You may have heard of Intent Driven Marketing, but do you know what it really means? Today I’ll discuss this topic in depth and explain why you need to focus first on intent.
If you spend any time in forums looking for advice on marketing you’ve probably heard that these are the most important things to focus on:
- Keeping your creative fresh and new. Updating it weekly at the least.
- Hooks and how to use them properly to grab attention.
- Audience targeting and effectiveness.
- Platforms to focus on (this is actually closest to what we’re talking about today)
These and a whole lot more become the cannon for today’s marketing advice. Although these are areas we should think about and give some effort to, they aren’t the most important one.
And why is that? Well if a users intent is not aligned with the ad you are showing them, your conversions and your customer quality will be terrible. It’s imperative that you look at what the user is actually wanting to experience before you stuff ads in their face.
Let’s keep it simple and start with the platforms and what users intend when they use them:
I’ll stay focused on the top 5 in my book but every major site you are looking to get organic or paid traffic from should go through this analysis.
People still use google to research and review everything from data to businesses they want to hire. People generally aren’t on google to play around, find friends etc. That’s why Google+ failed pretty miserably. Google isn’t really known as the “fun” company that people go to when they want to hang out. So if you are looking to get in front of people on google you have to be thinking about the state of mind they are in. In google’s case it’s going to be research, learning and decision making. This makes it prime for getting a solid business profile or well targeted ads.
Facebook/Instagram
I think these two platforms are splitting a bit but overall they are set up for connection and fun. Doom scrolling has become a new term and it fits perfectly with both of these platforms. When people are here they are only being interrupted by your ads not enjoying them. So with this in mind you have to think in terms of people who will impulse buy, or buy because an influencer is wearing a shirt they think is really cool. They are not researching or doing any deep thinking. They are hanging out.
Here is where the professionals hang out and network. Networking is the key with LinkedIn but it’s not as simple as you just reaching out and clients coming. They have to see your value and actually have a reason to want to network with you. Many people never get anywhere with linkedin because they want to get leads and network for themselves but it just comes across as gross and self serving. Don’t make that mistake and actually provide value in a way that makes them want to connect with you vs. the other way around.
X
News. That’s the main point of X. People going here are looking to digest information quickly and efficiently. It’s difficult to advertise here because of the “hurry” mentality people have when digesting the information but it’s still possible. To me X is a lot like advertising on reddit where the people are there to digest and argue not to buy things.
Chat GPT
A relatively new player, chat gpt and all the other Ai LLMs are where people go to make their jobs easier. They see these as tools more than websites. They aren’t currently set up for ads but I am sure it’s headed that way. You can only optimize for organic traffic with these engines but be aware that these are tools more than resources for people. They may ask questions but usually its in the form of, “do this for me” or “write this essay” etc. When they are looking for answers it can be a powerful referral source since people believe it’s the smartest answer machine out there so optimizing for Ai is still a must.
Summary
Knowing what your users are intending when they are on a website is the very first thing you need to think about before placing your product or service in front of them. If you are a playful fun brand, social media is right, but if you’re more serious or professional, you should probably go after some of the others. Best of luck.
