You met Jordan's path to purchase in Module 3: after the trigger comes search. Search is the one channel where people tell you what they want, in their own words, at the moment they want it. Your job is to be the useful answer.

Search intent is what the person searching is trying to do. Four jobs are common:

• Learn: "how to brew with an AeroPress".
• Find a particular site: a shop's name plus "opening times".
• Compare: "best running shoes for beginners".
• Buy: "coffee subscription".

Read intent from the words, then check the results page. If the first results are guides, searchers want to learn; if they're shops, they want to buy.

Keyword themes. A keyword theme is a group of searches with the same intent that one page can answer. You can find them for free:

• the suggestions a search engine shows as you type, and the related searches at the foot of the results
• your website's own search box, if it records what people type
• Google Search Console, which shows the searches your site already appears for and how often people click
• the words customers used in your research from Module 2, in reviews and in emails

Keyword tools add search volumes, but their figures are estimates and differ between tools.

SEO basics. Search engine optimisation earns a place in the unpaid results. Google's guidance, "Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content", asks whether content is made mainly to help people or mainly to attract visits from search engines. Four basics follow:

• useful content that answers the search well, written from real experience
• titles and headings in the searcher's own words
• links: your pages linking to each other, and other sites linking to you because the content is worth it
• technical health: pages search engines can reach, that load quickly and work on a phone

SEO is slow to build, and it lasts.

Paid search shows your ads against the searches you choose, and you usually pay when someone clicks. It's fast, you control the message, and it stops when the money stops. Use it where people are ready to buy, or to test which themes bring customers before you invest in content.

AI answers. Google now shows AI-written summaries, called AI Overviews, above some results, and other tools answer questions directly. These features change often. Google says there are no extra requirements to appear in them: the same basics apply. Some learn searches may now be answered without a click, so make your pages the clear, trustworthy source those answers draw on, and judge learn content by more than clicks.

Email is owned media: no platform decides who sees it. But you can only use it with permission, and people leave as soon as it stops being useful.

Permission first. You met the rules in Module 5. To send marketing emails to individuals you generally need consent: a clear action, such as ticking an empty box. The soft opt-in is the exception for your own customers. You got their details during a sale or while discussing a sale, you're emailing about your own similar products, and you gave a simple way to refuse then and in every email. A message about an order someone has placed, such as a dispatch notice, is a service message rather than marketing, as long as it doesn't slip in promotion. The ICO says its email guidance is under review after the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, so check its current pages. If your organisation has no list, start one lawfully: an unticked box, a line saying what you'll send and how often, and a link to the privacy notice.

Segments. Email segmentation divides a list so that each group gets messages that suit it. Segment on what people do, not just who they are: new customers, regular buyers, people who haven't bought for a while, people interested in one product line. One email to everyone suits no one.

Sequences. Automated sequences are sent by a trigger, such as signing up, not by a date. The most useful is a welcome series: a few emails that set expectations, help new subscribers or customers get value and point to the next step. Others follow a first order, come before a renewal or check in when someone goes quiet. Give each email one job and one action.

Subject lines. Say what's inside; clear beats clever. The advertising rules from Module 5 apply to emails too, so a subject line promising an offer the email doesn't contain is misleading.

Deliverability is whether your email reaches the inbox. Complaints and ignored emails hurt; a list that wants your emails helps. Since 1 February 2024 Google has required everyone sending to Gmail addresses to authenticate their email and keep the reported spam rate below 0.3% (it advises staying below 0.1%). Anyone sending 5,000 or more messages a day must also set up DMARC and offer one-click unsubscribe. Your email platform handles much of this.

KPIs beyond opens. In June 2021 Apple announced Mail Privacy Protection, which, for Apple Mail users who turn it on, stops senders knowing when they open an email. Open rates have been unreliable since. Judge email by what people do next: clicks, orders or sign-ups from the email, unsubscribes and complaints.

An audience listens to you. A community talks to each other. Followers who like your posts are an audience. Customers who answer each other's questions, swap tips and turn up to events are a community. That difference is the point: members get value from each other, so they come back without being chased.

Purpose. Start with what members get, not what the organisation wants. "A place to talk about our products" is weak. "Help each other get better at home brewing" gives people a reason to post. If you can't write the purpose in one sentence a member would agree with, the community will be quiet.

Where it lives. A group on a social platform, a forum on your own site or a chat server. A group on a platform people already use is easy to join, but the platform sets the rules and can change them. A forum you own is yours, but people have to remember to visit. Choose where your members already spend time, and know what you'd lose if the platform changed.

House rules say what the community is for and what isn't allowed: be kind, stay on topic, no selling, no sharing other people's details. Keep them short and pinned.

Moderation is setting and enforcing the rules. Decide who moderates, how members report a problem, and what happens next: usually a warning, then a suspension, then removal. An unmoderated group drifts into spam or worse, with your organisation's name on it.

The organisation's role. Host, not star. Staff welcome newcomers, answer what only the organisation can answer, and say what changed because of members' ideas. Complaints will appear in public: answer them openly and move personal details to a private channel. Members' posts are personal data, so the rules from Module 5 apply here too.

UK example: Monzo. The bank Monzo runs a community forum. In a blog post on 5 November 2018, Monzo said the forum began as "a home for our first few hundred customers to give us feedback", that its Pots feature for setting money aside "started life as an idea" there, and that each feature it launched in Monzo Labs had its own forum thread for feedback. Its guidelines (checked November 2026) describe a place where users "should feel welcome and included to share their opinions". They set zero tolerance for abuse, harassment and discrimination, and describe a moderation team of Community Leaders and staff, with staff having the ultimate say and penalties that step up from a warning. Members can flag posts, and a post flagged by several members is hidden until it's reviewed. These are Monzo's own descriptions; the same parts work for a running club.

You met hand-offs in Module 7: each channel should pass people on to a next step. Search, email and community make those steps concrete.

A learn page found through search can offer an email sign-up that fits it, such as a guide sent by email. The welcome series can invite people into the community. Community members recommend you, their friends search for you by name, and the loop starts again.

One KPI per channel. You built KPIs with baselines in Module 6. Give each channel one KPI that shows it doing its job, not a vanity metric:

• search: sales or sign-ups from organic search, not rankings
• email: an action after the email, such as a second order, not opens
• community: active members, such as members who post, not total members

Say where each number comes from. Tag the links in emails and community posts with UTM parameters, as in Module 6, so visits get the right credit instead of showing as direct. If you have no baseline yet, record the first month before you set a target.

The channel you'd drop. Small teams can't run everything well. Ask which channel your organisation could stop with least harm. A quiet community damages trust, and a neglected list goes stale. Doing two channels well beats doing three badly.

One test. Pick one thing to test first: two subject lines, a new page for one keyword theme, or a welcome email that invites people to the community. Decide the measure before you start.

AI activity. Read the worked example first. Then give an AI assistant 15 to 20 searches related to your organisation, with no personal or confidential data, and ask it to group them by intent. Ask it for five subject lines for the first email in your sequence. Check each group against real search results: search a few of the terms and see whether the results are guides, shops or comparisons. Check each subject line against your organisation's voice and the rules on misleading claims from Module 5: does it promise anything the email doesn't deliver? Note what you kept, changed and rejected, and why.