Blog courtesy of WordWrite Communications

In today’s business world, the website is the cornerstone of marketing, certainly a pillar in a strategic marketing plan. But if no quality prospects find the site, what good is it?

If you’re marginally familiar with the concept of search engine optimization, you’re probably familiar with keywords. If you’re a living, breathing human being between the ages of 8 and 80, you’ve almost certainly used a keyword as part of an Internet search.

Last week,Google confirmed that it would be encrypting all search activity, except for clicks-on ads. Businesses that use this data to learn which keywords and keyword phrases receive the most searches relevant to their business to then develop web site content to match those queries will no longer be able to do so.

Sure, it’s a bit of a blow to any web orinbound marketing strategy. Now it won’t be as obvious which keywords work well and which don’t (but there will still be ways to tell which organic searches are driving traffic to your site).

What becomes even more important absent keyword data — what businesses and marketers must get even sharper on — is intimately knowing your target markets and prospective clients.

It sounds like a no-brainer, but in my experience, it is far from it. Buyer personas are a crucial component of successful inbound marketing and providing valuable information that buyers will find useful. Truly understanding buyers – everything from their demographic information (e.g., Are they married? Into what age range do they generally fit? Are they ambitious fast trackers) to the pain points your product or service can directly address — takes more than intuition.

Although your experience with a particular industry should largely inform your personas, your assumptions about what decision makers in particular industries need from you don’t always jibe with what they actually need. In my experience, companies can also become enamored with their innovation and not see the forest for the trees.

I had lunch several months ago with a top health care communicator at a large health system. Despite my time having worked inside a health system and my analysis and monitoring of the industry, what I was trying to sell her wasn’t what she was looking to buy. It wasn’t’ resonating. She needed communications consulting and support, but what I was offering through the content I was putting out on our web site and social media channels wasn’t in keeping with her strategic marketing plan. My conversation with her was as valuable, if not more so, than data showing me how many times different combinations of different keywords were searched.

Which leads to my next point – you have to understand the market. Again, it sounds like marketing 101, but many organizations plow ahead with good, innovative products and services that are potential game changers. Unfortunately, the market to which they’re selling them either isn’t ready for them or doesn’t see it the same way.

A few weeks ago I met with a health care insider. His job is to understand and help to meet the most pressing needs of health system CEOs. I was talking with him about a product a client was attempting to introduce into a health care marketplace fraught with uncertainty and razor thin operating margins. He said if the product isn’t generating new revenue or finding ways to increase margins on existing service lines, no CEO would even consider it. So, if you’re speaking in a language that no one understands or is listening to, your efforts are in vain.

The aim of a strategic marketing plan should be to tell your story in a way that not only differentiates but resonates with buyers. The two are not mutually exclusive. Sometimes buyers don’t know they need what you’re selling or don’t know that what you’re selling could solve their problem, but they have to be able to find you. And you have to speak their language.

With or without Google’s keyword data, there’s a two-phase process that should be followed to develop your story and strategic marketing plan. It’s called StoryCrafting. Without a well-developed story and plan to tell, regardless of the data you have, you’ll have a difficult time connecting with prospects.

If you’re in healthcare, insurance, technology or other professional services industries, and need help with a PR, marketing or social media campaign, contact Scott Public Relations.

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