If they’re clicking to your site from the search engines, chances are they’re finding you through longtail keywords. This free traffic is a huge bonus for your business, and understanding how to integrate longtail keywords better can help you do this.
Here’s how you can integrate longtail keywords in 2021.
What Are Longtail Keywords?
Longtail keywords are long, specific queries letting search engines know not just what words searchers want to know about but why they want to know them.
For example, “longtail keywords” is a keyword; “what are longtail keywords?” is a longtail keyword.
When you run your keyword research, it’s easy to be attracted to the short tail or head keywords. These are the keywords like “SEO” or “keywords,” and they’re likely to have a high search volume, attracting the attention of many marketers.
Where there’s search volume, there’s lots of competition. Longtail keywords with slightly less volume tend to be a little easier to rank for.
Why Should You Integrate Longtail Keywords in Your Blog Posts?
What do you want from your content marketing?
The first thing is probably traffic, and after that, you want conversions. Longtail keywords can make a massive difference to your business in both of these areas.
Paid advertising is a great way to get your brand in front of your target audience, but there’s a catch. You’re paying for every click. If you can gradually replace those paid clicks with organic traffic, not only do you save money, you could see better results. In fact, Google’s Economic Impact Report states organic search is five times more valuable than paid search.
Searches of more than four words make up 95.88 percent of Google searches, meaning there are lots of clicks to be had. Because these searches are more specific, the people making them tend to have greater buyer intent.
Compare the two searches:
“Real Estate” vs. “4-bed real estate in Naperville.”
Which search indicates a buyer who is more ready to purchase?
Longtail keywords often indicate a searcher is well on the road to conversion, and that alone is a pretty strong reason to use them in your content.
How to Integrate Longtail Keywords in Your Posts
Longtail keywords are essential for any business. It doesn’t matter how authoritative your site is; the sheer volume of longtail keywords means they’re something you can’t ignore.
You can’t just take longtail keywords and try to stuff them into your content, though. Modern SEO is about providing the user with the best experience. To do this, you need to integrate longtail keywords into high-quality, relevant content.
1. Set Your Content Marketing Objectives
What do you want to achieve with your blog post?
Your honest answer can help you create user-friendly blog posts to rank more highly in keyword search results.
attract potential customers to your marketing system
explore prospect pain
illustrate benefits
overcome objections
build your reputation with search engines
With hard work and patience, great content marketing can achieve any of these goals. The best approach is to choose one or two core goals that you want every piece of content to achieve.
Whatever your goals, if you want to attract new prospects, you have to find out what longtail keywords they use. This allows you to create valuable, evergreen content based on those longtail keywords.
Plus, longtail keywords likely play a big part in Google’s algorithm, so you need to understand how to align them with your goals.
Generally, when potential customers find their long-tail keyword search terms in your post, it will increase engagement. It’s about matching user intent.
Longtail keywords can help you achieve different goals, so you should define what you want to achieve before starting writing.
2. Create Buyer Personas to Help You Understand User Intent
If you’re going to match user intent, you’ve got to understand the people searching for your products/services (your buyer personas).
Without a clear picture of what your buyer personas look like, you’re just guessing at what people search for and how they search for it. Instead, you want to have a clear image of how your target audience searches for information, why they look for it, and how you can respond to their queries.
Creating buyer personas is a simple way to help you respond effectively. It’s a representation of a specific ideal reader you’d like to attract to your blog or site.
Put yourself in the shoes of your buyer persona and ask yourself what questions they have, what information they’re looking for, and how they search for it?
You need to understand how your audience searches and use this information to match user intent by integrating longtail keywords.
3. Research and Select Your Longtail Keywords
You have to be picky about your longtail keywords.
Step 1: Go to Ubersuggest, type your main keyword (e.g., car insurance), and click the “Search” button:
Step 2: Click “Keyword Ideas” in the left sidebar:
Step 3: Choose your long-tail keywords from the results list, by identifying keywords with four or more words.
Step 4: Filter the results in search of high volume, low SD long-tail keywords:
For this industry, which is highly competitive, I set the SEO difficulty to no greater than 40 while keeping the search volume in the 2,000 to 7,000 range. Here’s what you get:
Not only are there 80 keywords meeting the criteria, but many of them are prime candidates. For example, “cheapest car insurance in Michigan” is desirable. Here’s why:
5,400 monthly searches are more than enough to move the needle (more on this below).
A relatively low SD of 34 shows ranking on the first page is attainable.
A CPC of $37.89 proves it’s a high converting keyword (typically, the higher the CPC, the better it converts).
So, if you decide to target “cheapest car insurance in Michigan,” the next step is clicking on that keyword. Doing so displays the following:
This is a list of the top search results for the keyword, complete with:
URL
estimated visits
links
domain score
social shares
A few things stand out to me:
Estimated visits per month for the top three spots are strong.
The average number of backlinks of page one results is 16.
None of the websites in the top five have done an outstanding job with social media.
In other words, this is a long-tail keyword you can win.
It’s important to remember that Google and the other search engines aren’t just about numbers, though. At its heart, Google is about the experience: giving people the information they need in a way they enjoy. Longtail keywords won’t get you where you want to go unless you understand user intent and can provide them with the experience they’re looking for.
This means your goal can’t just be to rank. It’s got to be to provide the user with the highest quality content that matches user intent.
SEO requires caring about your users and solving their problems. This is why smart long-tail keyword use helps you with search engine results, not hurts you.
Your content is there to help your visitors answer questions and solve problems, and keywords firmly take a back seat to this.
Having done significant research, make sure you’re using your longtail keywords to demonstrate your content matches user intent.
If you’re creating content matching user intent, you should be able to incorporate longtail keywords naturally. “Naturally” is the crucial element here.
Some marketers look at one keyword per 200 words as a good benchmark, but quality is far more important than quantity. For a 2,000-word article, I generally aim to use my keyword 10-20 times—but it’s not a hard and fast rule. With some articles, frequent use of both standard and longtail keywords flows naturally; for others, you won’t use them as much.
As long as your content is good and your context is clear, you usually don’t need to panic if your keyword only shows up less often.
Remember that titles and headings are essential parts of your content, so again, try to integrate your longtail keywords. This will also make it clear to the user that you match their intent, encouraging them to read on.
Again though, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to be natural. In the early days of SEO, Google’s algorithms weren’t as sophisticated, and people did benefit from putting their keywords in at every opportunity. Today though, Google is super smart, and it’s focused on the value your content offers the user. If you’re keyword stuffing, you won’t get far.
Longtail Keyword Integration FAQs
What is considered a longtail keyword?
Longtail keywords are keyword queries of generally four words or longer and can demonstrate high buyer intent.
What are examples of longtail keywords?
Take the word “dogs” as your regular keyword. Longtail keywords might include “Labrador dogs for sale,” “How to look after a dog,” or “Why should I get a dog.”
How do you target longtail keywords?
You can target longtail keywords by creating valuable content answering people’s questions and helping them solve their problems.
Do longtail keyword phrases need to be exact?
Google is good at understanding semantics, which means it knows how words link together to create meaning. As a result, your longtail keywords don’t always have to be exact.
Longtail Keyword Integration Conclusion
Search engines want to see you provide your users with the best possible experience. To do this, you’ve got to understand your target audience and how they search.
Longtail keyword research should be a big part of your content marketing strategy. Successfully incorporating these keywords into your content will enable you to match user intent and give your visitors a great experience.
When you boost your traffic and engage users better by using the language they use to search, it can bring significant results for your website.
If so, you need to focus your efforts on inbound marketing strategies for your startup.
Why?
It’s one of the best ways to take market share from bigger companies, and you don’t need a hefty Facebook Ads budget to compete.
Instead of broadcasting to the customer, as traditional outbound marketing does, inbound marketing focuses on creating reasons for the customer to come to you.
According to HubSpot, which coined the term “inbound marketing” back in 2006, the strategy consists of four stages.
It’s a proven system that works for the best companies in the world, and it has launched dozens of startups to stellar success.
Inbound Marketing Strategies for Start-Ups
Now that you know what is inbound marketing and how it works, let’s dive into the best strategies for inbound marketing for startups.
1.Use Facebook to Create a Target Persona
The first and most critical part of creating compelling content is understanding what your target customers want to learn.
You need to have an in-depth knowledge of your market so you can react quickly.
Here’s how you learn more about who your audience is by reviewing your Facebook Page Insights.
First, go to your Facebook page. At the top, you’ll see a button labeled Insights. Click on it.
In the sidebar that opens, click on People.
From there, you’re going to want to look at the Your Fans column. Check to see where the percentages lie to understand what demographics apply to your business.
This can give you a general feel for who is interested in your startup and start forming the basis of your target persona. But that’s not all we need.
Next, we will find out what interests these people and how you can write content that appeals to what they care about.
2. Survey Your Current Customers and Leads
The easiest way to get to know your target market is through a survey.
This doesn’t have to be complicated. If you already have an email list, you can send them a simple form through SurveyMonkey.
To make this work, you only need to ask one question: “What is your biggest struggle?”
Your goal is to understand the problems they’re facing so you can create compelling content that targets their deepest interests.
3. Conduct In-Depth Interviewsto Inform Your Inbound Marketing Efforts
Once you have the general feelings of your target market, it’s a good idea to start seeking out individuals you can contact for more in-depth information.
I recommend looking for a few clients or customers you’ve already acquired.
Ask them if they’d be OK with a 10-minute phone call or a video chat about their current struggles. Mention you’ll offer them advice if you can.
(Usually, customers are excited about this. It’s like a free consultation for them.)
Once you’re on the call, try to find out exactly what their biggest struggles are. Ask them to describe those struggles in the clearest language possible.
Get to exactly what frustrates them and what solutions they tried before but didn’t work.
If you create generic, self-serving articles and videos, you’ll never see success.
No matter how hard you promote this content or how you designed it to rank well in search engines, you’re going to struggle to find new clients and customers.
The best-in-class content marketers work tirelessly to adapt their content to the target audiences they want to attract — and where they are in the customer journey.
5. Writing Enticing Headline
Understanding the customer journey and their needs is critical to making great content, but it’s not the only strategy you’ll need to draw in new customers and leads.
The most important piece of the work you create is the headline. This is what will drive the most clicks and draw in new traffic.
You should spend lots of time crafting a headline that appeals to your most targeted customers.
Of course, you shouldn’t always have negative headlines.
But if you have a list of mistakes or talk about the worst strategies that could hurt your customer, this can be an effective way to drive traffic.
According to Demand Metric, companies with blogs generate 67 percent more leads per month than those who don’t.
If you’re going to produce this content, you need to make sure it works to its best ability.
7. Make Your Content More Visual
Humans love visual content. For your content to appeal to your ideal readers, make sure there’s more to it than just large blocks of text.
Including lots of images, charts, and graphs is a technique I use to make my content more appealing, and I’m not alone.
90 percent of bloggers include images in their posts, and those who add multiple images report stronger results.
The more visual your content, the more likely it’s likely to improve your inbound marketing efforts.
6. Write In-Depth Data-Driven Articles
Instead of writing short posts, you should be doing extensive research and producing in-depth content.
According to research by Curata, long-form content generates eight times more page views, nine times more leads, and three times more social media shares than short-form content.
You should be writing articles that are a few thousand words long and supported by lots of data and analysis.
This is not only better for your SEO rankings, but it’s also more helpful for your customers.
The better your content, the more likely your readers are to share it with friends, recommend your site to others, and implement what you say.
8. Use Storytelling in Your Content
Just because you base your content around data and analysis doesn’t mean it needs to be dry and academic.
You should work to produce the opposite type of content. You want to create articles that tell a story.
Why?
Using storytelling in your content (from sales pages to social media posts) is a way to create an emotional connection with your audience.
Storytelling has another powerful function. It creates brand recall. Research by Stanford University shows people are 63 percent more likely to remember a story than a statistic.
Not convinced?
Chris Haddad (a relationship coach) went from a 2 percent conversion rate to 8 percent by changing his sales page to include a relatable personal story.
How can you use this tactic in your startup? Look for opportunities to weave in stories when talking about your product or business.
Sure, your benefits and features are great, but the emotional connection you create with storytelling will close the sale and help grow your startup through inbound marketing.
This is because it provides you with backlinks, authority in the space, and relationships with key influencers.
But most people go about it the wrong way. If you aren’t using smart strategies to spread your startup’s message through guest posting, you might as well not do it.
If you want to reap the benefits of guest posting, you need to write consistently.
This is how the most successful startup owners have made guest blogging work well for them. Instead of a few posts, they wrote prolifically and gained ground quickly.
If you do a Google search for guest posts by Danny Iny, you’ll find dozens of pieces of content across the web.
This massive, consistent guest-posting strategy allowed him to grow his business Mirasee into the powerhouse it is today.
On his homepage, he displays an in-depth list of all the sites where he has been featured.
Dedicate some of your time to creating compelling content for other blogs to reach as many customers as possible.
10. Pitch to Blogs with Engaged Readers
Another problem I see with entrepreneurs who want to use guest posting as an inbound marketing strategy is that they don’t look for sites that will give them much ROI.
The truth is that every guest post requires work, and that’s work that needs to give you a distinct benefit in visitors or leads.
If you post on a blog that has a dead audience, you won’t get any benefit, and you’ll have wasted your time.
I like to look at the comments on different sites. For example, if I wanted to write a guest blog for WordStream, I can see their posts get lots of relevant comments.
This tells me the readers are engaged, and a blog post here might result in readers clicking through to my startup’s website and purchasing from me.
11. Maximize Your Results from SEO with Keyword Optimization
You need to understand SEO to achieve any success with your startup in today’s search-driven marketplace.
The most important things to focus on are basic on-page SEO and backlinks for your site and your content.
How do you do that? Keyword optimization.
You want to find specific long-tail keywords which you’d like to use for targeting your content.
The more specific someone is in their search, the more likely they know what they want and are close to converting into a customer.
12. Promote Your Content to Build Backlinks
Backlinks are perhaps the most important factor in your search engine results.
At the simplest level, backlinks are other sites that link to your site. There are lots of ways to increase the number of backlinks you get to your content.
By promoting your content to other relevant influencers, you can increase the number of people that link back to you.
The exact number of backlinks you need to be successful on the search engines varies depending on the keyword, topic, and the competing sites that are ranking well now.
With careful prompting, though, you can easily outrank pages on massive sites with more authority.
Not sure where to start with backlinks? I’ve created a free backlink checker tool you can use to find out who is linking to your startup’s competition.
13. Acquire Inbound Marketing Leads with Free Content
When it’s time to convert your visitors into leads, you need bulletproof strategies to get people to give you their email addresses.
The best method I’ve seen is to offer free content in exchange for this contact information.
If your startup is in the B2B sector, or if you appeal to customers who want or need in-depth analysis before purchasing, you can make an effective lead magnet from a report.
This is a great way to get leads because the comprehensiveness of your work seems like a great deal for an email address.
HubSpot’s list of marketing statistics includes a pitch for their “State of Inbound Marketing” report. This is a detailed guide with massive amounts of high-quality data.
But they aren’t giving this away for free. To receive the report, you need to provide a detailed amount of information that HubSpot will use to follow up with you on their products.
This is an effective way to drive your visitors into your sales funnel and reach them even more effectively.
14. Host a Free Webinar
One of my favorite inbound marketing techniques for startups is free webinars that encourage customers to learn in real-time.
This is great because it lets them see your face and understand your personality. Besides, lots of people will download a guide and never read it.
But if someone signs up for a webinar, you can see if they watch the whole thing.
I have used this kind of training on my homepage in the past. I didn’t call it a webinar, though. I just used the term “training.”
This is a great way to increase your leads as visitors must enter their first name and email address to access the training.
Since this is such a valuable teaching piece, people who come to my website are happy to provide their email address to learn SEO better.
15. Launch an Email Course
There’s another form of content you can create that will drive new customers.
Even better, it won’t require the extensive research that a report demands or the complicated backend software necessary for a webinar.
That strategy is to create an email course. This is a simple way to provide extra value without spending tons of time creating something with design elements or video.
If you’re currently giving away an e-book for your startup and you’ve found that it isn’t converting well, consider breaking down the content into sections.
Then use each section as a separate email. You may find that an email course or a masterclass converts even better than an ebook.
16. Start an Influencer Marketing Campaign
According to a survey by Influencer Marketing Hub, 75 percent of brands have a dedicated budget for influencer marketing, and 90 percent of respondents believe it’s an effective form of advertising.
If you do this the right way, it can be a free or paid method to get people excited about your brand.
First and most importantly, you need to make sure you’re appealing to the right influencers.
This is easy to get wrong, as the people you think you’re appealing to may not be persuasive to your target audience.
The earlier research you did on your audience should be a great starting place to understand who they pay attention to, but you might need to do even more work than that.
How do you find the right influencers for your startup? You can:
Google phrases like “top [niche] influencers.
Browse hashtags on Instagram related to your niche.
Use Influencer platforms to connect with creators.
Search key phrases on Ubersuggest to find blogs that appeal to your target audience.
17. Build Relationships with Influencers
Once you know which influencers are best for your brand, you need to start targeting them specifically.
While you can just run into promotion and start spamming them with requests to share the content you created, this won’t be very effective.
You’ll irritate them and ruin the relationship.
Instead, you need to start slow and gradually build a relationship with the influencers you’d like to promote your content.
You should also do everything you can to help those influencers by providing communication that’s always focused on their needs.
While it may seem frustrating to always focus on them, you’ll eventually start to build a relationship that allows you to make a small request.
If you’ve built great relationships from the start, they’ll be happy to oblige.
18. Build Effective Email Campaigns
You already know that email marketing is critical to a successful inbound marketing campaign for your startup.
But are you using it effectively?
Email marketing has a massive ROI.
According to Litmus, the average ROI was $42 for every $1 spent on emails.
But to make it work, you need to be strategic with how you promote your brand through email.
19. Send Helpful Content to Subscribers
First and foremost, you need to be useful to your subscribers. When someone signs up, you need to provide them with a reason to stay on your email list.
If you’re constantly spamming them or sending worthless content, they’ll unsubscribe and probably never return.
Instead, send emails with valuable information they can’t get anywhere else.
Buzzsumo does a great job with this in their articles and emails. Their weekly update includes a report on engagement on Facebook, based on 880-million posts.
That’s a hugely valuable piece of content I want to read.
More importantly, I want to stay subscribed to the newsletter, and I’ll keep looking forward to their emails.
This is the kind of reaction you need to build with your subscribers. If they’re looking forward to your marketing, you’re doing it correctly.
20. Stick with Email Marketing for The Long Term
You need to be in the email game for the long term.
If you’re not consistently providing great content with your inbound marketing, you’re going to be frustrated.
Instead of pitching your product immediately after someone signs up on your email list, send them a welcome sequence that gradually introduces them to what you have to offer.
In short, the vast majority of websites aren’t appealing to mobile users, and they aren’t putting in the work they need to make these changes.
Instead of actually converting their mobile customers, they’re losing out on valuable traffic.
Don’t let that happen to you. Make sure your site is responsive and that it works well on mobile.
22. Install Hello Bar
If you want to get more conversions from the traffic you’re sending to your site, you should consider installing Hello Bar.
This is a simple tool that allows you to add a signup form at the top of your website. Since it’s unobtrusive, it won’t distract from the user experience.
But since it’s always at the top of your pages, it will drive massive conversions.
It’s a great way to get a few new leads each day.
23. Drive Conversions with Content Upgrades
If you want to skyrocket the conversions you’re getting from the content you publish on your website, look no further than a content upgrade.
Unlike a traditional lead magnet, a content upgrade will optimize your highest-converting pieces of content.
Because the people reading this article are interested in finding out more about the words that can make their writing more effective, this is a great way to encourage them to sign up.
You can do the same thing. To make this work, find a popular article and create a custom bonus that adds to the piece of content you’ve already written.
Link this in the article, and watch the new leads for your startup skyrocket.
24. Test and Refine Your Inbound Marketing Strategies
It’s no secret that I think testing is the only way to improve all kinds of marketing.
This applies to the inbound marketing strategies you’re using for your startup as well.
You need to monitor your results and make gradual improvements to different components of your campaign.
If they don’t work as expected, you should refine those strategies and try something new. But even if they do work for you, I recommend going back and making improvements.
Keeping an A/B split-test running at all times is a great way to make small but consistent changes to your marketing strategy and to make sure everything is working at its best.
Inbound Marketing Strategy FAQs
What is an inbound marketing strategy?
An inbound marketing strategy attracts prospects to your brand by creating valuable content that is relevant and helpful.
What are the five inbound principles?
The five principles of inbound marketing are standardize, contextualize, optimize, personalize, and empathize.
What are the types of inbound marketing?
Videos, blogs, pillar pages, eBooks, social media, press releases, infographics, newsletters, research papers, podcasts, webinars, and expert interviews.
How do you develop an inbound strategy?
You need to know the purpose of your content, your target audience, and how your content fits in with the buyer’s journey.
Inbound Marketing Strategies Summary
If you’re launching a startup, you want to make sure you’re implementing the best practices for extremely fast growth.
By now, you know that inbound marketing is the most effective way to increase your visitors, leads, and buyers.
You’ll need to attract customers by understanding their deepest needs, aspirations, and struggles. Using that data, create epic content that draws them in like a magnet.
Extend your reach to other sites, present your content around the web, acquire new customers, and build your influence and authority.
You’ll need to include SEO best practices so that customers can find you through search engines as well.
Once you have the traffic, convert those visitors with free content and influencer marketing that drives leads.
With a compelling email campaign and a high-converting website, you can grow your business like never before.
Which inbound marketing strategies will you use to grow your startup?
You’ve likely heard the term “influencer” thrown around a lot the last few years. It generates mental images of YouTube stars promoting energy drinks and Instagram stars raving about weight loss supplements.
This is called influencer marketing, and it can be a very successful strategy if you execute your campaign correctly. Let’s find out if you should try this strategy yourself.
This doesn’t mean you need to be able to afford to pay Michael Jordan to promote your new athletic wear line.
In fact, many of the most successful influencer marketers are not extremely famous.
Take, for example, Murad and Nataly Osmann. There is a good chance you recognize the style of their photos:
One simple photograph of Nataly leading her boyfriend by the hand has morphed into a massive online following — and a branding empire.
According to Adweek, “They’re working with top marketers like Macy’s and Napa Valley Beringer Vineyards to create compelling ads, and they’re launching a platform to match brands with bloggers.”
The #Followmeto project has also morphed into TV and book deals. The couple hosts a 20-minute travel TV show on Channel One Russia that takes viewers behind the scenes of their online photos.”
Sometimes, the best influencers aren’t people at all. Toast, a well know dog, uses her Internet fame to promote a variety of brands, including coffee, bottled water, and even thigh chafing sticks.
Instagram isn’t the only place you can find influencers.
Lance Stewart, a well-known influencer, has more than 50 thousand followers on Facebook alone:
He is also active on Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter.
Finding influencers isn’t necessarily about finding the most famous person.
Instead, it’s about finding a person your audience trusts and leveraging that influence to promote your brand.
Outline the Goals of Your Influencer Marketing Campaign
I’ve discovered that influencer marketing works well for brands that don’t have much of a following.
You’re leveraging someone else’s platform for your own gain.
However, before you create the content, before you find an influencer, and before you do anything else, you need to outline the goals of your influencer campaign.
Why?
It’s simple: Every decision you make is informed by your goal.
The platform you choose, the influencer you partner with, the type of content they create; all of these factors come into play.
Let’s work from an example to make this easier to illustrate.
Say you’re working with a client (let’s call them Client A) in the gaming industry — specifically in the smartphone app gaming industry.
Mobile gaming is a pretty competitive industry. iTunes offers 18 categories of games and hundreds of popular puzzle games.
Company A has been in business for five years and has a solid portfolio of games of medium success, including one highly popular game that was downloaded 25 million times.
They have a new puzzle game coming out, and they want to leverage influencer marketing to get tons of downloads and create buzz around the new launch. Ideally, this buzz would extend to their brand and give their entire game portfolio a good boost.
How can you help them get the most out of influencer marketing?
First, let’s outline the goal.
The goal should have three parts:
find out the influencer’s demographic data
determine what the influencer will help you do
plan how the influencer will help you do it
Example Goal for Company A’s Influencer Marketing Campaign:
There are a plethora of formats to outline your goals. In this example, Company A has written the goals of the campaign in paragraph form:
This campaign will partner with a young, highly connected influencer with access to the tech-savvy millennial group. Ideally, they will be into technology and use an iPhone because downloads from the Apple Store exceed those on Android.
Through this campaign, we will exceed the download numbers of our last game by 45% in the first 30 days.
The campaign will include at least 1 video of 30+ seconds to showcase how the game is played, and two or three other social posts on Instagram and Snapchat where our demographic is most active.
This goal is detailed. It includes specific numbers and platforms. There is a chance that some of these factors will shift.
For example, you might find out that YouTube is a more effective platform for your video game company to use for influencer marketing.
Changing the details of your goal is fine, but the outline should serve as a starting point for all the other decisions.
This template will help you outline your goal:
Influencer marketing campaign goal plan
Who is the influencer?
Name:
Age range:
Popular on what platforms?
Campaign end goal:
Number of posts:
Which platform:
Special considerations:
Now that you have your goal outlined, it’s time to move on to finding your influencer.
How to Find Effective Influencers for Your Brand
Choosing the right influencer is vital to the success of a killer influencer marketing campaign, but it is far from easy. Ryan Schneider, Chief Brand Manager at Insomniac Games, says this:
[A] lot of leg work goes into finding the right influencer…If I were a PR person, and I was trying to find the right reporter at The Wall Street Journal, I could do that … probably within one Google search or two mouse clicks. Targeting the right influencers can be a lot more complex.
According to Tap Influence, there are four main ways to find influencers: searching manually, using databases, tapping networks, or exploring marketplaces.
Manual Searching
This method requires conducting individual searches, scanning web pages for information, and then adding the information to a spreadsheet. It’s extremely time-consuming and not very effective.
Start by creating a spreadsheet in Google Docs or Excel, then create a column for each piece of information you want to pull about each individual influencer.
Column names will likely include:
Name
Industry of influence, including the specific niche (for example, if a gaming influencer’s audience is mostly female, or under the age of 16)
Total followers (combination of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat, or the top platforms your audience uses)
Facebook link
Instagram link
Twitter link
Snapchat link
Pros
Cons
Email/contact info
Special notes: Do you already have a relationship with them, or do they regularly post about topics closely related to your brand? Add any other information you want to include here.
Next, search Google and relevant social platforms for keywords, mentions of your brand, and related hashtags.
In a highly competitive industry like mobile gaming, you should go after high-tier influencers so you’ll have the most reach. Compile a list of these people.
The next step is to search on the most popular platform for our target audience. In this case, I head to YouTube.
The most effective strategy is to look at videos with the highest engagement, either from my brand or my competitors’, and then look at who shared or engaged with those posts.
From there, I would be able to find the top influencers.
I am using a fictitious example, so I can’t search for our brand.
Since we are in mobile gaming, I am going to search for Two Dots, a popular puzzle game. Based on a quick search of the brand name, I see a possible influencer:
The top video is old and won’t be a good fit for our gaming site.
The second video is from the actual brand Dots. It’s also not a good fit.
The third, from ZoeTwoDots, might represent a good fit. Her videos showcase strategies for different games, her channel is active, and the channel has more than 200,000 followers. Looks promising!
I would add her to the spreadsheet and keep going.
Keep in mind, all this research garnered me just one possible influencer to target.
Manual research is extremely labor intensive. However, for smaller brands looking for very niche influencers, this is likely the best choice.
Databases
These are tools that will do the site-scraping for you by pulling publicly available data. These can be good places to start, but vetting each influencer can prove time-consuming.
Basically, instead of manually doing the searches, databases do the heavy lifting. They’re less time-intensive than manually searching and are cheaper than other options.
Inpowered has a list of clients it has worked with in the past, including case studies:
For our mobile gaming company, this doesn’t seem to be a good fit. A more traditional brand might find this database useful.
Lean on Your Networks
This method of connecting with influencers sits in between databases and marketplaces. A network has built relationships with influencers, but you have to go through their profiles to reach out.
Networks tend to focus on specific genres, such as Dad bloggers, lifestyle influencers, or food enthusiasts. Examples of popular influencer networks include Activate.
After a little research, I come across a good fit for our mobile gaming company: MatchMade.
They make it super simple to search for exactly the type of influencer I want, including allowing me to sort my options based on reach, location, subscribers, and engagement.
Another benefit of networks is that they often offer more tracking and analytics. Matchmade offers a full dashboard:
There are a lot of pros to choosing a network — you are able to select exactly the type of influencer you want based on many different factors. Tracking is included, making it easy to see if you are reaching your goals.
However, this also tends to be the most expensive option.
Marketplaces
A marketplace offers the best features of a database by pulling in real-time information, but it allows you to avoid middle men. Marketplaces tend to offer less tracking, but they are also more affordable.
Examples of market places include Tribe, HYPR, and Brand Snob. Much like dating sites, marketplaces allow you to look at hundreds of profiles of different influencers.
Here is an example of an influencer profile on Tribe:
I can easily see her reach and an example of her work. This is much easier than sorting through thousands of Google search results.
Choosing the best method for finding an influencer that fits your needs can be complicated. Ultimately, you are looking for a partner, and just like any partnership, you need to take your time and consider all the options.
The final decision is likely going to be based on what resource you want to spend — time or money.
Getting the Most Out of Your Influencer Marketing Campaign
You have outlined your goals, chosen an influencer, and started to build a relationship with them.
Now it is time to create your actual campaign. Here are tips for getting the most out of your killer influencer marketing campaign.
First, be authentic. The reason traditional ads aren’t as effective today is that people crave authentic connections.
Even though you are paying for the influencer to talk about your brand, you must keep authenticity in mind to be effective.
Shannon Fure of Convince and Convert says it best:
If an influencer doesn’t fit a brand’s ethos, the authenticity factor is going to plummet. Choosing the right influencer is the first step toward maintaining authenticity.
Second, choose the platform you use carefully.
Pay attention not only to where your audience is most active but also what type of content performs best on each platform.
Take, for example, this video created by Harry’s Razors:
On Facebook, the video got three thousand views.
On Instagram, Harry’s chose to post a screenshot of the same video:
Even though Instagram supports video, they tend to perform better on Facebook.
According to Murray Newlands, “different platforms are used to reach different audiences and demographics, and the same goes for what product or service you’re marketing: beautiful photos of your product belong on Instagram, while eye-catching videos will perform better on Facebook.”
Take the time to build a real relationshipwith the influencer. This gives you and the influencer a chance to see if you are a good fit and increases authenticity.
Start slowly by following them on social media, sharing their content, commenting on their blogs, and engaging them in relevant conversations whenever possible. Establishing a relationship of mutual trust is the key to successfully engaging your market’s thought leaders as brand advocates.
Empower your influencer through information and access to your brand, but don’t take creative control. Ideally, you’ve chosen an influencer who is already engaged with your brand.
If not, make sure they truly understand your brand’s voice and what you stand for.
Invite them to your offices, offer tickets to your events, and share interesting stories about your brand and the people you help.
But remember, they are popular with your target audience for a reason. To keep the interaction authentic, you need to relinquish creative control.
Influencer Marketing Conclusion
Influencer marketing might seem like just another buzzword born of a generation obsessed with smartphones. However, the practice is nothing new.
Put simply, people trust people more than they trust brands. Influencer marketing allows you to leverage that trust to create goodwill towards your brand.
The steps I outlined above will help you find the best influencer and get the most out of your partnership.
Have you implemented an influencer marketing campaign? What were your results?
Memorial Day means many things to many people. At its heart, it’s a day to commemorate the brave American soldiers who died fighting for this country. For many, the Memorial Day weekend also marks the start of summer and a chance to grab a deal in the annual holiday shopping event.
The shopping event is no longer the preserve of brick-and-mortar stores. Research by Namogoo shows e-commerce fashion sales soared over Memorial Day 2020, up 380 percent compared to the year before. Conversions increased by 335 percent, too.
These kinds of figures don’t happen by magic, however. Marketing plays a crucial role in your store’s success.
That’s why I’m going to show seven strategies to send your Memorial Day sales soaring.
7 Tips for E-Commerce Memorial Day Sales
A record-breaking Memorial Day doesn’t happen by luck. By using one or several of the following tips, you give your store a better chance of getting noticed, winning new customers, and having a great weekend.
1. Run a Paid Ad Campaign Showcasing Your Sales
Succeeding over the Memorial Day weekend is all about standing out. Big brands may do this with television commercials or billboards. Smaller brands often stick to social media. I recommend combining the two via a paid ad campaign on social media.
While few brands can afford to go all out on a TV ad, many e-commerce brands can afford a short paid ad campaign, especially if it’s optimized for conversions.
There are two crucial factors you need to get right: The channel you advertise on and the creative you use.
I recommend sticking to Facebook or Google for your paid ads. These platforms offer the greatest reach and the best targeting tools to help make sure your paid media budget goes the furthest.
When it comes to ad creative, it’s all about standing out. Using red, white, and blue, and an American flag are a given. But also consider including summer-related imagery that so many consumers relate to the holiday.
It’s essential to remember that, unlike Independence Day, this is a day of remembrance. Keep your tone respectful of the fallen and their loved ones, even if you’re focusing on summer fun. This ad from My Mind’s Eye does a great job of finding this balance: It’s eye-catching, positive, and still reminds viewers of the reason for the holiday.
Use Memorial Day hashtags on social media platforms, but be careful about the kind of content you post. Some people may be using these hashtags to search for information around the holiday itself and may be offended by overly promotional material.
2. Tease Your Sales on Social Media Without Revealing What They Are Until Memorial Day
Teasing your Memorial Day sales on social media is a fantastic way to drum up anticipation and build a potential customer base well before the big day. By running it on social channels, you have the chance to pick up thousands of new users who have never shopped with you before.
Get your social media calendar in place well ahead of the holiday. The more time you have to post, the more anticipation you can build. This is as true for your email marketing campaign as it is for your social media posts.
For example, The Pampered Iggy—an artist who makes outfits for Italian Greyhounds—teases their upcoming Memorial Day sales in this simple but effective image:
3. Run a Flash Sale
Unlike the winter holiday shopping season, Memorial Day sales last for a couple of days at most. This makes it ripe for flash sales.
These sales typically come with substantial discounts and are all about encouraging consumers to make impulse purchases. They’re also a great way to grab some press attention and make sure customers visit your store over your competitors.
Focusing on your new summer products is the best strategy here. Many consumers wait until Memorial Day weekend to make their spring and summer purchases, so they’re on the lookout for this season’s items. Make the discounts too good to avoid.
Getting the word out about your sales will be just as important. Consider using a paid ad campaign as I described above to promote your sales, but don’t forget about your email list or social media followers.
4. Sell Winter Items at a Deep Discount
Everyone loves a discount, especially on Memorial Day. Price drops between 20 percent and 90 percent are common. There’s no better time to get rid of leftover winter items while attracting new customers than to sell them cheap.
These sales can run alongside your standard Memorial Day sales events, or they can stand on their own. It all depends on what products you stock for summer. Brands that tend to do well during the summer months may prefer to emphasize their new line of products. On the other hand, winter sports stores may just want to make their steep discounts the center of attention.
5. Honor Veterans and Their Families
Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for fallen soldiers. This is why it’s essential to stay positive but not too celebratory about the unofficial start of summer.
Remembrance and relaxation both play important roles in our lives, but they should occupy separate spheres…When brands forget to respect that separation, and when executives who don’t understand the true meaning of Memorial Day are in control of a company’s marketing and social media outreach, insensitive—even offensive—things happen.
In particular, he recommends against potentially exploitative imagery of military funeral services, families in mourning, and so forth. Many companies juxtapose these images with messages of “FLASH SALE!” and “Happy Memorial Day!” which can ruffle feathers.
Not all veterans and families want to hear “thank you for your service” on Memorial Day and want the day focused on those who have been lost. That said, honoring veterans, active duty military, and their families can be done tastefully and well, without drawing focus away from the meaning of the day—chances are many of them have lost someone in the line of duty.
There are many ways you can honor veterans and active service people. One option is to give them early or preferential access to your sale. Another is to offer them discounts or special offers. You could even give away small items as gifts.
But a particularly special thing you can do to show your understanding and gratitude? Donate a portion of your proceeds from your Memorial Day sale to a charity supporting the families of fallen soldiers, like the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) or the Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation. Mention this plan in your Memorial Day marketing materials, but keep the focus on those who need the help, not how awesome you are for doing this.
6. Contact Websites Running Sales Roundups to Get Your Store Featured
The Memorial Day weekend is a fantastic source of content for new publications, many of which include roundups of all the best sales. It’s not an accident when brands get included in these roundups. More often than not, it’s the result of a lot of outreach work.
Start by finding publications in your industry that have produced Memorial Day roundups in the past. If they did a roundup last year, there’s a good chance it will be on the editorial calendar this year.
You can also target bigger, broader publications that aren’t necessarily tied to one industry. Here are just a few websites that have created Memorial Day sales roundups in the past:
Next, draft an email to send to each of these publications. Personalize it a bit, but you can keep the bulk of it the same. Highlight what you have on sale over the Memorial Day weekend, the kind of discounts customers should expect, and why your deal is better than your competitors.
7. Set Up a Virtual Event With a Live Sale Segment
You don’t have to have a brick-and-mortar store to run a live sales event.
There are even some pretty significant benefits stores can realize by running virtual sales events. They are way more accessible for one. You’ll be able to accommodate significantly more attendees (which means more customers), and they’ll be able to tune in from anywhere in the world, too.
It will also be much cheaper to run a virtual sales event than an in-person one. Webinar software and a high-quality camera will cost a few hundred bucks at the most. That’s pretty much all you need. It will be much cheaper for customers who don’t have to travel to your store, too, meaning more money to spend on the sale.
You’ll want to make your sales event as fun and inclusive as possible. To this end, make sure to run games and activities and not just showcase your products. You could even run giveaways and competitions to give away some of your newest products for free.
Make sure that you devote a good chunk of time to your sales products, though. The whole point of running this kind of event is to increase sales, so it makes sense to spend at least the latter half of the event modeling your new clothing range or showing your new products in action.
After the pandemic, you may be facing more competition than usual when it comes to online events. It will pay to get the word out early and promote your virtual event as much as possible. Social media, email campaigns, and your website are all great places to start.
Memorial Day Sales FAQ
Which channels should I run paid ads on?
Facebook, Instagram, and Google are three of the best platforms to run paid ad campaigns on this Memorial Day weekend.
How long should my flash sale last?
It can last as little as a few hours, but don’t let it go on for longer than the weekend.
How can I avoid looking like I’m cashing in on an important holiday?
You can incorporate both summer and solemnity. Don’t overdo it on the joy, but keep the message positive. Consider donating proceeds to relevant organizations.
What should I include in my outreach email to publications?
Keep your email as short as possible, but try to stand out. State how much consumers can save, what products are on sale, and any other essential details.
Which platform should I choose for my virtual event?
Facebook or Zoom are two popular platforms that are relatively inexpensive (if not free) and stable to run events on.
Conclusion: How to Increase Memorial Day Sales
Memorial Day weekend is one of the biggest shopping events on the calendar. You can’t just launch a sale and expect customers to turn up, however, especially if you’re an e-commerce store.
Running ads, making the most of social media, and reaching out to online publications are vital to get the word out. Making sure your sale strikes the right tone with customers will be key to increasing conversions.
But don’t stop there. The best e-commerce stores use the Memorial Day weekend as a jumping-off point and do everything they can to keep holiday sales high after the Memorial Day spike.
Which tactics are you going to use this Memorial Day?
There are dozens of considerations entrepreneurs have to keep in mind when launching a new company, from the logo to the product to the packaging. The business name, however, may be the most important of all.
There are over 30 million small businesses in the U.S., according to the U.S Small Business Administration. That means you have to go above and beyond to stand out. The right name can help you do just that.
If you’re stuck on what to call your business or just want to make sure your chosen name ticks all the right boxes, I’m here to help.
In this article, I’ll cover my top tips for picking a winning business name, show some examples of what a great business name looks like, and even let you in on a sneaky way to get a load of business name ideas fast.
10 Tips to Pick a Business Name
Your business name can be almost anything you want it to be. As long as it’s legal and isn’t already in use, you’re good to go. However, there are several best practices most legal and marketing experts agree on.
I recommend the following tips to make sure your business gets off to the best start possible.
1. Ensure the Business Name Is Not Copyrighted or Trademarked
The first step in picking a business name is to make sure it doesn’t infringe any copyrights or trademarks. You can search copyright records and trademark records online.
I’d recommend going one step further and make sure it’s possible to trademark your brand name. You never know what the future will bring, after all. Even if you plan to keep your business small, I strongly recommend making sure it’s possible to copyright and trademark your brand.
Not doing so could land you in hot water years down the line. Just look at Apple. When Steve Jobs started the company, he chose Apple’s name because he was a fan of the Beatles (their recording label was called Apple Records).
There wasn’t any conflict initially because the two companies operated in completely separated industries. That was until Apple launched the iPod and the iTunes store, however. When they started operating in the same industry, Jobs quickly found himself saddled with a lawsuit.
2. Ensure the Business Name Isn’t Already Taken
This is a no-brainer, but it’s important to mention. Ideally, your business name will be unique and not used by any other business in existence. At the very least, it shouldn’t be used in any way by other companies operating in your industry.
A quick Google search can help you out here. If any results or domains come up that suggest another company is already using your name, either as a business name or as the name of one of their products, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
3. Ensure the Business Name Is Descriptive
You want customers to have an idea of what your business does just by hearing your name. You don’t have to know anything about TripAdvisor to know it is in the travel industry or that Burger King sells burgers.
Don’t be so descriptive that your name is downright boring, however. Seattle Plumber Inc. isn’t exactly inspiring and doesn’t separate your brand from any other plumbers in the city. First Call Plumbing is much catchier and easier to remember.
4. Make Sure the Matching Domain Name Is Available
Coming up with a brilliant business name is just the start. Before you can commit to it completely, make sure a matching domain name is available.
If not, consider coming up with another business name. Having a domain name that is the exact match of your brand can be a real boost, particularly when it comes to SEO.
If your heart is set on a specific name, then all is not lost. There are several strategies you can use if your domain name is unavailable. Adding extra words or extending the name of your brand in your URL is becoming increasingly common.
5. Get Creative
This is your chance to embrace your inner copywriter and let your imagination and creativity run wild. Don’t be afraid to make something up. Almost three-quarters (72 percent) of the best brand names use made-up words or acronyms.
There are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, existing words already mean something to many of your potential customers. You’ll need to decide whether this is a good or bad thing. Second, competitors may well be using the same or similar words.
6. Don’t Choose a Business Name That Is Hard to Pronounce or Spell
You’ll want your brand name to be accessible for everyone. That means no words that are impossible to pronounce when written down or easy to misspell.
While mixing up the letters or removing vowels from common words may look cool, it doesn’t help your customers find your business online. If customers can’t easily search for your business after hearing your name phonetically, there’s a good chance you’ll miss out on leads. You’ll also spend a lot of time spelling out your URL for customers.
7. Complete a Secretary of State Search
One way to make sure your business name is different from everyone else operating in your area is to complete a Secretary of State Search. Most states have a way to do this easily online, so it’s simply a matter of visiting your state’s website and typing in your proposed name.
If in doubt, ask your attorney for help. I’d also recommend searching in Delaware, even if you don’t live in that state. Delaware is a haven for company registrations, and so searching there helps ensure no businesses anywhere else in the country have similar names.
8. Get Feedback on the Business Name Before Making It Official
Test your business name out on your friends and family and get their feedback before committing to it. While you may think you’ve looked at your name from every angle, there’s a chance you’ve missed something.
If you’re not sure about a business name yet, give people a shortlist of your ideas and ask them to pick their favorite. If everyone agrees on the same one, you may just have found your new name.
9. Choose a Business Name That Isn’t Accidentally Offensive
Make sure your business name doesn’t mean something offensive in another language or as a slang term.
No self-respecting business owner would want to insult potential customers. Yet dozens of businesses do this without knowing it because of their business name.
Just because your business name isn’t offensive in your own country doesn’t mean it’s inoffensive everywhere. Any language or cultural issues can spell bad news for companies wanting to expand abroad.
Luckily, it’s never been easier to check whether your business name is offensive or not. Just head over to WordSafety.com and enter your proposed name. The site will quickly find whether there are any potential issues.
10. Keep It Simple and Easy to Remember
Long, complicated business names are bad news. The shorter, catchier, and more memorable your name is, the better. Try to keep it under 20 characters for the sake of your URL and avoid combining more than three different words.
Examples of Great Business Names
Tips and guidelines aren’t always enough to get the creative juices flowing. That’s why I’ve compiled five examples of great business names below, along with a description of what makes them so good.
Hopefully, these will give you a jumping-off point.
Google
In a parallel universe, someone is currently searching for something on BackRub. That’s the name Google was initially called because of the backlinks it used to rank websites. Eventually, they settled on Googol, a mathematical term for a number with a million zeros in it. The final brand name of Google was the result of a spelling error by an employee.
In the end, it worked out brilliantly. The name is catchy, creative, and random. “Google” is also easier to spell, remember and pronounce than Googol too.
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market is the most descriptive name on this list, and that is part of the reason it’s so effective. It sends subtle signals that attract the brand’s target audience.
Choosing the word market rather than grocer or store was a stroke of genius in this regard. Market conjures up images of farmer’s markets and suggests the kind of well-off consumer Whole Foods’ targets.
Lego
Lego is a simplified portmanteau of the Danish words leg godt meaning “play well.” Brilliantly, Lego also means “I put together,” so the name works on two levels.
Not only is the name descriptive for the native Danish market, but it also sounds great in other languages and doesn’t have any additional meanings.
Pepsi
Caleb Davis Bradham, the inventor of Pepsi, originally called his concoction Brad’s Drink. Thankfully, he rebranded three years later. Pepsi is derived from the word dyspepsia, which means indigestion as Bradham believed the drink aided digestion.
Pepsi is way more creative and memorable than Brad’s Drink. Perhaps most importantly, the new name in no way infringed on Coca-Cola, created just a handful of years earlier.
Verizon
Verizon was formed in 2000 by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE. The business name combines the Latin word for truth, veritas, and horizon to signify the new company’s honest and forward-thinking nature. It’s creative, it has meaning, and it’s definitely memorable!
Use a Business Name Generator to Find Your Perfect Name
If you’re still stuck, help is at hand in the form of business name generators. There are plenty of software tools to help entrepreneurs quickly brainstorm business names.
Here are some to try:
Shopify
Shopify is famous for helping small business owners thrive. Coming up with a brand name is no different. Enter a keyword into the search bar, and Shopify will instantly spit out 100 business names you can create a store from today.
Freshbooks
Bookkeeping software Freshbooks has a pretty comprehensive business name generator that tailors recommendations based on your industry.
Start your search by choosing whether you operate in creative and marketing, legal or business services, trade, and home services, or IT. Enter a keyword, and Freshbooks will serve up three suggestions. You can ask for more suggestions or change your keyword to get a different batch of names.
Namelix
Namelix is a free AI-powered business name generator. Enter one or several keywords to get started, then filter suggestions by name, length, and style. There are hundreds of names to scroll through and a mix of basic and premium names. Premium recommendations come with a logo and domain name attached to make building a brand easier.
Conclusion
The right name can impact your SEO, branding, and customer perception. Would Google be where it is now if it was called Backrub? I don’t think so.
The business landscape is becoming more competitive every day, and a great business name can help your brand stand out.
Take inspiration from some of the great business names already out there, and use a business name generator if necessary. Just make sure your business name sets you up for long-term growth.
What are you going to call your new business? Let me know in the comments!
But Apple’s success isn’t just a matter of making a lot of money, or selling a lot of products. How many brands that have completely changed the game in their niches the way Apple has?
Not only that, but Apple’s done it several times over, despite some strong criticism from the naysayers. The iPod, the iPhone, the iPad–all of these products pretty much revolutionized their respective market “space.” Their success is a direct result of their marketing strategies.
Apple’s marketing mix creates raving fans who stand in line for hours and hours on end, just to get the first iteration of any new product the minute it’s released throughout social media.
Apple does what it does so well that there are whole websites out there devoted to nothing but Apple products and Apple marketing. Even high-end journalistic publications like The Atlantic write endlessly about the company, dissecting what it does and how it does it.
Apple goes way beyond the “computer brand” label — they create products for their target market, loyal customers that believe make these products life better, easier, more fun, and cooler.
How on earth do they do it?
Well, design and utility are just two of the reasons behind Apple’s success and certainly give it a competitive advantage.
But, more importantly for you and me, Apple’s secrets for transforming casual purchasers into brand ambassadors can be applied to just about any business in any niche or industry.
In this article, I’m going to reveal seven pillars of Apple’s world-famous marketing mix that you can adapt for your own business.
1. Rethink the Need for Advertising
It’s tempting to drop lots of cash on PPC ads with Google or Facebook when you want to increase your sales revenue. But, Apple knows that’s not always necessary.
In fact, Apple relies most on two completely different strategies: product placement (especially with celebrities and in popular shows) and the buzz created by positive reviews in the media.
Even if you don’t have Apple’s resources and budget, you can still take advantage of this approach to increase your market share. But, you may be asking yourself “How could I possible implement this Apple marketing secret in my own business?”
Well, it may not be possible to put your product in the hands of a Kardashian, or on the set of a popular TV show.
But, you can absolutely approach insiders and influencers. If you persuade an influencer that your product or service is worthwhile and relevant to their audience, they’ll share it with their followers.
Another way to use this Apple secret is to embrace a free trial program. Offer a free trial of your service or product, in exchange for a positive testimonial.
If a free trial of your product isn’t feasible, then get in touch with your existing satisfied customers and ask for a positive testimonial or review.
Publish those testimonials on your site. This isn’t a difficult component of your marketing mix to develop.
I’ve been publishing testimonials from my satisfied clients on this site for some time now, and I can attest to the fact that they help persuade prospects to convert into clients and subscribers. You’ll see some of those testimonials on this very page.
Don’t forget to attribute each testimonial with an image or avatar, the person’s name, and a link back to their own website, if possible. This adds more social proof to the customer’s positive review of your brand and gives greater legitimacy to your target market.
You can also implement this winning Apple strategy by creating more case studies.
Consider using this outline to create your case studies:
Last, but far from least, if you are going to launch a PPC ad campaign, make sure you go about it the smart way.
Choose your PPC network carefully; create a clean, well-written landing page with a clear call-to-action and make sure your ad copy and landing page are completely aligned.
If you need more help with PPC ads, the following resources will help:
2. Avoid Price Wars by Emphasizing Your Unique Value Proposition
Many entrepreneurs believe – falsely – that they have to compete on price. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, competing on price can actually hurt your business.
Apple knows this and has never wavered on its pricing strategy.
Dropping prices and competing on price leads to a “race to the bottom.” If you’ve ever looked at job boards for freelancers, you might see some strange things. For some sites, the going rate for a blog post is $10, or even less!
This might sound like a great idea, but it’s really short-sighted when developing market share. “You get what you pay for” has never been more true than when businesses and freelancers try to underbid each other. Content marketing requires quality and it will be hard to get that for dirt cheap rates.
Your $10 post is almost certainly going to be poorly written, with no exclusive research or data to back up opinions. And, that post could simply be regurgitated from someone else’s site – or even outright copied, word for word.
Even Copyscape can’t protect you from junk content. The foundation of content marketing is quality content as the cornerstone of a marketing mix.
That’s because no freelancer could survive on $10 per piece, unless they can create each piece in bulk. But your marketing strategy won’t survive if you don’t work on smart quality.
Instead, do what Apple does.
Apple focuses on their UVP (unique value proposition), which is beautiful design that works right out of the box with ever-smaller packaging. It’s a marketing strategy that gets juice throughout social media and is very much a competitive advantage for Apple and its market share.
What about cost? Well, let’s just say Apple is absolutely not competing on price! In fact, you’ll almost certainly pay more – sometimes a lot more – for an Apple product than you would for a competitor’s version of the same product.
Take some computers, for example – let’s say, two similar laptops, like the Microsoft Surface Pro, which costs about $900. Apple’s Macbook Pro, on the other hand, costs over $1,200.
How can Apple keep its fans with a pricing strategy so much higher than the competition?
It’s because Apple doesn’t view PCs as competition. Where others focus on a single killer feature through a variety of content marketing, Apple focuses on the entire product, and it shows.
In fact, Apple routinely earns its higher prices with top-of-the-line features and specifications.
You can implement this same strategy, no matter what niche or industry you’re in and regardless what your business model may be.
Whether you’re selling products or services, the key to making this strategy work for you is to make sure that you justify that higher price to capture your market share.
For SaaS companies, that could mean creating a higher degree of personal service or a full money-back guarantee.
For coaches or consultants, the competitive advantage could mean beautifully branded deliverables, in addition to work sessions or Skype calls.
You can also follow Apple’s example by offering a variety of options for your products and services at different price points. For instance, Apple’s Macbook laptop line offers larger screens and other enhanced features, for a higher price.
Yes, Apple is like the Rolls Royce of technology products with a retail store design that look more like a show room. Their customers are more than happy to pay that premium, because they know they’ll get their money’s worth.
3. Keep Your Marketing and Your Products Simple
More isn’t always better.
Apple understands that technology consumers often get overwhelmed. That’s true of other niches and industries, as well. Overwhelm can create a confusion in a marketing mix.
Apple reduces that consumer confusion by simplifying their web and sales copy. They completely eschew jargon or industry terms. Instead, they use simple, direct words and they continually stress the benefits that consumers absolutely need and will be thrilled by. This is part of their brilliance in content marketing; high tech without high tech terms.
This approach doesn’t confuse their customers with too much information. As Leonardo da Vinci said,
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Apple keeps it simple and their customers love it giving them a loyalty with market share that is unprecedented.
Apple also follows through with this principle in the ads it does run. Remember those classic “Mac vs. PC” spots?
What Apple’s ads and marketing strategies convey isn’t specifications and features, but rather how the product can change your life and make it better.
But Apple doesn’t stop there. This is just step one in their marketing strategies.
They carry this philosophy of “simpler is better” through to their product lines, too. They don’t overwhelm prospective customers with too many choices, parameters or options. An Apple retail store is designed for test driving products not grabbing boxes.
Even the products themselves are kept sleek and minimal, with simple color schemes and clean, uncluttered design. The names are short and easy to remember, including the “app store” that has made third party partners huge successes.
How can you follow Apple’s marketing strategies in your own business to capture the biggest market share?
Start by making sure your website and blog have scannable content. Research shows that only 16% of website visitors read every word on a page. The vast majority of users – 79% of web users, in fact – simply scan the page. This is imperative in understanding your content marketing and potentially using social media with smaller bits of digestible date.
To make your content scannable, use bullet points to convey benefits. Make sure that your headings and subheadings are clear, vivid and surrounded by plenty of white space. Easy to read means the target market will stay on the page and come back, increasing your market share.
Look at my homepage here, to see how I’ve done it:
You’ll notice in the above screenshot that I haven’t cluttered up the page with tons of text. There’s lots of white space surrounding the bullet points and only one image – mine – to call attention to the bullet points.
Don’t try to put every single feature of your product or service on the page.
Instead, focus on the most valuable UVP for each product. Then, stress that.
Select a clean, minimalist design for your landing pages. Reduce clutter around the important sections of your page’s content, such as sidebars and widgets. Then, the user’s eye is drawn to the product or copy itself.
Finally, if you have the budget, I’d recommend hiring a professional copywriter, especially on crucial product and services sales pages. It’s not easy to give enough information to trigger a conversion or a sale while still keeping that streamlined, simplified approach.
4. Know Your Audience and Talk to Them in Their Language
It’s not that Apple doesn’t mention product specifications and technical details at all. In fact, every product page on the Apple website does mention those things.
But, they put it below-the-fold. Visitors to Apple’s website first have to scroll past beautiful product images and large-font simple copy telling them about the product’s benefits.
Initially, Apple customers won’t find words like megabytes or gigahertz. They find words they know and understand:
“edge to edge glass”
“retina display”
“LED backlighting”
Apple knows its customers very well and has developed loyalty in their market share. And, they know how to speak to them in the language that makes them feel comfortable, not overwhelmed and confused.
The products themselves are a marketing mix that show off their relevance to the way Apple’s customers actually live their lives. For instance…
The iPod isn’t just “a music player and storage device” – it lets you store hours of music in your pocket.
The iMac isn’t just “a computer” – it helps make your computing experience exciting and pleasurable.
The iPhone isn’t just “a smartphone” – it lets you put the power of an Apple computer in your phone.
Is your website copy speaking your prospects’ language? Creating a customer profile for each of your main audience segments is the best way to find out. This helps develop the content marketing strategies specific to your audience.
Even better, the process of creating these profiles will help you to understand your audience much better. Then, you can give them what they’re looking for – and make your content even more appealing and valuable to them.
Here’s how to make sure that you’re talking to your users and customers in a way they understand and feel comfortable with.
Create Customer Profiles
Create customer personas for each major audience segment of your business. The more detailed these profiles are, the more useful they’ll be and beneficial to your marketing strategy.
Include factors such as age, gender, profession and other demographic information, plus psychographics – their pain points, fears, desires, etc. What motivates them to buy? What do they need before they’ll trust you? How can you fill that need?
You may have more than one profile expanding your marketing mix – e.g., older couples whose kids have already left home, singles who’ve graduated from college and haven’t married or had kids yet, etc.
Name Your Profile
Name and find a picture of a person – either from Google Images or a stock image site – that matches the profile. The idea here is to make each profile seem like an actual, living human being.
Here’s an example of a built-out customer profile, complete with name and picture, from Convince and Convert:
Speak Their Language
Speak to these people in your marketing copy, with the language they understand. Look at each page on your website and revise anything that doesn’t sound like the way you’d actually speak to these folks.
Pretend you’re actually speaking to that person and your copy will appeal strongly to similar customers.
You can also carry that same customer-centered approach throughout every aspect of the customer’s journey, including customer service. Yes customer service is a key component in marketing strategies to develop loyalty and retain your market share.
Let’s say that you’re serving an older generation. Don’t force them to use a chat-based system for customer service. Give them a phone number and a person to speak to. And, make sure that your website copy is large enough for older people to read. Giving people what they want is how you capture greater market share.
Millennials, on the other hand, prefer chat-based systems, since they’re faster and easier to use for that generation. Don’t make these customers pick up the phone, when they really prefer to type out their problem and get an instant response. Understanding this diversity of your customers helps you develop the right marketing mix.
5. Design a Better Customer Experience
Did you know Apple fans often create videos of themselves unwrapping their new Apple products and upload the video to YouTube?
It’s true. It’s called unboxing. Do a search on YouTube and you’ll find hundreds of Apple unboxings, each from different users across the globe.
Why does that happen?
Because Apple has created a customer experience that goes far beyond the actual purchase in a retail store. They no longer even need to be in charge of a huge part of their content marketing since their target market is doing it for them.
The “Apple experience” includes elements from every aspect of the purchasing process – comparing different product versions, trying out products in the retail store, actually buying the item, receiving it, unwrapping (sorry, unboxing) it, and setting it up.
Each of these elements doesn’t just happen by chance. They were all carefully crafted, revised and refined to appeal to the consumer’s every sense.
Take installation, for example. One of the things Apple fans truly appreciate about Apple’s computers is the ease with which you can set them up. It’s literally as simple as opening, plugging in, turning on and, voila – it all just works.
Yes, Apple spends thousands of hours on testing and designing and refining those designs. They do that so that what’s inside the box matches the box, and the box matches what’s inside.
The Apple retail store experience isn’t just a quick trip for most people. Most people who enter an Apple store end up staying in the retail store, trying the products, asking questions of the “geniuses” who work there – and many of them walk out with a new purchase. The Apple retail store inspires purchases.
The retail store is carefully designed and replicated to evoke the right “feeling” when you step inside. Warm lighting, monochromatic color schemes, and the layout of the store features all appeal to the shopper’s senses, without feeling cold and impersonal. Even the large front windows that let people outside see everyone inside having a great time are intentional.
To implement Apple’s “eye for design” secret, start by charting out your customer’s experience with your brand. Note each major step and where it takes place (i.e., on your Facebook page, a specific page on your website, etc.).
Next, analyze each piece of that “experience puzzle” and score how well it fits with your overall brand. What can you improve?
Think about ways that you can make each point of contact with your prospect or customer cleaner, clearer and simpler. Make each part of the journey more consistent with the look, feel, visual branding elements, and personality of your brand.
Then, think about going even further. What could you do to delight your customer?
That’s the Apple way!
6. Aim at Your Prospects’ Emotions
Think back to the first ads for the iPad, after its buzzy launch in 2010 and how simple their content marketing was.
Remember those images of people relaxing in the living room with the strange new gadget? They looked happy and comfortable.
They weren’t talking about display dimensions or processing power. They were just enjoying their iPads.
Those ads, as with all of Apple’s marketing, hit their consumers where they really live – not in the pocketbook (we’ve already seen that’s not true at all!) but in their hearts.
Emotional connections are the key to successful marketing strategies. It’s what makes certain stories, videos, and memes go viral.
Dr. Jonah Berger’s famous study showed that content that evokes high arousal emotions is more likely to go viral than content that provokes no emotional response. Examples of high arousal emotions are happiness, awe, amusement and anxiety.
Moreover, positive content is more likely to go viral than negative content. Positive emotions simply trigger a stronger reaction in users’ brains than negative ones. These are simple marketing strategies.
In his book, Descartes’ Error, author Antonio Damasio, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, states that our emotions play a crucial part in our decision-making processes, especially when we’re buying something. Marketing strategies must start with emotion.
And, neurological science tells us the same thing. Functional MRI tests prove that when consumers evaluate businesses, they primarily use the parts of their brain associated with emotions, personal feelings, and memories/experiences, not the portions associated with facts.
Above all, you’ve got to understand and publish the kind of content that your target audience wants most of all. Smart content marketing gets you the most on the web’s leading social media networks? Turns out, it’s content that evokes either awe or laughter – or both.
The testing team at BuzzSumo wanted to understand just what makes content go viral and get shared thousands of times by users. So, they teamed up with OKDork and conducted an extensive study about the marketing mix in social media.
First, the team identified the most shared content all over the web, within a specific time period. Next, they mapped each of the articles to a specific emotion, such as joy, anger, sadness, happiness, laughter, amusement, empathy, etc.
Here’s what the breakdown they created looked like:
You can see from this chart that the top two emotions that the most viral content evoked in readers were awe (25%) and laughter (17%). Similar emotions, such as joy and amusement, accounted for another 29%.
What this means is that if you can quite literally make your readers happy with your content, you’ve really hit the target.
To evoke and build on your customers’ emotions the way Apple does, use emotional language in your copy where it makes sense to do so. Make sure it flows naturally. One way to do this is to use emotion-trigger words in your copy to develop smart content marketing material.
Tip: To make sure copy flows naturally, record yourself as you read it aloud. Then, play it back. If it sounds stilted or formal, revise it until it sounds more conversational.
Also, think about what emotional impact your product or service evokes in your customers. Then, look for or create images to use that evoke that same emotion.
Here’s an example: JustGiving, the world’s leading online fundraising platform, raised almost $1.5 million for its charitable partners. Look at this landing page image that the site uses:
What emotions does this image evoke for you? Personally, I see joy and awe – skydiving has got to be one of the world’s most awe-inspiring activities, after all.
There’s also the empathy and happiness that being generous and giving to worthwhile causes can create for people making charitable donations.
Finding the right images for your content can take some time and patience, but it’s so worthwhile. Images not only create visual interest on your page and break up long blocks of boring text – they can also help communicate your message and convert readers to subscribers.
In fact, I believe so strongly in the power of great images and screenshots that I routinely use as many as sixty in a single post – but I always make sure they add value, as well as depict the right emotional state in my readers. This is part of my marketing mix.
7. Build a Community of Users or Customers
Over the years, Apple has built one of the most hardcore fan bases for any brand, anywhere in the world.
The “fanboys” (and “fangirls”) who camp out for new product launches may represent a small percentage of Apple consumers overall, but that kind of fanaticism and enthusiasm are rare.
Apple has created a brand personality and culture that’s cool, fun, and friendly — the opposite of some of its competitors. Apple’s marketing strategies include making customers want to belong to that community. Their market share shows just how successful they have been.
Do you remember Apple’s “Think Different” ad campaign? It started with voiceover narration that said “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.” Haven’t we all felt like that at one time or another in our lives?
Apple smartly capitalized on the universality of that self-perception, which made its customers believe that the brand understands them and is like them.
Even small brands can build a community of devoted users and customers. You can start building a community before you even offer the first item for sale.
The first and most critical step to take in building a strong, vibrant and engaged community of users is to get crystal-clear on your brand values and personality.
You have to create a vivid and accurate picture of your brand in your own mind first — your brand’s core message, its deeply-held values, its personality and what it stands for above all else.
Then, your next step is to make sure that your pages, marketing copy and content all express those values and that personality. Every aspect of your website should be consistent with those words you chose to describe your brand, from graphics to fonts to color scheme.
Last, but not least, show your readers and users you value them, as well as their opinions.Let them know that you’re deeply interested in them with your content.
How can you do this effectively on the web? You can try any or all of the following tips to start with:
Try to initiate conversations with your users/readers on social media.
Create a referral reward program for customers who refer other new customers.
Reach out to customers with email.
Conclusion
One of the fastest ways to achieve a goal is to model those who’ve successfully achieved that same goal before.
Apple, the app store, and their retail shops are role models for any smart, modern brand that wants to create a raving fan base and super-loyal customers who will refer their friends and family members.
The idea isn’t to mimic Apple. Rather, get a sense of what Apple – or any other successful business – does well, then find creative ways to do the same in your business, always keeping the marketing mix consistent with your brand.
You can learn a lot from your competition, too. Competitor analysis can tell you what they’re doing right and what you can learn from and implement in your own marketing.
What other lessons can you draw from Apple’s marketing efforts?
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