and target your audience effectively. If you're aiming for a specific regional audience, like those in the Midwest, use their local terminology in your content. This targeted approach ensures that your content resonates with the audience and performs better in search results. Conversely, if you're solely focused on driving traffic regardless of regional nuances, you can rely on keyword tools to assess search volume, but recognizing and addressing these regional differences can enhance your content's relevance and impact.
A real life example of this is a recent project for a well drilling client. The original idea was to create content about drilling costs, but the client emphasized that such a question lacked regional context, as cost depends on a whole bunch of factors, mainly where the well is bing drilled. To address this, we tailored the article to focus on different drilling costs based on regions in the mid-Atlantic. For instance, we detailed costs for mud drilling near the Potomac River versus rock drilling in coastal Maryland and southern Pennsylvania.
This hyper-local approach, while planning on sacrificing national traffic, surprisingly led to significant national visibility. Despite the focus on regional content, the article boosted the client’s site rankings for the keyword "well drilling" across the U.S. This phenomenon illustrated that creating highly localized content can enhance national search performance as well. The article's success also led to the client's service area page—previously not ranking well—jumping to the top spot, showing that localized content can indirectly benefit other related pages.this is why you should tailor your content to your regional audience, as it can improve both local and national search visibility.
Local Songs
To excel in birding by ear, start by familiarizing yourself with the bird calls in your own backyard before attempting to memorize the hundreds of calls that may exist in North America. This approach mirrors a real-life example from a brewery my parents opened in Melbourne, Florida. They focused on creating exceptional bathrooms, which led to customers frequently praising them in-person and in reviews. Initially, this might seem trivial, but as a marketer, noticing these consistent local mentions can spark valuable insights. For instance, recognizing the potential in "best bathroom" reviews led us to enter the America's Best Bathroom Award contest. This strategy resulted in significant PR exposure and numerous backlinks from local news sources, boosting the brewery's online visibility.
The key takeaway is to listen to your audience and leverage their feedback. Instead of solely relying on analytical tools, paying attention to user questions, comments and reviews can provide actionable opportunities for digital marketing and SEO. By adapting and responding to local insights, you can achieve impressive results, much like identifying bird calls by starting small and expanding from there.
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