How do you use keyword research and competitor analysis to inform your SEO and SEM tactics in IMC campaigns?

1 Keyword research

Keyword research is a process of finding and analyzing words and phrases that your potential customers use to search for your products or services online. By understanding the intent, demand, and difficulty of each keyword, you can optimize your content and ads accordingly. To conduct keyword research, you need tools like Google Keyword Planner, Moz, or SEMrush. Start by identifying main topics and themes based on your IMC objectives and audience segments. Then generate a list of relevant keywords for each topic with the tools and your own brainstorming. Analyze the metrics and trends of each keyword, such as search volume, competition, cost-per-click, and seasonality. Afterwards, filter and prioritize the keywords based on their relevance, value, and feasibility for your IMC campaign. Finally, organize the keywords into groups and categories for your content and ads.

2 Competitor analysis

Competitor analysis is the process of assessing and comparing the SEO and SEM performance of your opponents. This helps you recognize their strengths and weaknesses, strategies and tactics, as well as opportunities and threats. To do this, you need to use tools like SpyFu, Ahrefs, or SimilarWeb, and adhere to these steps: identify your main competitors based on your industry, niche, and target keywords; analyze their SEO and SEM metrics such as domain authority, backlinks, organic and paid traffic, keywords, and ads; evaluate the quality, relevance, and effectiveness of their content and ads including headlines, descriptions, images, calls-to-action, and landing pages; benchmark your own SEO and SEM performance against your rivals to discover any gaps or areas for improvement; learn from their best practices while avoiding their mistakes for your IMC campaign.

3 SEO tactics

SEO tactics are the actions and techniques that you implement to improve your website's ranking and visibility on search engines, based on the three pillars of SEO: technical, on-page, and off-page. To apply SEO tactics to your IMC campaign, you need to ensure your website is fast, secure, mobile-friendly, and easy to crawl and index by search engines. Additionally, you should optimize your content and meta tags for your target keywords and user intent. Finally, you should build your authority and reputation by earning links, mentions, and reviews from other relevant and reputable websites. Tools like Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, Yoast SEO, Rank Math, Hemingway, BuzzSumo, HARO, and Mailchimp can help you audit and fix technical issues, improve content readability, structure, and quality; as well as create and promote valuable content, outreach to influencers, and engage with your audience.

4 SEM tactics

SEM tactics are the actions and techniques implemented to create and manage paid ads on search engines. These tactics are based on the four elements of SEM: keywords, ads, bids, and landing pages. To apply SEM tactics to your IMC campaign, you need to choose the right keywords based on keyword research and competitor analysis. Use tools like Google Ads or WordStream to create and manage keyword lists, match types, and negative keywords. Additionally, write compelling and relevant ads for target keywords and user intent. Set the right bids for your keywords based on budget, goals, and competition. Lastly, design and test effective landing pages for your ads that match your content and offer. Utilize tools like Instapage or Leadpages to optimize landing page elements such as headlines, subheadings, images, forms, and buttons.