Psycho Web Markets - A Business Decision

Chapter 2: How Does The Web Help You?

SHARING IS HOW YOU GROW

No other marketing media can share like the web. Not even close.

What other marketing media do you know that can connect text content to a keyword search? And then include audio and video presentation, and then be able to share it all with the world. The web is unique in a few different ways that can be used to benefit your business.

1. The web has absorbed all other marketing media, it does more than any other marketing medium

2. The web lets you build natural relationships if you choose to

3. The web allows you to be surrounded by your online market

The web brings us a new experience because all the answers are there to be found but the questions are far more important

Think about that for a minute

You are not really looking for answers about your market, you are looking for the smarter questions to ask about your market. The answers are there. You'll find the answers but only after you find the question.

A search engine at the fingertips leaves the intelligent questions (search queries) up to every web user and shows everyone that intelligent questions are more useful than any number of ordinary answers.

The web shares and through search engines it shares by way of keywords, and through directories it shares by location or industry. The web also shares through paid advertising with Pay Per Click ads. Google calls these "Adwords." These are the paid ads you often see to the right side of the page whenever search engines provide a list of web sites to match with your search words. When you search for pear trees then you will see small ads about pears or pear trees to the right hand side of the search return page.

This means there are three main avenues for a website to make it easier for a market to find a business that can solve their problem(s).

• Keyword search - Your market finds you - you don't find them

• Directory listing - Your market finds you as a local preference

• PPC ads - To stimulate interest - ongoing or just a shot in the arm

Sharing what your market wants from you

Just as you can forget about controlling your market you can also forget about sharing only what you want to share. Your market doesn't care what you want because they have a problem that needs to be solved and solving that problem comes first. Unfortunately for everyone, many business websites are too busy sharing information on products and then talking about the company's success as a market leader instead of talking about solving problems.

The common focus on the usual business web site is an attitude that is reflected in the keywords chosen, such as the products & company success. This happens on business websites where the business is talked about and the market's problems are ignored. It doesn't engage anyone that is looking for a solution when their need is ignored.

There's a lot of people looking for solutions that can't find a business online because business web sites are busy talking about their business and this means that the keywords about products are all wrong for a search looking for a solution.

There is one general exception and that is the portion of any market where the buyer knows what they want. However, this is a smaller portion of your overall market and there is a lot more competition trying to scoop them up. (There is more information about the 'ready buyer' in chapter 3)

It is this exception that has mislead web marketing people to focus only on those that know what they want. This may have been the best way to market before the web was invented because you couldn't sell to someone who wasn't ready to buy and to get them ready was expensive. The web changed all that.

What is the knowledge your market wants?

Your web market wants a site that shares knowledge and insight into the problem(s) they have. Later on they may want to have a little background info on the business, but at first it is their problem in need of a solution that interests them. Your market wants you to talk about solutions. Why not give them what they want?

There is always knowledge worth sharing with your market in whatever industry you are in and it is useful information that can build a relationship between you and your market. When a business website talks about solutions then it makes your market feel like your website is looking after them and helping them make knowledgeable decisions.

And if a business website doesn't help then no one has to wonder, they can leave because there is nothing holding them. A business web site needs to be useful or it won't be used. If you want to do better than any other web business then it always comes down to who is being useful.

ATTRACTION IS A FREE RESOURCE

Sharing and attraction go together. When you think in those terms then web marketing is simple. You can't go chasing after your online market, and even if you could it would be way too expensive. It's far cheaper and easier to attract your web market when there are search engines at your service. It is also easier to attract your market when you think like them.

The first thing you want to do is to attract your market, and the second thing is to engage them.

If you can't attract your market you won't have a chance to engage them. The content and keywords about products attract only the buyers that already know what they want, and even then many members of a market do not really want to buy another product to sit on the shelf. However, they will be more interested in buying a solution and therefore talking about solutions attracts more attention. The keywords chosen to promote your products or services are not the keywords used to identify with problems and solutions.

This raises the question... "When a solution to your market's problem is more attractive to your market then why is a product still the only thing being talked about?"

To engage your market

Once you have your market's attention you can engage them by providing them with the power of knowledge. And your website is more capable of doing this than any other marketing media.

No other marketing medium can create relationships, educate and provide unlimited information like a website can. And there's a good reason for this... Your website only has to say it once. All your efforts to build quality and useful content only has to be built once and people come to get it, instead of paying for delivery.

Only the web lets your web page hold enormous amounts of information and to meter it out as individually requested. No one person is probably going to read every bit of content on a website but all topics will be read by some people, and all visitors will be pleased to be able to quickly find the information they are looking for.

You may not have enormous amounts of information but the same principle holds true. Just learn what it is your market wants and then give it to them. Am I repeating myself?

The organization of knowledge is what makes your web site attractive

The attraction to your website comes from organization of information and links to expand only that which is of interest by members of your market. Your market can customize their experience and enjoy their time learning about solutions and your business. This is an ideal combination when both you and your market get what each wants? And that's why it is worth the time spent building excellent content.

MARKETING TO A GROUP

This is where web marketing gets a bit strange. The one-to-one psychological experience from your market's perspective is not the actual reality of your website. Your website is accessible to many all at once, but each person experiences a one-to-one relationship.

Which is the stronger reality?

The psychological experience is the stronger and people still experience that they are the only one on your website even when told that there were also many others present. You could say that the experience isn't the real thing, but even so, the psychological reality always trumps. What is the psychological reality (virtual reality) of your market group? Let's start there.

Of course, many, if not most, business websites are not attempting to attract a single group of people because they are busy trying to attract everyone even vaguely interested in their product or service.

Even though your page talks to an individual and presents them with choices it still has to be attracting a group of like-minded people. And what is your web market 'liking' and what do they have in common with others of their group? That's what you want to know.

And that means a description of your whole web market that each individual member of your market will recognize as their own values. When you target with values it is not like traditional advertising where your product is the focus of the marketing. When you use values it is the person you are focused on, not your product or the sale of your product.

That's how attraction starts between you and your group. What else are you going to give them but values to share? I mean in a business way when doing business once is not considered as doing business. It is the long term goals that many entrepreneurs or inventive people would find useful because they have a lot to talk about. A new solution to life's problems are in order these days and there's a lot to be explained to potential buyers.

Engaging the individual

You can use your products & advertising to attract your market - many websites do - but your products and sale prices are not as engaging as a...