How important do keywords become when people face obstacles like winter? “Cabin fever,” “melancholy,” and “depression” are words or phrases that people associate with the psychology of winter. Other words like “freezing,” “blizzards,” “frigid,” “frozen,” “polar,” “below zero,” and “arctic” are also used to describe the physical feature of winter.
These are not only words that describe the psychology and physical features of winter, they are words that describe the human spirit’s experiences with winter. What’s one thing you wish you could be when you are facing a blizzard? “Warm,” “tropical,” “heated,” etc. In our minds, we want the opposite of what we face. In the middle of a 110 degree Fahrenheit day, a cold beverage sounds even more appealing. Offer someone in a blizzard a cold drink and they will likely curse you through their chattering teeth.
The idea with marketing is to offer the psyche exactly what it seeks, which is heat in winter, cold in summer. Be creative in how you blend keywords into your content. If you are selling brown pants, make them hot chocolate brown. If you are selling red scarves, then describe them with sizzling style in the warmth of red, with a sultry blend of cotton and wool. “Blazing,” “heated,” “tropical,” “fiery,” “flaming,” “piping,” “roasting,” and “summery” are all awesome words that can be substituted for the word “hot.”
When keywords are overused, they lose their power to attract. “It’s a hot sale” does not mean as much to people anymore because it is so overused that it’s just ordinary now. If you want to gain readers’ attention to whatever you are promoting, then bring in the creative, e.g. “We offer sizzling discounts on our entire stock of cozy slippers.”
Keywords with hot appeal equate to sizzling content that screams, “Spend money here!” Content is an opportunity to paint a picture with words. When marketing photographs only go so far, lift your content off of the page with words that appeal to the reader’s inner person. Consider using freelance technical writing in combination with seasonal keywords to bring your content to life. A great example of how this works is the Nyquil commercials on television. They offer a list of descriptive words that people have felt when they are sick, and then they offer you another list of words that are remedies to all of those nasty symptoms of the common cold and flu. What happens in the mind of the listener is called association, because we pick up on the relief of those nasty cold symptoms. That is the same thing that needs to happen in written content. Pain a picture with words that allow your reader to associate your toasty slippers with their cold feet. The inner person is a customer you may never meet, but the one with the power to drive a purchase.
David S is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
