in: SEO
by: Katie Hellmuth Martin
So you're watching the Oscars, and BAM, you see your product! You see a star celebrity wearing your jewelry, or your dress, or you see a behind the scenes shot of a stylist or production assistant making magic happen with your product. This is a major score. What do you do?
Obviously, you want to run straight to the press with your new celebrity validation of your brand. Great! But ultimately, you want sales from this spotting. So you need to go straight to the people. You need to speak to your future customers from:
- Search engines
- Social feeds
The people you are hoping will buy from you are not ones who know about your brand yet. Or maybe they do, and now they need a reminder of how awesome your brand is, or they need validation to tip the fence and come to your side. You need SEO (search engine optimization), and social networking to start working in your favor, and to work fast.
I'm going to present SEO and digital marketing strategies that can work for any business.
TAKE TO YOUR BLOG!
You must write a blog post right away. Assuming that all of your information is 100% correct, and that none of it is private (example: a celebrity bought your product via your website and you think it's for the Oscars but you aren't sure and you haven't seen the celebrity using it yet, you cannot blog that without first seeking written permission from that celebrity).
In your blog, you are of course going to include all of the details. You are going to want to use relevant words whenever possible, including names, styles, colors, how they wore or used it, etc. All of these words turn into "keyword phrases" that get evaluated by search engines, so you don't want to be vague here.
Include the person's name in the title of your blog post. Include the style or name of whatever it is they are using. Strategically, after seeing something on TV, people will start searching on Google or other search engines for what that was. They may not remember a name. They may not know a name, especially if it was a stylist or assistant who was spotting doing something. Keep this in mind. You'll want to attract the searcher almost backwards. If you saw something, how would you begin searching?
"pink necklace with feathers oscars"
"diamond earrings cluster halle barry oscars"
"halle barry oscar jewelry"
Things like that. Now turn that way of thinking into a catchy title. That's what you want to be your title of your blog post, and you'll want to be sure to use all of these words in your blog post.
CREATE LINKS FROM YOUR ARTICLE TO OTHER SOURCES
People love clicking links to learn more. Search engines love links too because it is signaling to them that you are really giving a lot of in depth information about this topic to your reader. So link to whatever is relevant and helps your story. Ideas for links include:
- Actor, Producer, Director, etc.: Link to their IMDB page.
- Actor, Producer, Director, etc.: Link to the movie that was in reference in IMDB, or the movie's own website.
- Press Coverage: If the item was mentioned in the press, link to that magazine's website.
- Social Feeds: If the item was mentioned in a certain social feed, link to that.
- Was there a video about it? Embed the video (get the "embed code" from YouTube, or Vimeo, or related, and place it into the "source code" of your website).
- These are only a few ideas. Do your own Googling to find other articles at other website that reference it.
INCLUDE THE PICTURE IN YOUR BLOG POST + PRODUCT PAGE
If you have a picture, and you got it from Getty or another rights management company, ask your lawyer first about fair use and whether you're allowed to use it as validation of that person wearing or using your brand. Link your picture to where the person can buy the product. Also include the picture on the product page of your website. This is confirms to your future customer that they are at the right place, and that they are buying exactly what they are searching for from your website.
LINK TO WHERE TO BUY THE PRODUCT
And of course, don't forget to link to exactly where your readers can buy your product. Making it reeeeeally easy for them to click and buy.
SOCIAL FEEDS + TAGGING
Still with me? Digital marketing is a lot of work! But the pay-off can be good because you are dropping so many breadcrumbs that can help people while you are sleeping. Do check out these 3 easy tips for making a lot of social media when you don't have time for any of it.
Now you want to tell the social feeds like Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn about your awesome score. But you are doing this very strategically. SEO works like this in social feeds:
It is # hashtag based. With every little blurb you put out there, you must "tag" words you are using in your description. Two major reasons for why you want to tag.
- The hashtag becomes a link. When you put a # in front of a word in Twitter or Instagram, that word becomes a link.
- People click on the links. People navigate through social feeds by clicking on hashtags. So if you include the word #Oscar in your social udpate, people who are clicking on #Oscar have a good chance of seeing your update.
- The hashtag pings someone. For those advanced social users, they may have set up an automated tool that informs them of when a hashtag was used.
Hashtagging can take time. So one tweet or Instagram share could take 10 or 15 minutes because you may need to Google the hashtags or twitter names of those who you want to see your post, or of those who are searching for #halleberry right then. This research is worth it. It's worth getting your message in front of the right set of eye balls. Even if that set of eyeballs belongs to 1 or 3 people. Those people may have large followings, and if they respond to your social message, their followers may have gotten awareness as well.
And finally, social sharing is impacting SEO. Google wants to know who in social networks thinks that your website is great. So, best to give links where relevent in your status updates, in case they are shared.
Hey. It's a lot. But so is getting to the red carpet and being Oscar worthy. These actors, producers, directors, costume designers, and everyone who makes a movie didn't get there just by clicking some links and calling it a day. Building buzz for your business is a lot of work. But the more you do it, the easier it becomes!
