How to Get Your Ideal Reader's Attention
EPISODE SIXTY ONE
Trying to stand out in an overcrowded online world can feel like an impossible task. But there is a secret weapon that authors can use in order to get in front of their ideal readers and make it easier for them to find you online. In this episode I talk about Keywords, how to create a list of the best ones for your book, and where to use them most effectively.
Podcast episode cover image photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash.
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Bookmarking Marketing Simplified Podcast. I'm Jenn Hanson-dePaula. Trying to stand out in an overcrowded and overly saturated online world can really feel like an impossible task, especially when you're on social media. But there is a secret weapon that others can use in order to really get in front of their ideal readers and grab their attention.
And that is what we are going to discuss in this episode. So the secret weapon is keywords. Now I know that you hear me talk a lot about keywords, but they play a very, very important role in your discoverability online, your search ability online, and your overall visibility. And on social media specifically, there are four key places that you can use keywords to make the algorithm, share your content to the right people, and to also make it searchable on that particular social media outlet and discoverable.
So before we jump into where you should put your keywords, let's discuss what a keyword is and how you can actually find keywords. A keyword is any word or phrase that people use to find information on what they are looking for. So for example, if you were looking for book marketing information, you would use the keyword “book marketing” or “book marketing tips.” So it's thinking of that main topic that you are trying to find information on, and then you can even go a little bit deeper from there. So if you were to go onto Google and type in the search bar book marketing, many other suggestions will come up underneath that particular search. You'll get other ideas that Google might suggest, and the same goes with Instagram or on TikTok or Facebook.
When you go into their search, you can type in a specific genre or a topic or a question and and more results will show up within that search. So that is really where you start with your research. Start with the general topic or the genre or a certain theme that your book might provide, or thinking of specific questions or concerns that your ideal reader might have if you are a nonfiction writer.
So once you do that research, start to get a list going of certain keywords and phrases that will help you get started, and then start to do some searches on Google and on various social media outlets and see what other words and terms and phrases come up. Once you have your list of keywords and keyword phrases, you can really start to put them to work.
So on social media, let's say you are going to post a short form video like a real or a tik tok. The first place that you can use these keywords is in the text on your screen. So something that I really like to do is I like to use the key words and phrases in the actual hook, the topic of that video that you're going to be using, and you just have those words on the screen for just a few seconds. And what these words do is it tells the algorithm what this content is about, and it's also going to grab your ideal reader's attention because they will know exactly what that video is going to be about. So having some key words and phrases in text for even just a few seconds on the screen is going to really catch their attention. And it's going to make your audience know that this video is for them.
The second place that you want to have your keywords is in the actual captioning of the video. We're not talking about the caption that's written out below the post. We're talking about the captioning of what you're actually saying in the video and on Instagram reels and TikTok, you can actually select a button and they will automatically generate the captioning for you. You can go in and edit the captioning to make sure that they have the right words and including keywords in the actual content that you are speaking in. Your video is again teaching the algorithm and feeding the algorithm the information that it needs to get your video in front of the right people. The third place that you can use your keywords and phrases is in the post caption that's going to be right below the video.
This is really important as well, because what this does again is it makes sure that the algorithm knows who to put your videos in front of. And this might seem a little repetitive. It might feel like you're saying kind of the same things in the post caption as you might be saying in the video. But again, this reiterates what your video is about and it can add additional keywords and phrases or points of interest that your reader might have. That just adds to the value of that particular video.
And then the fourth place is within the hashtags. No, hashtags really are just collections of key words and phrases that people use to find what they're looking for. And so making sure that you have those key words and phrases within your hashtags is also going to ensure that your content gets in front of the right people.
Now, you don't need to use all four of these tips in every single one of your posts on social media. You might not necessarily need the captioning in your video. You might be doing a lip sync or a mimicking video, or you might not necessarily need to have text on the screen. And that's totally fine. But if you aren't using the captioning in your video or if you don't have text on the screen making sure that you have those key words and phrases in the post caption and in your hashtags will feed the algorithm the right information.
And if you aren't necessarily using social media, or if you want to find other ways to use keywords in various places within your marketing, one of the best ways to do that is on your own website, making sure that you have keywords and phrases in the actual text on your various pages. Your blog posts will make sure that those keywords are indexed by Google so that your website will come up within Google searches.
And one more place that you can use keywords is actually with an Amazon in the description of your book within the categories of your book, making sure that you have those words in the actual text of your description and all those good places. Make sure that your book will be discoverable and searchable on Amazon. And if you create videos on YouTube using those key words and phrases in your description and title.
The main thing here is to remember that any time you are sharing information online about your book or you're sharing a description or you are providing any information for people to discover your book, keywords and phrases can be used within those different search engines or on these various websites. It might take a little bit of research, and it might take a little time to nail down what your keywords and keyword phrases are. But it is time well-spent and it's something that is really going to help you reach a wider audience and to help you build more awareness online. Your Make It Happen moment for this episode is to get into the mindset of your ideal reader.
Put yourself in their shoes and think about what they are looking for and the key words and phrases that they would use to find a book like yours. Make a list of those keywords and phrases and just do a little bit of research. Go on Google, go on TikTok or go on Instagram and look to see what other key words and phrases they suggest as well.
And then start putting it to work. Start using those key words and phrases in your social media posts, in your Amazon descriptions, in your YouTube videos, any place that you are sharing information about yourself and your book, and if you're struggling with putting yourself in your ideal reader shoes, talk to someone. Ask them what they would be searching for. Kind of get outside of your particular mindset and get another person's opinion. Once you're comfortable with your keywords, then it's just a matter of integrating it into your content and on social media.
If you're struggling with figuring out what to actually post on social media, I have some really great tools for you. Go to mixtusmedia.com/tools or go to the link in the show notes where you can find our various templates that we have for you. We have real and TikTok templates. We have Instagram stories templates, we have Captioning, we have a lot of different resources for you and we actually bundle all of these resources into one template bundle for you so you can get it at a reduced price. So go to mixtusmedia.com/tools to check them out.
(Automatic transcript by Adobe Premiere Pro’s Speech to Text)