Buzzwords and keywords can both be necessary to a successful marketing strategy. But just what is the difference? And when should you use each one? This post explores the difference between buzzwords and keywords and how to successfully implement them.
What are buzzwords?
In marketing, buzzwords are terms that are used to grab people’s attention or show off your knowledge. They are an essential part of outbound marketing – often used to encourage people to engage with adverts or emails or leave a memorable impression.
A few places where you’ll often find buzzwords being used include:
- Billboards
- Email subject lines
- PPC ads
- Blog post titles
Buzzwords can include simple words that demand an action or have an emotional impact such as ‘win’, ‘look’ or ‘quick’. Alternatively, they could include more unique and technical terms. This might include trending youth slang like ‘vibing’, ‘fire’ or ‘slays’, or more professional industry-specific terms like ‘AI’, ‘outsource’ or ‘crypto’.
You need to be careful when using buzzwords, as incorrectly using them could have a negative impact on your marketing. Using certain words to falsely get people to engage with content is known as ‘clickbait’ and will likely just end up angering your audience. Similarly, you should avoid overused cliche terms like ‘best-in-class’ or ‘cutting-edge’. It’s also important to not misuse slang or technical terms – only use buzzwords if you truly know what they mean.
What are keywords?
Whereas buzzwords in marketing are used predominantly in outbound marketing, keywords are a major part of inbound marketing. They consist of terms that your audience is already actively searching for.
Keywords are commonly used in some of the following places:
- Website content
- Social media hashtags
- Amazon product descriptions
- Youtube video titles
Keywords are a major part of SEO – using certain keywords on a web page will help to improve your rankings when someone searches for that term. There are different types of keywords that you can use including transactional keywords (such as ‘buy Ford Fiesta’), geo-targeted keywords (such as ‘restaurants in Toronto’) and long-tail keywords (such as ‘how to make coffee in a French press’).
You can work out what types of keywords to use by using online keyword research tools or by getting support from an SEO consultant. Ideally, you want to target keywords that your consumers are searching for, but that are not too heavily used by competitors. It’s also important to use keywords naturally and not overuse them – using the same keyword too many times is known as ‘keyword stuffing’ and it could make your content unreadable while also harming your rankings.
Conclusion
Buzzwords are used to grab people’s attention, whereas keywords are used to target searches. Make sure to use buzzwords in adverts, blog titles and email subject lines. Make sure to use keywords in website content, product descriptions and video titles.
Using both of them correctly involves doing your research. You can research buzzwords by looking at the terms used by other successful adverts and email campaigns. Keyword research tools can meanwhile be used to find the right keywords.
