Are You Using These ‘Trigger’ Words in Your Marketing?
By Anna Johnson on November 25th, 2008Based on Hitwise’s top search terms for September 2008, the most popular terms in the ‘Shopping Rewards and Directories’ category were (in order):
coupons
grocery
coupons
free samples
black friday 2008
black friday
free stuff
consumer reports
free coupons
‘Black Friday’ is a reference to the Friday after Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. This traditionally marks the first day of the shopping season.
While ‘Black Friday’ may be popular at this time of year… the terms ‘coupons’, ‘grocery coupons’, ‘free samples’, ‘free stuff’ and ‘consumer reports’ are consistently popular terms in this category. They were also in the top 10 for the same category in January 2008… and similar terms appeared in the top 10 back in June 2007.
If you run an online business, knowing the most popular keywords used by your target market is certainly relevant. But not just for search engine optimization (SEO) reasons. It’s also relevant in terms of knowing the ‘trigger’ words that are likely to attract your prospects’ attention and interest in what you have to offer.
In other words, knowing such trigger words will enable you to use them in your copy – again, not just for SEO purposes, but to resonate with your target market. Simply because you are using the words that are on their minds.
So how do you find out the trigger words for YOUR target market? Well, just like Hitwise, you could research the most popular words used by search engine users looking for the kind of products or services you offer. To do that you need one or more keyword tools.
The free Google AdWords Keyword Tool is one such tool you can use. Another is Wordtracker. I’ll explain Wordtracker – and why we use it – tomorrow.
Source: ClickZ, “Top 10 Search Terms in 10 Categories”, October 2008, ClickZ, November 20, 2008
