Using Language that Reaches Your Audience

The deeper your understanding of your customers, and those target audience groups you wish to persuade to become your customers, the stronger your communications with them will be. Your target audience groups have very particular ways of communicating what they need from you. They use specific language to refer to those needs when they speak with your sales people on the phone or in person and when they search on the web. If this language does not appear in the titles, headings, meta data, links, and body copy (text) of your website pages, as well as your email marketing copy, or any of your off-site content such as blogs, newsletters, pay per click ads, social media sites, press releases, and banner ads, then they are not likely to be finding and interacting with your information.

Professional keyword research is important to your business because it provides you with the language you need to reach your audience groups who are actively searching for what it is you offer. An experienced keyword research professional utilizes industry tools and techniques to uncover the language your target audience groups use to refer to what it is you offer. There are many lists of valuable keywords that refer to the different aspects of your business that are needed. These include keywords and phrases referring to: your overall business; your specific products; your specific services; your specific brands; and any other marketable aspect of your business that is searched.

Whether you are establishing adgroups for your pay per click AdWords campaign or writing a blog post, your lists of researched and analyzed keywords and phrases provide you with the essential language you need to incorporate into your writings in order to ensure your content can be searched and found. Additionally, you will have more success attracting and maintaining the interest of your targeted readers by using language that is recognizable and known to them.

If you’re looking for professional Keyword Research & Analysis contact Industrial Web Solutions.

With all the help, tools and advice Google provides webmasters and website owners to understand what needs to be done in order to rank well in its search engine, I personally have never felt its policies for tweaking its algorithm have been a mystery. For the most up-to-date information I read the Official Google Blog, where posts are intended to provide insight from its team of Googlers, (as the brains behind its technologies are dubbed), into its products, technology and the Google culture.

The NY Times author also suggests that perhaps another idea for oversight would be “to give some government commission the power to look at those tweaks.” Gulp! Can you imagine having to take your innovations to a governmental body that has absolutely no technical expertise about what you do so they can decide whether your technology is fair to your competitors? Depending on what industry you are in, perhaps you already do that!! As I see it, competition is the inspiration for innovation. If you take that away what need is there for change?

Oversight is a good thing. Regarding search I feel it is easily accomplished. Type something into the search box. If you only find Google services on the search results page then something is not right. But the fact that Google Maps provides me with the address I searched is to be expected. Google Maps is the integrated maps tool for Google just as Navteq is the integrated maps tool for Microsoft Bing. I typed in “share product videos online for free” in Google to see if YouTube ranked on top. It did not; however, Shutterfly, Adobe and then Google.com/options ranked in the top three. If you follow the Google link it takes you to a page listing all of its products, not just YouTube.

Just as the NY Times author states, “Requiring each algorithm tweak to be approved by regulators could drastically slow down its improvements.”  Look at the slowing effect other regulators have on their respective industries. Is it even a sensible notion? Who would be on the commission? Would all search engines receive the same oversight? What would such oversight mean to the end-user?

Google has assembled a highly intelligent and creative team that is given the time and mental space to think and innovate. It is not Google’s “unfair play” that should threaten its competitors; it is its culture of innovation that is based on responding to the perceived needs of its users. And it appears to understand those needs with a high degree of accuracy. We can all learn a lesson from Google about the power of understanding our end-users in order to serve them better and win their loyalty!

In an industry like search, I believe end-users (customers, consumers) are the greatest regulators of fair play. Give them a product they like and they’ll use it as long as it serves them the way they need to be served. Try to trick them or compromise their experience in any way and “click” they are gone is less than 60 seconds! And when they tweet about their bad experience on Twitter, and others start to chime in, the search property is forced to be accountable if they don’t want to permanently lose end-user loyalty.

For all intents and purposes Promoted Tweets “are ordinary tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users.” What makes this service different from traditional search advertising models is “all Promoted Tweets are organic Tweets [with] not a single “ad” that isn’t already part of Twitter.” To maintain broadcast control, Twitter “will not allow any third party to inject paid tweets into a timeline on any service that leverages the Twitter API. This applies to a stream that may be user based, search based, or other.”

Another aspect of the service is ‘Promoted Trends.’ Working much the same way as Promoted Tweets, Promoted Trends refer to conversations, called Trending Topics, that are being discussed on Twitter but that may not have made it onto the Trending Topics list yet. Twitter will place paid Promoted Trends initially at the bottom of the Trending Topics list to help them to garner some attention and traction. When a user clicks on the Promoted Trend he will be able to Follow it, Retweet it, and Reply to it. All the while he is reading or interacting with the tweet, a persistent Promoted Tweet will appear at the top of his page.

In my next post I will discuss how industrial marketers can get the most out of Twitter and its new advertising services once they become available to everyone.

What the study uncovered:

“80% directly search for and visit the website for a supplier/manufacturer
70% visit publication websites, including business newspapers
68% land on a manufacturer website through a link on a publication’s website
58% navigate to manufacturer websites as the result of an ad within a publication”

With business professionals now relying predominantly on the internet for information sourcing it is more important than ever to ensure you are well-represented. That means having an information-rich website that organizes information to target each audience group specifically. Support your efforts to get visitors to your website by maintaining an interesting and topical blog and a monthly newsletter. Attach links to articles and blog posts to the social networking sites like Twitter to draw readers back to your information and to let them know you are a great resource for the kind of information they are seeking. And make sure you can found in other places where your targeted groups are spending time.

Some ideas of where your target audience may be spending time:

• It’s a great idea to submit an article to a well-known publication if you feel confident enough to pitch the editor of the section into which you fit. Not only does it offer you a very valuable “inbound link” to your website but it also aligns you with the top industry sources.
• Another way to be included on the web pages of a well-known journal or information site is by placing banner and text ads. These can be costly but may prove to offer you valuable prospects in the long run.
• Check out your trade organization’s website. See what kind of advertising programs are offered that may fit your budget and objectives. There is usually a substantial discount offered to members and a variety of advertising options from which to choose.

Take advantage of the internet by actively pursuing opportunities to be found by your target audience groups. A multi-channel approach casts the widest net and still gives you the control to select where you would like to be found. Then invite your audience back to your highly focused and well organized website where the information they seek can be accessed with ease.

The very nature of Content Targeting presents a challenge because it involves casting a larger net within a sea of searchers without knowing exactly what it is they are searching for. Within the Search Network you have a clearer understanding of what a person is looking for and are therefore able to compose a highly targeted message that directly speaks to the concerns of the person searching. Not so clear within the Content Network. So how do you effectively deal with the “unknowns” to produce positive, measurable results?

First I would like to point you to a wonderful little article I read recently by Andrew Goodman for ClickZ entitled Three Effective Tactics for Content Targeting. Andrew offers some very helpful advice. In a nutshell, Andrew recommends you 1) use the measurement tools available to you to fully understand what’s working and what isn’t 2) engage in precise targeting – divide and conquer; create adgroups that focus on a smaller perhaps niche market with a short keyword list of 5 – 10 terms/phrases and select highly targeted content sites and 3) make use of view-through conversion tracking; this tool is available ONLY for display ads and NOT text ads and you MUST have conversion tracking implemented; view-through conversion tracking allows you to see how users respond to your display ads by providing “a measure of the number of online conversions that happened within 30 days after a user saw, but did not click, a display ad on one of the sites on the Google Content Network.”

The principle ingredients to effectively manage your targeted pay per click Content Network campaigns are:

Clear goals: Sales, brand focus, announcement – what are you trying to achieve and what are the precise steps that your target audience has to take for you to achieve your goals? Write everything down in a clear and concise manner – everything!! No shortcuts and no omissions!

Precise Targeting: Select the content sites, or de-select content sites, based on your goals; understand clearly whom you are targeting and on which content sites they are most likely to be spending time.

Focused Creative: Whether you are using display ads, text ads or a combination of both, focus your creative based on the goals you have clearly outlined and your understanding of your target audience groups; don’t dilute your message in any way with empty images or words that do not relate your message clearly.

Small Campaigns with Select Keywords & Phrases: Match your choices to your goals and your understanding of your targeted audience groups; keeping your adgroups small allows for tighter control; with fewer variables your results are more targeted, allowing for precise adjustments to be made to enhance your overall results or kill a campaign if need be without affecting the results of better performing campaigns.

Measure & Tweak: Complacency is a campaign killer; set it and let it run may work for some but I bet they are spending way more than they have to; understand what types of measurement tools are available to you and use the statistics that help you to effectively manage your goals; there are many stats available but they may not all be important to what you are trying to achieve; the point is to focus on what is going to help you to understand what you have to do next to achieve your goals.

Content targeting is not for those who do not have the time or the patience to set it up and manage it carefully. Poorly managed campaigns can eat through your advertising budget like termites in a woodpile with a voracious appetite!