The Trademark Technique

 

Hey guys, welcome to Lesson 2. In the last lesson you learned all about Share Triggers. These are elements that dramatically increase the odds that people will share and link to your content. You also learned that the 7 Content Frameworks in this module have Share Triggers baked right into them. 

And in this lesson, Lesson 2, you’re going to learn all about one of my favorite Content Frameworks: The Trademark Technique. So without further ado, let’s jump right in. As I mentioned in the last lesson, people are MUCH more likely to share content that they remember. Think about it this way – if a Linkreator reads a piece of your content and remembers it, they’re much more likely to link to you later in a future blog post or article. 

Yes, this may seem obvious, but it’s trickier to pull off than you might think. After all, people are overwhelmed with messages. According to Yankelovich research, the average person is exposed to 5,000 marketing messages per day. And that’s just marketing messages. 

That doesn’t include emails, text messages, blog posts, tweets, and Facebook updates. And that’s the average person. Linkreators are exposed to even MORE messages because people are trying to get their attention nonstop. The question is: How can you get your content to stand out to the point where Linkreators see and remember it? The Trademark Technique. 

The Trademark Technique works well mainly because it has two Share Triggers baked right into it. First, it contains lots of Memory Glue, which is a Share Trigger you learned about in the last lesson. This helps your content stick in the minds of your Linkreators. 

Second, it taps into 3 more Share Triggers: like utility, positive emotions and storytelling. These Share Triggers boost the odds that your Linkreators will share your content with their audience. And as a bonus, publishing Trademark Technique Power Pages helps position you as a go-to expert in your industry (more on that later). 

For example, let’s take a look at The Skyscraper Technique. If you’re a Backlinko reader, you’ve probably come across this Skyscraper Technique post before. This post is a great example of The Trademark Technique in action. To date, this post has accumulated lots of high-quality backlinks and it’s been referenced in blog posts and articles literally thousands of times. Another example: Chris Huntley from InsuranceBlogByChris.com. 

Chris is an SEO That Works graduate in the super-boring insurance space. But that didn’t stop Chris from creating a very successful Trademark Technique. In fact, Chris’s Trademark Technique that’s one of the main reasons that he quickly grew his site’s organic traffic in record time. In Chris’s own words: “I’m certain I’ve landed more guest post opportunities because instead of talking about how I want to write about saving on life insurance, instead I tell them about our “Pennies from Heaven Strategy”. 

And I’m up 92% organic traffic over this time last year!” And now it’s time to break it all down, step-by-step. Our first step is to find a common problem in your industry. But not just any problems: problems that your Linkreators (and your Linkreator’s readers) care about. 

That way, when you publish your Trademark Technique Power Page, your Linkreators will WANT to spread the word. For example, here’s a Trademark Technique Power Page that I published a while back on the Backlinko blog. I noticed that, at the time, my Linkreators were talking more and more about conversion rate optimization on blogs. 

So I decided the problem I’d tackle would be: “can’t figure out how to convert blog readers into email subscribers.” And I ultimately created a Trademark Technique around a tactic that helps people get more conversions from their blog. 

Simple. Now it’s time to take that problem you found in step #1 and break down the obstacles that make it a problem in the first place. Fortunately, this is pretty simple. All you need to do is list out a few obstacles that stand between someone and a solution to their problem. For example, let’s say your topic was “losing belly fat”. 

Obstacles for people wanting to lose belly fat would be things like “not enough time for exercise”, “they have a sweet tooth”, “snacking late at night”, “not eating enough vegetables”. Let’s take another look at The Content Upgrade. There are dozens of obstacles people run into when trying to increase conversions on their blog. 

How to create compelling content, how to run A/B tests, which call to actions to use, which lead magnets to create, how to get the most out of exit intent popups. Trying to cover all of these obstacles in a single piece of content would be insane. But you can easily tackle ONE of these obstacles. So pick an obstacle from the list and move onto step #3. Here’s where the rubber meets the road. 

If you’re serious about generating links, traffic and industry expertise from The Trademark Technique, you need to give people a solution to one of their obstacles. And it needs to be a solution that they’ve never seen before. Fortunately, this isn’t nearly as hard as it sounds. I’ll explain. 

All you need to do is create a solution that has a unique twist or combines two techniques together. Or as Derek Halpern puts it: “You don’t need unique ingredients, only a unique recipe”. In other words, the easiest way to develop your unique solution is to combine two techniques together. For example, let’s take another look at The Content Upgrade. 

People had been creating lead magnets for years. They’d also pitched these lead magnets in their blog content. The Content Upgrade added a simple twist where your lead magnet is specific to that post. And I was set. Another example: Inbox Zero To-do lists and email are nothing new. 

Merlin Mann combined the two together. Just make your inbox your to-do list. When your inbox is empty (“Inbox Zero”), you’re done. How can you do the same thing? Think of a problem you overcame for yourself, a customer or a client. How did you do it? Was there anything unique about your approach? If so, go with that. (Lead magnet that’s super specific became The Content Upgrade). Combine two common techniques in your industry together (Email + To-Do List became Inbox Zero). 

Again, don’t stress about creating something 100% original. It’s all about the “unique recipe”. Step 4 is to brand your solution. This is HUGE and where most people miss the mark. A unique solution already puts you ahead of 90% of your competitors that are busy rehashing the same techniques that everyone’s seen a million times before. 

But for your solution to REALLY stand out and get remembered, it needs a unique name. But not just any name. A name that commands attention and establishes you as an expert. You see, when you not only help people solve problems but do it with a solution that you developed you’re quickly seen as a go-to expert. After all, if you developed a new strategy, you MUST be an expert, right? Also, a branded name creates something tangible that sticks in people’s memory (Memory Glue). 

The question is how do you name the strategy that you just developed? Well, after years of developing Trademark Techniques, I’ve found that certain branded solution names work better than others. Specifically, I’ve found that branded solutions with these 3 elements get remembered and referenced most. Highly descriptive Has a visual element Contains a term like “Formula, Technique, Method” etc. 

Fortunately, you don’t need all 3 elements. As you’ll see, two ut of three is plenty. Let’s break this down. First, your branded solution name needs to portray what your technique does. In other words, it should be descriptive. For example, The Content Upgrade describes the fact that you’re offering people an upgrade to the content they’re reading. 

Next, it should contain something visual that people can picture in their mind. This is HUGE for Memory Glue. After all, we’re visual creatures and research shows we remember visual things best. For example, with the “The Skyscraper Technique”, a towering skyscraper is really easy to picture in your mind. You may have noticed that the name “The Content Upgrade” isn’t super visual. And it still worked great. Again, you only need two out of three. 

Finally, your branded solution name needs to contain words that make it sound official. Just combine your descriptive and/or visual word before one of these terms and boom! You have your branded solution. Let’s look at a great example of this in action: The Briefcase Technique Ramit Sethi created a system to help you get the most out of meetings by bringing a professional report. 

The idea is that during the meeting, you bust out this report from your briefcase and impress everybody. Now this strategy isn’t going to win any originality awards. But it’s unique enough to be a branded solution. Also, the branded solution name “Briefcase Technique” is perfect: it’s descriptive, visual and contains the word “Technique”. 

OK so you have a branded solution based around a topic that your Linkreators care about. Nice work. You’re almost done. The last step in the Trademark Technique Content Framework is to write a case study that shows off your branded solution. Here’s the truth. Unless people see that someone got results from your branded solution, they won’t take it seriously. 

Which means they’re very unlikely to share your Trademark Technique Content.That’s where your step-by-step case study comes in. The case study shows that your branded solution technique works by showing off actual proof. Now don’t worry if you haven’t seen any huge, life-changing results from your branded solution. Small, incremental changes work great for case studies. In fact, modest results usually work better than “this changed my life style” results. 

That’s because smaller results are more relatable and believable. For example, in my original Skyscraper Technique case study, I didn’t have any mind-blowing results to share. In fact, I had only built 17 links using my strategy. But that didn’t matter. The important thing was that I got SOME results which was enough for my Trademark Technique to work. 

With that, now I’m going to show you how to architect your Trademark Technique Power Page. Let’s start at the top of your content and work our way down: First, we have your headline. Your Trademark Technique headline should have these 3 elements: a specific result, a number and specific timeline. Just like with your branded solution, you don’t need all 3 elements. 

But the more you have, the better your headline will work. Let’s break each of these 3 elements down. A specific result is pretty self-explanatory. For example, if you had a client that increased their deadlift weight by 25 lbs, that would be your specific result. In my Skyscraper Technique case study, my headline was “Link Building Case Study: How I Increased My Search Traffic by 110% in 14 Days”. The specific benefit here was “Increased my search traffic”. 

Next, you’ll need a number. Specific numbers boost credibility and click through rates. Again, with my Skyscraper Technique headline, my specific number was a “110%” increase in traffic. Finally, you want to include a timeline. That way, people know how long it will take to achieve similar results. In general, the shorter the timeline, the better. Days or weeks is MUCH better than months or years. With my Skyscraper Technique headline, I made sure to include “14 days” in the title. I’ll have some “Fill in the blank” Trademark Technique headline formulas you can use in the worksheet. But for now, let’s move onto your intro. I recommend starting your intro off with EXACTLY what you’re going to talk about in your case study. No back story. No fluff. Just jump right into the results. For example, something like “Today I’m going to share a case study of how I was able to finally lose my stubborn belly fat” is PERFECT. Remember, people want to read case studies. So don’t hide the fact that they just landed on one.
After the first sentence, quickly highlight a few specific results. You don’t need a ton of detail yet. That
comes later. Finally, tell people that your branded solution was the secret behind the results. Follow that up with a promise that you’ll outline the strategy in detail in the post. For example, “How did I drop these stubborn pounds in record time? The Blue Rock Technique. 

And in this case study I’m going to show you exactly how I did it, step-by-step.” For example, here’s a Trademark Technique Power page that uses this intro formula. This intro has everything that we just talked about. It tells people early on they’re about to read a case study, briefly outlines the results and it mentions the branded solution and a promise to teach them how it works. 

Next, it’s time for your first section. Now you don’t want to jump into the steps of your branded solution just yet. Why? When people see detailed results, it makes the success story seem more real and tangible. It also creates an information gap that gets people excited to keep reading. So in your first section, after your intro, use a sub header that mentions your branded solution. Then dive deep into your results. For example, your first section could be something like this. 

How the Blue Rock Technique Melted My Gut. Before I tried The Blue Rock Technique, I was 15 pounds overweight and had a sizable gut. Well 2-weeks after trying this strategy I lost 7 pounds, my body fat percentage went from 25% to 19% and my gut is now nothing more than a small bump. Now it’s time to break down the step-by-step process that I used. Let’s look at my first Skyscraper Technique post. Here I dig deep into some of my results, including Ahrefs and Google Analytics traffic screenshots. 

OK so once you have your first section, it’s time to get into the meat of the case study. In my experience most case studies are big on hype and short on details. And that’s why most get overlooked and ignored. So now it’s time to break your branded solution into 3-5 steps and outline exactly how to execute each of them. And don’t skimp on the details. 

For example, if step number 2 is “Eat 3 eggs for breakfast”, make sure to include these sorts of details. Again, don’t be afraid to hold people by the hand. The more details you give, the better. For example, in my Skyscraper Technique post, in step 2, when I show people how to create better content, I give people lots of specific ways to do it (with examples). 

After your 3-5 steps are good to go, wrap things up with a conclusion. You want your conclusion to include two elements – a brief summary and call to action. The brief summary is simply “telling them what you told them”. Something like: “That’s how you can use The Blue Rock Technique to melt away fat quickly and easily” Finally, include a call to action to comment or share the post, like this. 

That’s all there is to the Trademark Technique Content Framework. To quickly recap, you learned that The Trademark Technique works because it taps into multiple Share Triggers: memory glue, utility, positive emotions and storytelling. I also shared a handful of real-life Trademark Technique Power Pages that have done super well. 

And the worksheet below this video I’ll have everything you need to create your first Trademark Technique Power Page. Then, in Lesson 3, you’ll learn all about our next Content Framework: The Go-To Guidebook. So download the worksheet below this video and I’ll see you in the next lesson.