Saturday, March 10, 2007
Internet Marketing :: It's all about relationships
What makes the world go around? Yes, I know the answer is gravity, but I mean the human world. What makes everything “tick”? Consider, for a moment, the fact that we can fly anywhere we like these days. We can turn up at an airport, check in and be on the other side of the planet in less than a day. How is that possible? Jet engines, efficient fuel, the skills of pilots, computer aided systems all play their part. However, without the relationship between the two Wright brothers, we might still be walking. Flying as we know it is only possible because these two worked together so well.
Now, you are probably reading this online. You connect your computer by a telephone-based system that interconnects computers around the world. How is that possible? Well, without the invention of telephony we would be nowhere. Moreover, how did the telephone get started? Alexander Graham Bell was at the forefront of this technology. However, without the relationship he had with his wife his invention may have floundered. She helped him test out his ideas.
Consider too how you manage to write anything down. Your ability to write was forged by the relationship you had between yourself and your teacher.
It’s relationships that make the world go around. Microsoft depended on the relationship between Gates and Bulmer. Google depended upon Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Even Iraq depended on the relationship between Bush and Hussein. Success, or otherwise, is absolutely and fundamentally dependent upon the relationships we have with other people.
So, tell me this, why on the Internet do so many people tell you that success is dependent upon “search engine optimisation”? Do really successful companies online spend hours, days, weeks and months “tweaking” lines of computer code just to get an advantage in the search engines? Do they heck. The really successful online companies – like Amazon – devote the bulk of their attention to forming relationships with their customers and potential customers. Does Microsoft worry about search engine positioning? Does Wal-Mart? What about Disney? You see, to big brands it’s not the position in search engine that matters. These companies only got to where they are because the put relationships at the heart of their business.
In the UK, the leading retailer is Tesco. One in every eight pounds spent in the UK economy is spent in Tesco. Wow! How did they do that? Well, according to the company’s CEO, Sir Terry Leahy, it has only been possible because the company changed its focus from the competition, to building relationships with customers. Tesco spends a huge amount of its time and energy on customer relationships.
Yet, look at the average web site. How much of it is devoted to relationship building? I took 100 web sites at random and only found one that had any focus on customer relationships. Most companies believe “we need a web site” but that’s where they end their thinking. They don’t consider what the web site is actually for in the eyes of the customer or potential client. Simply having a web site is not enough these days. Your web site focus needs to be on building relationships with your readers. And don’t forget you do that offline as well as online. So what do you think?
Labels: internet, internet psychology, social networking
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Readers' Comments:
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March 10, 2007 10:57 AM 
Alfred Armstrong said…
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March 10, 2007 11:58 PM Jeremy Jacobs said…
Great post Graham. All of us with Blogs/sites continually need to update, re-evaluate and sometimes re-invent our Internet connections.
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March 11, 2007 10:37 PM 
Zach Katkin said…
I agree with you Graham, customer relations should be at the heart of ANY business decision, especially marketing decisions (like SEO).
The importance of SEO varies depending on the nature of your business. Services for example are often more expensive, with longer sales and closing processes and therefore don't always benefit the way web stores with hard products do.
SEO is less about optimizing code, structuring your page correctly, and more about relationships than most care to declare. Real SEO is ALL about relationship building
algorithms.
In my experiences the most effective long-term SEO IS building relationships. Building relations like the one I've built with this blog, relationships that search engines have weighed (through links) and then rank appropriately. Cross dialogue between blogs and forums, gaining a name, branding that name, and attaining valuable relevant links through those relationships.
They don’t consider what the web site is actually for in the eyes of the customer or potential client.
Graham, actually to me the customer relationship is a key element of SEO, or SEM, or whatever you want to call it. (In a recent tongue-in-cheek entry on my own blog I suggested we call it "lovability").
A few years back I came across an IT company site, quite a well-known brand at the time, that didn't even turn up in searches for its own name. That sort of thing doesn't happen nowadays so much, but lesser sins are still committed.
You give the example of Amazon. Amazon is actually very search-engine aware in its site design. The fact that its catalogue is fully indexed by Google has undoubtedly helped it in its expansion beyond the world of books. It's a trick that other companies have missed.
I absolutely agree that relationship building is vital, (and indeed your article has set off some thinking about my own site in this respect), but I don't consider it to be an alternative to SEO, rather SEO is just one part of the marketing mix - though often an over-emphasised one.