Keyword mapping – The why, what and how.

Earning organic visits from search engines like Google is hard work. There. I said it. Google increasingly pound on user experience, and ruthlessly hands out consequences for bounces and short visits. As a result, it has never been more important to know what your ideal client wants and serve it with love and appreciation. To help you make that happen, I interviewed Eugene Nosov about keyword mapping. He is a Partnership Marketing Manager at SEO Powersuite and also a seasoned SEO pro.

Table Of Contents

But before we dive into the tips he shared, let’s discuss the what and why.

What is keyword mapping?

Most people embarking on an SEO journey start with initial research that roughly consists of the following three steps.

1. Gathering as many keywords as you can come up with in a reasonable timeframe.
2. Finding out how often these search terms are used in the area you target, and how hard it is to rank for them.
3. Filtering out the low-hanging fruit aka the keywords that you can rank for pretty quickly and easily.

Unfortunately, two vital steps are often overlooked.

• Grouping keywords that indicate similar needs for information and should therefore be targeted with the same piece of content
• Turning these groups of keywords into a hierarchical and user-friendly content structure. In a content structure like that, you’ll find general and competitive keywords at the top of the pyramid. Ideally, these represent content categories. The further down the pyramid, the longer the search terms, the lower the average monthly searches, and the more specific the need for information.  

These two steps combined is what we call keyword mapping.

Keyword mapping is grouping keywords that indicate similar needs for information, combining these keywords in one piece of content and making sure that the content is structured in a hierarchical, intuitive structure

Why is keyword mapping important?

People hardly ever visit websites without a clear goal in mind. And yes, one of those goals might visiting YouTube to simply to be entertained or get their minds of daily reality. But how likely is it that they spend time on your business website to be entertained?

Not. Likely.

Which means, you better help them solve for their need quickly and effortlessly. By finding exactly what they need make the decision ahead of them. Which, ideally, benefits both of you.

Keyword mapping helps you with that because it will show you what information they need.

But wait, there’s more.

When done well, keyword mapping also shows search engines like Google what your field of expertise is and what pages are more important than others. The hierarchy of pages with internal links upwards to the top gives the search bots insights into what content is more important than others.

And this brings me to my interview with Eugene. Because, once you have your keywords grouped and structured, you will need to come up with content that solves for a need for information. And that persuades to action. And that is where many of my clients struggle.

How to determine when to create a content pillar page or a sales / landing page for a keyword group?

Thanks for your help with this, Eugene! One of the issues my clients struggle with is whether to create and build links to a content pillar page or to create a sales / landing page for a major keyword group. Let’s use “wedding gifts” as an example. What would you recommend?

With pleasure, Yvette. First of all, we would need to understand the business behind the website. After all, some solve for other needs than others. Businesses could for instance:

• offer services like custom creating wedding gifts;
• specialize in selling wedding gifts;
• sell all sorts of gifts, including those gifts for weddings. 

If you look at the top results for the search phrase “wedding gifts”, you will see that the results are mixed. Some content solves for people who want to check out what is for sale right away. Other content solves for people who are a bit earlier in the buying process and are just looking for inspiration.

Your choice will probably be based on your business goals. If you are the owner of a webshop, you may want to focus on optimizing a category page for “wedding gifts”. If you sell custom gifts or offer related services and you don’t have a webshop, it will be better to create a pillar page or a long form article with tips.

How to solve for the right search intent?

As a general rule of thumb, SEO specialists recommend checking the top search results to discover the search intent for a keyword. But what would you recommend if the top search results show a mixture and there does not seem to be a clear preference between informational, commercial, and transactional intent?

Similar to the previous question, this depends on your business goals and on the top results for the keyword. If the results are mixed, that means search engines will look for the most relevant pages for each category. IN that case, you could use SEO spyglass to estimate how powerful the top results are. That way, you will find out for which of the three search intent options competition is weakest. With that in mind, you could create a page that competes for that category and start building links.

What to do if you find out that some of your pages compete for the same keyword?

Thank you so much, that was really helpful. Now sometimes, my clients notice that some of their pages compete for the same keyword. What would you recommend them?

First, you may want to have a good look at the content of each page. Do they solve for a different need or can they be combined? If you can combine the content into one article, that will improve the user experience and make the one page more powerful.

Next, if the content solves for a different need, however, it may not be smart to combine the content. In some cases, for instance, one page contains a tool and the other page is the user guide. In that case, just make sure the meta description of each page clearly states what to expect when visiting that page. Other than that, there is no need to take action. People who search for that keyword then have the option to visit the page that solves for their need.

For more examples of keyword cannibalization and how to deal with that, you may want to check out this article.

Thanks Eugene, that was really helpful.

Are you struggling with keyword mapping or creating keyword focused copy?

Let’s chat and get to know each other. If we both feel we resonate, we’ll discuss ways to collaborate.

Photo credit: Ferenc Horvath on Unsplash

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Some of you still highly depend on outbound marketing techniques. Others have adopted inbound marketing years ago. And if you are a fairly experienced real estate agent, you are probably pretty good at closing hot leads.

If someone needs to buy a home, you’ll find her one. If someone needs to sell, you’ll land the assignment.

But what happened to that lovely couple who were just browsing homes? That young family  for whom the urgency to sell slipped away? Who would really benefit from your services and just were not ready to buy yet? Will they still remember you when they are actually in need of what you have to offer?

Do people slip through the cracks at any of these inbound marketing stages in your business?

Let’s have a closer look at the most common reasons these people fell (and are falling) through the cracks of your attention. They actually align with the four stages of inbound marketing: Attract, Convert, Close & Delight.

The inbound marketing methodology as taught by HubSpot

1. The Attract Cracks

Your buyer persona, or potentially ideal client, won’t find your online channels because imposter syndrome gets in the way.

Does Imposter Syndrome get in YOUR way?

You deeply fear being perceived as that sleazy car salesperson. I hear you. You are not alone. And I have been there too. It still creeps up on me regularly. Even while you and I may have years and years of experience, positioning ourselves as an expert just is incredibly scary, right?

And yet, Imposter Syndrome serves nobody. Not you, not anyone. You may or may not be a top-level executive, chef or brain surgeon, you have value to offer to an audience. You just need to find a safe and nurturing environment to grow and practice.

You don’t need to be a brain surgeon to bring value

So, I urge you to rekindle your inbound marketing activities and consider creating (more) content in 2018. You don’t need to write the ultimate guide to buying a home in Martha’s Vineyard. Or wherever your playing field is. Let me relieve you of some pressure. The ultimate guide does not exist. Information changes all the time, and peoples needs are unique.

Just create content that shares your unique perspective. Share what you would do. What helped one, or several of your clients. Ask your visitors to share their thoughts. Make your content a conversation starter. And use social media to fire up the conversation.

2. The Convert Cracks

Not many real estate agents offer potentially ideal clients a way to raise their hands and express their interest in certain topics or services. Other than a to receive listing updates or to schedule a consultation, that is. So, let’s step in the shoes of those potentially ideal clients for a moment. They like what they see on your online channels, but don’t have a way to stay in touch without a big commitment. Such as calling for an appointment. By the time they could really use your services, they probably have altogether forgotten about you.

Step in the shoes of your ideal client

If, on the other hand, you would offer a valuable, digital gift, that:

• Won’t take up much too much of their time;
• Brings them a significant step closer to solving their problem or accomplishing their goal;
• is of a higher perceived value than the freely available content on your blog and digital channels.

Offer them a digital gift that shows your expertise and personality

Chances are that they are willing to give you their name, e-mail address, and their permission to keep in touch in exchange for that. And it will bring your inbound marketing success to a whole new level.

You could potential sellers, for instance,  offer a miniguide that helps them get their home ready to sell, and you could offer potential first-time buyers a checklist to get a mortgage pre-approval.

3. The Close Cracks

A side effect of not offering potentially ideal clients the opportunity to raise their hands and express interest in your services in a relatively low key way, you also won’t have a way to stay in touch. You won’t have a way to educate and nurture those leads so that they may get to know, like and trust you until they are ready to buy.

You have more to offer than a listing update service

Ever since my husband and I started looking to buy our first home, way back in 1998, I wondered why real estate agents focused so much on sending out new and updated listings. You have a wealth of knowledge, and only so much shines through when you are out viewing homes with your clients, and during the pre-listing meetings with selling clients. What if you were to e-mail potential selling clients 10 tips to help prepare their home to sell, over a period of, say, 3 weeks? What if you were able to host online workshops for first time home buyers? What would that do to their opinion of you? Would that help them to get to know, like and trust you more? Would they start seeing you as more of an expert?

It takes an average of 7 contact moments and you stop at 4?

It takes on average 7 contact moments for someone getting ready to purchase. Since that is the average, I dare to believe that for someone to commit to hiring a real estate agent to help them buy or sell a home the average is higher than that. Yet, most business owners, including real estate agents, quit following up between 2 and 4 contact moments. Other than sending out new and updated listings of course. But do these inbound marketing techniques actually help you build a reputation? Would they be more likely to hire you by the time they are ready to commit?

4. The Delight Cracks

If you don’t have a system in place regularly checks how delighted your clients actually are, how will you know if they are? How will you make adjustments while you still can?

How did your clients perceive your service?

Short surveys are a great way to get the temperature of your clients. Just a very short one, for instance, one offering the option to click three face icons, right in the e-mail: One that smiles, one with a neutral face and one with a sad face. Each linking to a web page to offer additional feedback, and for the happy clients a way to refer people that would also benefit from your services. After all, who has time for a 30-minute questionnaire? We did just that after wrapping up WordCamp Utrecht, last November, and had an incredibly high response rate. Another lesson learned was that we got much more positive feedback than we had dared to hope for. We have a clear picture of which aspects were much appreciated and which aspects not so much. And got some great suggestions too.

Asking feedback IS scary

I know asking feedback on how you did is scary. But, then again, most of us are pretty well raised. Will give feedback gently and will be encouraging in general. And imagine being able to help your next clients even better…. Or even: what if you would send mini surveys, like the one I mentioned, after milestones in the process, so that you are able to clear up misunderstandings and make adjustments along the way while you still can?

We are all so busy, I know and live that every day, just like you. But imagine clients who know what they want, know you can offer that, have already started to know, like and trust you and show up well prepared. How much time would that save you? How many miscommunications could have been avoided?

Over To You

I would love to hear your thoughts. Anything in particular that rings true for you? What your favorite inbound marketing techniques? Please don’t hesitate to post a comment. You’ll get a link back to your latest post asmy  way of thank you for taking the time and effort.

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A few weeks ago, I got to teach the amazing people attending WordCamp Utrecht on “how to create buyer persona”. As you may know, this is a topic dear to my heart. One of my pet peeves actually. Once you are starting to get clear on who your ideal client is, creating content that shows them that you care, that you know your stuff and that you’re fun and easy to work with gets so much easier. A few days ago, the video was released, and I thought it would be smart to share it. It may help you get clear on your ideal clients, too.

How to create buyer persona – my talk notes

I’m not an experienced speaker yet. Can you tell? In order to organize my thoughts and decide what I want to share, I write out my presentation first. Once I am fairly confident I have something consistent, helpful and interesting, I reduce my prose to bullet points and slides. Below, you’ll find what I wrote to prepare for my talk. I have added the slides to illustrate each section.

Let’s get started with getting to know each other

Who of you is a first-time WordCamper? And who of you feel slightly overwhelmed? Let’s give them a big hand people. Why? Because we’re the WordPress people and we want, you, especially you first timers, to succeed! We want you to feel welcome, we want you to grow. In knowledge, in confidence, and we would love for you to come hang out with us more often. And, we’dd love for you to get involved. So that we can continue to grow together.

Who of you is a business owner?
Who is in charge of marketing?
Who of you is actively using buyer persona or ideal client profiles?
Who of you is not very familiar with the term at all?
So who wants to have more fun at work?

My goal for you today, is

• To discover what a buyer persona is;
• How they can help you grow your business and what’s maybe even more important, attract mainly those clients who make your workday fun. Challenging. In a good way.
• Overcome 1 of the most important obstacles to get started
• Go home with a great start for your first one or some ideas to improve the ones you’re currently using

I already uploaded the slides and will link to them at the end, so sit back and relax until we’re ready to get to work, that is.

Who Is This Chick

But who am I to get you excited, and to teach you
Let me tell you a bit about myself.
I created my first website in 1999.
My first WordPress website in 2006-ish.
Attended my first WordCamp in 2014. In Miami. I was living in Curacao at that time. So that was closer by than Utrecht.

Got kicked into rollercoaster mode at WordCamp Europe 2017, when I got to contribute to the marketing team and got to know many Dutch WordPressers who were active in this amazing community. Attended my first Meetup. Right here in Utrecht. Found myself speaking at WordCamp Nijmegen and got all of a sudden got pulled into the organization of this WordCamp not even a month ago. How? The power of community. Find your kind of crazy and you’ll grow like crazy

One conversation at a time

I love to meet new people. I just love to hear their stories. And I love to share their stories. That got me into content marketing after web development. People in general love stories. The emotion within stories helps people relate to one another. I am also very passionate about being helpful. I land most of my new clients by plain being helpful. And I am thankful to say that over the past 15 years, I have helped dozens of business owners living and working in The Netherlands, Curacao, Canada, the US and since two weeks ago New Zealand. And along the way that’s how I discovered that I actually was building my business one conversation at a time. Here’s the pattern that happens.
When you meet someone for the first time, usually the “so, what do you do”, question comes up, right? So typically you exchange questions about your job. And sometimes you just happen to meet someone who struggles with their website, their email marketing, their conversion rates. So you start asking a few questions to get a feel for what is causing their struggles. Tell them they are not the only ones struggling with that. Give them some sound advice. And before you know it, you have scheduled a meeting to discuss that further at their office.

Does that sound familiar?

When people want to solve a problem or want to accomplish a goal and they know they need help, they are usually pretty well willing to pay for it. But especially when it comes to projects where helping someone actually means co-creating something, where you will be working together closely for quite some time, they want someone who they think

• Understands where they are now and where they want to be
• Is well qualified to help them
• Think will be easy and fun to work with

And that happens one conversation at the time. But what it the conversation gets out of balance?

Stop Selling to me

If there is anything that people are allergic to, it is the feeling that someone is trying to sell them on something
Or gives them the feeling “that mommy corporate marketer knows best”. Cause come on! Stop belittling me. But that is a whole other talk.

Know Like & Trust?

So, when it comes to selling and marketing services where we co-create the end result, to owners of small and medium-sized businesses, do we agree that they want to know whether or not we

• Understands where they are now and where they want to be
• Is well qualified to help them
• Think will be easy and fun to work with?

Sweet Spot

And do we agree that, in order to make our life at work fun, easy and rewarding, we need to position ourselves in that sweet spot where

• Our Story
  Our Ideal Clients story
  And Our market story overlap?
• This, again, would be an entire talk. But I wanted to show this, to put creating persona in perspective.

What is a buyer persona? What is it not?

Let’s first have a quick look at what a buyer persona is NOT.

Disclaimer. This is not an exact science, the borders between these terms are slightly vague. My goal is to offer some perspective. While the division between these may not be exactly black and white, I hope to make it visual. And put things into perspective.

A buyer persona is not a target market. Rather it is a segment of a target market. A target market shares common characteristic, like for instance owners of web development agencies. But when you want to accomplish that a potential client starts feeling like you get where they are and want to be, you have the right mix of personality and expertise to help them get there, and are a delight to work with, using a target market is like shooting with hail into the air and hope a bird comes fallling down.

A buyer persona is not the same as a market segment either. But we’re getting closer. A market segment is a more specific segment of a target market. A market segment also shares common dream, goals, fears and frustrations. For instance owners of web development agencies who have been in business for 5+ years, have 4-10 employees, and a revenue of 300K – 1MM Euros. This market segment may be frustrated by not being able to maximize productivity within the team. Or not being able create content that truly resonates with their leads and clients.

To turn a market segment into a buyer persona, in my opinion, we need to take those characteristics, dreams, goals, fears and frustrations and turn those into a make-believe person. Lets do that and see what happens.

So we go from

• Owner of web development agency
• In business for 5+ years
• 4-10 employees
• 300k to 1MM Euros revenue
• Aim to to maximize productivity
• Struggle to create content that resonates with their audience

To

Allysa Agency Owner is an energetic and creative 32-year-old lady. She juggles being a mom of 2 energetic toddler twins, wife of Sahid, a successful lawyer and avid golfer, daughter of two loving adventurous parents in their early 70s and friend of a bunch of other chatty gals, with running a mid-sized web development agency in downtown Utrecht. While they attract enough work from existing clients and word of mouth, they struggle to keep their head above the water, for 2 specific reasons. Going to work is like hanging out with friends. As a result, put productivity suffers, and profit margin as a result of that. Also, they would love to attract more clients from industries they are really passionate about. Like outdoor sports. If only they could find a way to write their content in a way that resonates with the owners of outdoor stores and outdoor event coordinators and outdoor sports locations.
Do you feel the difference? All of a sudden, an image pops up in your head. You see the hipster office with the Macs, the fussbal table, the hammocks and the espresso machine. You see how there is too much play and not enough work. Ideas pop up into your head on how you would do that differently. And you feel both excited for Chelsey, for being able to grow her agency to that level, and empathy for her having to juggle all that. When does she even have time to breathe?

One of my clients a few weeks ago hit the nail on the head describing how the light turned on in her head: Now it’s like I’m writing an email to a friend, asking clarifying questions to help her discover what really matters. What she’dd like to get solved first. Explaining her what I’d suggest her to do first, why I think that. Share with her what she needs to look out for, what I would avoid. Before, I constantly had the voice of my former English teacher in my head, telling me to use more formal language. To use the right phraseology. Only to discover that that “right phraseology” was exactly why my content did not resonate with my at all. Why they felt belittled. Why they felt not heard.

Rabbit trail alert

Before I go on, I am sending us on a rabbit trail. Because I think it is important.
When I was preparing for this talk. I was doing some research on attention getters. One of the tips was statistics. Who of you gets excited about statistics?
Thought so. Anyways, I did look op some statistics surrounding buyer persona. And there was this odd thing. Bare with me for a moment here.
If Hubspot, of all organizations, says that using ideal client profiles made websites 2-5 times more effective
If MarketingSherpa, another authority, publishes a study that states that persona-based websites got up to

• a 900% increase in length of visit,
• a 171% increase in marketing-generated revenue,
• a 111% increase in email open rate,
• and a 100% increase in the number of pages visited.

Why in the world do only 44% of Business to Business marketers actively use buyer persona?

The answer is not that it is complicated.

It got me thinking.

And I am not a published authority here. But this is what I think.

Mindset Trap

I think it has to do with mindset. Especially when it comes to small to mmedium-sizedbusinesses.
Because I think many business owners, like real humans, still have this common mindset mistake.
“If I pinpoint my ideal clients, that means I have to say out loud that am actually good at this. The best? Will I need to write the ultimate guide to whatever it is that I do? What if I fail to accomplish what I promised. What if I disappoint? Will I get all kinds of nasty reviews? Will my friends think I am arrogant? I see the benefits, but actually….. I’m scared out of my pants to stake a claim like that?

I’m scared. And I may not now yet.

Does that sound familiar?

And the thing is. All those fears are what they are. Just fears. Like ghosts in dreams. Not reality. Just fears. And you know what works? Face the fears and do it anyways. Like I tell myself to do. All the time. It works people. It really works.

Like standing here, I am facing one of my fears and do it anyways moments. I am standing here, sharing my experience with ideal clients. And mindset. Because I am passionate about it. Because I want to help others build a business that gives them the freedom and flexibility to earn a decent income, have fun while doing it, make the web and the world a better place and have plenty of time left to enjoy life. Is it perfect? Naaaah. Should it be? I’m not here to tell you exactly what to do. I’m here to spark ideas. To help you overcome obstacles. To come a step closer to being the best you possible.

But in order to do that we have to let go of perfectionism. Because, have you ever finished a project without making a mistake, or two? Did your client forgive you when fixed the problem and when needed did something to make up for it? Did they continue to trust you? The fear of setting expectations to high, of disappointing is in your head.
And you know what usually happens when you make a mistake? It makes you all the way more human. And it comforts people when you show up human. It makes you more accessible. And it gives others around you the permission to be imperfect too.

Ðoes that help?

Because if we don’t pinpoint those clients, those projects that excite us, in a way that helps them see
That we get where they are and where they want to go
That we have the right mix of expertise and personality to help
And that we’re lots of fun to work with
We’ll end up with lots of meeeeeh clients and lots of meeeeeh projects.
Like that time that I found myself creating a website for a factory that created parts for industrial machinery. Meeeeeeeh

Lets get Cooking

Who is ready to get started?
In order to cook up a buyer persona, what Ingredients do we need?

Ingredients

Demographics: gender, age, education, location

Why do we need that?
So that we use the right tone of voice. Easy enough to understand. Without becoming “momma marketer knows best” kind of language. If we are trying to sell a Lara Lawyer a CRM we would use different wording than if we’re selling a similar piece of software to Holly Hairdresser. Right?

Psychographics

Roughly speaking, this is where the goals, dreams, fears and frustrations have their home. This is the most difficult one to come up with. And this is what we’ll be working on in a minute

Sociographics

Where does Lara Lawyer or Holly Hairdresser hang out. Who does she ask for advice. What magazines do inspire her. What social media groups is she connected to. What business networks does she attend? In other words. Where can we meet her. Where can we hang out too, so that we get in touch. To be there for here. To be helpful whenever she needs that.

Technographics

I kind of made this one up. Because, even in this digital age, not everyone loves to hang out on Facebook, Snapchat or Twitter as much as we do. Some people really are concerned about their privacy. Don’t use Google services or a smart phone for that reason. And they DO have a point. Others just don’t adjust to newly available channels and devices. So you want to know about that. And offer these people, who may greatly benefit from what you have to offer, an easy way to learn about you, too.

Let’s get our hands dirty

What I would like for you today, is to get home with a start, or some ideas on how to improve one of your buyer persona. We’ll start with what is in our heads. We’ll focus on Demographics and Psychographics for today. And I’ll explain you a way to do persona research and sales conversations at the same time.
I really like the do one, see one, teach one way of teaching.

We’ll start with easiest part demographics.

Remember, we’re looking for things like gender, age, family situation, education, occupation, income or revenue. But only if relevant. If I’m selling a CRM app to real estate agents, kids may not be relevant. Or it may be. If you’re marketing to a working mom. Location may, or may not be relevant. I’ll leave that up to you.
In our business Sonneveld & Goeijenbier, we help ladypreneurs who are looking to level up their business with seeing the real value of what they’re offering by helping them gain clarity with regards to what they would like their business to look like, who their ideal clients are, how to set challenging but achievable goals and how to keep overwhelm at bay by mapping out processes and creating checklists.

Emily Establisher

So, one of our ideal clients is Emily. You can use that as an example if it helps

I’dd like for you to grab a piece of paper. Start a new page in your note book. Open up a separate document in the device you’re using. Don’t forget to give it a name and save it to a smart folder right away.
So, I would like you to think of your favorite product or service.
And some of your clients who most successfully use that product or service
What demographics do these clients have in common?
Are they male? Female?
What age range are they in?
Are they highly educated? Have a vocational training?
Are they typically from the same industry?
If you’re marketing business to business. What position do they have within the business they are working for? Are they the owners, buyers, marketing managers?
How large is the business they own, or they are working for? In terms of employees, revenue, budget for what you are offering.

If you can think of one, give this ideal client a name. I like the cheesy version with alliteration, so that I can remember easily: Lara Lawyer, Hollie Hairdresser, Emily Establisher.
If you’re ready to move on, do me a favor and look up and smile to me. So that I can see you’re ready. And to make me feel good.

Stages of Business Success

When it comes to marketing services like web development, content marketing, SEO, marketing automation etc, this document is really helpful. I am currently studying to become an InfusionSoft Certified Partner, and they have created this. It really helps me see where a business is in their journey and what their most urgent needs are.
I’m just showing you quickly, because it helps me so much and so that it will be in the slides for you t refer to if you think it might be helpful

Phychographics 1

So when we move on to the Psychographics, I’dd like you to get started with a short, general description. When it comes to using your product or service. What is this ideal client trying to accomplish?

Emily 2

Here’s what Emily is trying to accomplish
Again, when you’re done, please look up and smile to me

Psychographics 2

Do that we are starting to get a feel for where our ideal client wants to be, lets have a look at where he or she is now. And what is frustrating about it.

Emily 3

Here is Emily’s biggest frustration.
Don’t forget to smile when you are done

Psychographics 3

Now, let’s dig a little deeper. Use phrases like the ones to the right, to come up with what your ideal client would say regarding where he or she is now, or where he or she wants to be.

Emily 4

Here’s what Emily tells us. But for this one, I have left our Mr Icognito in place, so that you can use the thought starters.

Unfortunately, time is too short now, to get you to teach one or coach one, too. May I suggest that you look around and see if you can partner up with someone for a few minutes later today, to review what you have so far and give each other maybe some more ideas?

Digging deeper in our discovery sessions

When working on this presentation, I had many ideas bubble up, and one of them was this one.
What if we incorporate this into our discovery sessions? It would have several benefits
• We would help potential clients become aware or more aware of what they are trying to accomplish and why, and what they are trying to avoid and why.
• That by itself may nurture their sense of urgency. And guess who is available to help?
• In addition to that, you create a “before” picture that is awesome to repurpose into a case study later on.
• And, you now have lots of input for language to use when creating content. Do you think prhases like those will resonate with other leads matching this particular ideal client profile?

Keep in touch

Before I start answering questions, if you’dd like to stay in touch, this is where you’ll find me.
The link gets you to a page with the slides and some additional resources to keep improving your buyer persona.
And let me know how it goes.

The post How To Create Buyer Persona The Easy Way appeared first on Inbound Marketing Bliss.

This afternoon, I was honored to get to interview serial author (I counted 22 books on amazon), keynote speaker and business coach Nicole Dean about her The Awesomization Nation event that takes place during the month of April 2015.

Please do yourself a favor and sign up for The Awesomization Nation. You will not regret it.

Before You Go

Please stay in touch. Share your thoughts in the comments section. Subscribe to my Youtube channel. Join my tribe and get e-mail updates. Connect with me on social media. Have a blissful day y’all!

The post Blissful People #1 – Nicole Dean On The Awesomization Nation appeared first on Inbound Marketing Bliss.

Today I am in a mood for cheesy designs. Some guy named Tony Laidig, who by the way teaches awesome courses that allow you to get your creativity all wild, referred me to a website with all kinds of open source graphics and they make me go all creative in a cheesy way. Hence the cheesy graphic.

Here’s the story. If we are connected on Facebook, you may have seen some pictures. Last weekend I was attending a conference called NAMS. I want you to go there with me next year, but we’ll talk about that later.

One of the Keynote Speakers, Nicole Dean, whom I am honored to call Beachie Sister (another story for later), has made the awesome decision to make this coming April Awezomization Month.

She thought: If I can get 1111 people to do 3 awesome actions for 30 days straight, that would add up to 100.000 awesome actions.

Stake Your Claim For A Piece Of Awesomization Nation Now!

Now, if I could see you right now, I may see a puzzled face? You may have thoughts like: Awesome actions? Help me out here? What would I be supposed to do?

Nicole crafted up 3 categories of awesome action:

• Awesomize your business
• Awesomize your life
• Awesomize the world

Here’s some examples from Nicoles website:

Awesomize Your Business

In the “Awesomize your Business” Category, a task might be:
Do you have all of your social media set-up? If not, set up a missing piece today. (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest). If so, go back and check your bio on all of those. Is it current and sexy? If not, fix it.
Let’s talk about your passwords today. Did you know there are programs that can manage those for you so you NEVER waste time trying to find a password again? Here’s a video with the one that I use.
Take your smart Phone outside and do a quick talking head video for your business. You don’t have to post it anywhere. Start with an intro of your name & URL, a quick message or story, and a call to action. Just try it and see how it looks. What do you like about it? What would you like to work on? If it’s “ok” post it to either Facebook or YouTube.

Awesomize Your Life

In the “Awesomize your Life” Category some tasks to choose from might be:
If you’re in the grocery store today, pick one fruit or veggie that you’ve never tried before and get it and enjoy it.
Is there an area of your house that drives you crazy with clutter? Take 15 minutes and go through it right now.
Tell your kids that you’re proud of them today.
Write a letter to a relative that you haven’t talked with in awhile.

Awesomize The World

In the “Awesomize the World” Category, a task might be:
Got hotel soaps laying around? Grab them all and put them in a bag. Sometime this week, swing them by a battered women’s shelter. They need them.

And I could add a few more:

• Awesomize your family
• Awesomize your school
• Awesomize your volunteering

Do you think you can do that? Cause I think you can.

And I think you could, oh noh, you SHOULD help spread the word so that this gets all over the world and way exceeds 1.111 people. I am thinking millions, friends!

Here’s what I need you to do:

1. Go stand in front of the mirror and say out loud” Today I Stake My Claim For A Piece Of Awesomization Nation”. Repeat as needed.
2. Follow this link: http://wwayd.com/shine/aff/go/yvettesonneveld and Stake Your Claim For A Piece Of Awesomization Nation for only $10. Now this link is an affiliate link. If you buy through this link I will earn 75% of what you paid. And I will forward every single penny of that to the Curacao Food Bank.
3. After that, you will receive an email to get on the mailing list. Click the link to confirm your e-mail address.
4. Join the Facebook group as instructed and introduce yourself. Also please tell the group that I made you do this!
5. Start looking forward to a month to never forget.

Talk soon!

Yvette

The post Are You Ready To Stake Your Claim For A Piece Of Awesomization Nation? appeared first on Inbound Marketing Bliss.

Well hello there!

I don’t know about you, but I spend hours each week researching the internet, trying to find ways to create what I have in mind, find solutions for problem my clients face and learn new techniques to serve you even better.

And I thought, what if there were an easy way to share the resources I come across. One that is more quickly and almost effortlessly?

Visual Cues

Now one of the things I learned along the way is that:
30% of you are primarily visually oriented;
25% of you think primarily in words;
the remaining 45% of you does not really have a preference.

If I speak for myself, I am strongly visually oriented. Visual cues help me understand the concept and principles of things quicker and easier.

Knowing that, I decided that a visual aid for you to know this is me sharing a resource would be beneficial. At the same time, creating one should be easy. After all, if I can share a resource quickly and effortlessly, I will have more time and energy to share more valuable resources.

Approved And Rated

Initially I had a seal of approval in mind. Yet, I also thought that a screenshot of the website would help clarify what the resource was about. So I did some research and came up with the visual you will see right above this piece of proza. A framed certificate of approval. And in order to let you know how much of a life altering discovery it is, I will try to rate it with stars:

1 star: recommended
2 stars: highly recommended
3 stars: I could not live without it anymore.

My Great Find Of Today.

So I’ll get started with these sweet little badges. They come in zip file that contains a fully editable .PSD file, a licence, an overview of the fonts used and the location where to find these and a preview image. As you can see, I edited one to serve my purpose: a seal of approval with a star rating. This is a free download and you do not need to sign up.

You will find the badges here: www.pixeden.com/psd-web-elements/psd-retro-badges-vintage

Before you go

Before you go, please let me know…. Was this post helpful? Are you currently looking for a resource to solve a particular issue? I may have one on top if my mind, so please let me know.

The post Sharing Great Finds To Teach, Encourage & Inspire appeared first on Inbound Marketing Bliss.

Just this morning, a friend of mine wrote this on her Facebook wall.

“I have been Facebook Tagged in a message that is clearly spam. Please mark the message as such. I have tried to untag myself but have not been able to do that. I would never, ever, place messages like these.”

What had happened? The account of her friends had been hacked. The spammy message had been posted on his behalf, and some of his friends had been tagged in it.

People who know me will hopefully know I am not a “Told You So” type of girl. I do want to be the go-to girl for tech stuff, though, so let’s see what we all can learn from this.

1. What are some of the best practices to keep your accounts safe
2. How can you edit your Facebook settings to that you will need to approve tags before they are placed on your timeline
3. How can you delete a post from your timeline
4. If you have been tagged, how can you remove that tag.

In this post I am going to focus on #2, 3 & 4. I will write about account safekeeping later this week .

How can you edit your Facebook settings so that you will need to approve tags before they are placed on your timeline?

1. On your Facebook page, click on the dropdown menu arrow in the top right corner of your screen (Arrow 1)
2. In the dropdown menu, select Settings (Arrow 2)

1. In the settings screen, select “Timeline & Tagging (Arrow 1)
2. Set “Review Posts Friends Tag You In…” (Arrow 2) to “On”

 How can you remove your tag?

1. Find the post on your timeline. Click on the dropdown menu marked by the arrow in the top right corner of the post. (Arrow 1)
2. Select “Remove Tag” (Arrow 2)

How can you hide the post from your timeline?

1. Find the post on your timeline. Note the dropdown arrow on the top right corner of the post. Click on it (Arrow 1)
2. Select “Hide From Timeline” (Arrow 2)

Before You Go

Before you go, please let me know…. Was this post helpful? Have you ever been tagged in a way you did not appreciate? What did you do?  Do you have any other questions that I could answer for you in a short blog post or video?

Photo credit: Ryan at Flickr.com

The post You Have Been Facebook Tagged! Are You In Control Of Your Timeline? appeared first on Inbound Marketing Bliss.