Good communication skills are paramount to successful sales

He says tomato, I say tamato.

First and foremost I want to give credit to David Bullock who first mentioned having a keyword conversation, thanks David.

Go back in time a bit and you’d find me pounding the keyboard as a struggling screenwriter, some said I had talent, others said “don’t give up your day”, goes with the territory and I developed a tough skin.  Either that or get my ego trounced on daily.  Since those days, I’ve been writing in one form or another fairly continually.

What I did learn from those days of rejection letters (and the occasional triumph) was how to communicate an idea to an audience.  Since I never got Spielberg to return my calls, let’s leave Hollywood Land, and turn our attention to keywords and crafting a good landing page.

Having an effective keyword conversation with the person reading your ad is mandatory; not only will this give you a good CTR (click thru ratio) and lower your ad costs, but you’ll achieve more sales, and a greater ROI.

Let’s take a closer look at exactly what is happening in the mind of someone using a search engine.  David Bullock speaks of the keyword conversation this way…

“A keyword is an historical conversation that has deep meaning for the visitor. There is time, effort and thinking behind every search. Your goal is to resonate with that thinking.”

I’ve heard another internet guru speak of congruency, quite basically meaning don’t confuse or mislead the person you’re trying to convince.  While some of us speak (or write) with more eloquence than others, it’s not so much how you craft a sentence, as how you communicate an idea.

I’ll use the tried and often duplicated example of “dog training”; by itself, what does it mean?  Do you want to train your dog to win a show or simply to obey a simple command?  This is the beginning of and the essence of the keyword conversation.  If someone goes to a major search engine and types in “dog training”, perhaps they simply have an interest in dogs, and would like to know a bit more about their passion.  On the other hand, if someone were to type “teach your dog to sit”, then we can begin to have a conversation with that person and have the beginnings of what could be an effective landing page.

The first example is most likely someone with a casual interest, while the second example will be someone with a specific need.  And it this need that we can capitalize on with our keyword conversation.  Using our simple keyword tool “dog training” yields the following results…

dog training
hunting dog training
crate training a dog
dog potty training
dog agility training
dog training collars
dog leash training
k9 dog training
dog obedience training
dog training collar
free dog training tips
dog training tips
dog training career
dog grooming training
dog training pietermaritzburg
career dog in training
career in dog training
dog training supplies
service dog training
rescue dog training
bird dog training
dog behavior training
free dog training
house training a dog
dog training schools
career dog training
dog crate training
dog training dvd
dog training equipment
sled dog training
dog training school
dog training tools
therapy dog training
dog training encinitas
dog training fetch
training a dog
dog house training
guard dog training
gun dog training
basic dog training
dog training mission bay
dog training products
in home dog training
training your dog
dog training courde
dog training video
dog field training
don sullivan dog training
dog boarding and training
dog training accessories
dog training devices
orlando dog training
training dog collars
water dog training
dog training books
dog training classes
dog training seattle
potty training a dog
training a deaf dog
dog training certification
dog training treats
german shepherd dog training michigan
lackland dog training manual
positive dog training
dog training pouch
dog training videos
house training dog
puppy dog training
aggressive dog training
cheap dog training collars
common sense grouse and woodcock dog training
commonwealth dog training
crate training dog
dog training pads
training dog collar
boxer dog training
discount dog training collars
dog and training collars

This is an impressive list (and could be much more extensive), but it is very un-targeted and we’d have difficulty having an effective conversation with that person.  Imagine yourself in a situation and someone asks the question… “I need to learn more about training my dog”.  What would be your immediate answer?  Most likely you’d ask them for more details about what their specific need is.  In example number two below, there are far fewer keywords, however we can quickly zero on what the person specifically needs.

teach your dog to sit
teaching your dog to sit
teach your dog how to sit
how to teach your dog to sit
how to teach your dog how to sit

If that same person were so say… “How in the world can I teach my dog to sit when I want him to?”

Immediately you can enter the conversation with intelligence and offer a helpful suggestion.  In cyberspace, since we don’t actually know the person, we’ll be crafting words, phrases and landing pages that cater to a specific need and we certainly might have more than one.  In fact we’ll have pages that cater to…

Teaching your dog to sit and stay
Housebreaking your puppy
Stop excessive barking
Etc.

Does this mean you can’t have one product that satisfies multiple problems?  Certainly not, one product may be the solution to multiple problems, and that is where your ad, article or landing page will specifically deal with a problem.

Custom Crafted Keywords

Think again of that person asking a question… “Can anyone help me train my dog?”  Very broad statement, and if you were to answer… “Well I know how housebreak a puppy”, would you be solving the problem?  Maybe, maybe not. The person might answer, “No, my dog is a year old and I need help with aggression”.  Conversation over and no sale made.

In a personal setting you could certainly explore the problem further, and maybe offer constructive advice.  On the net, you need to have this conversation in your head (ahead of time) and construct your ad and landing page to answer a specific question.

When you learn to do this, not only with your CTR (click thru ratio) be higher, per click lower, but most importantly, your conversions will skyrocket.