Optimize Your Marketing With SEO

mar·ket·ing - an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer.*

op·ti·mi·za·tion - an act, process, or methodology of making something (as a design, system, or decision) as fully perfect, functional, or effective as possible.*

mar·ket·ing op·ti·mi·za·tion - The systematic process of moving goods from producer to customer as efficiently and effectively as possible

"Marketing" can mean many things, but as my favorite definition states, marketing is fundamentally about moving goods from producers to customers. Traditionally, marketing has largely been about offering something and finding customers that wanted it. The more clever characters figured out how to offer something and make people want it (even if they didn't need it!), but the most brilliant of marketing geniuses discovered that the best way (the "optimal" way, you might say) to move goods from producers to customers was to find out what people wanted, and then offer it to them. At that point the goods literally sell themselves.

But like people, most businesses do more talking than listening, and despite the desire to talk and talk and talk (and spend and spend and spend), we need to stop talking and start listening.

Listen To The Customer

listening to your customers is of utmost importance. What, where and how they want what they want is non-negotiable. We don't have to cater to our customers wants, but if we don't, someone will. If you ask them what they want, they'll probably tell you (and be grateful that you asked!)

Listen To The Competition

Unless you're at the top of every channel, listen to your competitors. They are probably working as hard as you to capture the same audience, and if you pay close enough attention they might show their hand. Reinvent the wheel if you're a wheel inventing company, but if you're the rest of us you can learn from the successes and failures of your peers and save yourself some unnecessary hassle.

Listen To The Search Engines

Whether you like the hunt of search engine optimization or disparage it altogether, the authority of search engines like Google and Bing cannot be denied. Listening to the search engines is the first important thing - if you're not appeasing them, you don't get the chance to appeal to your customer. A professional SEO company or experienced search marketer knows how to read Webmaster tools, SERPs, Analytics - all the information to put yourself in the best possible position is available if you want it.

Listen To The Customer

So important it was worth saying twice.

 

The last 10 years have seen a dramatic shift in effective marketing. This shift has evolved mostly due to the fantastic growth of the Internet (and the portals and search engines we use to navigate it), but also to the metrics and analytics web-based marketing can provide. From ecommerce to social media, return-on-investment (ROI) is no longer a vague concept - if you don't know what the acquisition of a  lead/sale/client costs, you're not paying attention.

 

Unless you've made the conscious decision to not be found by new business, you are missing the single greatest moment of marketing opportunity - when a motivated customer has asked for what you have to offer. Being present at the moment of search offers results that border on magical. Having customers contact you and ask to take goods off your hands isn't wishful thinking - it's a sound, measurable strategy.

 

Regardless of your market, your message or your method, unless your customers live in a cave they (like the other 95% of the American population) use search engines as part of their purchasing cycle. Unless you know how they ask and what they want to hear, you're missing out by not speaking their language. Unless you know the questions, you're not likely to be the answer.

*definitions source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/

 

Source: http://www.deepripples.com/blog/optimize-your-marketing-with-seo

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