A: EVERYTHING! You want to stand out in your niche. You want people to buy from you and not the next guy. But it's hard, I mean, there's so much competition out there. You're elbow to elbow with your enemies, how's anyone ever going to find you? Your keyword niche is totally saturated... right? They're going to find you because you're going to invent a new set of keywords and then you're going to create a buzz about it. And you're going to do it by launching a mass online event. I recently pulled together a group of colleagues and we kicked off the first annual Web Content Awareness Day. I wasn't thinking about keywords or traffic when I did it. I just wanted something fresh that might highlight me in the Copywriting Category. So I grabbed my online cronies and away we went. What I realized as I became more deeply involved in the viral marketing of this event, is that the event had become a major brand identifier for me. People were starting to recognize those four words, "Web Content Awareness Day," and equate them with me - Dina at Wordfeeder.com. I could see *why* this might happen, but the question was, *how* was it happening so quickly? It was happening, mainly, thanks to the search engines. Where there had never been a holiday dedicated to web content providers, now there was one. And people were "catching the buzz" about it, thanks to friends and colleagues of mine who were helping to spread the word virally. And the "word" was actually four words - a keyword term, "web content awareness day," that curious observers could type into any of the major search engines to see what they could find. Well imagine my surprise and delight when I realized this very *basic* but so frequently overlooked fact of web marketing and what makes those very successful people so successful. Invent something new and interesting, and invite folks to jump on the bandwagon... and it spreads like wildfire on the internet. One link connects to the next, and forms what I call the Internet Food Chain. You guessed it - the best are at the top. But here's the rub: you must do something that nobody else is doing, and dub it some term that's what I call "a keyword phrase with a twist." The phrase should contain one keyword and one "made up" catch-phrase that stands for you and you alone. The term should be memorable... and it should become part of your mega-branding blitz, showing up in every single piece of marketing you put out there. Spread it around and burn it in there, that's how the pros do it. After you've been sinking it in for long enough, that's when the change happens, and instead of your oddball term being something that people stumble over and ponder, they'll begin to RECOGNIZE and even identify with it. And then they'll begin to seek it out, by typing it into the search engines. And this is how the momentum gets building! Now, when people search for that phrase that you made up, they'll automatically land on you... because there IS no one else! And that was what you had wanted to happen in the first place. :) Think about the Copy Doctor, the Ezine Queen and The Idea Virus. These are "keywords with a twist" - clever terms that people invented as a way to brand themselves - and it worked. So, if you want to build a following in your niche, invent a new term that becomes an online event, and then generate human and search engine traffic by way of your blog, ezine, online network, website, articles and press effort. That's pretty much the secret; there, I gave it away and I'm not ashamed. Why? Because it's nothing new. I know that half of the people who read this won't have the gumption to put it to good use. But you will... won't you? Happy Event Marketing! Want to witness event planning live in action? Please join me and my marketing friends at the First Annual Web Content Awareness Day, http://WebContentAwarenessDay.com. Sneak Peek: Visit the Countdown to Web Content Awareness Day Blog and watch what happens when "friends help friends drive traffic." Paste in this link: http://wordfeeder.typepad.com/web_content_awareness_day/ Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved. |
