Zelword

Last night my some picked a kids book called Some Have More, Some Have Less, and Some have the Same Amount. The kid in the book (he and his mom are Rabbits) is shopping with his mom and keeps asking for more or less of things in the cart. His mom agrees that some people have more, and some have less, but they have just the right amount.

The story reminded me of some marketing meetings I’ve been in lately and one in particular. A manager in the meeting had been to a seminar where they talked about how great the web was based on a single case study. He was hooked and wanted to do everything that company was doing.

First he pulled up product pages and said they needed more pictures. Never mind that the page was performing well and that the extra photos break the design without adding significant value. Never mind that the site he was comparing too had a completely different target market, different product, and different business model. He saw more and wanted more.

Then we discussed keywords. He wanted more. Lots of keywords on every page relating to everything they do, regardless of the page topic. Instead of focusing on the page content, he was focused on every word he thought might relate to him. The list was so long that we would never be able to work all the keywords into the page copy in a meaningful way.

I took notes as we went along and waited for my turn to respond. Here’s where I earn my keep. Instead of taking the order and running back to the kitchen to cook it up, I went back through his list and talked about the different sections and the tactics. I explained the original intent of some pages and what happens to the design when we add the photos. I agreed that they needed to give their keywords more attention but suggested that we focus on a few and/or relate that work to specific pages.

I appreciated his enthusiasm but he had become so focussed on the tactics that he forgot about the goals. He remembered that the overall goal was to sell more and to grow but forgot all the intermediate goals that make that happen. He wasn’t thinking about selling each product individually or about setting the right image for the company. He wasn’t thinking about which web visitors were most likely to buy from them online.

It didn’t matter how many photos another site had. What mattered was whether we had the right amount for their needs. It didn’t matter how many keywords we could squeeze in the page. What mattered was the best keywords for them and how we used them. In the end, we agreed on a set of tasks that will be just right for them. I hope I can be that successful in my next meeting.