Missed Opportunity #12: Beyond Keywords: Your USP, Multi-Channel Marketing and Pyramid of Promotion

Missed Opportunity #12 :

Failing to use the right keywords to tell a USP-driven “Market Story” was the biggest missed opportunity of them all.  Without a clearly thought out USP-driven Market Story, you will never fully leverage “The Pyramid of Promotion.”

Podcast: Keywords, Pyramid of Promotion, and your USP (Unique Selling Proposition/Position)

Pdf: David Bullock and Russell Wright’s “USP Sweetspot Diagram”

Video: Using Keywords to Tell Your Market Story

Your Website is Only the Beginning:

I would be lying if I told you that your website was the “end all and be all” of your online success.

Let’s get real.

The purpose for building a website in the first place is so that you can increase your business cash transactions and have more money in your personal bank account. I understand this, and I would not want to give you the impression that this is not the case.

For those less technical people, much of the information in this book can seem overwhelming and difficult to implement. I admit that there is a small learning curve for the web-savvy, and a large learning curve for people who are just starting out on the web. But the rewards of VOMA (Vertical Online Market Analysis),  Website Silo Architecture (WSA) and Theme Mirroring (TM) are great.  There are several things that happen once you manage to turn these three knowledge assets into a well-oiled machine.

You have unlocked the Technical, Educational and Direct Response Keyword/Theme DNA of your online business and website. These three make up not only the 3 legs of a successful website platform, but also the 3 legs of a successful business.

Technical Leg of your Business = Your IT (information technology) department, your webmaster, and your company geeks.

Educational Leg of your Business: Your training department, your teachers and white paper writers, your technical manuals and manuscripts.

Direct Response Leg of your Business: Your shameless marketing and self promotion department, your copy writing and advertising department, your headline and slogan writers, your graphics and persuasion department, your lead capturing and phone follow up department. (<- Notice how the marketing department has more stuff.)

Your USP-Driven Market Story:

To optimize your site for transactions, the most important thing to understand is this: All 3 of the above categories influence the placement of keywords on your site. What I mean by that is that generally speaking- the three keyword categories help support the “big picture” and the “Market Story.”

Technical Keywords: Meta-Tags and “under the hood” or “view source” meta-keywords, meta-descriptions. As we said before, there should be nothing in your “hidden” tags that are not on the “visible text” of your website. The fact that you can HAVE “invisible stuff” on a web page should give you an idea of why I created this keyword category in the first place. Knowledge of this dimension of keyword placement is important because it is a website wireframe for intelligent and well optimized design! The hierarchy of keywords selected to implement a Website Silo Architecture is an example of a well-researched wireframe design. It is very technical and based on broad meta-keywords at first. Get it right, and you will rank highly (with double listings) on the search engines for hundreds (even thousands) of keywords using up to ten times fewer inbound links.

Educational Keywords: Educational keywords are driven by your well-intended desire to educate your market. But you need to know what questions your market is asking. You better have a careful strategy to get them interested in what they need to know before you try to teach it to them. Educational keywords and content will be the “visible text” on your website. There will probably be a lot of Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs) within this visible page content. Relevant SIPs are automatically generated for you in the “FULL” Krakken Blueprint Mode. Your educational content requires excellent and thoughtful writing. The best example of educational content would be Wikipedia or a Corporate White Paper. These documents are rich with industry jargon and pedantic details. These details are what make them so informative and interesting . . . and usually accurate.

Direct Response Keywords: Remember that the three categories overlap. These are all just dimensions of a single “data cube” which are carefully orchestrated  within a Website Silo Architecture for optimal transactional results. In my opinion, Direct Response Keywords are extremely important because they are the keywords and keyword modifiers (like “buy” and “special”) that represent your USP. These types of keywords require special consideration as they need to be placed within your “technical keyword” meta tags in order to more effectively rank the specific pages which will “sell the click” on the natural search engines. For example the Title Tag and the Meta-Description Tags should also be considered Direct Response Keywords while representing the Technical Agenda.

What is your USP:

The USP is a broad topic and is well beyond the scope of this paper. In many marketing circles, such as Jay Abraham’s, it stands for Unique Selling Proposition. You will also hear it referred to as “Unique Selling Position” (which is the one I prefer).

After working with David Bullock to create the Market Story chart, I became aware that it is better to think of your overall Unique Offering in terms of “Market Positioning.”

The bottom line is that BEFORE YOU EVEN BEGIN BUILDING A WEBSITE you need to consider how your products, services and educational offerings are different and unique compared to everyone else in the marketplace. This is true even if you are a reseller or an affiliate.

I am going to repeat that.

A USP is essential even if you are a reseller, a distributor or an affiliate marketer!

At Theme Zoom we call this concept of affiliate USP “Pseudo branding.”

When you are selling other people’s products your STORY is what can make all the difference.

You will see broad examples of this in the MLM (multi-level-marketing) community where hundreds of people fail and one or two excellent marketers survive. They survive because they are telling a louder, more interesting, more unique, or more charismatic story in the marketplace. Or they may have approached an altogether different Market than everyone else
with their story.

If your products are NOT different or unique . . . then you STORY needs to be. (For example the story of why you use the products, or how you created a system out of them that enhanced their effects).

Example and Case Study: When I was involved in the MLM industry a decade ago, I was lost in a sea of distributors with several MLM companies. I worked for three different “pills and powders” companies selling everything from glyconutritionals to Spirulina. Most of the distributors for these companies (literally thousands) choose to use the USP and “pre-packaged” sales material provide by the company. Essentially one of the corporate USP’s for a few of these companies used to be the idea that their proprietary blend of nutritionals were “patented” and acted as an “army in the blood” to enhance the immune system. This position is no longer used, but it was a common position  for several herbalproducts and remedies. Some of these Companies and products had terrific videos for distributors and everyone was using them. Thousands of distributors were repeating the same “theme cluster” around the pre-packaged material associated with these various herbs and remedies.

Since thousands of people where using these “template” USPs, the search engines were loaded up with redundant information and the “same-old same-old” story . (This is one of the major problems with MLM- most people do not understand USP and what I am about to tell you).

Add Your Own Spin and Story:

If you do not have your own USP like some of these MLM companies did (which sold very well for them overall), you need to add your own angle. This angle needs to be intelligent, persuasive and unique.

My USP-Driven Market Story: “Just Add Water”

I started selling “powdered water” instead of herbs and remedies.

My USP was that the “MLM Company” had excellent products but that most people were not drinking enough water to experience the effects. I also added that if you wanted to get FASTER and more dramatic results, that my experience was (and I was careful to make no medical claims) that IONIZED or electrified water seemed to increase the effects (in my experience) of various companies and products through a process called “Electroporation.” (This is now scientifically established by the mainstream medical community, but I was a little ahead of the 8 ball at the time.)

So instead of just selling the herbs and supplements using the mass-hype USP, I added a water electrolysis system to my “USP-Driven Market Story” and this later became my unique “Theme Cluster.” * This example is not mean to target any one single MLM company or their products, because the same method was accomplished successfully with over 3 different supplements and consumables. The point is that you need to think outside the box when positioning your personalized “theme cluster.”

What Happened:

My sales went from “struggling to buy and close leads” to EXPLODING almost overnight.

Again, I used this method for more than one MLM company.

But here is the strange part.

Not only did I start raking in the money and signing up new distributors left and right in an unprecedented short amount of time, I also started selling a ton of water systems. In fact, I started selling so many that the company I was buying them from started to get concerned that I might become their competition.

But what is the point of this story?

I created a Unique Sales Position in the market by RESEARCHING AND EXPLOITING a problem that other people in the market did not necessarily know existed. (Several other distributors caught on and mimicked my approach, but by that time I had already moved on to VOLCANIC water filters that used volcanic rocks as far superior to Water Electrolysis).

In order to know how to create a USP you need to think about the STORY being told in the market and some of the problems and concerns that may exist in the marketplace.

What is the easiest way to do this?

Sure, you can use Krakken and the VOMA (vertical online market analysis) process in order to extract hundreds of market convergence points and “early warning” concepts that will give you a HINT as to where the market is going, and what questions the market may be asking.

But you can also just pick up the phone and start TALKING to people.

David Bullock made this clear to me in his example of the Trucking industry. I will not be specific about the products he covers within this industry, but what is interesting is how he was able to create a sales page and USP within the Trucking industry that demolished many of the competitors attempting to do the same thing.

He picked up the phone.

Just call a few people who represent your Market Story or the market you THINK you are in. Find out how to tell a BETTER story in the market. In this way you will become a market DRIVER and have unique Theme Clusters when you finish your website Blueprint.

David called several trucking companies and simply asked the appropriate person “What are your greatest fears and concerns right now in the current economy.” The answer was “High Gas Prices.” Similar to my “Powdered Water” approach, he simply angled his USP to target those fears with the product that actually could address those issues. He told a better and more targeted story than anyone else at the time.

Technical versus Fundamental Analysis

Technical Analysis

Deriving information from analyzing static data is called “Technical Analysis.” This is true even if you use advanced software applications like Krakken for the analysis. People can make this sort of analysis based on pre-existing data- for example stock pick trends in the Wall Street Journal, without ever considering the human world or talking to people.

Fundamental Analysis

Calling people on the phone is what is called “Fundamental Analysis”. You call them or speak to them in order to uncover the market’s fears, concerns, hopes, wishes and dreams. This is part of the “customer story” circle in our Human Input design model below. We call it Human Input Design (David Bullock’s term). It is a design to shape a NEW and UNIQUE Theme Cluster or Value Cluster within your Market position. Fundamental analysis incorporates a real interview process and a consideration of human behavior.It includes human frailty and error. It also includes neuroeconomics and asks questions like “why do people do the things they do?”

Stock investors like Warren Buffet use Fundamental Analysis to make billions of dollars, and although my definition is a gross over simplification of its meaning in regards to Wall Street, the general concept will work fine when making my point about USP-Driven Market Story development.

Human Input Design Chart: (we call it “Human Input Design” because it requires fundamental consideration of the “human” elements in order to create a USP-Driven Market Story. Bottom line? You must tell a better and more attractive story in the marketplace in order to Swallow Your Market Whole)

Theme Clusters

My experience is that in order to use Krakken to build the best USP-Driven Theme Clusters for your Website Silo Architecture, you will want to include BOTH fundamental and technical analysis in the process of clearly defining your Market Story.

For example, if I had been using Krakken to sell ONLY a single product from one of these MLM companies, my Krakken Drills and possibly even my final website would have been ONLY about the specific product:

But after carefully defining a personalized market story adding Water Ionization Technology to add a “spin” to my personal story, I add new value and therefore create a broader USP or “Unique Eccentric Business Model” (not to mention multiple streams of income):

As you can see the Theme Cluster for my personalized “Unique Selling Position” created by Krakken is more expanded than it would have been had I remained Hypnotized  by the predominant positioning within the MLM marketplace.

Using the Krakken Blueprint Module, it is easy to SEE how much more money there is in my new Market Story than there would be if I was to focus on Glyconutritionals alone:

The TSMV stands for Total Search Market Value, which gives you an extremely accurate “stake in the ground” for establishing how much interest  there is for your product, topic, or theme on both Pay Per Click as well as Natural Organic Rankings over the course of one year.

How cool is that?

Game Over: The Pyramid of Promotion

Once you have carefully established a better Market Position and have clarified your USP-Driven Market Story to both yourself and your staff . . . you are ready to start “attracting” your customers to this “better and more intelligent” market story.

The big mistake that most people make when getting into ANY business is that they FAIL to properly research the marketplace and the vertical keyword environment.

The second biggest mistake is to get overly excited by the technical discoveries made in researching the keyword environment using Krakken or other tools. As a result of this excitement, and a desire to get their site up quickly, they do not take the time to develop a USP-Driven market story and therefore do not end up DRIVING the industry to which they are pitching.

Even if you were to develop a bigger and better website than all of your competitors, and use Krakken to “Swallow Your Market Whole,” a smaller competitor could still come along and find your Achilles heel, if you were not unique. The story of David and Goliath is very appropriate here. If you are not adding VALUE to the concepts, products and services for which your Market is hungry, the “Your Story” circle above will not be enough for you to maintain your current customers and you will see a drop-off in your LTV. (Lifetime value of Customer)

You will be BLOWN AWAY by how much more effective your Pyramid of Promotion campaigns become when you have a clearly defined USP-Driven Market Story that overwhelms every other competitor in your field.

When I discovered how powerful this approach actually was, and how little time it actually takes to formulate a USP-Driven Market Story, it made me regret that I had not taken the time to do it earlier. People are generally pushing redundant, “tired old tales” of products and services out to the market, without adding any new value to their customers, their products, their websites, or themselves.

Now let’s briefly talk about the Pyramid of Promotion:

The Pyramid of Promotion should be your end goal, not the first thing you set up.

I understand that some of you reading this might be hungry. You may even be desperate. In this case you may want to set up temporary Pay Per Click campaigns in order to get some “now money.”

But I would be extremely cautious. Create safeguards on your account. Do not spend more than a few dollars.

I have almost NEVER seen someone in a desperate situation do well with PPC campaigns and make money quickly.

Part of the reason for this is, again, a lack of the almighty USP-Driven Market Story.

In a PPC campaign you have 3 lines to tell your USP-Driven Market Story.

In some ways you need even more skill to write the USP headline in a small AdWords box than you do in a long Sales Letter.

The smaller the snippet, the more self-convinced you have to be.

Then there is the testing and certainty that the market is going to buy your story and find it more attractive.

Testing is technical . . . and because it is so easy to do, it is easy to do WRONG. Again, testing falls on the Technical Leg.

Additionally, most people do not have a clue which part of their Story to tell in what place and for what reason.

Be advised that your overall USP-Driven Market Story will permeate the entire Pyramid of Promotion. The marketing channels at the base will happen over time and require slow and steady development. Forget quick money with these long term strategies.

The capstone of the Pyramid of Promotion represents the shortest and quickest direct response methods. These will provide quick results when done PROPERLY.

For example, someone reading this may think- “Cool, I can go out and make some quick money with JV Partners.”

Yes this is a great method but guess what? Your JV partners are going to ask you for your USP-Driven Market Story. In fact JV partners are sometimes worse than the general customer. They require pre-written sales copy and educational material and in fact, if you were to let them, they would keep your entire Technical Leg and Marketing Staff busy full time working on prepared autoresponders and related things.

My point is only that once you have prepared a USP, you should carefully invest both the time and money necessary to tell that story in a powerful and persuasive way with excellent branding and decent graphics. Having done this well ONCE, everything at the base of the Pyramid is influenced.

Unfortunately, when it comes to your USP-Driven Market Story, there is not so much a Top-Down approach to the pyramid of promotion. You will always make more money by investing in a well thought out story as well as spending time to create and add value to the current marketplace.

Check Mate! Here’s to Your Success:

I want you to be successful.

If you are an SEO consultant, I want Krakken to be able to help you profoundly distinguish yourself from other SEOs and SEMs in the marketplace. I want you to become a part of a new species of consultants called Super Crunchers (which I call Krakken Crunchers).

If you are a business owner, I want you to have a long term Technical, Educational and Direct Response strategy that will turn your business into a Castle instead of a pup-tent. This is done using Website Silo Architecture. This will profoundly increase the Lifetime Value of your Customer.

I want you to consider your Unique Sales Position in the Marketplace and tell a better story than your competition. I want you to create a Theme Cluster using Krakken that measures the profitability matrix of this USP-Driven Market Story. I want you to publish a website that blows away your competition.

I want you to look at your keyword market from the TOP LEVEL using the Krakken VOMA technology. This will help you make sure that the Market Story you are creating includes 300% more keywords and themes than anyone in the market (or markets) that comprise your Market Story.

Once all of this is done, I want you to spend LESS MONEY for online promotion, including PPC. This will be possible because you have thought things through at a level that few people in any industry ever have. You can rank higher using 10 times fewer inbound links and you can pay less on Pay Per Click because of PPC Silo Mapping.

Check Mate.

Theme Zoom Krakken is an integrated application suite that radically combines Market Analysis, Competive Analysis, Keyword DNA Creation, Automated Silo Structured Blueprint and Website Development.

Become a Theme Zoom member today, and join the elite ranks of the most effective online business and website developers in the world today.

- Russell Wright and the Theme Zoom Team

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