Sarah Palin did extremely well in last night’s vice presidential debate. Did you know she has lessons to teach on PPC advertising?
Some people say she’s all style and no substance. That may be true, but if you follow the Sarah Palin model of advertising then you’ll be a lot more successful. Here is the Sarah Palin litmus test for passing the PPC advertising plan:
- Be “folksy” – That is, talk in the language of your clickers. Don’t use words they wouldn’t use and use the ones that they can relate to. You’ll get more clicks.
- Smile for the camera – Sarah Palin, even when isn’t saying anything substantive, likes to look directly into the camera and smile. This is evidently a skill she picked up as a beauty pageant contestant. It works. The way you smile for the camera in PPC is to keep it positive. Make a positive statement about your brand rather than a negative comment about your competitor. Smiling wins friends.
- Identify with your target audience – Sarah Palin made sure last night to speak directly to the people she wants to identify with (hockey moms, soccer moms, middle-class voters, small town people). Identify who your target market is and make sure they know you are one of them.
- Play to your strengths - Sarah Palin made sure she never went out of her element. In PPC, this is very important. Don’t try to be something you’re not. Know your strengths and play them up as much as possible.
- Support your team and team leaders – Sarah Palin made sure not to speak negatively of her running partner, John McCain. She said they had differences, but those don’t get in the way of their relationship. If you have partners in your business, use your PPC campaigns to make those partners look good. Don’t buff your partners in public.
You don’t have to be Sarah Palin to win in PPC. Lipstick and hockey pucks are the stuff of folksy, down-home politics and they are the stuff of marketing. Identify your target market and become one of them. It’s the surest way to win at PPC.
