Search Engine Marketing: Focus on Your Customers, not Google

It’s clear that search engine marketing is one of the more technical marketing practices. Some businesses, however, overemphasize this and focus too much on algorithms and metrics.

The reality is that if you lose sight of your customers in your search engine marketing campaign, you won’t have any success. Even if you configure all of your website elements perfectly, you won’t get the desired results if you don’t focus on your target audience.

Although search engine marketing is more technical than something like social media marketing, it follows the same core principles. According to a recent Chief Marketer article, the best SEM strategies emphasize the customer experience, as opposed to metrics and analytics:

“The marketers that are succeeding at search engine optimization today are focusing less on specific paid tactics and more on the customer experience from an end to end basis, and differentiating what customers are experiencing throughout the sales cycle on their site.”

This all goes back to the leads you generate with your marketing efforts. You can generate thousands of leads by focusing on technical metrics, but if they’re not relevant to your target audience, then they’ll never materialize on your balance sheet.

If you focus on your customer experience, however, then you’ll generate relevant leads that are likely to convert. In addition, you’ll have a better idea of where those prospective customers currently stand in regard to the sales cycle. If you know someone is just getting started, for example, then you can turn them to general, informative content. You can save your more detailed content for people who are further along in the sales cycle.

It’s important to keep in mind that you’re still targeting people with your search engine marketing efforts. Google’s algorithm is important too, but it won’t buy anything from your site.

To talk more about search engine marketing, or anything else, contact us today.