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Door buzzer chirruped happily. Postal delivery? Lost lamb arriving late for one of our MS training courses, maybe?
Ah, no. A brace of recruitment consultants to meet me at the door to my office even before I could reach reception, brandishing shiny brochures and no name brand chocolates. Suited and booted, He (James/Matthew/Ahmed) apologised for the unexpected interruption while she (Sarah/Sarah-Jane/Sara-Lee) held out ‘some info to look at in my spare time’ (spare time? Interesting idea) and offered me a sugary treat.
I declined both of course:1) the shiny folder as I knew it would end up in the trash can and I know those tarted up bits of promo are a good couple of quid a pop.2) the sugary treat because my(and company) policy is not to take anything unless I can guarantee a return.

I saw them on their way with refreshments from our fridge…and of course with the gift of one of our info packs.

The last few months have seen similar visits and offers of gifts from a range of other vendors. On reflection I have felt myself fortunate that I have not yet had to do the same. Personally I don’t like unsolicited calls and each morning has become a ritual of deleting spam from my inbox but someone turning up at my desk is in a league of its own.

For the last five years Mouse training has been reliant on a steady stream of referrals from our web site. These have been fed in part from Ad Word campaigns on Google, Yahoo, most recently MSN and to a lesser extent natural searches.

However, gradually as people stop answering their phones and retreating behind spam filters this market place has become more crowded and unlike some queues where everyone gets into the stadium eventually, only those with the best search engine optimisers or the deepest pockets will get seats to this event.

Perhaps we all need a new sun to worship. Ideally I will still bring some offerings to the old temple but I am going to suggest in the paragraphs below another path to follow.

Can we all continue to run with the herd?

Researchers have studied contrarian behaviour called the Minority Game.

The Game is based on a now classic problem posed by the economist W. Brian Arthur set in a popular bar. Everyone liked going to the bar but when crowded, it was not a fun place to be. In these circumstances what is the best strategy to maximise a fun evening out. Should you avoid week ends? Go early? Go Late? Surely everyone else will be doing the same?
A similar concept, would be the idea of living off peak? Going to the supermarket on Monday at 10:00 PM. But of course by then there is no fresh bread.

Naturally there will be some people who doggedly stick to the same strategy out of natural conservatism and go to the bar on Friday night and the supermarket on Saturday morning and others who will switch strategy more than once to improve their happiness quotient.

When you are in a queue of traffic and the driver three cars in front suddenly turns left and is immediately followed by the next two cars, should you follow? Does the driver in front have a better route or has he/she, out of frustration, decided to return home followed by twounexpected new friends

If we assume for the moment that there is no right or wrong answer as to the right strategy but just bear in mind that in the right circumstances, key players will pick up on the behaviour of some contrarians, follow a minority…and the herd of wildebeest will thus turn in a new direction.

Let’s take the idea of the Game theory into the world of Google Ad words and natural search.
When a punter searches for my organisations goods and services, using key words I have oh so carefully researched, I, like every other punter, would like to be in the top ten, thank you very much. (For a more technical explanation of the full story behind Google Adwords and natural search algorithims vist our web site www.mousetraining.co.uk.)

If everyone is thinking the same: Cold calling becoming more difficult. Email shorts being beaten back as spam.

Then marketing spend and the cost to organizations of search engine optimization expertise for the free natural listings and the cost of advertising in the paid advertisements (to the right on the same search results) can only go up and there can only be a limited number of winners visible on page 1 of Google and many losers lost to view in the servants quarters.

Since Google is the market leader par excellence in both areas of natural and paid search this is effectively the same as everyone worshipping the same Sun God.

With the current down turn in the economy in the UK and USA, everyone is also following the same herd instinct, spending more on their web sites and more to improve or maintain the status quo with the position of their ad campaigns. The same herd instinct is plainly evident in the stock market.

Any search on the internet produces millions of pages of information with even more cunning ways to please the great God Google with the gift of a perfectly optimised web site to match its current algorithm. Alternatively, there are those offering advice on how to make your Copper shine like Gold. There is even a debate at the moment about how to hide additional hyperlinks on full stops in web pages to please the search engines but unlikely to be clinked on by users.
However, just as there are only so many take off and landing slots at Heathrow, as more companies abandon traditional sales methods to attract sales leads in favour of web searches, the price must go up.

What minority games are being played in the great search engine game? What can I do and what can you do to be different?

Well, I’m certainly not going to pick up the phone and ring all over London to enquire if anyone would like to attend next month’s Excel Advanced course on the 28th.
I don’t care to send out yet another email shot to 10000 people filling up unsuspecting inbox’s with any more spam mail than I have myself.
Don’t want to attend any more exhibitions
…and absolutely will not be knocking on any doors armed with boxes of pound store choccies.

Everyone wants to be the first Wildebeest to change direction and be right about it. No one wants to be devoured by the market Lion for being the organisation who arrived to market too early, too late or just got the new path thing completely wrong altogether.

The answer to the $64,000 dollar question?

I don’t have a clue.
I’m just one wildebeest heading off in a new (?)direction, hoping that I am right. And if I am, the pack will take some time to change direction and catch up.

Perhaps it is time for organizations to be more honest in their geographical scope.

A recent search I made for “Excel Training isle of Wight” threw up a broad assortment of companies, none of which were remotely connected to that fair isle. Similarly, the paid for ads produced names that were in the same manner, disconnected. Surely it should be easier to find local “insert service as appropriate”. Now I know the Google and Yahoo have introduced more specialist local searches but even these searches are subverted by companies.

Our training company is based near Liverpool St Station in London. Of course we also want to attract attention from organizations near Holborn as well but there must come a point where the attempt to persuade the denizens of Exeter that we are local, must surely weaken our own offering. Better that a company chasing the length of its own shadow recognises its own limits.

Similarly, is the same company offering Excel Advanced Training likely to also be a strong player in network connectivity and web design? If you pick up the phone to some training organizations and ask for Solaris Training the person answering is likely to have in mind space stations, off the scale paranoia and spookily staring un-dead wives.

Surely it’s better to tell prospective customers who have inadvertedly called you about an area in which you are not located or sufficiently expert that they should try another company?

In short, revisit Google’s natural and paid searches with a much smaller trolley of keywords that genuinely describe the product range you genuinely supply in both terms of geographical scope and expertise. Now you can bid higher than your competitors for the key words you really want. Your telephones are ringing with requests about products which can be satisfied without recourse to a freelancer in the Cook Islands.

Clients will find you more easily if you are genuinely occupy the geographical area claim to.
In short, Melton Mowbray Pork Pies should produce a list of companies that supply Pork Pies in that vicinity.
As for Mouse training, no smoke and mirrors here: “Excel Training London”.

In other words approach your web site and associated campaigns with a new found honesty and you may get to lead that thundering herd.

 

http://www.mousetraining.co.uk