Are you focusing too much on being found?
If you've been reading my blogs for a while now (thank you!) or have attended any of my workshops, listened to this podcast ep or basically ever worked with me, you'll know how much I hammer home the importance of The Buyer Cycle when it comes to marketing your biz. Not familiar with it? Check out the PDF here. This is the 5-stage cycle customers move through when transacting with any business.
This week — in between feeding him, burping him and generally doing whatever it takes to help our new son, Elio, thrive — I've been catching up on a bunch of reading. Yes, one of the perks of being up all night is the chance to get through those books you have half read, or visit those sites you're always meaning to check out more frequently.
Around 2am this past Saturday I found myself drawn to this article from Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner (one of the BEST sources of social media news, changes, tips and info). In short, the article relayed how Amazon's AI tool, Alexa, is changing the way we experience Google search.
How?
Well, according to Stelzner, Alexa (and other AI we're using like Siri and Google Home) trains us to expect ONE simple answer to a question, rather than a list of results we then have to work through (i.e. the standard Search Engine Results Page or SERPs).
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To counteract this change in user expectations, Google has shifted its search pages to now provide an answer at the top of the search page, i.e., showing information from a blog or video before any search results, or in the case of simple questions like “What’s the capital of Australia?” showing the exact answer (i.e. Canberra) along with useful information (map, population statistics, directions etc.). Often Google will use information from blogs and small business sites, without pushing people to click through. Stelzner found Google utilising a section of one Social Media Examiner article to answer a basic search question, without directing traffic to their site; "our article...was displayed more than 100,840 times in the last 90 days and was only clicked on 4,658 times (4.6%)! Google did not ask us if it could feature the answer. We did not code the post to provide the answer. Google simply used the content without permission, bypassing possible traffic to our site."
So, what does this mean for small biz owners like you?
Well , it all comes back to The Buyer Cycle. Too many small biz owners are working ONLY in the "Awareness" and "Research" stages when it comes to their marketing. What Stelzner's article raised — and what I'm always banging on about to students — is the need to focus just as much, if not more, in the "Evaluation", "Purchase" and "Post-Purchase" stages - that is, focusing less on being found (SEO) and more on converting the people who have already found you (CRO). Whether it's "converting" them into signing up to an email, buying a product or service, sending an enquiry email or filling in a contact form — what's important to focus on is the ACTION people take when it comes to interacting with your business online.
So, as you go about marketing your biz this month , consider if you're focusing on being found, or on converting the people who have already found you? How are you guiding people on your website or via your social channels to take action? How are you moving them through The Buyer Cycle?