This document discusses using Google Analytics and other tools to develop content that supports customers throughout their journey. It provides an example customer journey map for car buying and recommends identifying where existing content falls in the awareness, consideration and purchase stages. It also suggests analyzing Google Analytics data on user demographics, interests, search terms and conversions to find opportunities to improve or add new content. Key questions are presented to help map out content strategies for different industries and customer journeys.

1. Using GA to Develop Content for the Customer
Journey
Alli Berry, Content Lead

3. Agenda
● Content for the Customer Journey 101
● Car Buyer Journey Example
● Map Out Content for Your Own Vertical +
Tools
● GA Reports that Can Help You Find Content
Opportunities and/or Improve Content
● Discussion/Questions

4. What is the Customer Journey?

5. What is the Customer Journey?

6. What is the Customer Journey?

7. What is the Customer Journey?

8. What is the Customer Journey?

9. What is the Customer Journey?

10. Planning Content for the Customer Journey
Something we’re working on with content
audits...
● Identify what area of the funnel each
page of content falls in:
○ Awareness
○ Consideration
○ Purchase
○ Retention
● Find areas with abundance and scarcity
● Recommend how to strengthen the
weak areas

11. eCommerce vs Storefront
● Differing calls to action and content structure
● Storefront: Local-specific content
● Storefront: Focus on the experience of when
they do visit for purchase stage
vs
● eCommerce: Organic queries
● eCommerce: Often more competitors -> more
need to find the niche content opportunities

12. Google’s Study of the Car Buying Journey

23. How do you recreate this strategy for
another industry without a Google
study?

24. What Paths Are People Taking to Conversion?
Organic is top entry point -
keyword-focused content is
key
● Google Analytics - Conversions - Top Conversion Paths
Paid and social - way past top
10 here.
Direct is 2nd most frequent
entry-point - is site
architecture easy for
navigation to key pages?

25. Client: Large Medical Care Provider
● What does the
awareness stage look
like?
○ I have a medical
problem/question
○ Do I need a doctor? What
kind?
Think Through the Journey
Questions to Consider:
● Who are the target audience(s)?
● Does location matter?
● Does this provider have any
specializations?
● Are they looking to grow certain
practices?
● What are people looking for?

26. Who is Your Current Audience?
Is this who the client wants
to be targeting?
● Google Analytics - Audience - Demographics
Basic Stuff:
● Age
● Gender
If not, how can we create
more targeted content that
will appeal to them?

27. Who is Your Current Audience?
Key Interest: Family
Lifestyle
Articles about health and
kids, tips for parenting and
healthy lifestyle
● Google Analytics - Audience - Interests - Affinity Categories
Key Interest: Food
Diet/food recommendations
for certain ailments, healthy
lifestyle
Key Interest: Book Lovers
Recommendations from
doctors of good reads related
to health topics

28. Who is Your Current Audience?
Key Interest: Travel
What to do when sick while
traveling, health tips for
going abroad
● Google Analytics - Audience - Interests - In-Market
Categories
Key Interest: Home & Garden
Growing your own herbs and
veggies; allergy prevention
tips in the home
Key Interest: Cars
Preventing road rage,
Staying sane in traffic

29. Other Tools
Some content ideas for this piece.
Low lexical similarity gives more
keywords in each group.
● Moz Keyword Explorer
Taking the road rage example...
Get local angle included:
● Stats about road rage
incidents in Midwest
● Get medical professional
quote and include location

30. Other Tools
No keyword data - go to Moz or
SEMRush to narrow your ideas
and find semantically-related
keywords
● Answer the Public
Great top of funnel tool.
Other tools like this:
● Ubersuggest.org
● Talk with your client/team

31. What Searches Did They Perform?
How can we optimize
existing content to better
improve performance?
● Google Analytics - Acquisition - Queries
Look at non-branded queries
that have a lower CTR, but
decent potential.
Do we need to add some
content that focuses on these
topics specifically?

32. Client: Large Medical Care Provider
● What does the
consideration stage look
like?
○ Is this the right place to go?
○ Where is it in proximity to
me? Are they open?
○ Is my insurance taken?
Questions to Consider:
● How should the awareness
content connect you to
consideration content?
●

33. What Searches Did They Perform?
What are people struggling
to find?
Employee login, urgent care
info, medical records
● Google Analytics - Behavior - Search Terms
This shows searches on this
website.
Content ideas here!
Is this info missing from the
site?

34. Other Tools
Questions to ensure urgent care
page(s) are answering..
● Moz Keyword Explorer
Urgent care info on site is either
sparce or buried according to
how people search on the site...
Addressing the consideration and
even “purchase” phase.

35. Client: Large Medical Care Provider
● What does the
“purchase” stage look
like?
○ How do I make an
appointment?
○ Where do I go?
Think Through the Journey
Questions to Consider:
● Are there location pages? Are
they finadable?
● Are there prominent CTAs for
making an appointment?

36. What Searches Did They Perform?
Is this a good conversion
rate?
● Google Analytics - Conversions - Goals
Ex: Find a Doctor Goal
Is there something to A/B
test? Heat map test? User
test?

37. Areas of Potential Improvement
Other Behaviors
● Other Articles
● Location Pages
● Subscribe to Email List
● Google Analytics - Behavior Flow
Takeaway:
● 99% Drop Off from Blog
To investigate:
Why the drop off?

38. Areas of Potential Improvement

39. Areas of Potential Improvement
Top Locations of Blog Content:
● California
● Texas
● New York
● Florida
● Google Analytics - Audience - Location
● Secondary Dimension - Landing Page
● Filter for Blog Content Only
Target Locations:
● Iowa
● Illinois
Takeaway:
How Can We Create More of a
Local Angle with this Content?

40. Other Resources
● Shopify - Customer Journey for eCommerce
● Orbit Media - Analytics Reports You Should Be
Using
● HubSpot - Content for Every Stage
Check these out!