Marketing Keywords: Not Just for SEO
What do you think of when you hear the term “marketing keywords?” If you’re like most business owners, you probably think of search engine optimization (“SEO”) or bidding for PPC advertising. Am I right? Well, what if I told you that there were additional uses for marketing keywords that you may not have heard about. Make use of these other uses effectively, and you might be pleasantly surprised by the results!
Did you catch part 1 of this series? You’re reading part two of a four-part series on Keyword Research and SEO (cuz I don’t want you to miss any of it!). In part one, I shared the basics of what every small business owner needs to know about keyword research. I also told you about my favorite quick and dirty go-to tool for keyword research that is as dead simple as it is useful (and it’s free!). If you haven’t read part one, go check it out real quick. This article will make more sense if you do.
Now that you know a thing or two about the basics of keyword research, here are three highly effective uses for marketing keywords that you may not have thought about, but that savvy marketers are using every day.
Use marketing keywords in email subject-lines
If you are growing an email list, you realize how important and valuable that list is to your business. As an aside, if you aren’t growing a list, you should be. Read this and this for good reasons why email marketing is still king.
Well, having a big list is great and all, but none of that matters if people aren’t opening your emails. Having 5,253 people on your list is great bragging rights at your next BNI meeting, but that’s all just academic if only 23.5 people ever open your email and half of them share your last name. You won’t be selling anything.
When it comes to email open rates, almost everything comes down to one thing: the email subject line.
There is a whole lot of science behind email subject lines (and that itself could easily be an entire blog series). There really is! The point I want to make here, though, is that you can really boost the effectiveness of your email subject lines (and therefore your open rates) if you do something as simple as add your carefully selected marketing keywords to them.
How about an example?
Say you’re a chiropractor with a growing email list. You know that your audience has been interested in “stretches in the office” because you’ve done the keyword research (good for you!).
What do you think will get more opens:
Option #1: “Here are some stretches for you to try” or
Option #2: “All that sitting is killing you. Try these stretches in the office and live longer!”
Need I say more?
Use marketing keywords in product names
What’s in a name? When it comes to products, probably alot!! What you name your product could end up making a huge difference with its success. After all, your product name is not only the first impression your customers will have of how valuable it is, but it will also be how you yourself refer to it whenever you: post a video about it, talk about it on social media, explain it to prospects while networking, etc, etc, etc!!
It would stand to reason that you should spend some time thinking carefully about your product name.
Remember how in part one of this blog series I told you that doing good marketing keyword research was almost like reading your customers’ minds?
Imagine how well it would be received, if after you read their minds, they find your product, and the name subconsciously reminds them of what they were looking for in the first place!
For example, if you’re an insurance agent, you might find that the term “asset protection” is a relevant, frequently searched, and low competition marketing keyword for your target audience (in other words it’s an ideal target keyword). Instead of steering these potential clients to your generic-named “Insurance Review” you could name your service “Asset Protection Consultation.”
Obviously, your prospects would be more likely to bite when your service is named exactly after the search term they used in the first place.
So, next time you’re planning a new product or service, or even when you are doing work on your website to feature them, a little research into marketing keywords to use in the name, can really serve you well.
Use marketing keywords in Facebook ad copy
Do you use Facebook ads to promote your business? Even though Facebook just got a pretty good black eye recently but their advertising platform is still one of the best options for you to promote your small business. You just can’t beat their pricing and ability to laser focus on your ideal customer.
The thing about Facebook Ads is that it’s all about images. You only have a few words to get your message across – both because of the viewing habits of Facebook users, and because of Facebook themselves. In fact, if your ad has too much copy, even hidden on the image itself, it could be rejected or suppressed by Facebook’s algorithm (even if Facebook’s old “20% rule” has essentially been killed).
Facebook ads allow limited text and with limited text, you really have to think long and hard about what you’re going to say.
Again, that’s where marketing keywords come in. Even though your target audience isn’t entering keywords in a search bar to get your ads to pop up in Facebook, the same principles apply. If your ad copy contains keywords that they would have entered themselves had they been conducting a search, then your audience is much more likely to take the time to read it and hopefully even click through.
There you have it. 3 ways to use marketing keywords you probably haven’t thought about.
1. Use them in your email subject lines for better open rates.
2. Use them in your product and service names for better lead conversion.
3. Use them in your Facebook ad copy for better click-through rates.
Hope you found this useful. Did I miss any uses for marketing keywords that you like? Let me know in the comments section.
‘Till next time,
Eric
P.S., if you liked this article, I bet your colleagues and friends would too. I would be tickled pink if you’d share this with them!
P.P.S., did you read my article on how to pick a good SEO expert yet? I know the reality for lots of small businesses is that 
they need to outsource SEO. True, it’s really not rocket science, but it can be time and labor intensive. Problem is there are lots of SEO types out there that are either shady or just incompetent. Fact is, any person who reads a dozen articles on SEO can slap that term in their LinkedIn or Facebook profile and start selling their services to you. I’ve been hearing some horror stories from my friends and clients. That’s why I put together a checklist to help you know what to look for, what questions to ask, and what to require when you hire an SEO expert. Could save you some time and money! Again, here’s where to go to get the SEO hiring checklist.
NOTE: This article is part of my SEO and Keywords 4-part series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
Eric Hsu
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