12. Ken Krogue, “The Death of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, and Real Content,” Forbes Entrepreneurs (blog), Forbes, July 20, 2012, www.forbes.com/sites/kenkrogue/2012/07/20/the-death-of-seo-the-rise-of-social-pr-and-real-content/.
13. Bill Lee, “Marketing Is Dead,” HBR Blog Network, Harvard Business Review, August 9, 2012, http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/marketing_is_dead.
14. Dominique Turpin, “The CMO Is Dead,” On Marketing (blog), Forbes, October 3, 2012, www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2012/10/03/the-cmo-is-dead/.
15. Amil Husain, “Advertising Is Dead,” Huffington Post Business, March 22, 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com/amil-husain/advertising-is-dead_1_b_2932332.
Part II
The Audience Channels
Before you can build the best proprietary audiences for your business, you must fully appreciate the strengths, weaknesses, and breadth of channels available to you today. For some readers, this part may feel like review. Trust me, however—everyone from CEOs to new hires to the most seasoned social media professionals will benefit from reviewing each channel with fresh eyes. That is because we are examining them not for what they have meant to your company but rather for what they could mean as part of a far more coordinated Proprietary Audience Development effort.
A book can only contain so much information, so I have opted to present snapshots of the channels that I feel are the most important today (based on my highly subjective opinion). In reality, your channel priorities will vary greatly based on your brand strategy, industry competition, marketing objectives, and available staffing. Later, in Part III, you’ll have the opportunity to express that mix as part of your Proprietary Audience Development strategy. And for a discussion of even more proprietary audience channels, join the conversation over at www.AudiencePro.com.
Chapter 8
Website: Marketing’s Magnetic Center
A bad website is like a grumpy salesperson.1
—Jakob Nielsen
Jakob Nielsen (@NNgroup) knows a thing or two about websites. Thanks to his numerous books and tireless work with global companies on improving their websites for consumers, his name has become synonymous with website usability. For all his efforts, however, one thing is clear: There are still a lot of abominable company websites on the World Wide Web.
Jakob’s certainly not to blame for this state of affairs. He’s done more than his fair share to educate marketers that a bad website is often worse than no website at all. The real fault lies with companies that fail to see their website for what it is—the magnetic center of all their marketing efforts. Whether you’re a sole proprietor or the world’s biggest online retailer, your website is your primary Owned Media asset and the first place you should look to build your company’s proprietary audiences.
Your website is the magnetic center of your marketing efforts, your primary Owned Media asset, and the first place you should look to build your company’s proprietary audiences.
There are entire books, courses, and online services that will teach you how to build a website. However, the goal of anyone focused on Proprietary Audience Development is how best to optimize a website to:
Attract SEEKERS from mobile apps, online maps, and search engines.
Convert those SEEKERS into JOINERS by becoming: Paying CUSTOMERS
SUBSCRIBERS, FANS, and/or FOLLOWERS
AMPLIFIERS of positive sentiment or experiences
The two disciplines that focus on getting SEEKERS to your website are:
1. Content Marketing: The practice of publishing content to your website on an ongoing basis that appeals to SEEKERS looking for your products or services and aids SEO efforts
2. SEO: The process of optimizing website content, structure, and technology in order to obtain better search engine rankings on keyword searches that capture more qualified SEEKERS
Once you’re driving a steady flow of SEEKERS to your website, you can turn your attention to optimizing their experience on the site through the additional disciplines of:
Conversion Optimization: The practice of streamlining data collection, opt-in, and purchase processes to eliminate friction, maximize conversions of SEEKERS to CUSTOMERS, and boost ROI
Responsive Design: The process of designing a website such that it’s optimized for increasingly mobile means of consumption by SEEKERS (smartphones, tablets, etc.)
Usability Design: The process of optimizing a website’s usability by eliminating points of friction and frustration for SEEKERS that negatively impact both experience and conversion opportunities
Website Analytics: The process of analyzing how SEEKERS interact with your site in order to identify opportunities to optimize conversions, interactions, and time on site