If you would persuade, appeal to interest and not to reason.
– Benjamin Franklin
People often like a social post not because they admire someone’s expertise, but since they agree with the message. Or perhaps the association makes them look good.
We’ve all shared ideas that seemed fantastic (to us) only to get a poor response. It’s tough not to feel bitter afterward. We blame them.
Incentives for the other party were likely missing… did you translate your thoughts in a way that clearly showed benefits to them? Does your personal brand have some clout?
How many times do you say “I” instead of “you” when explaining? This is a good indicator of your appeal.
In SEO, we readily discuss keyword rankings, organic traffic & technical elements like fixing canonicals. However, smart executives care little about them. Is our company earning more revenue from your efforts?
To succeed, we need to change ourselves and not the world here. Fully realizing this will improve your own life too: we all look to fulfill our needs.
With this concept, you need to go further than you think. Do you speak your audience’s language, and not internal vernacular, in your copy? Keyword research will help.
Here’s some ideas on how it can affect SEO:
- Do your titles and other conspicuous on-page SEO elements include hooks? It’s not enough to use relevant keywords… attract visitors psychologically through curiosity, scarcity and other principles.
- As Google says, “When there is disagreement between what the website says about itself and what reputable independent sources say about the website, trust the independent sources.” We are biased toward ourselves, and others know this yet we ignore it. How do you appear on third-party review sites, case studies & dark social? What are you doing about it?
- Are you creating something free to attract organic traffic? Engineering a tool or producing rich multimedia is among the best ways to secure attention in a whole keyword category. Creating something that helps others is always a solution to improve not just your company but yourself too, gaining control of your destiny in the process.