Developing A List Of Keywords For Marketing

By Catherine Franz
Posted Tuesday, October 5, 2004

Keywords aren't just some words that allow search engines, like Google, to find your web site. They are also key elements for creating attractive language to use in your marketing or advertising material. For instance places such as: brochures, business cards, flyers, and ads. Keywords can also fit well into speaking engagements scripts or audiotapes scripts as well as audience handouts

It is important to create a keyword list for each product or service you have. The keyword list might even change slightly if there are various groups or audiences for that product or service.

For simplicity, I have omitted the word service and for the word product to reflect both.

Creating your keyword list can begin after you have clearly identified the buyer or audience for a particular product or service. You will need to know as much about the buyer's demographic and charactertics as possible. I also recommend including their descriptive qualities and personalities. Here is a list to kick start your brainstorming process:

Communicative
Competent
Dedicated
Enthusiastic
Expert
Hardworking
Improved
Positive
Negative
Professional
Relationship-driven
Self-confident
Successful
Tranquil
Spiritual
Understanding
Socially conscious
Early adaptor
Later buyer
Has to see it to believe it
Guarantee a must.

The list of keywords will describe the product and target the specific quality you have isolated as most important to those buyers. No grabbing out of midair. Take the time and research, this will help you save money and reduce costly marketing experiences.

You can complete your research with any combination of methods. Here are eight methods to help you build from:

Brainstorming
Yellow Pages or other indexes for services or products.
Reviewing your company literature already created
Checking out the competitors literature
Surveying key customers
Searching through trade publications (articles and ads), and contacting them or visiting their web site looking for their buyer statistics/demographics.
Use a general dictionary and thesaurus
Use a specialized dictionary like the, Flip Dictionary.

You can use resources like the yellow pages or other catalogue-type indexes listing grouping to discover keywords your product or service would be listed under.

Lets move through an example. If you were selling a professional development product you could be in any one of the following professions: professional speaker, life, business, or executive coach, consultant or trainer. Your buyer or audience is somewhat successful you're your product will help them add additional success. Here is a list of keywords that could describe their characteristics or qualities:

Able to motivate others
Clearheaded
Clear-sighted
Committed to achieving excellence
Demands excellence
Full of character
Has good judgment
Has a wonderful stress-free life already
Highly perceptive
Lives up to her or her potential
Life-long learner
Sts high standards for themselves
Stays on track
Strives for perfection
Strives to excel
Takes the initiative
Motivated to achieve

Okay, good start. Now, lets begin to put all this together. Lets zoom in on one of these: strives to excel. Lets narrow down further to one word: excel.

Look up the word excel in a synonym finder, thesaurus or my preference, the Flip Dictionary and you find the following keywords that you can add to your keyword list: best, better, exceed, outclass, outdo, out rival, outstrip, shine, star, superior, surpass, take the cake, transcend, dominate, tower above, be head and shoulders above, stand out in the crowd, hold sway, lead, take the lead, lead the pack.

The list can go on, however, will stop here because the point is made.

After this, you could let your fingers travel through the thesaurus and then add those words.

Alternatively, you could continue your list by visiting a few of your competitors web sites and see what keywords they use. You do this by visiting their home page, right clicking the mouse on the page, and select "view source." In the HTML code look for "keywords." These are the keywords they use for the search engines to find them.

You will want to specifically focus on the competitor web sites that appear in first ten spots on one or two major search engines, like Google.

Next, select another method from your list of resources and continue until you feel you have enough right words.

After completing your list, you will want to review and place the keywords in priority order as best possible and eliminate any words that might be misleading. If you market globally, make sure none of the keywords mean something offensive in their language.

About the Author
Catherine Franz, a Business Coach, specialized in writing, marketing and product development. Newsletters and additional articles:
(http://www.abundancecenter.com)
blog: (http://abundance.blogs.com)