You think you know your customers? Think again.

As the second installment of my series on using basic web analytics to improve how you do business, I felt it right to tackle one of the more entertaining aspects of web analytics - uncovering opportunities. I had a meeting yesterday with a potential client who said, "We already know which terms we want to have in our campaign." This, as I've learned, is a very short sighted view of the market.

While you may know your target market very well, there are likely many key word and phrase variations that you would never think of when developing a campaign. This is why it's so important to utilize powerful keyword tools (like Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery) to try to cover your bases in regard to potential search variations. So once you've performed your due diligence there, you're all set to go, right?

Not so fast.

When I was beginning my analytics career, I was working with a client that felt they had a pretty defined market selling scientific products targeted at a few key markets. As it turned out when reviewing the analytics, however, there appeared to be a few other markets using the site that my client was not aware of. When it began showing search engine results relating to taxidermy, I asked my client why someone searching for information on taxidermy would be using their product. They had no idea.

After some additional research, we found that their products were a vital part of the tanning process and that there was a sizable market seeking a selection of their products. I'm reminded of the title of Clayton Christensen's famous "Skate to Where the Money Will Be" when I think of this scenario. It's just too easy to define your market too narrowly and miss opportunities if you don't utilize all of the information at your disposal. The www.103bees.com website provides users a free trial of their service (which helps in tracking search engine traffic) and some highly entertaining blogs about the more off the wall search queries that users see reaching their site.

In the end, your customers will tell you what you're selling, and it's up to you to let them know you're there. As was my case, the answers might not always be immediately apparent, but analytics can help show you when there is consistent demand for keywords that may not immediately make sense Typically, a little customer follow up or supplementary research will bring those answers to light. In the end, if you sell dental floss and people are using it for kite string - then you are a kite string seller, at least to a portion of customers, and you should market yourself appropriately. It would make all the sense in the world to

start optimizing pages or creating a ppc campaign to reach the dental floss kite flyers of the world. But to sell, you need to know there's demand, and web analytics can help provide those answers.

The author of this article is Managing Partner of Netvantage Marketing, a Michigan search engine optimization and web analytics consulting firm.