Inbound marketing has been on the rise around the globe. With more than 425 customers outside the US, HubSpot is rapidly exporting this high ROI activity.
I recently attended the UK Tech City Entreprenuership Festival in London replete with 5 days of networking, speed mentoring, pitch sessions and fun! One key lesson resonated from every conversation.
Be ruthless with your (key)words.
Crafting a pitch? Defining go to market strategy? Talking about your startup at a cocktail party?
During a day of speed mentoring, I coached nearly 20 startups on their visitor, lead gen, customer acquisition and marketing strategies.
So spend some time on your keywords. Ask people what common terms they think of. Look at Google Analytics to see what common search phrases are out there.
Use Keywords Your Audience Will Understand
An energetic entreprenuer from Crown Interactive dropped the term MVNO during our chat. For those not in telco-land, that's a Mobile Virtual Network Operator. As we talked about the offering, he realized he needed to "learn to explain my business proposal without using any technical terminology." I must have spoken to 10 out of 20 companies who needed to learn the same thing.
Whether you are trying to sell software, telco or high fashion, the jargon that you use with your peers may not be what your customers or investors understand. Strip your pitch down to bare bones using plain language. Once a lay person can understand you - you've got a much better chance of communicating AND you should use those same keywords in your SEO strategy (in addition to the jargon that your peers might use).
Focus on Industry Keywords in Search & PR
"Work on our SEO :-) Even though we are B2B and niche," was the key takeaway from the CEO of TalentPuzzle. I would emphasize that precisely because their offering is B2B and niche, search will be a very valuable tool because there are fewer players competing for the same unique keywords. Finding the words that resonate most with your audience will help niche businesses rise to the top in any targeted search.
So leverage your entreprenuerial energy to hone your words and get people to find your business online, whether you are a startup or not.
PS - no matter where you are in the world ... we'd love to help you with your inbound efforts!
Originally published Dec 8, 2011 10:00:00 AM, updated January 17 2023