The Illusion of Communication

There are many people I know who think of keyword research as a tedious, mundane, it’s-not-worth-my-time, boring task that’s ultimately an ignored perennial on the to-do list.

Well, I have a confession to make. I used to be one of those people, sort of. I actually came from the other side of the same coin; I’m a bit of an organizational freak of nature. I like to keep things organized. I recently coached my son’s t-ball team, and while I wasn’t necessarily the best coach in the world, I did get a lot of “compliments” from my players’ parents on how organized things were. So, where I saw the list of potential keywords for a web site, I’d be overwhelmed and full of dread; there’s no way I could ever really tackle this problem and actually accomplish something at the same time. It was better to leave this on the “to-do” list than to take it off.

My wife is also a highly organized person. However, she thinks differently than I do. When she puts things away (or “organizes” them), I have no idea where they are. And I guess the same thing happens to her when I put things away. The logical solution is that we come up with some common ideas on how to categorize things and put things away according to a simple system. Not likely to happen, eh? Agreed, not even for our well-organized household.

This is a really great analogy for why it is so important to conduct keyword research. You may know your customers inside-and-out, but you probably do not think exactly like them. While you think it is second nature to label some information in a particular way, your customers will almost certainly have a different perspective on this.

As an example, think about how you use a typical word-processing system on a Windows computer. Imagine how you would save a document. Think about it for a second, get your answer in your head. Now, read my answer: I use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + S; is that the same answer as you? In fact, there’s at least three ways you can accomplish this:

1. The save button (probably an icon that resembles the obsolete floppy disk)
2. Click on File, then click on Save (or Save As …)
3. Use the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl + S.

Any one of those will get you the same result. And in this scenario, where there’s only three options, there’s only a 33% chance (assuming no outside influence) that we use the same method. But there are outside influences; for example, if you are a novice user, you are most likely to use the save button and not the other two options.

So what does all this mean? Keyword research can help you find the right people at the right time. By conducing a comprehensive keyword search, you’ll have better understanding about your business, your customrs, and your prospects. You’ll know what’s important to one group may not be as important to another. You will learn that by understanding the subtly of the language of the keyword used to find your web site, you’ll be able to better understand the context of that visitor (e.g., they were in the research portion of the sales cycle, or they are ready to buy).

Ultimately, keywords are one of the best, most under-utilized marketing tools. They are easily and inexpensively available, and have the power of insight into your customer base that only an expensive focus group could have previously provided.

For more information on how to conduct keyword research, download the free keyword research guide from Wordtracker. This guide will show you the full power of what keyword research can do for your organization through a fun case study on a fictional company. Insights include how to use keywords in content and copy, discovering niche opportunities, and much more.

Posted by Matthew under Internet Marketing & Communication | No Comments »

Recently, some colleagues of mine and I were discussing the nature of viral marketing and comparing it to word of mouth. We left with an understanding that viral marketing was just another flavor of word of mouth marketing; in other words, they were essentially just different names for the same thing. But is “viral” the same as “word of mouth?”

The answer is no, according to Seth Godin, who wrote on his blog:

Word of mouth is a decaying function. A marketer does something and a consumer tells five or ten friends. And that’s it. It amplifies the marketing action and then fades, usually quickly. A lousy flight on United Airlines is word of mouth. A great meal at Momofuku is word of mouth.

Viral marketing is a compounding function. A marketer does something and then a consumer tells five or ten people. Then then they tell five or ten people. And it repeats. And grows and grows. Like a virus spreading through a population. The marketer doesn’t have to actually do anything else. (They can help by making it easier for the word to spread, but in the classic examples, the marketer is out of the loop.) The Mona Lisa is an ideavirus.

Read his entire post >>

I think this is a really important distinction if only because the feel like the same thing. However, when you are trying to cause a viral event, it is important to realize the subtly of the task, and I believe that this perspective can really help bring the end goal (i.e., launching a viral marketing campaign) into better focus, thus having a much better chance at accomplishing the task at hand.

Posted by Matthew under Guerrilla Marketing & Marketing Strategy | No Comments »