Tony at SoCalCTO has an interesting post regarding SEOs for startups:
There, he explores the value of Search Engine Optimization for startups, and the difference between on-page and off-page SEO.
But what form of marketing is SEO?
There are three basic styles of marketing:
1) You make and sell widgets (which you call "Smidget Widgets") and post all over the place that you make and sell widgets, hoping that people who want widgets will see your message and be persuaded to buy your widgets over your competitor's. An example of this is a billboard or TV advertisement. I call this the "shotgun" approach.
2) You make and sell widgets and target your advertising to people that you know are already looking for your widget. An example of this is sending out a targeted mailing list to people that you know have a high likelihood of purchasing your widgets or purchasing ads in a magazine which you know your target demographic reads. I call this the "surgical" approach.
3) You make and sell widgets. You target your message to people who need widgets but don't know that they need widgets. They may not even know that widgets exist. Perhaps you advertise where a complementary business advertises, or open in-sight of a complementary business ala Starbucks and Noah’s Bagels. I call this the "blue ocean" approach (named after the Kim and Mauborgne business strategy, although I’m not using the term quite as it is intended).
Most SEO falls into the shotgun approach, although most people believe it is surgical. Generally, you will pick a search term (such as "widget") and try to become the first website to show up on a Google search for “widget.” But, in this scenario, people doing the search already know that they want information about widgets. So, you're not getting a new market, you're fighting with your competitors over consumers that are already there. This means that your widget had better be cheaper or better.
But, you know that you will be the #1 search for Smidget Widgets (because you've talked with an attorney about creating and protecting a trademark, right?). So, you know that people searching for Smidget Widget are already interested in your product. In this case, there is a lot less competition, and as a result, a higher conversion rate. You are, in effect, creating a new market, or a sub-market. You are moving away from the "widget" market and into the "smidget widget" market. Of course, those potential customers must already have heard of "smidget widgets," and those initial leads can come from a variety of sources.
In this case, the best thing you can do is make sure that your widget is reviewed by industry websites and that your customers provide reviews and write about your widget on their site as well. This is a different kind of search engine "optimization," and one that is more valuable. It will also lead to more "off-site SEO" and help provide "link-juice."
The basic takeaway of this is that the goal of “shotgun” advertising, and most SEO, is to capture more eyes with the hopes that a small percentage of those leads will convert into sales. Surgical advertising aims at a higher percentage of conversions, and blue ocean advertising should be higher still.
This concept is a mix between “brand positioning” and “value added business strategy.” Both of those concepts will be explored further in the future.
Blue Oceans Ahoy!
--Aaron
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