Think you need an unlimited budget to compete for eyeballs online? The truth is most people suffer more from a lack of creativity than a budget shortfall.
But for any guerrilla marketing plan to work you’ll need to perform better than people with deep pockets. Take a look at the picture below and follow along was we look at how you can grab more online traffic, leads and customers.
Personalize Your Marketing Message With Irresistible Adjectives
Before I get too far into the art and science of Google ads, know that there is a huge opportunity to reach a targeted audience on the cheap using clever bid strategies and good landing pages. The key is to use a compelling message and land your visitors on pages that call for a specific, direct action and offers tangible benefits.
Let’s say you want to ride the wave of buzz being given to campaigns like the iPhone 4 or the Old Spice Guy. First, consider using a Google AdWords campaign — but with a twist.
For the iPhone ad, separate yourself from all other comers by focusing on a specific benefit or pain point related to what you have to share/sell. “Ten Instant iPhone 4 Fixes” is more descriptive than “Fix Your iPhone 4″.
Next make sure to bid on the right terms. Google doesn’t have a trademark policy on which terms you can bid on, so choose words like ‘iPhone 4 jailbreak’. Then guide people to your website by describing what you’ll deliver. Finally, use a vanity URL in the ad (Advertise your site as ‘applesinsider.com/iphone-4-jailbreak’ instead of just ‘appleinsider.com’ because this will boost your quality score and help users choose your site if it’s relevant to them).
You don’t even need to check out Google Trends all the time. If you notice a trending topic on Twitter try leveraging AdWords to gain traffic — and then offer a free download on a simple landing page with a ‘big red button’ people can click to grab your info.
Quality Content is King
Notice the two organic links on the picture above (labeled ’2′ and ’3′)? Those are organic links served up by Google. There’s the main link and then just below it, indented to the right, is the second link from the same URL. Since the site has multiple relevant pages, Google rewards the owner with it’s maximum of two organic links for a single search result.
How does this affect you?
Well let’s say you knew the iPhone 4 was coming (which we all did). You can start building pages months in advance in order to take advantage of the ensuing marketing blitz. Google recognizes your landing pages and begins to rank them ahead of all the other people who wait until the product actually hits the market.
Now apply this idea to your specific service.
You could easily build a product speaking page that people can use to hire you for an event. The possibilities are only limited to the time you have to build quality pages for people to find. I define a quality website landing page as answering a specific question and encouraging people to take a specific action (this is the ‘conversion’ part of the equation). Bonus points for getting people to give you an email address in exchange for your info.
So now we’ve found three ways to hijack a message: Advertise on Google by bidding on specific branded keywords, building a strong main directory page and plenty of relevant sub pages to rank highly.
Beware the Brand Jack and Other Parasites
Entrepreneurs who create competitive content aren’t really ‘hijacking’ a marketing message, no matter what the title of this post implies. The goal is to take advantage of high search volume when someone else creates a really cool viral video or advertisement. But some people push it a step further.
Check out the 4th and 5th spaces in the picture above and you will see what I mean. Lots of people create websites specifically intended to siphon away business from competitors. Many times they sell the leads they receive back to the original business — or worse. Sometimes the official looking site just steals information from potential customers so they can try to sell a knock off.
The bottom line is that there are many ways to take advantage of hot trends, but it’s a mistake to misrepresent what you really have to offer.
In case I haven’t mentioned it before, try Google Insights to discover hot keywords and Twitter Search for a look at topics that drive search volume. Search volume is your opportunity here. Don’t let it go to waste!