Jeff's Online Marketing Thoughts

Customers Before Search Engines

Search Engine Watch had an interesting post by Eric Enge about PageRank Obsession. I have seen it myself with customers and co-workers that when talking about a sites SEO performance through out the PageRank as the number one cause of their not ranking well, when it is usually lack of fresh, keyword rich content that is the major cause that I see. It isn't surprising, when you have easily identifiable statistics, as Eric states, "We all want to measure the progress of our site(s) in as many ways as we can." People are very competitive by nature, not at all things but at those things that are important to them they are. If someone is in charge of a Web site you can bet they are competitive and measure anything they can.

However, at the end of the day, search engine ranking doesn't matter, it is your site and your customer's experience that matters. All the numbers and metrics don't mean a thing if your customers aren't engaged and convert. I've seen some very search engine friendly sites that are not customer friendly, and I've seen some very engaging sites that search engines hate. Find the balance that works for you and measure the things that are truly important. It is the same thing I tell customers about Web Analytics. I see so many measuring hits, visits and page views, when they don't mean anything to you if you are selling something. If your focus is eCommerce then you need to be worried about getting customers to buy and come back to buy again in the future. More traffic often just means higher hosting costs and other performance problems. It is great exposure, but if nobody buys what does that traffic get you?

I agree with Eric, focus on your customers, they should come first in everything that you do.

Stop Selling and Start Helping Your Customers (2nd in a Series)

The Top 10 Features Every Web Site Needs and Why - Second in a Series

#2 - Articles of Information

Today's customer is less loyal today then at any other time in history. The Internet, shopping comparison sites and search engines make it very easy to find a new company that is willing to sell your customer the same thing you do. How do you stand out? What makes a customer remember you and not your competition? You have to find a way to differentiate yourself from everyone else out there. There are many ways to differentiate: quality of product, service and the one everyone seems to want to cut in order to stay competitive - price. The new way to differentiate is by providing your customers something above and beyond just the products you sell.

The best way to do this is to look at your customers and determine what information they need in order to be more successful and tying it in with whatever you sell. A great example of a company that has been doing this well for decades is Crutchfield. They  are about selling electronics, but they go beyond simply selling and try to have all the information for you to successfully use and enjoy your purchase. What do you sell? What information would be helpful for your customers to have to make them feel even better about their purchase?

If you sell video cameras, how about an article about setting up a birthday party and getting great footage of it?
If you sell ad specialty items companies give out at trade shows, how about an article about ideas to draw people into your trade show booth?
If you sell camping gear, how about an article about the best places for families with preschoolers to camp at?

There is relevant information that your customers need, no matter what you sell. My challenge to you is to get a team together of at least 4 people that understand your customers. Brainstorm for 45 minutes and come up with as many topics as possible for interesting articles. In 15 minutes prioritize and take the top 4 and have each person research and write a one page article with the information. Then if you have a copywriter pull them in, or hire a freelance copywriter to fine tune your article for publication. For a few hours of work you will have some new interesting content for your Web site that gives your customers a reason to come back.

Need Fresh Content - Start With Your Home Page

One best practice you hear about in Search Engine Optimization is to keep the content on your Web site fresh and changing. A great article on Duct Tape Marketing talks about how important it is to update content and just by updating your home page content, even every two weeks, can help you improve your search engine ranking. The key points that I think everyone should take away:

1. Your home page is still the key page in your site. Adding a blog or message board to your site doesn't change the homepage content.
2. The content changes have to be relevant, there's that word again.
3. Your content should keyword rich. It is important to have a good keyword dictionary for terms that you are targeting that you utilize when you are writing.

I would agree, that simply by changing the home page content of your site every two weeks it will improve your rankings. How often updates are made and how often search engines crawl your site is becoming a more important factor the search engines use in determining where you rank.

Improving Customer Service

I discovered this article, Seven steps to remarkable customer service, that is aimed at what great customer service reps should be like. I would encourage you to read it because I feel the takeaways from this article apply to anyone. You don't have to work in a call center to strive for great customer service, it needs to be true in any job. We live in a day where customers are simply counted and viewed as a necessary evil. If we all looked to customers and making them happy, no matter what the costs, went out of our way to make their day; if everyone did that what would this world look like? I am convinced that the companies that are the most successful (not those that are the hot-in-the-moment-successful-in-spite-of-themselves companies) are those that have found a way to make their customers believe they are remarkable, because they truly are remarkable. Companies that have lost their edge are generally the ones that get caught up in their success and lose their focus on the customer. That is what is great about this article, it is a road-map to success. If everyone in your company would live by the principles in the article, since everyone touches the customer whether they realize it or not, how great would your company be?