Internet Marketing, Keyword Research and Identifying Your Tribes

"Tribes" is the term I am using to refer to aggregations of internet users that:

• Share a common interest, problem or point of view
• Might benefit by whatever product you have to offer
• Share a particular vocabulary

The problem most of us face is that we tend to use the vocabulary unique to our own tribe and generally have no idea how to speak to others in terms they will understand.

For example, let's say that you have invented a really cool way for factory workers to invest their retirement funds which is not only safe, but maximizes returns so they wind up with far more money by the time they retire. The only problem is, you keep using the term "increased earnings" and within a factory worker's vocabulary that translates to something accomplished by working overtime. So your own best audience misunderstands and is turned off.

What is needed is a combination of keyword research outside of industry insider terms together with a focus on understanding the terms your potential customers use. Instead of focusing on the jargon of your own particular tribe (and you may not even know it's jargon!) you need to think in terms of the benefits of your particular product or service and the problems that you supply the solutions for. Once you have identified those terms, you might do well to look for an online discussion group around a particular set of problems and "lurk" to learn about their terminology and concerns.

So in our example of factory workers, you might wind up joining a group who is concerned about "pension plan ripoffs" and by simply being a "fly one the wall" in the group, you might discover not only how to talk about what you have to offer, but even greater unmet needs within that particular tribe.

Next installment: Keyword research tools