What is the SEO value of offline marketing?

OFF LINE MARKETING HAS EXTREME VALUE WITHIN THE ONLINE MARKETING BUSINESS!

Those who do not understand the connections between off line marketing and online content need to listen up and take action!!!!!

SEO or search engine optimisation changed very radical when Google introduced their HUMMINGBIRD ALGORITHM.  Before Google hummingbird and all its cousins in other search engines the main items in all SEO were your keywords and links, both inbound and out bound, with inbound links carrying more value, but out bound links being an essential issue.  The value of key words was stressed and used extensively by Search engines.

In the post hummingbird era all search engines introduced a very large number of new SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) which ran along side the old SEOVI and added extra value to your keywords in ways that enhance the context and intent of your online content. These new Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators are mostly in the form of Semantic Trust and associated inter-connectivity of different digital entities, and come from the OPSEO side of things.

OPSEO or off page Search Engine Optimisation is not that well understood, and most do not comprehend that OPSEO has two separate components.  The first is ONLINE and the second is OFF LINE. So from a #FUFISM based marketing perspective we have three sectors of Search engine Optimisation that need to be considered and then integrated into your total marketing plan. These are

1) #IPSEO or In Page Search Engine Optimisation

2) #OPSEO or Off Page Search Engine Optimisation

3) #OLSEO or Off Line Search Engine Optimisation

The value of In page and off page search engine optimisation is discussed in many places but who talks of the value of Off Line Search Engine Optimisation? 

Off Line Search engine Optimisation or OLSEO,  is the part where you use your off line marketing to PLANT SEMANTIC SEEDS into the thinking patterns and thought processes of your intended target market, hoping that these seeds will grow into so called GOLDEN SEARCH QUERIES.  Golden search queries are those search queries where your intended target market audience uses your KEY WORDS and semantically related terms in their search queries, which result in your online content being at the top of the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages)

As always understanding your target market audience in great depth is the core issue that needs to be addressed here,   because you want them (your target audience) to be exposed to your key words, so that you can expand on this in your social media marketing and other related online areas to nurture and nourish the semantic seeds that you planted in the off line media.  In other words you need to ensure that your target audience knows what your business, organization or event  is all about, so that they can use the correct terminology in their search queries to surface your online content.

If you simply assume that your intended target market are experts on your subject matter, then you are losing out.  You need to encourage your intended target market to use your desired key words in their search queries, and this process starts by introducing these words and related terminology within the off line world.  Here we are talking about 

• news  paper advertising and marketing
• magazines and industry specific periodicals
• radio interviews and talk shows
• speaking events and road shows
• flyers and bill boards 
• business cards and brouchers
• any other off line opportunity where you have face tine with your customers, clients, suppliers and other interested parties

 Your SEO starts with the creation of your In Page content, and is then enhanced by your off page work which is basically supplemental marketing, or marketing that supplements your online marketing.  Your supplemental marketing uses all the same research as your original online content and here we are talking of things like  the list below, but include many not mentioned.

• product, event, company or subject matter research
• purpose
• what this is used for
• how this is used
• what will the end user needs this for
• what are the benefits
• what are the detraction's
• who should use this and why
• costs,
• shelf life
• availability
• origins
• so many other research issues  most of which are subject matter dependent
• target market research
• who should read your content and why
• language issues
• culture issues
• demographic issues
• male / female
• target market groups and lay out preferences
• education and literacy skills
• Target market selection process
• Topic research
• key word research
• Image selection
• Additional meta data
• Additional mark up such as schema
• Author and publisher issues
• design criteria for online content

Your off line marketing team needs to be aware of  these issues and make wise use of the research notes and other related documentation of both previous as well as future online content.  This will assist them in their choice of words, images, context and related marketing issues, so as to ensure that they are able to plant your desired semantic seeds in meaningful ways,  which will encourage your intended target market audience to use specific words (your key words) when they construct their search queries.  Your social media team will also need these same notes and research data, as they will be expanding on this within their marketing efforts.  Your blogging team will also be using the same set of notes to develop their online content.

It is thus of extreme importance. especially from a #FUFISM based marketing perspective to get all your marketing folks around the same table,  at the same time,  to discuss your total marketing plan, and show each different marketing team, where and how their part of the puzzle fits into the big picture.  This will ensure better documentation of all processes, and enhance cross media marketing efforts.

It is of extreme importance that all your marketing is done within this basic outline, so that each marketing effort can be seen as a stand alone effort, but that it also fits into and augments or supplements your online marketing efforts.  This is an awful lot more important today than it was just a few years back, and the reason is the rapid expansion of the smart phone market and the volume of search traffic that comes from smart phones and other mobile devices.

You should not forget that mobile search is now larger than desktop search, and that many searchers are using last minute searches when in your brick and mortar establishment to ensure that they are getting the best deal, be it price, product support or after sales care.

What this means is that your target market is more educated and more aware of your competition, so you need to ensure that your online content is found above that of your competition, and that your social media team are on the ball, and ready to answer questions at the drop of a hat.

Once again your customers journey starts when they first discover your off line content, and then use the info found within your off line content to venture further, by searching online to discover more about you and your business.  The next step along the way is usually your social media space, and that is the reason that you need to expose your target market to your social media presence within the off line environment, and associate your social media presence with your product, service, event or other information.

Your Off Line marketing thus has an awful lot of value and importance to your online marketing, and needs to be taken seriously.  You need to ensure that all three of the SEO sectors are addressed and properly integrated into your total marketing plan at the highest level.  preferably at the C-SUIT  (Chief Something Officers) level

Once again these three sectors of SEO are, 1) IPSEO, 2) OPSEO, 3) OLSEO

knowing your customer and intended TARGET MARKET

  The true value of knowing and understanding your customer base and intended target market audience is one of the most important aspects of your SEO strategy.

Before you can know who your customers are, and who your intended target market audience should be,   you need to do the relevant research and have the company action plan in your arsenal of documents that you will be using as reference points in your target market research.

Knowing the purpose, aims and objectives of the company are very helpful in doing your target market research.  Having access to the product / service or event documentation, that you will be marketing and all related information is also a pre-requisite to any serious topic and key word research.

Access to your company accounting records, showing the contact details and any other information that may be available such as buying patterns, product usage stats,  service complainants and complements as well as any recommendations that may have been sent to the administrative staff  are of extreme helpful nature during the early stages of the SEO process where key words and selected topic structures are selected to be turned into online content for your information consumers (intended target market audience) to consume.

Content that supplies an answer to your interned target market audience as well as your current audience and customer base is highly recommended as potential online content, and this should be a very highly sort after content category. If you do not know your intended target market, how can you satisfy the information  needs of your intended target mark.?

How do you get to know your target audience so that you may use this within your greater marketing vision?

Target market research is a very delicate affair, where great care should be taken to ensure that all false positives are eliminated from your target market makeup.  failure here can be very costly further down the line, when your online content suddenly starts to tank out of the SERP's due to a very poor conversion rates as well as bad  bounce rates The false positives within your target market mix is the biggest cause of this terrible state of affairs that is going to be very costly to repair. 

If you take the time to do your target market research properly,  and document this in a manner that others can easily understand, and also have access to, then things further down the line also become an awful lot easier.  From a #FUFISM based marketing  perspective this documentation of your intended target market is vital, as the post publication stages of your SEO where you concentrate on expanding the influence of you  published content through the #OPSEO (Off Page Search Engine Optimisation) stages of your SEO using the various social media marketing techniques where link building, network building, inbound marketing, SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and so many other techniques are applied, all have the same target market and focus on the same basic keyword set that is used within your #IPSEO (In Page Search Engine Optimisation)

By taking the time to know and understand your intended target market audience, then documenting your findings,  you allow your various online marketing teams to have insights into how they should apply this information.  This will help your copywriters for your  various online platforms to collaborate and share insights as to the methods that they use within their specific platform, and how other copywriters in other platforms may make use of their content to bolster #STFSEOVI (Semantic Trust Factor Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators)

If your copywriters all have access to this customer / target market centric information, as well as the issues around the In Page SCHEMA tricks and other related techniques used to expand the semantic footprint of your original web site or blog content, then these can be used as well in ways that  enhance your semantic footprint and add value to the related SEOVI associated with the IPSEO.


It thus follows that knowing your target market audience and customer base are an essential part of the SEO process that needs to be shared across different marketing platforms, as they all have the same basic issues when it comes to connecting with the end users thinking patterns and related online behavior.

Once your web site content is published the real SEO takes place within the social media, where your social media posts discuss your web site content in ways that entice your intended target market to click through and consume the content within your web site.  Social media marketing thus also forms a large portion of your traffic driving techniques and plays many different roles within your total marketing strategies .

Improving the STFSEOVI or Semantic Trust Factor Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators is not the only function of your social media marketing. Driving traffic to your web site is also part and parcel of your social media marketing aims and objectives.  Link building and network marketing are also part and parcel of the SEO factors included in your social media marketing efforts. There are also a host of other issues that are addressed by your social media marketing such as but not limited to :

inbound marketing
customer contact  and information sharing issues
HR (Human resource) issues
PR (Public relations) issues

*knowing how your intended target market audience perceives these issues, and knowing how to frame these issues in a manner that best suits your intended target market is thus a vital issue that can only be addressed through a clear understanding of who your intended target market audience is, and why this population segment was chosen as your intended target market audience  in the first place*

IT IS THUS IMPORTANT THAT YOU KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS AND INTENDED TARGET MARKET AUDIENCE VERY WELL.

 Knowing your customers and intended target market audience allows you to target them in an informed and well managed way, that would be impossible other wise.  Knowing your audience allows you to address their pain points and service their information needs  from an informed perspective, so take the time and do the necessary research, and remember to document this research clearly, as many different marketing professional will be relying on this vital information in their planning of content strategies and associated work.