Tuesday, March 18, 2014

President Obama's Health Care Plug

I would like to start with a disclaimer:
This piece does not reflect any political bias for or against President Obama. This piece also neither condemns nor condones the Health Care Reform. As a matter of fact, this political piece holds no bias whatsoever and is purely focused on analyzing marketing strategies to specific demographics.
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, I would like to take a moment to analyze the most recent marketing campaign for the Health Care Reform. On March 11, 2014, President Obama appeared on the Zac Galifainakus show, Between Two Ferns. If you haven't seen it yet, I strongly advise that you watch it now:

The target audience for the current Health Care Reform campaign is young adults ages 18-25 years old. According to studies, this is the generation with the least amount of people carrying health insurance and the lowest income. Therefore, the Health Care Reform marketing campaigns have specifically targeted this group of adults in an attempt to enroll them into the Health Care Marketplace.

After the target audience is identified (young adults ages 18-25), the next step is to gear content towards the ideal demographic in a way that is both informative and engaging. This is where many marketing campaigns go adrift. Companies either pick informative OR engaging, but in order to be effective and generate sales, the two must be blended. For example, if you hire on a website design company, you expect that their own website will be interactive and visually engaging, while still providing the information you need to know about the services offered.

The same is true for the campaigns with the Health Care Reform. Prior to this outside-of-the-box marketing technique, the government focused on informative campaigns to promote the Health Care Reform. They didn't receive the response for which they were hoping. I'm not sure which marketing executive thought of the appearance on the Zac Galifainakus show, but whoever it was is a genius. The primary audience for this show is young adults (remember that ideal demographic for the Health Care Reform?).

In order to effectively reach his audience, President Obama had to play along with the rules of his marketing platform, i.e. he had to take a couple jabs from comedian, Zac Galifainakus. He understood the rules of the show and played along to keep the attention of the audience. When it came time for his Health Care Reform plug, he allowed Zac Galifainakus to make jabs and side comments, which eased the informational tone and still kept the show entertaining. Thus, President Obama blended both information and engagement during his Health Care Reform pitch.

That, above all, is the most effective form of marketing. Know your audience and create your marketing content to be both informative and engaging. Need help creating effective marketing content? Contact me for a free consultation.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Search Engine Optimization 101: Keywords



So, you read the last blog post and are interested in learning more about how to grow your online presence. You learned briefly about SEO and how keywords and content play together to boost your search engine ranking. Now, let's take a look at how to pick the best keywords for your business.

A keyword is essentially anything that a person would type into the search bar of any search engine. If I am looking for a custom logo design, I might type in the words "custom logo design" or "custom graphic design" and so on. The search engine would return various custom logo design companies that could help me with my needs. These design companies have all selected keywords that are precise and accurately describe their services, which is why the search engine has chosen them as a result for my query.

When you are thinking about what keywords to select for your company, think about both your services and your brand. You can choose several keywords, so you want to hit all of your company's services, but also the branding that your company has established. For example, if you search "GEICO camel" you will receive five different links to GEICO's website. The same goes if you search "Carfox." The top result will be the Carfax website.

One of the most important aspects of keyword creation is choosing keywords that both describe your company and appeal to your ideal clientele. Before any keywords are picked, I strongly encourage you to develop a profile of your ideal client. There are several programs that allow the search trends of certain demographics and industries to be monitored; these programs allow businesses to choose keywords that are relevant to their industry and to their ideal clients. Ask me more about these programs.

Once you have your ideal client profile and your keywords ready, the next step is to write meaningful content that will both engage your readers and boost your SEO.