The power of the internet flows from its history and the reasons it was invented in the first place. What I want to do in this and the next few posts is to help you “get” the nature of the Web. If you understand it, you can create content for your website and social media that attracts visitors and converts them to customers. You'll use pull marketing to your advantage.
So let’s take a quick look at where the World Wide Web came from.
The United States military invented the technological backbone of the Internet. Their plan was to develop a communications system that would still function in the event of a nuclear attack.
Over time this system became available to various academic institutions. In 1979 some graduate students at Duke University created Usenet. This system enabled people on different computers in different places to participate in newsgroups. This was text only, no graphics, no browsing. Just university students sharing views and opinions on topics that interested them. The Web as we know it didn’t arrive till some years later.
So, who actually did invent the World Wide Web?
It was Tim Berners-Lee. He worked in a physics lab in Switzerland and he got tired of having to log on to different computers in the lab to get at different information. He wrote HTML language, created the idea of hyperlinks, and came up with the concept of domain names and URLs. All this to simplify the process of getting information from one computer to another.
The idea of browsers and “the Web” didn’t become available to the general public until 1993. Most people didn’t get online until Netscape in 1994. Netscape dominated the browser market until the arrival of Microsoft Explorer.
So, what’s the upshot of all this?
From its origins with Usenet in 1979 to the arrival of Web browsers in the mid-1990s, the Internet:
- Had nothing to do with companies.
- Had nothing to do with making money.
- Had nothing to do with selling.
- Was a place where people could connect and share information, views, and opinions.
Pull Marketing: How to Take Advantage of the Web as an Information Forum to Pull Prospects In
The Web still works that way!! The most popular sites on the internet are Google, Facebook and YouTube.
As you can see, the driving force behind the Web is still people connecting with each other, sharing information, views, and opinions.
The medium doesn’t really belong to commercial interests, it belongs to its users. That means the content on your commercial website has to be absolutely user centric. You don’t want a website full of company-centric copy.
You know what us content writers call text on a website that’s company centric, not visitor centric? We call it, “corporate we we.” If the text on your website contains the word “we” too often, it’s corporate we, we.
You should create content for your website as if you’re talking directly to your customer, one on one, sharing with them the information they’re looking for.
The headline on your homepage needs to let visitors know they’re in the right place. Like in the canned vegetable section of the grocery store, let them know what’s in the can. The headline should also let your visitor know what’s in it for them.
Explain your features and benefits in subheads and bullet points that are easy to read. Write your site in your visitor’s language…write conversationally. Try to connect with your visitors.
Remember, the Web was invented as an information forum, a place for people to share information, and it still works that way.
The beauty of a visitor centric marketing medium is that when your customer searches on the internet, they already want what you have to sell. You don’t have to blast your message out to a huge disinterested audience, which is inefficient and expensive. Prospects are ready to buy, or at least are starting the process with their search for information.
All you have to do is pull these hot prospects in. That's pull marketing.
The questions are, will your website be there when they search? And if they find it, will they stay on long enough to get interested in your company? And the answer is that they will on both counts, with the right visitor-centric content.
Until next time,
Nick
Nick Burns is an SEO web writer specializing in persuasive copywriting and content marketing. He provides clients a winning content strategy plus the special web writing to make it work. You can contact Nick here.
