The Long Tail - A Highly Targeted Audience
Barrelling forward in this top 10 search tip extravaganza, here’s #7! I’ll keep this short: I’ve provided these search tips during some recent presentations and they were well-received by the participants. I thought it would be beneficial to post them here. I hope they’re able to help you in your search efforts.
Top 10 Search Tips – Tip #7 – The Long Tail. The traditional definition of the long tail refers to the idea that businesses selling many items to niche markets can do as well or better than business selling a smaller amount of popular items to a broader market. The graph that represents this concept is denoted by a steep and high area of uptake from the most popular items with the “uptake” line descending and leveling or “tailing” off. The rise of Amazon.com and the myriad items you can find to purchase there is a poster child of long tail retail.
This same concept can be applied to many life principles: “If I take a lot of different toys to school, say hotwheels, legos AND a few pokemon cards, I’ll attract more friends than if I just take the hotwheels”.
The one we’ll talk about here won’t be toy selection (at least not any more). Instead it is, naturally, web search and keywords. Once a regular, successful search program is established and a baseline recording of activity is available, it’s time to consider what an organizations strong points are and start a “tail” program identifying and promoting those points. An example would be an accounting firm that specializes in accounting for law firms. The tail would be the niche program of selecting keywords and launching ad campaigns for “accounting for law firms”. If other specialties exist, those can be a separate and measurable campaign. Fun!
The best part about long tail marketing is the leads. Those leads are much more targeted than a typicaly broad search lead. Someone googling for “accounting for attorneys” is a LOT more likely to click on an ad that states “We specialize in Accounting for Attorneys and Law Firms”. Long tail pays great dividends when applied correctly.
Tags: Search Marketing, The Long Tail, Top Ten Search Marketing Tips