Article after article I read stated the purpose of SEO is to raise ranking for targeted keywords and phrases. That’s true, but not the important part of the story — I think the big picture is being missed.

The purpose of SEO is to be found by the people you want to find you, knowing they’re using search to look for you.

People look for things on the Internet using keywords and phrases. Search engines return results against these searches…this is where some people lose sight of the big picture.

The key to a successful SEO effort is being clear on who you want to find you and understanding the way they think when looking for you. Obviously, this is where keywords, key phrases, and search ranking enters the discussion, but SEO is so much more.

SEO isn’t as simple as randomly picking keywords you think describe your business or website. This is where people get off track: quickly picking a list of keywords and treating SEO like a technical project.

Given the future of SEO, you need to spend more time thinking like the people you want to attract, understand their motivation, and deliver compelling quality content others naturally and enthusiastically link to.

Remember, the purpose of SEO is to be found by people you want to find you — make it easy and obvious when they do.

What say you?

And for good reason: Who wants to do business with a backward thinking vendor with no direction or future plans?

But the vendor’s view of the world is secondary. There’s one worldview that matters most when it comes to lead generation, sales, and selling — the prospective customer’s.

You have to understand your prospect’s worldview

Your prospect’s view of the world is the most important perspective a marketer and sales professional should be aware of — it’s the framework your perspective has to fit in. It’s the starting point in your prospect’s mind. No matter what you say, that’s where they begin to process it.

If you don’t understand your prospect’s view of the world, you have little chance of compelling them to engage with you in a business discussion. Instead, you’ll get a lot of nods, smiles, and little action after the first meeting — they may visit your website for a moment and never return.

If you’ve ever had a great meeting that didn’t result in anything or wonder why such little website traffic converts to leads, odds are you aren’t presenting yourself in the framework of your prospect’s worldview.

So, what makes a worldview?

Your prospect’s view of the world comes from the following:

• their position
• their work history
• their customers
• their management
• their experience
• their peers
• their market
• their industry
• their education
• their organizational structure

See the pattern?  Your prospect’s worldview is all about them.  It’s the way they’re thinking when you enter their world.

If you want to be heard, you have to speak in a manner which acknowledges the worldview of the person you’re speaking to. It’s the most important thing a copywriter must consider when writing to a given audience.

It’s a fact.

Do you agree or disagree with me your prospect’s worldview is what matters most?  Why or why not? What’s your experience?

Here is how I see the future of search and SEO:

Looking Back

We need to take note of Google’s most recent search updates: Panda and Penguin.

Panda was launched to penalize low quality websites, as well as reward websites built upon greater quality content.  Websites with a lot of low quality, keyword stuffed articles and blog posts were reduced in search results, while websites built upon original quality content and information such as research, in-depth reports, and thoughtful analysis were raised in results.

Penguin was introduced to decrease search engine ranking of websites that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines: spammy keyword stuffing and link building schemes, cloaking, duplicate content farms, etc.

In essence, Panda and Penguin combined to penalize lesser quality websites, while rewarding greater quality and authoritative content. Looking ahead, this hints at things to come.

Looking Ahead

The key to search is relevancy.  We will keep using search services that present us with the most relevant, credible, reputable, and authoritative results. Irrelevant information won’t earn or keep our loyalty.

Search services are dependent on giving us the results that best match the exact thing we’re looking for. The closer search services get to that, the better they serve us and the more loyal we become to their services. If you’re Google, the quality of search results is critical to your business – everything is search.

Eliminating low quality content from sources lacking credibility is high on the list of every search provider. Websites that rely on search ranking by gaming the system with content farms and questionable link building strategies are operating on numbered days. In particular, Google is getting good at recognizing low and high quality content.

Future search results are most likely to be driven by credibility, reputation, and author authority. A lesser amount of greater quality content will win over greater quantity, lesser quality, keyword stuffed content. The reason is simple: relevancy isn’t based on keyword stuffed blog posts, duplicate content, or bogus links from non-authoritative sources. People who search want highly relevant information from credible authors and reputable sources.

Google, Bing, and others are working hard to make search more human-like in the results they present, looking at the context of our search request, not just the keywords we use.

The future of SEO

If relevancy is the key to search, then several things become more important than others:

• Who links to our content is more important than the number of links
• Our expertise on a subject is more important than merely mentioning it
• The relationship we build with our audience is more important than raw visitor counts
• Keyword phrases are more important than keywords
• Content that earns links is more effective than manual link building
• Quality content and social media are more important than website optimization

To remain among the top results of future searches, companies need to boost their profile in thought leadership, engage in social media outlets, and embrace a strategy of online marketing rooted in credible, reputable, and authoritative content. That’s the future of SEO.

It’s hard to explore a subject such as this in the space of a blog post, but those are my overly summarized thoughts on the subject.

I’m interested to know what you think. Where are I wrong in my thoughts and what is glaringly simple that I left out? How do you see search evolving and what do you believe is the future or SEO?

If you aren’t familiar with the term, it can be over-simplified as the evolution of search from technology-driven initiatives to match searchers to information to a more human approach of presenting search results.

SEO 1.0 was more more about tags, keyword stuffing, and other on-site tweaking of content. SEO 2.0 is more about authority, quality content, and the relationships you build with your online audience.

I’ll write a lot more on this subject in the future — I’m barely touching on it now. But there is a message you need to understand sooner than later: Ranking high in search results today, more than ever, is about giving readers the quality and authoritative content they’re looking for. And it will be more-so true tomorrow.

If you’re not blogging, investing in content marketing or engaging in social media, you’re going to be invisible on the Internet. And focusing on website optimization, keyword stuffing, manual link building, one way communication etc. is going to work against you.

The relationships you build with your web audience is what you ought to be focusing on. It’s the engine of SEO 2.0.

This is an interesting trick and gimmick tactic to increase response and application rates. I bet you’ve received more than your fair share of this trash mail too.

The pre-qualification is carefully worded to give the impression you’re approved, worse, that you won.  But you’re not.  And you didn’t.

Your pre-qualification means your name fell into a mailing list someone bought.  You’re pre-qualified against search criteria the sender selected. I hate this stuff.

There’s a twofold lesson and opportunity here.  Sadly, the first lesson is that tricks and gimmicks like this work.  The second lesson is there are countless people like me that are turned off by this stuff.

The second lesson is the opportunity. I am more convinced than ever there is a thriving market for the honest offer – an offer based on real benefits – void of tricks, gimmicks, ploys, and teases to be read and acted upon.

What do you think?

I understand there are some who will read that and sincerely disagree, but I stand by that belief.

Here’s why

People don’t buy things, they buy the expected results of the things we sell. For example: no one wants to buy a coaching program, copywriting, computer, etc. What people want to buy is the ability to make better decisions, attract sales-ready leads and email loved ones or surf the web. The things we offer are meaningless until they do something valued by the buyer.

Attracting sales-ready leads and closing sales opportunities isn’t about the list of benefits we claim via our products or services. It’s about the specific results we deliver that are valued enough to be purchased. It’s more about the situational experience and success we can demonstrate than the stated benefits we claim.

Enter case studies

Ideally presented, case studies tell the exacting story of a specific customer challenge or opportunity your product or service fixed or enabled. Case studies strike at the key buying criteria of all prospective customers: What can you do for me?

Case studies:

• demonstrate credibility
• suggest past success can be experienced in the future
• give a perspective of what it’s like to be your customer
• create expert authority
• help prospective customers understand what a solution to their underlying problem looks like
• tell the story of the things you do for your customers in the exact terms your prospective customer is seeking a solution — you match their worldview
• make the seemingly impossible and unattainable appear possible and attainable

What about white papers?

Probably the greatest objection to my opening statement of case studies being the greatest lead generation and sales tool you can own will come from those who espouse white papers in the same vein.

It’s understandable.

White papers are awesome lead generation and sale stools — I’ve personally written many and used even more to retire quota. White papers are highly effective at establishing buying criteria, positioning an offer, and trapping your competition.

That said, white papers don’t do the best job of telling the story of exactly what you do and more importantly, exactly what you do for your customers.

Imagine two fictitious documents: 1) An IT professional’s guide to user-friendly software solutions that can increase profit margins 2) Learn exactly how one company leveraged user-friendly software solutions to increase profit margins by 25% within one development cycle.

The first title is likely a white paper; the second is a case study. Making all things equal, I believe the second is more compelling for someone interested in increasing profits through use of user-friendly software solutions.

The bottom line

Case studies tell your unique story in terms prospective customers use to evaluate options and vendor offers. There is no sales tool more effective at creating compelling interest in your offer than a case study that tells the story of how a specific customer situation was improved by engaging your company and a purpose-built solution.

While case studies shouldn’t stand alone in your marketing and sales quiver, they are a tool no company should be without. Case studies should lead your marketing and sales efforts.

Your turn

If you disagree with my statement that case studies are the best lead generation and sales tool available, convince me I’m wrong in the comments below. I’m open minded.

And if you agree with me, please let me know about your experience with case studies and how they have helped tell your unique story.

In a future post, I’ll talk more about case studies: how to write them, critical elements to include, and how to market them to create sales-ready leads.

I read the letter, laid it down in front of me, and sat there silent. “What do you think?” I asked.

“I can’t read past the first page.” replied my friend. “The font changes six or seven times, the language has a funny tone…it sounds manipulative.”

My friend was right on every point. The letter read like a late night infomercial.  It’s the ginsu knife of sales letters:

• Mr So-n-so here with a big offer…
• I think so highly of (fill-in the blank) I had to make this offer to you…
• But wait, there’s more…
• Here’s the best part…
• Act now, we can only make this incredible offer for x days…
• PS
• PPS

There isn’t a single element of the letter that makes it odd, it’s the continuous sing-song way it flows and the continual hooks that it offers. The font changes are effective at drawing attention, but are annoying.

Why mention this?

Because it is the exact type of letter we’ve all received in the mail. This letter is a perfect example of the type of copywriting you’d expect in stereotypical direct mail.

It’s technically perfect.

My friend said three other people at their company read the letter and had the same reaction — all thought the letter was old school, hard to read, manipulative, didn’t get to the point quick enough, and had the look-n-feel of junk mail sent from someone who’s not quite sincere.

They decided to give it to me for a professional opinion.

They didn’t need one. Their opinion is all that counts – they’re a typical recipient of such a letter. We all are.

The point to this post is there’s a lot of talk about Web 2.0 and how today’s Internet savvy surfer needs to be treated and communicated with different that their Web 1.0 brethren. The same applies to direct mail and copywriting.

It’s time the marketplace gets on board with Direct Mail 2.0 and stops the insanely antiquated copywriting techniques of continuous type treatments, hooks, and sing-song tone.

What do you think?

Do you think the direct mail copywriting tactics described above continue to be effective –or– is all direct mail dead and merely a thing of the past? Why? What, if anything, should be done different in this Web 2.0 world?

Let me say it again.

If you have a product or service that isn’t selling, it may be priced too low.

Price does several things to people. Beyond the economic effects of pricing, there are psychological effects. Part of pricing is perception of value. If you have a really great, high value service, with a small, under-market price, the perception you may be sending is that something is wrong.

If  your offer is that great, why does it cost so little?

This isn’t as crazy as some think, but it is contrary thinking

Conventional pricing wisdom says if a product or service doesn’t sell, you should drop its price. And while it’s a fair strategy to drop price to test a product in the market, some products need to be raised in price to find demand.

A low price sometimes attracts a different buyer than intended. The low price market may not be aligned with the value of your offer. Especially a product or service positioned as premier, lowering your price can move you from your target market to one that could care less about your offering. And the market that needs your product or service discounts it because it’s priced too low. Low price must mean low quality.

Take care in your pricing, but never be afraid to experiment. Remember, you may need to increase the price a bit to attract the larger market.

What do you think?

Have you seen a great product or service that was priced too low to sell? Or am I nuts to suggest such a thing? Why?

Here is a summary of their finding:

1. The first two words of a subject-line mean the most — convey a benefit.
2. Use a trigger word in the subject-line your reader will likely value and respond to.
3. Don’t put a call to action in the subject-line –  it’s often received as a hard sell.
4. Refer to a hot brand in your subject line (preferably within the first two words).

Here is the link to the entire article.  It’s a good read with examples of what earned the greatest and least number of clicks.

Is there anything you’d add to their list?

That said, poor marketing isn’t an excuse for poor sales performance. Lackluster sales due to below-average marketing isn’t an acceptable excuse.

This point is well stated in this article on Inc.com. Here’s the money quote:

Don’t let bad marketing materials get in the way of generating new leads or sales. If marketing materials could sell something then it wouldn’t be called “selling,” and your company wouldn’t need sales people.

It’s a short article, but hits the big picture perspective salespeople need — good marketing or bad, go sell something.

What say you?