Imagine you’re at a cocktail party. You bump into an attractive member of the opposite sex and start chatting. This pleasant person proceeds to share details about his (or her) education, career history, awards, community service…
How long would it take for your eyes to glaze over?
We know that society generally frowns upon braggarts. Yet, when it comes to marketing materials, many companies think this self-centered approach is perfectly acceptable.
“What is the writer’s first job?”
Award-winning mystery novelist Reed Farrel Coleman asked the question at a recent workshop sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America.
A few attendees ventured educated guesses like “develop plot” or “sit down and write.”
Some enlightened soul soon voiced the answer Coleman was seeking: “To entertain.”
Exactly. He expanded this concept by restating it as “to engage the reader.”
The goal of the first sentence is to grab readers by the throat and convince them to read the second sentence, which is designed to propel readers toward the next sentence… and the next… and the next.
Try this exercise.
Do you stand out from the crowd? Or are you saying the same thing as everyone else?
Maybe you’re thinking, “But we mean it.” Or, “That’s what customers are looking for.”
In either case, you’re missing the chance to tell your story. What really sets you apart from the competition?
We all know the type: He’s the one at the cocktail party or networking breakfast you can’t escape fast enough.
Why?
Because he’s going on and on about nothing that you care about.
Recently, a friend introduced me to a web developer, usually one of my favorite new contact categories. He heard what we do at Market It Write – and proceeded to educate me on search engine optimization.
I (politely) interrupted him and told him that, yes, I understood what he was saying. We partner with many web development firms to create sites that combine relevant content with social media tools to achieve high organic search engine rankings.
Next, he tried to explain how descriptive file names and page titles can also boost your site rankings.
Before he got too far into his lecture, I spilled my drink and dashed to the ladies room.
A large supermarket chain near my abode also runs a convenience store-style gas station in front of the supermarket. They run a thoroughly marketed promotion whereby customers receive a discount for gas based on how much money they spend on groceries.
Having just dropped a serious chunk of change on groceries, I received a fuel coupon for a discount of $0.23/gallon. Nice, I thought. That’s almost four bucks off on my next tank of gas.
A couple of days later, I went back to their gas station. The fuel discount was printed out at the bottom of my grocery receipt, but it didn’t say what to do with the coupon. So I pulled up to the super-modern, uber-convenient pumps and saw the sign that read: “Must Pre-Pay or Use Card.” I shrugged and used my card, as I usually do at pumps with a card slot. I figured they would give me the discount inside the convenience store. How on earth else could it done?
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In this post, I’ll take a closer look at SEO and the process of optimizing websites for better placement within organic search results to improve website traffic.
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