Strangers in a Strange Strange Land

We all live in a world of uncertainty. That’s a given, though we frequently try – very hard – to convince ourselves there are absolutes in our world. The area of search optimization and marketing is an area that has been subject to more than its fair share of certainty dreaming.

This is both art and science, and all of it is subject to the fickle desires of the end user. If Google or Yahoo was the audience – if search engines were buying products and services – then there would be certainty, then all the money pouring into those companies would bear a direct correlation to the money earned by the search engine victors.

But like I said, the audience is the fly in the ointment. They live in a three-dimensional real time world. They read magazines, they watch television, they listen to the radio and read billboards when they drive past them. They talk to their friends, they go to movies, read books, hang out in coffee shops, you’re starting to get the picture, I’m sure.

Ten years ago, we lived in a world without search and it worked well enough. People bought and sold things all the time. Why I can even remember a time when we lived without the internet, and I am told, that there was commerce before television or telephone…again, you’re probably getting the picture.

So, people are affected by all kinds of things that aren’t the internet in general and are not search engines in particular, and yet they manage to find all kinds of things to do or buy. And people will buy and sell things even if they don’t have technology (I know it seems awfully strange).

So why are we here then, selling something that doesn’t seem to matter in the big picture? Because we are part of the big picture. Cranial Interactive doesn’t just focus on search engines and paid placements. We look at the audience – the ones you have and the ones you want, and we find out what web sites they use, what search terms they choose, what magazines they read, television they watch, etc. etc.

The bottom line for us is simple: the internet is a tool, search engines are a way of using this tool. The audience is the reason, the conversion from audience to qualified lead or customer is the goal. We are not in the business of serving the machines, we are in the business of using the machines – and anything else in our arsenal – to achieve our clients’ goals.

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