Events and networking opportunities are not what they used to be.

Some contracts and campaigns are probably on-hold and you’re looking for ways to unlock them.

Lead generation is getting tougher and needs more creative solutions after COVID-19.

In this new normal currently unfolding, as an SEO agency you still have search volume data and analytics know-how on your side.

Using year over year search trends to show how demand started changing once the outbreak hit, helps you in various ways:

• Better understand general and specific business trends for your agency clients. Which implies adjusting strategies accordingly, with short-term tactics for higher impact.
• Showcase expertise and spread that knowledge through owned or external channels. Which implies deciding what data you want to analyze and what matters most in terms of findings.
• Strengthen your agency brand and be top of mind for various target audiences with consumer and industry reports. Which implies a different way of generating awareness and capturing leads.

In order to optimize your research efforts, the team at SEOmonitor designed Search Trends after COVID-19, a free tool that uses Google Ads data, specifically year over year search volumes, to help you go as granular as you need with your analysis and find relevant trends in a specific topic, niche or industry faster.

You’re already an expert in using search data for your clients, but what about using it in a different way, to leverage your own visibility and generate new business?

These types of insights have a relevant novelty factor that is suitable for PR tactics which, in turn, bring media coverage and open the road to new business opportunities.

Repurposing search volumes data for different types of publishers

A 2020 Content Marketing Institute study discovered that out of 230 agency respondents, 76% have a content marketing strategy of their own and 71% focus on their audience’s needs, prioritizing informational content over sales content. These percentages show the competition is already high, as agencies know the exposure game all too well.

So in this context, it’s even more important to find a different, exciting angle to present search data and go the extra mile with a PR strategy for your agency.

Consumer analyses are a winning factor in highlighting your expertise, allowing you to present general market trends, consumer behaviour insights or go in-depth for a certain segment. And they make good press release material.

Each publication will have different audiences and editorial policies that may or may not suit your strategy, depending on your focus:

1. General, yet highly read publications

   Getting coverage on general, yet widely read publications has various benefits that are highly relevant in today’s context:

   • It will enhance your reputation to different audiences that you’re interested in or that can amplify your message.
   • It will convey the brand message you want and reinforce your narrative.
   • It will support your business development efforts with wide media validation.

   In our Search Trends after COVID-19, for instance, you can navigate to the Industries tab and analyze exploding and tanking trends, based on search volumes for Travel, Education, eCommerce, Restaurants and so on etc. This will give you leverage for news outlets interested in the general state of the market in the pandemic aftermath.

2. General marketing-related publishers

   Being featured in marketing-related media brings, besides validation and reputation enhancement, exposure to your potential clients:

   • You get direct exposure to marketing people and brands that can become your clients.
   • You can leverage this type of media to target potential clients with specific messages, reinforcing your SEO agency positioning.

   Think about their audience (mostly marketing, business development and sales people) and their particular sets of problems to be solved. What kind of insights are these people searching for?

   In the Search Trends after COVID-19 tool you can research how trending or exploding niches look in a given month, niches being understood as websites on which the ranking keywords had the biggest shifts in search trends. It’s a way to highlight how consumers change their demands on specific categories that influence strategic marketing decisions for the short term.

3. Industry publications

   Industry media coverage helps your agency target a specific set of clients as the publication is already well-positioned:

   • You can leverage that certain niche in your business development efforts if you know that’s how you want to extend your portfolio.
   • Industry validation brings with it a certain type of brand message for your SEO agency, so the existing and potential clients will know you’re quite versed in that particular segment.

   This type of publisher is the one we, at SEOmonitor, experimented most with. From our own experience, we could observe a much higher influencing power on such platforms compared to our owned channels, as here is where your core audience can be.

   So, think about what industries are you most knowledgeable about. Maybe you have a set of clients in your portfolio that feed your insights perfectly for a specific category. Maybe you’re targeting a specific category for leads. Or maybe you discovered a new point to make regarding a specific trend, using in-depth category analysis of specialized websites and their ranking correlated keywords. What’s the unique angle you can create?

Start exploring Search Trends after COVID-19!