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HRSEO Articles |
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Search Engine Optimization and Marketing
Surprising how close SEO jobs and supermarket aisles are alike.
Let’s say you are the product marketing manager for a given consumer good. To launch it, you’ve conscientiously performed the entire set of tried and tested product and market analyses the experts recommended you should do. You release a saleable product earmarked to make a dent in your competitors’ share.
Assume also that your product is sold mainly through the chains of supermarkets. This being the case, your product’s due diligence on its distribution included dealing and (hopefully) resolving the issue of the physical position of you product in the supermarket’s shelves. The challenges here included factors such as:
- Your product’s rivalry with the supermarket’s own home brand goods
- The size of your placement-in-the-shop budget and that of your competitors
- The appeal of your product to consumers, in the supermarket’s perception
The forces playing out in this negotiation/struggle are: the shelves’ actual physical limitations; information asymmetry (e.g. the chain will not disclose all it know about things like ‘position performance’, etc); the chains’ own product and distribution strategy; etc. Some products will get to the buyers’ eyeballs, some will not.
Now, imagine that a few goal posts move:
- Shelf space is limitless, which implies even greater product choice
- There are no dark shelf corners imposed by the supermarket chain. There is a real possibility for all shelves to be seen by willing and paying customers
- There is an intermediary that sits between you the product manager and the superstore; between you and the superstore visitors.
I trust that by now you know where I am heading.
Infinite shelf space can be found on the internet. Its shelves in many respects cannot be rigged to serve a unique distributor’s agenda. Search engine optimization will help you be seen, independently of the shelf you are in: the only factor that matters is if a potential buyer wants to see you or not.
I agree this is a purist view of search, the internet and SEO. I won’t be surprised if some search engine marketing practitioners are already devising algorithms to show users what they don’t want. What cannot be denied is that SEO is a quantum leap compared to how supermarkets and other distribution monopolists did their business as usual. It still happens, but at least now there is an option.
Obviously, the buyer reach that is offered online to manufacturers and retailers with no bricks and mortar muscle to push their products and services, can be extended to advertisers that have something of interest to a segment of the internet’s audience. More specifically, think companies who want to ‘sell’ their employment experience to prospects via the internet.
If they were to follow the method of the retail marketing manager we alluded to earlier, employers would package their recruiting experience ‘product’ (e.g. a career website) positioning to lure away applicants, exalt the benefits of joining their organization, outline the culture and value lived by their teams, display open roles; etc. They will also define who they want to see the product, as employers are keen on compatible candidates or ‘real buyers’.
This being the case, SEO will enable employers execute on their strategy to be seen by relevant users, independently of the shelf the site is. SEO and they will come.
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