Watauga’s latest research, “Surveying the Outdoors: the 2024 Customer Growth Report,” is a game-changer for marketing leaders for outdoor brands across camping, fishing, hunting, hiking, biking, watersports, RV’s, and other products. With findings derived from an extensive consumer attitudinal research study involving 1,578 participants, the report dives deep into the minds of outdoor recreation participants. This article summarizes one of the many key takeaways uncovered in the research.
Activate Doer Discovery Through Paid Search
Understanding the mindsets of outdoor participants is the first step toward developing marketing strategies to activate, engage and grow your audience of customers. For outdoor product marketing leaders, it’s crucial to target today’s casual, less frequent outdoor participant (“Doers”) at the right moments to increase their engagement and enhance brand awareness.
While books and magazines are the number one information or media source for Doers to discover new outdoor activities, close behind is online search engines which offer extensive marketing options to expand your reach and engagement with this growing customer audience. To connect with Doers, it is important to implement strong paid search strategies such as competitive conquesting and the use of Google’s Performance Max.
Understanding Participant Mindsets and Customer Lenses
Our research study unveiled four distinct mindsets of outdoor participants:
Adventurous participants who embrace challenge with passion.
Practical participants who are methodical and budget-friendly.
Aspiring participants who seek tranquility amid life’s chaos.
Conventional participants who prefer familiarity and fear the unknown.
Watauga also applied three lenses for outdoor customers named “Seekers”, “Doers,”, and “Lovers” to closely analyze the research data:
Seekers are individuals who have not participated in outdoor activities but express interest in doing so.
Doers are those who enjoy the outdoors and are casual participants in one or more outdoor activity.
Lovers are avid enthusiasts and participants in at least one outdoor activity.
Implement a Competitive Conquesting Marketing Strategy in Paid Search Campaigns
Implementing paid search marketing strategies such as competitive conquesting will help engage Doers who are showing intent to participate in outdoor activities. Within paid search marketing, competitive conquesting involves strategically bidding on keywords that are associated with a competitor’s brand, products, or services. This approach captures the attention of potential customers who are searching for competitor-specific terms, diverting traffic away from the competition and towards your brand’s offerings. When you bid on competitor keywords, your outdoor brand will appear in search results when users are looking for a competitor, providing the opportunity to sway the casual outdoor participant’s customer journey. Effective competitive conquesting requires thorough keyword research, understanding competitor strengths and weaknesses, and creating compelling ad copy that differentiates your brand while addressing the needs of the searchers. It also involves continuous monitoring and optimization to ensure the campaign remains cost-effective and impactful.
Optimize Paid Search with Google Performance Max
Google’s newest marketing feature called Performance Max is designed to complement your keyword-based paid search campaigns to help your outdoor brand reach more casual outdoor participants across all of Google’s channels including YouTube, Display, and Gmail. You can easily access all of Google’s advertising channels using one single campaign. Performance Max uses Google AI (artificial intelligence) to optimize performance, budget and channel selection in real time. It complements your paid search campaigns and respects the keyword targeting that’s in place. If a casual outdoor participant’s search query is identical to a keyword in your Paid Search targeting, the search campaign will be prioritized over the other Google channels. If the query is not identical to an eligible Search keyword, the channel or ad that Google’s AI deems the most likely to drive performance will be selected. The use of Performance Max allows outdoor brands to take paid search marketing one step further by pairing it with other Google channels and letting AI drive strong performance. This approach also allows outdoor brands to maintain a healthy and strong paid search strategy while expanding their reach and exposure to casual outdoor participants in other tactics.
Search Engine Optimization Strategies For a 360 Approach
It is important to not only have a sound paid search strategy but to also focus on improving your outdoor brand’s organic search results using search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to rank your website and related content higher on a search engine results page (SERP). To drive more traffic to your site and increase customer engagement using SEO it is imperative to align your online content with the interests and search behaviors of Doers and other outdoor participants. This includes creating high-quality, informative blog posts, product or activity guides, and product reviews that address the frequent questions and needs of these audiences. Other SEO best practices to consider are keyword optimization, using relevant meta tags, and acquiring backlinks from authoritative outdoor websites that will boost your brand’s visibility in search engine results.
Conclusion: Using Paid Search & SEO to Drive Customer Growth
Effectively activating Doers through online search engines is crucial for outdoor brands seeking to drive brand awareness and influence with the growing number of casual outdoor participants. By leveraging both paid and organic search strategies, outdoor brands can enhance their reach and engagement. Implementing competitive conquesting in paid search campaigns allows outdoor brands to capture attention from competitor searches, while Google’s Performance Max optimizes performance across multiple channels. Additionally, a strong focus on SEO ensures higher organic search rankings through quality content and strategic keyword use. Combining these approaches provides a comprehensive strategy to connect with and attract casual outdoor participants, driving brand awareness and customer engagement.
To download a complimentary copy of Surveying the Outdoors: The 2024 Customer Growth Report and view an interactive visualization of the research data, please visit https://wataugagroup.com/outdoor-customer-growth-report/.
