{"id":2585,"date":"2018-04-18T16:14:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T16:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=2585"},"modified":"2023-10-18T17:35:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:35:44","slug":"4-search-intent-personas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/ca\/blog\/4-search-intent-personas\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Search Intent Personas Every Marketer Should Recognize"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When marketing teams develop customer personas, it\u2019s helpful to get really specific about things like their role, the industry they work in and the kinds of business problems that might lead them to spend on a particular product or service. It doesn\u2019t end there, though.<\/p>\n

The thing about personas is that — if your goal is to treat customers like actual human beings — they\u2019re not fixed. They are not just a collection of characteristics or attributes. They will behave in many different ways over the course of their relationship with the brand — especially in terms how they behave during a visit to the brand\u2019s web site.<\/p>\n

When websites are designed, for instance, the marketing personas you\u2019ve created might dig deep into what the brand wants them to think, feel and do when they visit. Whatever those wants are, they are goals or outcomes you\u2019re trying to reach. Before you get there, you have to take into account the different reasons they\u2019re coming to the site in the first place — something marketers now know as \u201csearch intent.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an ideal world, all search intent would be related to a purchase, but that\u2019s just not realistic. Instead, you have to align your personas with the different kinds of search intent and develop an experience with the content that will best meet their needs. When you\u2019re successful, the odds of nurturing them towards buying something will go up dramatically, or at least their propensity to influence a buying decision from someone else on their team.<\/p>\n

The following four categories are an attempt to illustrate some of the most common search intent behaviours, along with things you may need to add, update or rework on your site. In some organizations this may be a difficult thing to do. If that\u2019s the case, maybe start with one, then use a tool like Marketing Cloud<\/a> to test how it changes the performance of the content and tactics you\u2019re using to generate demand. If your results get better, making the case for bigger changes may become a little easier.<\/p>\n

1. The Informational Searcher <\/h2>\n

We may refer to our main window into the Internet a web \u201cbrowser,\u201d but the rise of search engines has lead many organizations to believe everyone is coming to a site with a particular, defined objective in mind.<\/p>\n

Think of all the potential customers, however, who may have heard about your company from a colleague or peer, who read about it in an industry publication or visited via a mention on social media. They might literally be \u201cbrowsing\u201d — they\u2019re not at a point where they\u2019re even thinking about a purchase, but they might want to know the following:<\/p>\n