Hey Friend,

How have you been? 🌻

Are you getting actionable takeaways from the SaaS Splash Bulletin?

I would appreciate your feedback!

Let’s get into the details now.

How do you approach domain research as a content marketer?

The purpose of domain research is to understand a website domain inside out.

Suppose you take this website domain as an example - www.clickup.com

• Now go to SEMRush (or any keyword research tool you are comfortable with), paste the domain, select a location (the target market of your client), and click on “Search”

• Now, you will see a LOT of information on the domain. It is easier to get distracted at this point with information overload. So, you have to prioritize here according to your end goal. Assuming your end goal is to build a content strategy, your focus areas would be - organic search traffic and its distribution across locations, organic keywords, and their distributions, and finally, the keyword intents

• When it comes to intent, there are four different types of intent that you should be aware of - informational, navigational, transactional, and commercial. Though they are pretty self-explanatory, let’s see what they mean from a content marketer’s POV👇

📚Note: Transactional and navigational keywords often overlap as the target users for both solution types are aware. But what might vary is to what extent they are aware of the solution. A user with navigational intent is still gaining information about specific features, integrations, etc., while a transactional user is much more specific and ready to purchase.

Here’s an intent vs. content type distribution 👇

​Read my LinkedIn post on this ​

So, now the question is, how do you pick up a topic? Well, use this table 👇

If intent matches and keyword difficulty is less, go for the topic despite its low search volume. It is even better to pick long-tail keywords/questions/phrases if they are highly relevant to your audience.

A quick SEMRush tutorial on domain research 👇
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For this part, I am collaborating with Tripti Garg. I have worked with her before and learned much about research and building narratives. Doesn’t matter if you are a content marketer or writer, your audience research skills have to be strong. More so when you have minimal resources available. That’s precisely what Tripti has covered here.

Say Hi to her on Linkedin 👋

While big companies spend millions of dollars on audience research, you don't necessarily need similar tools or a big team to gain valuable insights.

So, today, I will cover the sources that are free and accessible.

I have categorized them into — internal and external sources.

Note: It can be difficult to access internal resources each time. So, if you find yourself having to work on your own, don’t worry. External resources, standalone, provide much information to get you started.

And now comes the tricky part — converting all this information into meaningful insights.

You wouldn’t want to spend hours researching and be left with a bunch of information that is hard to process and leaves you more confused.

So, here is my three-bucket approach that you can use to easily organize all this information.

You have three categories — current processes, pain points, and aha moments, and each piece of information is categorized into these buckets.

Let’s See This In Action!

Suppose you have the following information:

⚪️ Customer feedback highlights dissatisfaction with the lengthy process of setting up investment accounts. Users want a more streamlined onboarding experience and express interest in advanced portfolio management tools.

⚪️ Data analysis reveals that articles and tutorials on advanced investment strategies and portfolio diversification have the highest engagement.

⚪️ A competitor recently launched a mobile app update that simplifies the account opening process and integrates AI-driven portfolio optimization tools, increasing user satisfaction and adoption rates.

Now, by applying the three-bucket approach:

🟢 Current Processes

Users struggle during the account setup process, which involves multiple steps and requires manual data input. This discourages potential users and hinders market expansion.

🟢 Pain Points

The cumbersome onboarding process impacts user engagement and acquisition, leading to a loss of market share.

🟢 AHA Moments

1. High engagement with content related to advanced investment strategies suggests that users seek tools to optimize their investment decisions and maximize returns.

1. The competitor's app update demonstrates that onboarding and portfolio management capability improvements resonate with users, driving higher adoption rates.

You can use the following table to organize all the information so it's easier to get started… You can make such a table in Excel, Notion, or any other preferred application.

But, How Can You Use This Table?

You use this table to map the user journey from the unaware to the fully aware stage.

💡 Current processes show how the audience is achieving their goal now. From current processes, you identify loopholes/ gaps in each alternative.

💡 Pain points bring light to buying triggers that make your audience look for new, better solutions.

💡 Finally, the aha moment becomes the foundation for creating relevant messaging and positioning for your product.

Result?

Instead of promoting features like — "Our investment tool offers advanced features for portfolio management."

... you create content like this:

Feel the difference?

Sneak peek of the next edition of SaaS Splash Bulletin

• Map a customer journey based on audience research
• How to use ChatGPT in this entire marketing strategy process (+Prompts)
• How to use Google Search Console

Note that the following newsletter will reach you on 16th March. I will be away for a week before that due to some personal engagements.

Book a 1:1 session with me where I will answer all your queries related to content marketing 👇

Say Hi! On LinkedIn 👋

P.S. Any questions on the newsletter? Want to share your feedback? Please feel free to reply to this email.

Onwards and upwards,

Sreyashi
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