How To Find The Right Keywords To Optimize Search Engine Results
By Nelson Tan (c) 2009

Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers
to your websites. But in order for visitors to reach their
destination - your website - you need to provide them with
effective signs that direct them right to your site by creating
carefully chosen keywords.

Think of the right keywords as the "Open Sesame!" of the
Internet. Find the exactly right words, and presto! Hoards of
traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if your
keywords are too general or overused, the possibility of
visitors actually making it all the way to your site - or of
seeing any real profits from the visitors that do arrive -
decreases dramatically.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing
strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no matter
how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the right people
may never get the chance to find out about it. So your first
step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate
keywords and phrases.

You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words for
your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't followed
certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. It's hard to be
objective when you are right in the center of your business
network, which is the reason that you may not be able to choose
the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able
to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner
and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the
source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of potential
search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as many
potential customers as you can. You will most likely find out
that your understanding of your business and your customers'
understanding is significantly different.

The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the words
you accumulate from them are words and phrases you probably
never would have considered from deep inside the trenches of
your business.

Only after you have gathered words and phrases from outside
resources should you add your own keywords to the list. Once
you have this list in hand, you are ready for the next step:
evaluation.

The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a small
number of words and phrases that will direct the highest number
of quality visitors to your website. By "quality visitors" I
mean those consumers who are most likely to make a purchase
rather than just cruise around your site and take off for
greener pastures. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords,
bear in mind three elements: popularity, specificity, and
motivation.

Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective
quality. The more popular your keyword is, the more likely the
chances are that it will be typed into a search engine which
will then bring up your URL.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity of
keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating based on
real search engine activity. Software such as WordTracker will
even suggest variations of your words and phrases. The higher
the number this software assigns to a given keyword, the more
traffic you can logically expect to be directed to your site.
The only fallacy with this concept is the more popular the
keyword is, the greater the search engine position you will need
to obtain. If you are down at the bottom of the search results,
the consumer will probably never scroll down to find you.

Popularity isn't enough to declare a keyword a good choice. You
must move on to the next criteria, which is specificity. The
more specific your keyword is, the greater the likelihood that
the consumer who is ready to purchase your goods or services
will find you.

Let's look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have
obtained popularity rankings for the keyword "automobile
companies." However, your company specializes in bodywork only.
The keyword "automobile body shops" would rank lower on the
popularity scale than "automobile companies," but it would
nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of getting a slew of
people interested in everything from buying a car to changing
their oil filters, you will get only those consumers with
trashed front ends or crumpled fenders being directed to your
site. In other words, consumers ready to buy your services are
the ones who will immediately find you. Not only that, but the
greater the specificity of your keyword, the less competition
you will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this
requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer rather
than the seller to figure out what motivation prompts a person
looking for a service or product to type in a particular word or
phrase.

Let's look at another example, such as a consumer who is
searching for a job as an IT manager in a new city. If you have
to choose between "Seattle job listings" and "Seattle IT
recruiters" which do you think will benefit the consumer more?
If you were looking for this type of specific job, which keyword
would you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second
keyword targets people who have decided on their career, have
the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you as their
recruiter, rather than someone just out of school who is
casually trying to figure out what to do with his or her life in
between beer parties.

You want to find people who are ready to act or make a purchase,
and this requires subtle tinkering of your keywords until you
find the most specific and directly targeted phrases to bring
the most motivated traffic to your site.

Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done. You
must continually evaluate performance across a variety of search
engines, bearing in mind that times and trends change, as does
popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log traffic analysis
alone because it will not tell you how many of your visitors
actually made a purchase.

Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you judge the
effectiveness of your keywords in individual search engines.
There is now software available that analyzes consumer behavior
in relation to consumer traffic. This allows you to discern
which keywords are bringing you the most valuable customers.

This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a good
keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find keywords that
direct consumers to your site who actually buy your product,
fill out your forms, or download your product. This is the most
important factor in evaluating the efficacy of a keyword or
phrase, and should be the sword you wield when discarding and
replacing ineffective or inefficient keywords with keywords that
bring in better profits.

Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for search
engine success. This may sound like a lot of work - and it is!
But the amount of informed effort you put into your keyword
campaign is what will ultimately generate your business' rewards.
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Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center.
Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at
http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
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The Brand Story Web Marketing Process
By Jerry Bader (c) 2009

If websites have one overarching goal it is to create confidence
in whatever the website is promoting and who's promoting it. It
doesn't matter if it's a product, a service, a sales campaign,
or an idea, if the presentation is not minimally credible or
optimally motivational, then it fails as a means of marketing
communication.

Communicate to the Subconscious Mind

Branding is often thought of as a marketing strategy reserved
for major consumer product companies, but the fact is all
businesses are brands that are either cultivated so they
blossom, or let go-to-seed like a garden full of weeds.

Marketing neophytes often think of branding only in terms of
some physical manifestation, like a logo, but a brand is the
full complement of residual impressions resulting from all the
experiences associated with a product, service or company. And
today, the online experience is a vital venue for creating those
experiences.

By using video, the marketer has the opportunity to tap into the
audiences' subconscious mind, the buried remnants of both
remembered and forgotten experiences; the kind of experiences
that form attitudes, prejudices, and preferences that inform our
decisions, most importantly our buying decisions.

Where Businesses Go Wrong

Where businesses go wrong is settling for only the obvious, the
logical, and the rational. Brands are formed in the
subconscious, so if your marketing communication doesn't reach
the subconscious mind then it is not establishing or enhancing
the brand in any meaningful, effective long-term way.

What video does, when done right, is communicate on both the
obvious and subconscious levels, making it the ideal
Web-communication vehicle for creating a powerful brand
experience, but only if you understand how to use the
presentation and performance elements available.

Considering how powerful a tool Web-video can be, it amazes me
how so many normally intelligent business people can opt for
second-rate presentations. The do-it-yourself and user-generated
efforts compete for the booby prize with the mindless corporate
drivel - they all miss the point: a persuasive motivating
presentation must communicate on multiple levels.

How To Deliver A Brand Story

We like to refer to developing, delivering, enhancing, and
managing a Web-based brand, as The Brand Story Process.
By thinking of your brand in terms of a story rather than just
some graphical image, or nebulous mission statement, you avoid
many of the pitfalls associated with ineffective branding.

A story, any story, has certain fundamental elements:

1. A storyline, plot or arc that moves the audience from
skeptical Web-surfers to loyal customers.

2. A hero, who vicariously represents the audience and
their dilemma in satisfying their subconscious needs or desires.

3. A villain, who represents the problems, obstacles, or
challenges that confront the audience in satisfying those
subconscious needs.

4. An agent of change that represents your company's
ability to resolve the dilemma by providing a solution to
satisfying those needs.

5. And a format that structures the presentation in a
series of procedural or serial video episodes, that establishes
and enhances the brand image, all while delivering literal and
subliminal benefits.

Storyline - The Arc of Transformation

At the heart of your brand story is your marketing message and
that message must invoke change: a transformation from
dissatisfaction to satisfaction, and not just a presentation of
features and benefits.

Your brand storyline puts what you offer into context, and
illustrates the achievable results through onscreen surrogates
acting out the audience's hidden agendas. A competitor can
always cut your price or add new features, but neither tactic
can overcome brand loyalty based on satisfying subconscious
emotional needs.

Hero As Brand Messenger

It's not just the message; it's the messenger. There is no
substitute for the human being. No avatar, cartoon character, or
computer-generated equivalent will provide the subtlety and
nuance required to communicate on the verbal, visible, and
subconscious levels.

The one caveat is that real people can be 'too real' for their
own good. We rarely recommend using company executives in front
of the camera because the camera picks up all kinds of signals
that the unpracticed performer is not aware of, resulting in an
impression often contrary to the intended message. An uptight
senior executive, no matter how well meaning, delivering a
reassuring message to the public over some product liability
problem can actually hurt the company's rehabilitation efforts
if that onscreen presenter is deemed untrustworthy or deceptive.

He'll Always Be Tricky Dick

There are many examples of this sort of marketing faux pas, with
Richard Nixon's 1960 television debate with John Kennedy being
one of the most famous. On the radio many people thought Nixon,
the veteran campaigner, won the debate, but under the
penetrating scrutiny of the television camera, Nixon's true self
came through. It was not just the five o'clock shadow; it was
his buried true-self delivering a negative impression to the
audience's subconscious mind. The negative Nixon brand was
established forever, one that never fully recovered.

A Brand Should Never Get Old, Ill, or Fat

Even positive reaction to a real personality can turn out to be
negative. Take the example of Steve Jobs. His keynote addresses
are treated like rock star performances, but when not available
to perform for whatever reason, rumors start, and even major
corporations like Apple feel the effect.

What you really want to create is a brand character, a
spokesperson that can be managed, cultivated, and grown into a
long-term brand representative, one who can deliver your
marketing message and brand story in consistent, effective, and
controlled campaigns.

Every Brand Story Needs A Villain

When we speak of the brand villain we are not necessarily
referring to another character although that can certainly be
one way of illustrating the issue at hand. As an alternative,
situations or scenarios can be used to represent the problem or
dilemma.

Psychological issues are most often not so cut-and-dried as to
be presented by the black-hat villain and white-hat hero.
Engaging heroes are often tainted or damaged in a way the
audience can relate to, and effective villains are not so much
evil as they are representative of an alternative agenda.

Take for example the recent commercial campaign for 'Oatmeal
Crisps' that is currently running in the Canadian market. The
series of spots features a father who is trying to protect his
favorite cereal from being consumed by his teenage son in one
commercial, and by his elderly father in another. This extremely
clever campaign digs deep into the emotional resentments and
psychological issues involved in the family dynamic, but it does
it in a humorous, lighthearted manner, where the audience can
relate to the situation, and accept the underlying message.
Here's a case of protagonist and antagonist, a more
sophisticated approach to the hero-villain relationship.

You Are The Agent of Change

By adopting the Brand Story approach to marketing, you need to
accept the notion that your brand is an agent of change. All
stories are about change: transformation from one state
(dissatisfaction) to another (satisfaction). You construct your
brand story based on the idea that your brand will transform the
audience somehow.

Take the 'Multi Grain Cheerios' commercial featuring a husband
and wife discussing the ingredients listed on the cereal box:
while the overt message is buy this product because it tastes
good, the underlying message is that it helps control your
weight thus making you more attractive to your spouse, not a
subject that any sensitive spouse would suggest. The cereal is
presented as the agent of change: overweight and unattractive,
to slim and beautiful, while at the same time removing the
stigma of dieting by providing the taste excuse to justify the
purchase.

This commercial like the previously mentioned 'Oatmeal Crisps'
commercial creates a conflict that delivers multiple messages
through the familiar husband-wife scenario; one that is familiar
to anyone who has ever dared suggest their significant other
should lose some weight.

Are You "Law and Order" or "Prison Break"?
Format: Procedural or Serial

The two most commonly used presentation formats are Procedural,
think "Law and Order", or Serial, think "Prison Break".
Procedurals follow a strict formula that continuously replays
the basic story arc with the context of each episode emphasizing
the consistent attitudes, perspective, and point-of-view of the
franchise or brand. On the other hand, Serials move the plot
along from episode to episode keeping the audience in suspense
as to what is going to happen next and whether the brand hero
will win the day.

One of the best Serial advertising campaigns every implemented
was the Nescafe Gold Blend coffee campaign that ran from
1987-1992. You can watch the whole campaign from beginning to
end on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igi9u6X4y-s).

One of my favorite Procedural style campaigns is the recent
Kleenex (Let It Out) campaign that was brilliantly executed. It
played upon the audience's emotions, memories, and experiences,
while associating those deep-seated feelings with their brand of
facial tissue that is normally regarded and sold as a strictly
commoditized product.

Doing Something, Isn't Necessarily Doing It Well

Far from being restrictive, these formats provide familiar
structure within which the company can establish and enhance
their brand, but failure to grasp the underlying emotional
element inherent in your offering will lead to failure. A
current Canadian advertiser tried to copy the Kleenex format
without understanding what made the Kleenex campaign effective;
they copied the physical presentation but without any emotional
subtext, relying totally on a cost-to-performance benefit, and
the result is a second rate effort rather than an effectively
clever slipstreamed homage.

It's About People, By People, For People

Unlike television advertising that is restricted to only those
that can afford it, the Web is available to all. The problem is
easy and affordable access to the tools and venues to deliver
your brand story does not mean that you are telling it
effectively. Marketing communication is not about research,
technology, or statistics; it's about people and the underlying
emotional needs your brand satisfies - therein lies the basis
upon which you build your brand story.
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Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design
firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Ask about our
Summer Video Website Campaign Special. Visit
http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and
http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com
or telephone (905) 764-1246.
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