Business doesn’t happen without the Internet today. Not every transaction takes place online, of course, but consider that (according to brafton.com) 89 percent of consumers use search engines for purchase decisions. People go to the Web for information before they buy—regardless of where they actually end up buying. And the good folks over at Google account for more than 66 percent of all online searches.
It’s no wonder that businesses care about Google. But if you look at the approach some businesses take to marketing, you might come away with the impression that some marketing firms and companies think they can outsmart Google. They know that the higher they rank with Google, the better their chances of being seen by consumers. So they try to come up with ways to “beat the system” and outsmart Google so that their name will end up at the top of the list.
There are a couple of problems with that approach, however. First of all, the people at Google are really, really smart! Nobody has ever really cracked the algorithm Google uses to rank websites—although people have certainly tried. Chances are that nobody is going to crack that any time soon.
More importantly, however, is that “cracking the code” is the wrong way to think about Google. What makes Google so successful is that they help people find what they’re really looking for—rather than ending up on the page of a company that’s trying to trick them.
Think about how you use the Internet. If you’re trying to do a bit of research on a product or a service, do you want to end up with helpful information that will enable you to make a good, informed decision? Or do you want to end up reading something from a company that is trying to sell you something—whether it’s right for you or not?
That—in a nutshell—is the difference between inbound marketing and outbound marketing. Inbound marketing helps businesses and individuals find information that helps them make decisions that are right for them. Outbound marketing assumes that what the company is selling is right for the prospective buyer. Which do you prefer when you’re the one who is thinking about making a purchase?
If you’d like help pursuing this kind of a marketing approach, let’s talk about how we can make that happen for you. Or you can keep trying to outsmart the geniuses at Google!
