What's your keyword research system?

[SSFCU]

What is your process for keyword research? I used Google's Keyword Research Tool for the bulk of my research in the past, so I'm pretty lost right now. However, I'm on the ground level of developing a content strategy for my company's website refresh, and this is a great chance to start from scratch with a sound process. The goal, of course, would be not to respond to keywords, but rather, letting holistic keyword research guide our content strategy. But obviously, I still want to grab low-hanging fruit where I can and beef up weaker parts of the site where possible.

After reading Ruth Burr's excellent post last week, I'm testing a few tools, and so far am leaning toward Wordtracker for volume/competition data, cross-referenced with Moz's ranking reporting. However, I still need to check out SEMRush and get friendlier with Keyword Planner. I just want a little SEO angel to fall out of the sky and give me a recipe to follow. No?

In case someone asks, my current goal is to identify our target audience's search habits to better reach them through content on our company website. While we serve several communities and do plan to geotarget, we're not there yet. So while I'm glad we have that option on Keyword Planner, there's not much I can do with it today.

[OlegKorneitchouk]

1. Ubersuggest to generate a bunch of keywords. Twitter/Quora/Yahoo Answers/Forums to see what questions people are asking for possible topics.
2. Get their keyword volumes (filter out the real low search quantities) via Keyword Planner
3. Group/combine common keyphrases
4. Determine which topics to write about based on 1) competition 2) search quantity 3) topic intent/relevance (would this topic attract visitors that would help my site fulfill its goal?) 4) timing (seasonality, availability, trends)

Just keep in mind that every website/business is different and could use information from different sources. I recommend trying out all of the tools and seeing what they have to offer. From there, you can streamline your own process that is most effective for your situation.