Search Engine Marketing Philosophy: How to Become User Centric

In the last few weeks, I have been thinking, discussing a lot about this article which presents my vision in doing Search Engine Marketing and what it means to me being user centric. This started on a flight to Montreal 2 weeks ago. I have become a not so great traveler over the years so I had to occupy my brain as much as possible. I hate turbulence. But I am an agent of change. Go figure. I thought this would be a great opportunity to talk about my preferred subject in search marketing: the search marketing philosophy. Since I have been battling for the implementation of a user centric philosophy in every search marketing plan I have worked on over the last 7 years, it is fair to say that you will find a lot of passion in here explaining this criticized vision from traditional media advocates.

The single most important distinction between traditional media and search marketing, and other professions in the online marketing business, lies in the challenge of adopting a user centric attitude. It is as different as doing target marketing as opposed to being targeted by a user. Call it bipolar if you want, but it does not get more opposite than that. I have been doing search marketing professionally for a long time and everyone I explained search to have had a very hard time understanding (and implementing) that reverse marketing thought process. Even the ones who self proclaimed knowing about search don’t seem to “get” the most basic of its core & fundamental principles, which is why I have to start there & be firm.

Being user centric needs courage
One of my mentors, Gord Hotchkiss, made a blog post a few weeks ago about User centricity and one of the things he pointed out was that companies do not have the courage to be user centric. In his words, he says you need to have balls the size of Texas in order to adopt this mental framework. I have to agree with him, considering the strong resistance I have seen over the years from people who can’t take on this challenge and do not have the courage to step forward. Most companies can’t let go what they have always done and the philosophy they have followed in their traditional advertising interruption marketing way of thinking. They stick to the same self serving branding, key messages & methods and they start doing search with that same attitude that have prevailed in traditional media for more than 50 years. This is why they fail in search marketing & their online presence in general. That gets extended to the ones of their clients unfortunately. As such, Bryan Eisenberg makes it abundantly clear in his book Waiting for your Cat to Bark which basically explains why your customers behave like cats and follow a “what’s in it for me” mantra. In my opinion, you don’t have to look any further. SEM is very simple, once you have the courage to adopt a user centric attitude towards your online presence.

It is all about me
I think most of us like generous people, the ones who reach out for others, the ones who help and listen, the ones who do not mind suffering to alleviate someone else’s pain. You think about someone right now. You know these individuals are remarkable. You also know people that only care about themselves, the ones that are ego centric, selfish and greedy. It seems to me most marketing people, and of course their clients, represent the latter group. They want to start making an interaction according to their own agenda, and take little time to engage a real dialogue with their consumers . They strive to have the most outstanding ad to impress their colleagues so that peers & advertising associations can give them a medal that they will later use to get more business and replicate the past. Whether or not it serves the purpose or reached a business objective is another question which is often overlooked. The user comes last. In my opinion, most advertising people, from a traditional media standpoint follow an “it’s all about me” attitude, which is precisely what we need to break from. This is my observation. Here is the bad news: it is not about you and never will be. 

Copy and paste
One of the things I hate the most in traditional advertising is their lack of creativity when it comes to developing copy for ads. I must have explained it a thousand times; you can’t take your self serving tag lines and stick it online in Google Adwords for instance. How many times have you seen it though? You can’t interrupt the users with a message that only serves you, the advertiser. Most people simply copy & paste across all media channels and wonder why it is not working like they have planned. A lot of companies are using their self serving expressions & tag lines in paid search campaigns, as opposed to trying to be relevant for the user. Even phrases to TELL the users what to do won’t work. Most of the time, they fail to include the keywords users are using in their copy and fail to mention in what way the users can benefit from visiting their site. They only think about this potential exchange from their perspective. No one wants to be friend with you if you only think about you. Like Seth Godin, the author of Permission Marketing, once said, marketing online is about converting a stranger into a friend and a friend into a customer (and finally into a lifetime customer). So in order to convert a stranger into a friend, you have to be friendly. Here is how you can do this.

Help them, be admirable & believe
The very first thing you must do before launching a SEM plan is to understand how your audiences, feel, think and which search queries they use to express their intentions, and why. You have to understand them if you want to help them. If they want to shop around, let them, the same way you would let them if you had a retail shop. Be nice, be friendly & inform them about what you have. Don’t pressure them to buy. Bid on keywords that are relevant to them, even if they are not purchase oriented. Serve them well. It will be rewarding in the long run. Be generous, be kind, don’t interrupt them & don’t use copy they would find in the unfriendly and intrusive traditional marketing formats. Believe. Think of the best sales person you have had in your last purchase in adopt the same attitude. Sometimes we buy because we have had a great service. It pays to listen. Online is no different.

Conclusion
Being successful in search marketing involves having the right attitude. It involves being really interested to help the users in their decision making process through the dozens of search results they can choose from. It involves genuinely be caring about them and their search for a problem to solve, which is expressed through their search query. In one word, you have to be user centric. You must have the courage to put yourself & your client, second. If you embrace this philosophy, you are on the right path to become a good search marketer. Don’t ever, ever let go of this perspective, regardless of the amount of people who will ask you to. In order to become a search marketer, you have to be capable of standing for what you believe in, every single day. The rest will fall into place and your search campaigns will rock. Therefore, if you want to do search marketing as part of your media plan, you have to be willing to change your way of thinking & embrace a user centric attitude. If you fail to do so, I am confident that your web strategy as a whole, or the one of your Client, has little chance to make the headlines.

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Comments

1. Good post Alex.

   I also recommend reading The Cluetrain Manifesto. You can read the whole book online or buy a physical copy.

   True in 1999. Still true today: “Online Markets…
   Networked markets are beginning to self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally served them. Thanks to the web, markets are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most business organizations.”

   I think you will also love Joseph Jaffe. His book is Life After the 30-Second Spot. He says, “an ad is a terrible thing to waste.” I thought the book was great and I really like his website. He’s passionate.

   Posted by Monique on 04/18 at 08:54 AM

2. Thanks Monique! I love your input and your pointers for complementary content.You have the book, right? Can I borrow it?

   Posted by Alexandre Brabant on 04/18 at 12:46 PM

3. James lent it to someone or has misplaced it in our apt. Yes, you can borrow it, please remind me next time you’re over.

   Posted by Monique on 04/18 at 07:58 PM