Of course, your website must provide relevant and compelling content for your prospective customers.

Ideally, that content should combine both text and images to grab your visitors attention and to keep them on your site long enough to get to know and trust you.

Here’s what is less obvious. Google does not see your site exactly the way your visitors see it. As far as Google is concerned, your website is a bunch of text whose structure and formatting make clear what is most important to the visitors who will benefit most from the site’s content.

Therefore, although you may have a beautiful website with strong visual appeal, it will fail in findability, unless Google discovers text information that it sees as truly relevant to a keyword search.

Google Needs to Find Text on Your Website Structured and Prioritized the Way it Wants

While I was doing competitive research for a doctor client, I uncovered  an example of a missed SEO opportunity by examining the website of one of his competitors.  I found it by doing the opposite of what real patients would do. I dug many pages down on Google search results. In fact, among the top keywords, this competitor’s best ranking is #32. For eye doctor, he comes in at #58 and for eye surgery he comes in at #113.  That’s much too deep for most patients who are looking for eye care solutions using the most popular keyword terms.

The problem boils down to failing to give Google the text and structure it needs to generate valuable search results.

Here’s where this eye doctor’s website went off the SEO tracks:

• Critically important descriptive homepage information is contained only in images. There is no text for Google to read that provides the doctor’s name, the name of his practice or how he describes his specialties and his experience. From Google’s perspective, this information does not even exist.
• His website gives low or no homepage visibility to the most important keywords for eye doctors:
• laser eye surgery
• eye surgery
• LASIK surgery
• vision correction
• eye doctor
• cataract surgery
• eye care
• Although interior pages of his website do include a good bit of information about topics such as LASIK surgery and cataract surgery, there are no direct links to either topic on the homepage either in the primary navigation or in core content. Finding this information requires too much digging for both Google and for visitors.
• His HTML title tag does include does include ‘cataract surgery’ and ‘glaucoma,’ but these keywords arrive only after a long introduction with his name and the word, ophthalmologist. The result is that the title tag is too long and the highest-ranking key words come too late for Google to give them adequate importance.
• His HTML description tag does not include any of the critical keywords noted above that visitors and Google would search for.  If this description excludes those keywords, Google naturally assumes that they are not important to the website or to the doctor.

This website is an excellent illustration of the importance of getting search engine optimization right. You may be the best eye doctor or plumber or construction company on the planet. But, if Google has trouble finding you, your target clients won’t be able to find you either.

The secret to search success begins with this: First, create great content that is relevant to your target clients. Then, design your website so that Google can find that content when your target customers are looking for answers to their most pressing questions.

I might be getting carried away. But, I loved this very brief bit of marketing advice when it showed up on my iPhone this afternoon.  I think it proves how brevity can be the soul of content marketing brilliance in a social media milieu.

B Squared is an established SW Florida Advertising that does great work and has won a ton of awards. I knew that, but I hadn’t thought of them for ages until I saw their Facebook post this afternoon.  I was so struck that I had to write something right now.

Advertising Tip of the Week: Want to drive more traffic? Consider condensing a 3 to 4 month advertising budget to just 6 weeks and build a promotion around it.

Six Reasons Why This Makes for Fabulous Content Marketing

1. It is short. Just 24 words and less than the 140 characters allowed by Twitter if you exclude ‘advertising tip the week.’ In fact, it would make a terrific tweet.

2. It is authentic. Clearly, B Squared is offering solid advice without a sneaky ulterior motive. It’s a device you could even act on yourself without outside help.
3. It is creative. They are suggesting something outside the box that might generate fast and measurable results.
4. It is repeatable. Because their advice is so short and so easy to understand, business owners and professionals are likely to share the information and to give credit to B Squared. (Well, it sure worked for me.)
5. It is unique. Although other advertising professionals might have thought of this, I have never seen it suggested before. And, it hints to me that this company might have a lot of other unique ideas worth learning about.
6. It is action-oriented. As a small business advertiser, it would certainly inspire me to take action either on my own–or, best of all, to contact B Squared to talk to them about how they might be able to help me market more effectively.

Not only is this a great example of content marketing, but B Squared also makes great use of Facebook where you can easily share this information inside Facebook or beyond.

My only advice: Shorten these distinct words of wisdom down to 140 characters so that you can tweet them after which they will be pulled into Facebook automatically.

Imagine for a moment, that you are looking out at a hoard of your customers in an actual or virtual audience and that each and every one of them is wearing a hat.

And, on each and every hat, are the words "so what?"

Essentially, that’s what they’re thinking when you are talking, sending them an e-mail, inviting them to your website, sharing an eNewsletter, mailing them a brochure or presenting them with an advertisement.

They want to know what’s in it for them. If you can’t tell them, you are out!  You are out of consideration. You are out of their trusted information resource database. You are out of their purchase plans. You are being tossed right out of the game.

My thanks to the late Dave Hagenbuck, sales trainer extraordinaire for this metaphor. He was teaching us about effective sales presentations in a pre-Internet era. But, his metaphor and his advice applies just as much, if not more today.

If you are ready with customer-centric answers to the unspoken ‘So what?’, you’ll be in good shape whenever and however you connect with your customers.

You may not love Apple or Steve Jobs or their groundbreaking series of  iPhones first launched in 2007 Conversely, you may love much of what Microsoft has brought us in terms of operating systems and office productivity applications.

But, it’s hard not to love the way Steve Jobs keeps it simple and compelling as he introduced the iPhone 4 at their Worldwide Developer Conference in June 2010.  And, it’s hard to find much to love about Steve Ballmer’s own recent presentation on their upcoming smartphone strategy.

So, when you present information, I recommend emulating the Jobs’ simple and graphical approach: Few words and powerful images.

He begins his introduction of the iPhone 4 by saying that it has more than 100 new features but that "I get to cover eight of them with you." He says it simply and colloquially. He doesn’t use gobbledygook speech, as Steve Ballmer does below. Behind Steve initially is the giant word "iPhone" which then segues into his first point, "the first one: all new design."

To reinforce each of his points, the screen behind him shows huge images of the iPhone and of its specific features.

Basically, you have a very smart guy explaining in a non-highfalutin way why we would be crazy not to buy the new iPhone 4.

Microsoft: Complicated Visuals and Convoluted Explanations, Oh My!

Contrast that with some slides that were part of Microsoft’s recent analyst’s conference.  There is a awful lot going on with both his slides and his explanations

This is the Windows Phone 7 Slide

Huh?

Here is Steve explaining some Microsoft strategy elements:

Part of what we’ll be doing is driving kind of integrated set of thinking, branding. We’ll be really aggressively marketing Windows Phone. Both Windows PCs in all form factors and Windows Phones will get pretty aggressive marketing support, if you will.

Huh?

If you think I’m all way off base, you can watch Steve Ballmer’s analyst presentation.

Admittedly, he did have to address a complex set of product  issues. Nonetheless, he could have used more, but simpler slides so that viewers would walk away with a clear understanding of the core elements of Microsoft smartphone strategy. For example, in the Windows Phone 7 slide above, it has no headline and no clear focus. I have no idea what to take away from this slide. Imagine how much explanation would be required to clarify what this slide actually meant.

By contrast , I’ll bet that most viewers of the iPhone 4 presentation will remember specific visuals and most of the eight new features on which Steve Jobs focused.

The key to content marketing–and presentation–success is to keep it simple, make it visual, and focus on the most important and memorable points that will be beneficial to your customers.

On the other hand, to paraphrase an old aphorism about advertising that may well apply to Microsoft , " If you can’t create a compelling presentation for your product, you have a product problem, not a presentation problem.”

More than 50 years ago,  McGraw-Hill created an ad that became legendary in the decades to follow  among business-to-business marketers–and among those folks like me who were selling advertising to those skeptical business executives.

As you can see above, the print advertisement featured the ultimate skeptical prospect who says:

• I don’t know who you are.
• I don’t know your company.
• I don’t know your company’s product.
• I don’t know what your company stands for.
• I don’t know your company’s customers.
• I don’t know your company’s record.
• I don’t know your company’s reputation.

Now, what was it you wanted to sell me?

In a single powerful page, McGraw-Hill made the case for business-to-business print advertising.  I used this on countless presentations because it makes the point so simply and eloquently with its visual representation of one very hard-nosed customer.  He is one tough cookie, who is absolutely not predisposed to accept what you have to say at face value.

Back then, print advertising was the logical solution to pre-sell even your toughest customers. Print advertising worked because your message was integrated into trusted business magazines which targeted exactly the buyers you needed to reach. Business publications were the most trustworthy sources of information that helped buyers make intelligent decisions about the problems that they faced every day.

Your Content Marketing Can Answer All Those Implicit Questions–And Much More

Today, you face similar realities. You must still try to sell to tough customers within a highly competitive environment. But, you can do it even more effectively and inexpensively than in the heyday of print business-to-business advertising.

The difference between the old world of advertising and today’s world of content marketing is that in 2010, you can fulfill the complete role of a traditional business-to-business publication. That is, you can deliver both the editorial and the advertising components on your website.

You have the opportunity to become your own highly focused business publication online.  You can create trusted information products that minimize all the skeptical thoughts that are lurking in the minds of your prospective buyers. Your buyers probably don’t look much like that old McGraw-Hill veteran. But they absolutely share his skepticism when they first visit your website.

Fortunately, because you can create a content rich website inexpensively, you can afford to provide relevant and compelling information that is every bit as engaging and trust building as that provided by print publications that formerly dominated the business-to-business landscape.

Prospective customers in search of answers to their most challenging problems will begin to trust you if you make it obvious that you can provide those answers.  Once you have completed that content marketing mission, you can then lead your prospects to in-depth information about your company, its products, its reputation, its customers, and its people. 

Why not print out a copy of this old advertisement and past it on your wall as a constant reminder of the unspoken thoughts in the minds of your prospects.  It may help keep your content marketing strategy on track by reminding you that the prospects who visit you in search of solutions begin as hard-boiled skeptics in need of transformation.

So, to paraphrase the last line of that wonderful old print ad:

MORAL: Sales start before you connect with your customer–with content marketing.

I’m guessing that I don’t even have to explain the implications of this simple graphic.  It’s that good. 

Somewhat surprisingly I found it toward the end of a wonderful blog post by Chris Garrett, Claiming Your Independence – 5 Years of Business Lessons.  As he describes the essence of the post,

Five years ago I cut loose from my day job and launched myself into the adventure that is working for oneself. That was the start of my journey towards claiming my independence day, and I think there are lessons for you if you want to do something similar to what I have done.

Chris then takes us along on the five-year journey that led him to his current business model. It’s great reading, particularly for those of us who have followed similar paths.

Essentially, this chart teaches us instantly what it took him five years to discover: That the reward of product creation relative to effort far exceeds that of either freelance blogging, coaching or consulting.

I loved his article. But, I loved his infographic even more because it shows how powerful the right visual can be.

Chris’ simple chart makes it obvious how you can persuade yourself–or your customers–of the merits of a particular course of action.  In his case, it took him many years to conclude that product creation was the right core business model for him. Fortunately, the rest of us can see in a few seconds how smart an idea it can be for any of us creative entrepreneurial types.

Perhaps what I like best about this persuasive infographic is that anybody, no matter how artistically hopeless, could have created this very same chart with a few minutes of effort. Of course, the thinking that went into it took a heck of a lot longer.

When you have a really big and important idea to convey, think about how you can add a visual to make your point quickly and obviously in support of your text explanation.  You may want to put this infographic up on your wall for inspiration.

Do check out: Claiming Your Independence – 5 Years of Business Lessons.
You’ll find plenty of great writing in addition to this wonderfully simple and inspirational infographic.

Even though they spend plenty of money on television advertising, Geico doesn’t need to spend much money at all for this incredibly effective commercial which is one of a series that are similarly effective.

On the other hand, Mayflower has created an elaborate series of giant marionette television commercials which are certainly expensive but almost as certainly ineffective.

Geico Makes a Simple Point and Ties It to a Compelling Story

The commercial begins with an intro asking whether Geico can really save you 15% on automobile insurance and then segues into a little vignette that tells a story that virtually all of us would believe would be intuitively true. The connection is then simply made between the story and the saving of 15% on automobile insurance.

This commercial series is not about some highfalutin branding or image making. Rather, it’s about telling a simple story that is not only easy to remember but is also easy to retell. Even better, most of these Geico ads are also pretty darned funny. That makes them even more memorable.

The best content marketing should include compelling stories to which your customers and prospects can relate easily. This may be hard to do. But it does not have to be expensive.

The Geico drill sergeant commercial proves that point. Although they probably paid a lot of money to the actor playing the role of the brutal therapist, in principle, this commercial could’ve been made for almost nothing. It consists simply of the introductory announcer, two actors and a small, basic set representing a therapist’s office.

That’s the kind of video that you could re-create on your website to tell a compelling story. Perhaps, it wouldn’t be quite so funny, but it might be just as memorable if you make sure that the story is both relevant and compelling for your customers. And, that’s all about your mindset, not about the amount of money you spend.

If you haven’t seen my favorite drill sergeant therapist, here’s the video:

Mayflower movers get it all wrong with their slightly creepy series of giant marionette commercials.

I’m guessing that these were very expensive to produce.The special effects are pretty impressive.  But, the story that Mayflower tries to tell is not impressive at all.

In the long version of the commercial, there is no explanatory introduction about why we’re watching what we’re watching.  Apparently, the agency figured that we would be fascinated enough to follow the path of a giant female marionette as she travels on the highway and is eventually deposited at what we assume to be her new house.

All along the way, a bunch of guys manipulate the progress of this enormous marionette a bit like handlers of balloons at Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade. At the end of the commercial, when they plunk her into a chair, it’s not clear how she’s going to be able to get out of the chair–let alone fit into a house that is much too small for her gargantuan size.

The commercial concludes without explanation except for the insertion of a final tagline that somebody fell in love with: "Every step of the way." This, of course, is when our giant ah ha moment arrives and we are supposed to think: "Oh I get it–’every step of the way’ just like the giant marionette was stepping across the country."

Thus, Mayflower has spent lots of money and too much of our time metaphorically leading us to that final tagline cliché, "every step of the way," which doesn’t really tell us anything. We are simply left with the weird image of a giant marionette sitting in a lawn chair after a long, strange journey cross-country.

Bottom line: Effective content marketing should include storytelling that creates a clear, concise, and compelling narrative that your customers will both remember and repeat. If you tell a great story, as Geico does, you’ll be happy with the meme that you have created on TV or on the Web. On the other hand, if you tell a terrible story, as Mayflower has done, prospective customers may be talking about you, but you’re not likely to benefit from what they have to say.

I think we can all agree that the health insurance reform legislation of 2010 will touch each and every one of us. It will impact both businesses and individuals.

If you are a business owner, it is vital that you understand how it will affect you and your employees.  Why? Because, unless you are a very small business, you will either have to provide healthcare insurance or pay a penalty for failing to do so. You will have to make some tough decisions in the years to come about how to handle your employees’ health insurance needs.

Because of the dramatic impact of this legislation, there is an urgent need for comprehensive and understandable information so that business owners can plan intelligently.

This creates a uniquely powerful opportunity to provide relevant and compelling content for your current and prospective customers. You can demonstrate thought leadership at a time when business owners are desperate to find an information source they can trust.

One local agency is doing exactly that.  Gulfshore Insurance in Naples, Florida is doing a superb job of content marketing at the exact moment that the health insurance paradigm shift looms large for everyone in the United States.

When you go to their website, you can find a broad range of information about the kinds of insurance coverage they provide, how they help you manage risk, and exactly who they are. That is always important.

But, what is urgent right now–and for years to come–is trustworthy content about healthcare reform. Gulfshore Insurance brings that information front and center on their homepage with their Health Reform Tools and Resources link. 

That link leads you to a wealth of information that is both comprehensive and timely. In the case of health reform, timeliness is vital because so much is undecided, in process, and apparently changeable.

The timeline chart below is a great example of the hard work they have done to help their clients understand what’s in store.

In short, Gulfshore Insurance is executing a content marketing strategy that genuinely benefits their customers and will therefore benefit to them well into the future.

Billion-Dollar Bank/Insurance Agency Completely Misses the Same Once-In-A-Lifetime Content Marketing Opportunity

BB&T is a huge regional bank which has in recent years acquired numerous local insurance agencies. In Southwest Florida, they bought an excellent local firm whose management team and employees continue to provide great products and services.

Unfortunately,  they are missing an unprecedented opportunity to show authentic thought leadership. During this turbulent time in American history when healthcare and healthcare insurance is changing forever, they are missing in action online.

If you go to the old local web address or the parent company insurance agency address, you will find absolutely nothing about healthcare reform. Moreover, they have eliminated any kind of local information on the website to tell you about the kinds of professionals that you would deal with in Southwest Florida.  If you drill down several layers, you can find telephone numbers to call but no e-mail or individual contact information. Even worse, they tell you absolutely nothing about the local company.   If I were not already familiar with that company, I would be at a complete loss to know why I should become a client.

The bottom line:

The Good–

• Gulfshore Insurance is showing authentic thought leadership that will resonate with clients and prospects for years to come.
• By providing lots of relevant, localized information, Gulfshore Insurance enables search engines to rank them highly and prospective clients to find them easily .
• Gulfshore Insurance shows up high on the first page of local search results for terms such as health insurance, business insurance, and personal insurance. Great content has a lot to do with that.

The Bad–

• BB&T has lost that same once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show thought leadership and engender trust.
• They provide almost no information about their local presence in Southwest Florida.
• Their search engine performance is abysmal. Neither their current website address nor the predecessor local website shows up at all when you search for health insurance in Fort Myers or Naples–our two largest local markets.

[Updated Version]

If any self-described search engine expert tells you that comments like the following actual example will get you SEO-friendly links back to your blog or website, I suggest you neither pay for nor follow their advice:

"Great site you have here and great insight. No wonder so many people flock on it with comments. Keep it going. Cheers!"

I must get 10 or more of these junk comments each day on my site and countless more on client sites.  Of course, they never make it live on the web.  Finding ways to build back links is important.  But, these are a complete waste of everyone’s time.

On the other hand,  on my site, I always welcome and always approve genuine, thoughtful, amusing, and even intelligently argued negative comments.

It’s not that much extra work to find blogs and bloggers you enjoy. That’s where your comments can begin real dialogue. If you can add value to the original blog post, your blog or website will almost certainly get a look from the blogger. After that, you may get a comment back and perhaps an inclusion in their blogroll.

Like everything else in life, the only comments worth doing are worth doing well.

P.S.  Great update: A big thank you to a junk commenter (who is apparently in the SEO biz) on this very post who makes my point beautifully, albeit unintentionally with the following ‘comment’:

Search engine optimization that is process of promote site on the search engine like Google. Yahoo. MSN. Thank You .

Danger, danger, Will Robinson!!  Car salesmen approaching!! 

I’m guessing that I didn’t even need an evocative photo for each of you to conjure up your own happy showroom memory.

My own recollection is fresh since I’m considering (ugh!) a new car purchase. At a local car dealer, no less than 5 sales guys tried to foist themselves on me.  I was just one salesperson away from hightailing it out of there.

Car dealers and manufacturers spend a fortune getting you in the showroom door. Imagine if they invested equally in delivering a valuable, in-person content marketing experience.  One can dream.

But, because we can learn from the awful as well as the awesome, here are some content marketing lessons to take away from the typically painful automobile showroom encounter.

5 Lessons to Learn from the Agony of Anti-Content Marketing Car Showroom Visits

1. Don’t make it blindingly obvious that you are desperate to sell a walk-in—read web visitor—prospect anything you can manage to squeeze them into.  Your web visitors want you to make them smarter about possible solutions to their problems so they can make smart buying decisions.
2. Find a fun, unique way to offer helpful info from the get go.  Don’t replicate the same old, same old kind of greeting that you get in a showroom.  I can’t remember a car salesman ever beginning with a useful offer of information, research, fun factoids that might bring me out of my protective shell. Your website can find a zillion different ways to invite and inform your visitors.
3. Provide useful, non-salesy takeaway information that isn’t all about you or your company.  Wouldn’t it be great to get some tangible product information in a showroom without having to survive a gauntlet of desperate-seeming sales guys?  Make it easy for your visitors to take away great content via eBooks or whitepapers without an obtrusive request for buying intention or detailed contact information.
4. Display in-depth knowledge of your products and services in the context of your customers’ concerns. I’ve been astonished by how often a car salesperson is clueless about car information that the dealer or manufacturers should know is top of mind among customers.  Your website is the perfect venue to provide easily accessible, but ultimately in-depth content that answers your visitors most urgent and important questions.
5. Don’t have a pop-up as your web visitors are about to move on that says the non-automotive equivalent of: “What will it take to put you in a car today?”  Apparently, car sales reps are instilled with the assumed truism that if you let a prospect leave the showroom leave without getting them to make an offer, you’ll never see them again. 
   I’m pretty sure that’s because they hated dealing with you so much that they would rather have root canal without anesthetic than relive the showroom assault. 
   On the other hand, offering your web visitors relevant and compelling content that leads them naturally closer to trusting you will encourage them to return.

I”m probably naive about this but I really believe that smart car dealers could deliver a positive–and mutually rewarding–content marketing experience if they made the buying process all about the customer and his needs.

But, there is one thing I am sure about. When you show that you genuinely care about your online customers by benefiting them from the time they first land on your site, a significant percentage will come back to spend time on your site and to buy.