How To Beat the Google Gods

How To Beat the Google Gods

by | Mar 19, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Have you ever heard of Marketing Funnels? 

It’s not a new term but it has gained all kinds of attention when it comes to internet marketing recently.

The concept is that customers going through different journeys in the buying process and you can design a marketing funnel to steer them to buy from you.

Google released a study, How Search Intent is Redefining the Marketing Funnel which is fine and maybe eye opening to many of you.

I actually suggest you take some time and read it.

The abbreviated version is that no two consumer journeys are the same anymore.  Even if two people end up buying the exact same product, the journey they take for each of them is unique. 

Google gives some examples of how Jill decides which make up to buy and they tracked over 100 online visits including 5 online searches, a YouTube video, over 30 more online searches and on and on she goes.

Another example given by Google is Sarah who is looking for chocolate and has over two dozen online visits including getting a map to the store where she makes her purchase.

There is something missing from all of this, the human relationship factor of the consumer journey.

Internet marketers tell you that you need to constantly tweak your website S.E.O. to show up when Jill or Sarah are looking for you.  However Jill and Sarah aren’t isolated from the rest of the world.  They have friends, they talk to people face to face, they read, they watch TV, they listen to the radio, I bet they have even bought make up and chocolate before.

Google and the internet marketers are ignoring this.  So here’s how to beat the Google Gods.

Create Top Of Mind Awareness before Jill and Sarah start their online Google Search.  

How?  

Intrusive marketing.  It’s a term we can apply to ads that play on radio and TV.  The ads I listen to on my radio station, WOWO are not targeted specifically to me.  But they have created Top Of Mind Awareness of several companies that I may need to call on one day.

Using the example of Sarah and her search for chocolate and applying it to Fort Wayne, Indiana where we have one of the best chocolate shops in the world, DeBrand Fine Chocolates, instead of starting her search online from zero, Sarah would first look for DeBrand Fine Chocolates because they have built Top Of Mind Awareness with their radio ads.  There’s a good chance that Sarah has even had a treat from DeBrand’s sometime in the past.

The human relationship factor in the consumer journey takes into consideration the stuff I just mentioned that gives DeBrand a head start.  It’s like ranking number one on Google and eliminating the competition, in Sarah’s heart and mind and everyone else who DeBrand Fine Chocolates have created Top Of Mind Awareness. 

Want to know more about if and how your business can Beat the Google Gods?

Let’s meet.  Send an email to Scott@WOWO.com

Also to get more marketing tips delivered each week to your inbox, sign up below to receive my weekly Sound ADvice marketing newsletter. Or email me and I’ll include you.

 

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The SEO Scam: There is No Magic Fairy Dust

The SEO Scam: There is No Magic Fairy Dust

by | Feb 14, 2012 | ScLoHo's Web World

Continuing my 5 day series on why your website sucks and what to do about it…

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

The concept is that your website needs some magic fairy dust from a SEO expert to “Optimize” your site so Search Engine will find it.

Once Google, Yahoo and BIng find your website that has been SEOed, you’ll be at the top of the 1st page of SERP’s (Search Engine Result Pages) and the money will start rolling in and within a matter of month, weeks, days or hours, (if you hire the “right SEO expert, with the very best magic fairy dust) you’ll be able to retire on Easy Street.

It which I say, BULL which stands for, well, cow manure.

The major problem I see over and over again is most folks don’t understand what SEO really is and they buy it as an after-market add on.

Sort of like getting fries and a drink after you bought and ate your burger is more expensive than buying it all at once as an Extra Value Meal, which will save you some cash, compared to buying them one at a time.

As I evaluate websites for business owners and marketing V-P’s, there is a common but backwards way of looking at SEO.

Most websites are created and then they try and add the magic SEO fairy dust to get the results.

Instead, you and the people creating your online presence need to use SEO principles from the very beginning, before your website is created as part of the strategy and organization of the website.

Otherwise, when you come to a firm like the one I work for, Cirrus ABS, we need to re-do major portions of your site, crafting the right content and sometimes tossing out parts of your website that are ineffective, and you paid someone to create.

One last point.

There is no magic fairy dust in the SEO world and run away from those that promise the moon and the stars without doing the approach I just mentioned.

There are “best practices” that need to be followed or you could actually be penalized by the Search Engines, which I know you don’t want.

And Search Engine Optimization is an ongoing requirement not to be ignored but that’s a topic for another day.

Contact me for help and guidance and tomorrow we’ll look at the Social Media Fallacy