There's another, wider benefit you might get too. When researching this sort of thing, especially once you start to get into synonyms, you often find out that the terminology which web searchers (i.e your prospects) use to describe something is not the same as the terminology you habitually use in-house. If that's the case, even if you're aware of the situation already, the exercise will help quantify whether your unusual way of describing a product or service hits the long tail brilliantly, or if you're the only people in the world who use that phrase.

I once had a conversation with a company where they said they'd like to appear more strongly in Google for (let's say) "custom widgets", the standard description of what they made. I pointed out that nobody would know from their website that they supplied these, as they seemed intent on telling people only that they specialised in "tailored widget solutions". Their response was: "Yes, we've always described what we offer like that, the managing director likes to be different from the competitors. But we've never heard a customer – or even one of our own salesmen – use that phrase".

We've never heard a customer use that phrase

- You don't need to use call-to-action sales links in sales emails;
- You don't need to 'sell' the customer on the product before they’ll click a link;
- You don't need to focus on a discount or offer;
- You don't need to overtly drive readers to action;
- You don't need to use bold fonts, bullet lists, and subheadings to be scannable.

Not everything you thought about email writing may be true

The elements of a successful blog launch

If there are any of you who don't already use Google Alerts, you're missing out on one of the web's great free resources. Just type in a relevant search term, and every time something new pops into Google's index, you get an email. Simple as that. At the very least, you must have a Google Alert set up for your company's name.

However, by setting up Google Alerts for industry topics, you can create a continuous source of ideas for your blog, as Set Up Alerts to Monitor What is Happening in Your Niche on Problogger explains. I've used this technique for a long time, and it never ceases to come up with unexpected ideas.

Google Alerts keep you on top of the industry

The essentials of email newsletters