What's the difference between sleeping on the couch and a night of romance? What's the difference between your letter going into the bin or converting to sales? What's the difference between page 1 of Google and page 121? Keywords.
Keywords are those little words or strings of words that trigger a response in the mind of the reader (whether that reader is human or machine). They are the difference between action and inaction. Pass and fail. They are hot buttons, "don't go there" words or power words.
Ok – but how do you know which keywords you should be targeting in what medium? Well the simplest advice is if you want to trigger action in a human – your keywords need to trigger an emotion or bounce off a value.
Humans are not as complex as we think. People are motivated by love, greed, passion, envy, pride, laziness, jealousy, lust, companionship, belonging and a whole raft of other emotions. Powerful copy taps into these emotions – and triggers a response. If you want to sell, you need to work out what emotion drives people to buy your product or service – and then use words that reflect this emotion.
But the other thing to remember is that people are also driven by their logical mind. They also need to have reasons that are more logical and rational that they can explain to their neighbours, family and friends. John Carlton terms this your logical and lizard mind response.
If you hype someone up with just emotional keywords, but leave off the rational reasons, you will get high buyer's remorse and sales refunds. If you focus just on the rational but leave out the emotion, your sales with be lacklustre as people will find reasons not to buy. People need both – rational and emotional keywords for most sale success.
But what about on websites? This is where the game gets a bit more complex. On websites you still have a human audience – so you need to keep your balance of rational and emotional keywords. But – you also have a second layer – you need to write for a computer audience.
Search engines look through websites and check the words that are used on the site as part of their algorithm in determining where to place a website in search engine results. The better the match, the higher the website appears in the results.
The challenge is that people are the ones that type keywords into search engines in the first place and each person's mind thinks slightly differently.
When you create keywords for your website, you may have a particular term or piece of jargon that you use all the time in your business and that know exactly what it means (say for example you use the word Barista).
Clients on the other hand may not be able to spell – so they type Barrista or Barissta. Other clients may think a Barista is someone who practices law – so they may not use that word. Others may only look for baristas (plural). Still other clients may just type in coffee maker and not use barista at all. Will you be found in the search results for those clients?
When you are looking at creating the keywords for your website you need to be able to determine the most likely words for your goods or service, but the unusual left field ones. Often the left field words get the most website traffic and have less competing webpages, which means if you target those keywords you will appear higher in search engines.
Choosing your keywords for your website for search engines is a real art form in itself. A good SEO company or SEO copywriter should be able to provide you with a detailed report that shows you all of the keywords and associated keywords around your good or service.
Your keyword report should be able to tell you how many people per day actually type that keyword into search engines in your targeted search area (Australia, US, the world for example) and how much competition there is for those words. (If there is high competition, then keywords by themselves will not be enough to give you great search engine rankings.) They should also be able to give you an indication of whether or not people typing in those words actually are looking to buy something when they type in the words.
Once you get your report, your SEO company or SEO copywriter should give you suggestions about the best words to target and seek your opinion if there are any industry specific terms they may have missed from their research in order to give you a thorough report.
Finally, your keyword reports need to be re-run every 6 months or so to pick up changes in Google algorithms or changes in how people look for things. Keywords are not static – they change over time, so all businesses need to put in regular checking processes to ensure they are tapping into current trends.
With your website, you need to ensure you are using a blend of rational, emotional and search engine friendly keywords to get the best results. If you are not sure if your blend is right, then an SEO copywriter can help you create the right balance of words across all the areas.
If you need help with your keywords or your copy - call Heart Harmony (07) 3351 8844.
HR Tip of the Week - Little Words Mean a Lot to Your Team
I know I have spoken about this a few times - but the cheapest, easiest and most motivating thing you can do for your team is to remember the little words such as please, thank you, good morning and good evening.
Remembering to greet and farewell your team shows you acknowledge them as human beings and not just money making machines.
Saying please when you ask them to do something, shows you value their time and work.
The real biggy is saying thank you. This can be done in so many ways:
A quiet word one on one when they do something great
A post-it note stuck to their screen or their keyboard if you notice something out of hours
An email - not your standard "thanks" but one expressing exactly what it is they have done that was so great and why you appreciate it
A phone call from the big boss or morning tea with them - showing you share their successes with "powers that be"
A mobile trophy, lolly jar or bunch of flowers - where people have to hold it for 24 hours on their desk and then pass it on to another deserving person explaining exactly why the recipient deserves the thanks and praise
A formal letter on letterhead that they can add into their resume
Little words are free - but the results you get for sharing them are priceless.
Vistaprint is an online printing company that provides small run personalised stationary, notepads, hats, t-shirts, pens, signs, stickers Ok - why is our business of the week an online printing company?
Vistaprint has really captured the market for small business printing. They have done this through a very cleverly designed website that is easy to use, has lots of templates applicable to most businesses and the capacity to upload your own designs, and regular free offers to try out their wares.
The website is keyword rich - which means it gets great results in search engines.
They have worked through what a small business potentially needs or wants in the way of products - covering everything from postcards, flyers, car magnets, pens, window decals, calendars, tote bags, t-shirts, mouse pads and a whole lot more. They have it all located in one place with clear pricing on quantities - and you can select your country to ensure pricing is in your currency.
The upsell process at the end of each sale is extremely elegant and is in my opinion better than Amazon in increasing targeted sales. If you have an online business or are thinking about starting one, go buy one thing from Vistaprint to see how the upsell works (and screen print each page so you can add it to your swipe file for later on).
Your orders come complete with discount vouchers to encourage return visits to the site, and delivery is fast and efficient.
So how can you apply this to your business? Look at your range - is it comprehensive? What are you doing to encourage people to try? How easy are you making it to buy? Do you upsell? Do you encourage return visits? Is your method of delivery smooth and seamless?
Seriously, if you want to run an online business (or just need some great stationary) - check out Vistaprint. They have done a brilliant job!
Last weekend I attended the Ultimate Marketing Seminar in Brisbane - a two day full-one event with some of the best in the business. It was fascinating hearing greats such as Brad Fallon and John Carlton share their knowledge. It was also fascinating watching some of the greats crash and burn badly.
In these two posts I share some of the lessons I gleaned from the two days.
Legal stuff: This newsletter is intended only a general guideline for Australian businesses. You should seek specific advice for your situation rather than relying only on this newsletter
Earnings disclaimer. Some of the content may include advertorial information, which means I may receive financial compensation for the products I recommend. But - unless I know and trust the product, I will not recommend it.
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But what about on websites? This is where the game gets a bit more complex. On websites you still have a human audience – so you need to keep your balance of rational and emotional keywords. But – you also have a second layer – you need to write for a computer audience.
I know I have spoken about this a few times - but the cheapest, easiest and most motivating thing you can do for your team is to remember the little words such as please, thank you, good morning and good evening.
