Throughout of various Marketing How-to blog posts as well as our Local Marketing & Content Plans by Industry we use certain phrases consistently and these are often ideas that business owners are less comfortable with so we wanted to quickly define them here.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Having your content (pages from your website) appear prominently in search engine results. The Holy Grail of SEO is appearing "on the first page of Google" though no one can reliably guarantee that. Note, you should rank prominently for ideas, products, and services not merely your business name.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) - Paid placement on search engines allows you to pay for clicks (or conversions) and ensure your message appears against certain key search criteria like search query, the location of the search etc. While your bid price is important i.e how much you'll pay your organic SEO actually affects your position as does the page you're linking your ad to, the ad copy and more.
Content Marketing - The Content Marketing Institute defines Content Marketing as "focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action." Basically, create content (blog) then distribute your content effectively to reach people where they're at (including on Google)
Cross-Promotion - Local businesses and nonprofits regularly cross-promote by hanging flyers in the windows of Main Street merchants, adding flyers and business cards to cork boards in public spaces like coffee shops, and through Local Connections™.
Collaboration - Collaboration is more active than cross-promotion and includes creating a multi-business flyer or mailer to reduce costs, increase reach, or both.
Persona - Segmenting a market into groups is important as it allows you to target specific segments that are a better fit for your product or service, it also enables you to communicate more appropriately to them. A Persona is the personification of that group. Often, you'll give the persona a name and describe them by demographic characteristics, things they like to do, buying preferences etc.
Blue Ocean Strategy - Blue Ocean Strategy is a way to differentiate your product or service in order to redefine the rules of competition. Rather than adding more than your competitors, you change the rules by stressing what customer really want and letting go of things they don't.
Included are a number of frameworks to increase willingness-to-pay while reducing costs and identifying unique strategies. A couple favorites are their Four-Actions Framework to identify what should be Eliminated, Reduced, Raised and Created and their Strategy Canvas.
The Kano Model - The Kano Model framework for evaluating products and services break attributes of benefits into specific categories. For marketing purposes, it's best to focus on what makes you unique and "delights" customers while ensuring them that necessary features are included.
Power Words or High Emotion Trigger Words - There are hundreds of words the elicit emotional responses when used effectively such as: Secret, Behind the Scenes, Confession, Miracle, Proven, Quick, Instant, Accurate, Convenient, Easy, Guarantee, Now, Reliable, Cheerful, Helpful, Daring, Carefree, Genuine, Efficient, Imagine, You, Because. >> Download the free Power Words one-sheet here.
6 Principles of Persuasion by Dr Robert Cialdini - The 6 universal ways to influence decision making: Reciprocity, Scarcity, Authority, Consistency, Liking, and Consensus
