Where Are Your Prospects Now?

Remember the VH1 series, Where Are They Now? I loved that show growing up. I think my favorite were the episodes about the kid stars and how their lives changed as they grew up in and out of the spotlight. The one-hit-wonder episodes were also quite entertaining.

Well I thought it would be fun to play a little Where Are They Now? with your prospects. A lot has changed online over the past couple years, and it’s possible your prospects are not where they used to be. Since we’re just starting the New Year, now is the perfect time to take a step back, survey the online landscape, and make sure you’re going after the best online marketing opportunities to target your ideal prospect.

Here are 3 questions I recommend you answer:

1. What Are Your Prospects Searching Now?

It’s a safe bet that your prospects are using Google to search online for answers and solutions. The question is what are they searching and has it changed since the last time you did your keyword research? To answer this question, use Google’s Keyword Planner Tool. If you haven’t reviewed relevant keywords in a while, then you may find some new keywords to target in your search engine optimization (SEO) campaign.

I also recommend reviewing the keywords your prospects are already using to find your website. If you have Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools linked up, then this information can easily be found in your Google Analytics Queries report. Just make sure you filter by Google Property so you’re looking at just Google.com searches, rather than image searches.

2. Which Devices Are Your Prospects Using Now?

I remember about a year ago I was thought I didn’t need to worry about mobile device traffic because it just wasn’t a significant percentage of website traffic. Well that changed quickly… Now when I look at clients’ Analytics reports, as well as our own, it’s clear that you can no longer ignore mobile. Almost 20% of our own traffic is from mobile and tablet devices each month. That number is growing fast and experts predict mobile traffic will surpass desktop traffic by 2015!

It should be obvious by now that you absolutely must have a mobile marketing strategy. If you don’t quickly optimize your website for mobile and tablet devices (this year!), then you’ll struggle to convert website visitors into leads and customers.

3. Which Websites Are Your Prospects Visiting Now?

The day my mom joined Facebook was the day I realized almost every type of business now has prospects who are frequently visiting social media websites. I’ll be the first to admit that I was not a big fan of social media marketing when it first sprinted on the scene. My background is in direct response marketing so I have been extremely skeptical about the return on investment from social media marketing.

However, the reality is that our prospects are spending more time on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and LinkedIn than any other website. Social media is the new television. Just like we would be foolish to ignore mobile (the device of choice for most of our prospects), we surely can’t ignore the websites that our prospects now choose to visit multiple times per day. That’s where they are now, whether we like it or not.