Google already knows what your website is about. Stop wasting your precious resources of time and money focusing on this. We can’t predict the algorithms, beat the algorithms, or cheat the algorithms.
You should be focusing on HEO (Human Experience Optimization) not SEO. That’s where the competitive advantage is. When you are offered the gift of a human’s fleeting attention, you do not want to look like one of those poor talentless hopefuls auditioning on American Idol. You want to be the one that gets an invitation to the next audition. The ones who got to the next stage showed up with a strategy and played with a purpose because they practiced with a goal in mind.
#1 Clear Messaging
“If you confuse, you’ll lose.”
—Donald Miller, StoryBrand®
A picture is worth a thousand words just means our brains can deduce a great amount of information in a split second. If you add a short text phrase on top of it (such as a Meme or a cartoon), our brains love it even more. It tickles our story-craving funny bone. Put a ton of confusing jargon text on a page without any images, and you just put my brain in a stressful environment.
Messaging also happens to be the hardest piece to get right. That is why messaging is where you have the biggest opportunity to create a huge competitive advantage. The challenge of how to take advantage of modern technology to communicate and connect with humans who need and want our products and services is real. Those who get this and apply it will have a major leg up in their niche.
#2 Marketing Automation
Marketing automation is the Amazonian user experience that we have come to appreciate and expect. It reduces friction and helps introduce us to solutions we seek and streamlines communications and transactions:
Welcome back, Og. Last time you purchased flint arrowheads and a cedar bow. Others who purchased flint arrowheads also purchased dodo bird feathers. Today’s hot new trending item is the wheel. Would you like to put this in your foraging cart.
Thanks to Uber, Pizza Hut, Amazon, and hundreds of other brands that your customers and prospects use, they are being trained and educated to either find interacting with your brand helpful or frustrating.
But marketing automation is not just for the big boys anymore. It’s widely available and just as impactful for SMBs. Clear messaging baked into marketing automation is a major competitive advantage for small businesses who are struggling with the common challenge of finding new customers in a world that rejects old school advertising. There are many companies that offer good marketing automation tools like Hubspot, SalesForce.
#3 Sales Automation
The application of sales automation technology such as CRMs is a no-brainer for small businesses. A CRM collects, organizes, and replaces scattered sticky notes on computer monitors, hard to find emails in multiple inboxes, poorly organized files in cabinets, desks, and car seats making all of them easy to find in one place.
It’s a huge competitive advantage because your competitors most likely aren’t using sales automation, and even if they are, the odds are they don’t use it well. There are many excellent options available, and one of the best CRM tools also happens to be free: HubSpot’s CRM is one of the most user-friendly CRM tools.
Regardless of whatever program you choose to implement, the fact that you are choosing to do so is huge. The humans who are looking to you to provide them solutions are also expecting you to deliver a sales experience that feels good to their brains and helps them to become a loyal customer.
