What is a Seoarketer?

What is a Seoarketer?

This is my harebrain term for the modern SEO that must have or derive marketing skills in order to be truly effective in the latest battle in competitive optimization (Seoarketer). Simply understanding Search Engine Optimization will not be enough in the very near future (if the stagnant position in itself has not already been overtaken) to produce satisfactory results.

Why should SEO who has marketing experience be the primary part of a website campaign from 2006 and on? Simple, its the foundation (Seoarketing) that will not be trespassed nor go away. A modern SEO is both a code director, and a market seeker. Like a stock broker that never sleeps, an SEO looks at trends, fine tunes the site on a daily basis, and is always looking to sharpen it’s penetration into the free market place.

In my opinion there are three types of skilled marketing needed in the 21 century. I made these terms up in order to help me categorize my sale techniques over the years. Before you can sell yourself to your client, you must have a deeper understanding of your value in the marketplace and the type of techniques used to incorporate them.

Lets look at the types of marketing that are found in our modern day.

1) Mainstream: TV, radio, newspaper, major magazines, billboards, ext.

2) Bump and Grind: Placing flyers on windows, giving away T-shirts and coffee mugs away at ball games, pens and cards with your business name, telemarketing, ext. A new technique for bump and grind marketing came with the Internet age. Blogs, forums and comment sections of thousands of sites allowed for a new way to grind out the company name in a personal way. Modern SEO’s know how to exploit this technique to the advantage of their company without being accused of spam. Digital fan clubs, reviews websites, personal opinion forums, all have made the bump and grind technique global. Without a good SEO leading the way, this would be sloppy, and lack true momentum. SEO’s do not simply tighten up code; they are the forefront of its release. Just think of anchor text as an example?

3) Foundation: All campaigns must start with a solid foundation; Solid product, Solid customer service, solid sales team and marketing director, solid venture capitalist, and a trustworthy mark of establishment. What are those trustworthy marks? One is the company website. It must exemplify and exceed customer expectations. It must find away to grip its modern advantage over other similar products in the most competitive marketplaces to ever exist. On the foundation level, millions have the same advantage as their counterparts. On this field, no one person can be handicapped, for all that is needed is a computer and a creative mind. It is on this field however, that the person who is educated in the foundation techniques of SEO, which an advantage can be and will be exploited. The modern SEO brings popularity and free advertising by SE’s and that should never be underestimated. Even when ad rates skyrocket over the next ten years, the site with a solid foundation will stand and be profitable.

New age of the SEO and its metamorphosis into marketing forecaster and sales director:

We are entering a new type of sales environment with the age of computer purchasing online. It has been a long held belief in the sales community that the nature of Homo sapiens requires the human touch in order to have full commitment and trust to complete a sale.

However, the age of the small community is slowly becoming extinct, while its modern counterpart grows expediential. Without changing the wheel, an adaptation to what was considered comfort (human voice), is now transcribed into a facts-based-society. The challenge I found was how to reach ones hotspot (trigger to buy) when the interaction of text lacks trust, warmth, and consolidation that are usually needed to solidify a sale.

So, I like you, cannot be tied to a phone when my audience and prospects are global.

So what do we do? Look at the modern wheel of sales (never change the wheel) and develop a sort of online metamorphosis that will bring credibility, warmth, and trust to the prospective buyer. Since I have taught sales all over the country to humans who can see your facial expressions, your demeanor, and can derive your trustworthiness, how was I going to face this challenge via the Internet. Here is what I have learned and am now beginning to incorporate in my sales approach –

1) By phone or in person: Greeting – you have 20 seconds for the prospect to like and to trust you. If you give a negative impression, seem distant, or act condescending by word or gesture, your done. {How could you apply this to your theme page on your site?}

2) Less information is better – people are smarter than we think, lead them to the sale. Use large headings, so users can quickly scan contextual paragraphs.

3) Choice/Options? – Always give the prospect a choice such as 3, 6, 9, 12-month membership – never say 12-month membership or nothing. And be direct, people enjoy the direct approach, it makes you seem trustworthy (When closing the sale, make it simple and direct.)

One way to be direct is to show the absolute URL (http:// www. blah blah .com/) when leading them from a theme page, to the closing sale page.

Example: your theme page is describing the benefits of polarized sunglasses.

1) You would not want to hyperlink “polarized sunglasses” to the sale page. User would expect more information upon clicking that link and rightly so. Honesty comes to play when you give an absolute URL for polarized sunglasses if you are taking them to the closing sale page.

Example: assume everything in the paragraph below that is underlined, is hyperlinked, ok?

1) Blahhhh blagg blafffffff blahhhhhh is the great benefits that come from (polarized sunglasses> underlined). Also, the (John B Goodman> underlined) study says’s blahhh blahhhhhhh blahhhhhh about polarized sunglasses.

Now that you are well informed, we would like to invite you to visit our product page on this very subject. Please visit our sunglasses here at (http : // www. on polarized glasses. com/> underlined

Now that is honesty, and your sales should rise following a similar formula even if all you have is an email address.

All sales are the same. Never try to change the wheel.

1) Greeting

2) Argument of facts

3) Close

Without a phone number listed you simply have to earn their trust, be sincere, project that you are real, and to do it quicker. Just like in the real world, to much information can cloud and confuse the buyer, so to be the same in the virtual world.

Real world sales example that can be applied to your net business:

Let’s use a roofing salesman for this example, shall we?

Example A: John goes to Mr. Smith’s house to give an estimate for a roof leak. After introducing himself, and before he has looked at the problem, he gets into a long-winded discussion about the facts of roofing products, the weather, and family conversation in a hope to put the client at ease. Once the small talk is over he asks the client about the problem and proceeds to get on the roof without being in view of the client. Recognizing that it is a small problem, he begins to sweat, knowing that his company has a minimum cost on roof repairs.

John slinks down the ladder, apologizes to the potential client that the cost will be a minimum of $400 US dollars, and he would really do a good job in fixing it, guaranteed!.

Mr. Smith: $400. Wow that’s a lot of money for a small repair.”

John: “Not really, considering how high our worker’s comp is, how long we’ve been in business and how good our reputation is. We do what we say we’re going to do.”

The homeowner, Mr. Smith gives the signal of displeasure, and tells John, “I will think about it.”

Now, that is a common “direct sale technique” that completely failed, as it should have.

Let’s look at Example B, the take-away approach:

John steps out of his truck and immediately grabs his ladder and heads for the roof. Mr. Smith has already heard the vehicle coming down the drive and so upon seeing John holding a ladder as he approached the roof, walks out after him.

Mr. Smith (with his hand out): “Hi John.”

John: “Hi Mr. Smith, it’s great to meet you.” (John returns the handshake, with his left hand, because he is holding the ladder on his right shoulder. By refusing to put the ladder down and shaking with the left hand is a demo of authority and is a control technique and works across the board in sales. I have taught other roofing salesman to hold on to that ladder for as long as it takes. Don’t give up control.)

Mr. Smith: “I bet you’re a busy man, John with all the rain we have been getting?”

John: “Extremely, Mr. Smith. Thanks for asking.” (Compliment – good). “I look forward to seeing what your problem is, would you share your area of concern? I don’t know if I can be of service or not or that I have the time to fix your problem. But if I can’t I promise I’ll give a referral of someone who can. We’ll just have to see.” (The beginning of the take-away starts verbally here by the statement, ‘I don’t know if I can help you.’)

Mr. Smith shows John where the problem is from the inside, with out any small talk. John quickly goes back out side, goes up his ladder and climbs up on the roof inviting Mr. Smith to give his opinion on where he thinks the leak may be. It’s important for John to make sure he stays in Mr. Smith’s eyesight from the ground if at all possible. Why? Because this is where a little bit of acting comes in. As you walk up the steep roof, you act like it’s extremely dangerous while going up. This does not need to be an Oscar-worthy show; roofing IS dangerous! John goes over to the problem area; for example, let’s say it’s near a plumbing pipe. John holds on to the pipe for dear life and quickly sees it’s a simple problem that would require a couple of nails and some caulking. He realizes Mr. Smith is in his fifties and is a little rotund and is not going to climb on this roof, so some theatrics are important. There is nothing wrong with this. Remember; basically people WANT to be sold! John gingerly steps down to the ladder to begin the takeaway while still on the ladder:

John: “Mr. Smith, your problem is very simple and I’m going to show you how to save $400 US by doing this yourself. Simply go up this valley here, be careful you don’t slide, run to the top of the peak like you saw me do and scurry over to the plumbing pipe and grab it. While holding on the pipe, open up a tube of silicone caulk and caulk around the gasket with several rings around the pipe until the seal is perfect. Make sure that there is no moisture around the seal of the pipe so that bubbling does not occur and moisture does not get in the future.” By now John is walking with his ladder on his shoulder towards the truck. “I would also take a flat bar and take the two shingles above the pipe and lift them and tar them underneath as an added precaution. You should be okay, just be careful coming down. It’s easier to go up than down. That will save you $400.”

Mr. Smith: “$400? Wow, that’s expensive.”

John: “That’s right it is. Because if I have to do it, it will only take me 10 minutes but we a minimum charge of $400 and it’s really not worth that, outside of the worker’s comp, of course.” Now John is putting the ladder on top of his truck.

Can you predict what Mr. Smith is going to say? I bet you can. He says the same thing countless middle-aged homeowners have said,

“John, I’m not getting on that roof. You do it. Put me on the schedule.”

Now what did we establish?
1) Mr. Smith won’t get pissed off because John charged him $400 for 10 minutes worth of work.
2) John tried to be the good guy by offering to save him money by his good advice, which instills confidence in the homeowner.
3) John has not argued with the homeowner about the price, indeed he confirmed it, which makes the client feel respected.
4) Mr. Smith sold himself and his word is law. Mr. Smith (and most other sane customers) will not go against his word. This translates to less of a chance of negative recommendations and client unhappiness. After all, John tried to do him a favor.

This is take-away at its best and can be applied to any field of sales, including the net.

So in conclusion, we must change with the tide (completive market place), as it does not stand still.

Do you remember just a few years ago, how forty to sixty year olds, resisted the computer age? Do you remember the sighs that you herd when you mentioned the net to a boss or a marketing director?

People love to find their nitch in life, master it in comfort, and resist any challenge that can cause them discomfort. Think about it; just when you gave into the net way of life, you found out you needed a guy who could put keywords in the Meta Tags, so that your site would get free advertising. Then, when that no longer worked, you had to get a guy who new more about this “SEO thing” in order for you to do well. And now that we are entering the year 2006 you hear you need a Seoarketer or you will be paying for ads the rest of your business life.

The reality is, if you would have hired a Seoarketer from the beginning you would never had to leave your comfort zone, because Seoarketing will stand as long as the net does.

BigDoug

Branson Shows

Copyright 2005 Doug Holland Enterprises, Inc.