How to gain traction in new markets

We all love binge-watching Netflix these days, but do you remember the first time you heard about Netflix? You probably didn’t just type “DVD rental by mail” into Google on a whim.

And this represents a similar challenge for any business with new or disruptive ideas. How do you build engagement with something that no one knows exists?

Fortunately, there are teeth The audience for your product or service, whether they already know it or not. And categories exist regardless of keyword volume.

Just as paid search professionals sometimes like to borrow the influence of competitors to pull traffic by bidding on brand terms, SEO professionals who are growing their brand in a new market can use the influence of a competitor to bid on brand terms to pull traffic. You need to consider tapping into the demand that already exists, and then explain why your brand is the way it is. A great alternative.

This article details my approach to what I call “Trojan Horse SEO” for category creation.

• Research existing markets to disrupt.
• Create your SEO and content strategy based on outdated terminology.
• Introducing new categories/keywords in progress.

SEO research for new markets

Your mission in this step is to discover how people search for what you’re disrupting, even if it’s not a duplicate of your new product or service.

To do this, you need to really understand old thinking and why people are motivated to search.

• Look at the search volume for keywords related to old methods.
• Build your SEO strategy around these outdated terms.
• Get them for new categories.

Start by interviewing your new product’s early customers, your customer service team, and the product managers who helped define product-market fit.

This research allows you to learn about the problems and gaps in your old industry, specifically what’s broken, what’s missing, and what people absolutely love about your new solution. must. This is qualitative research and should inform your keyword and content strategy.

If you were part of an early Netflix SEO team, you might want to know that people who live in super-rural communities or don’t have cars or public transportation might not have access to DVDs. “Rental” might have been the keyword to focus on. Traditional options like Blockbuster.

Another great resource is customer reviews about the product or service you are trying to disrupt. These can help isolate more issues.

And dig into industry reports that tell you how things are changing. For example, Gartner, Forrester, and Adobe provide great insight into SaaS (Software as a Service).

For quantitative research, we use the usual set of keyword research and planning tools. And remember, when it comes to new products and services, quantity is king.

Keyword Planner allows you to prioritize older terms according to impact, often expressed by search volume (the higher the search volume, the more likely you are to introduce your concept to the customer groups that need it). more likely).

For a sanity check, do a quick Google search for the old term you’re looking at. If they return a SERP that includes the brand you are trying to disrupt, it shows that user intent is aligned with your strategy.

Create a new market SEO strategy

Content is great for new market SEO strategies, and quantitative research should give you plenty of byline ideas.

Discuss your existing market, optimize it for known or frequently searched terms, and use your content to introduce better alternatives. For example, “If you don’t have a big movie near you, try DVD rental” or “New DVD rental: {recent Best Picture Oscar winner} delivered to your door.”

There’s one thing you need to remember during this step. It’s not enough to direct people to Trojan horse content; you need to give them a reason and a clearly defined path to learn more.

How to introduce new categories

This means that the user was lured in via an old category of Trojans. Now, teach me a new language.

Your goal is to own the term, rank for that term, and try to drive volume for that term (I think of this in much the same way as running a brand campaign).

Start seeding the market with new terms and optimize properties such as:

• your homepage.
• Statement blog post.
• Your company’s boilerplate and social media profiles.

Make sure all creations that mention the old terminology include an internal link to the underlying part.

stakes

Is this difficult to pull off? absolutely.

Will it work?

Consider Five-Hour Energy (energy shots), HubSpot (inbound marketing), Asana (task management), Fitbit (wearable fitness tracker), and Salesforce (cloud software), among others.

All these brands have developed new terms that are now widely used in the market, giving them a huge advantage. No matter how competitive the market becomes, they will always be one of the first brands associated with the word.

For me, there is no more rewarding challenge than using all my research, technology, and content skills to bring a new product or brand to the mainstream.

And if you do it right, you’ll be more than just a team that brought a “new {competitor}” to market. You will be the “marketing team behind {a great brand success story}”.

Learn more: 6 SEO considerations for successful international expansion