SEO Tools -

Time 2021-11-11 09:06:40

Web Name: SEO Tools -

WebSite: http://www.seotools.net

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Youve Got Some Explaining To Do Dec
17

Do you get blank looks when you tell people what you do?

I know I do.

Many people aren’t familiar with SEO, so it can be difficult to put the role of SEO into a context lay people can understand. Search marketing is complex, so sometimes it can be a struggle to get across all the benefits we offer in a way people can easily remember.

Whilst explaining is something we all do, there are techniques we can use to improve the clarity of our explanations, and to make our explanations more memorable. So, if you need to give a speech, write a proposal, a white paper, a presentation or a blog post,  here are a few ideas on constructing good explanations.

What Makes For A Good Explanation?

An explanation makes facts understandable to an audience. However, an explanation isn’t just a list of facts. Without context, facts can be difficult to comprehend and remember.

All good explanations have one common result: they make the audience feel smarter.

There are three steps to creating a good explanation: planning, crafting the message, and verification. We determine what we want to communicate, we create our message, and then we verify the message is received and understood.

Planning

Planning involves identifying the audience. It is our audience who decide if an explanation is clear.

A lot of business and particularly academic communication can be dense, wordy and impenetrable. If you, as the audience, don’t understand the speakers message, then who is at fault?

In many cases, it’s the speaker.

They might make themselves appear clever, and feel good about themselves, but if we don’t understand their explanations, then they have failed to communicate. The aim should be to make the audience, not ourselves, feel smarter.

Put yourself in their shoes. What questions will they likely have? If they asked “why” about every single point you make, does your explanation include the answers?

Environment Constraints

Consider their environment in which your message will be received.

Are your audience industry people at a conference, bound to their chairs for the duration? Is your audience  clicking through links and pages on the web hunting for something specific?

The environment affects how the explanation is crafted and delivered. The environment likely imposes certain constraints that also affects the message. Your talk might be limited to twenty minutes, or your document limited to so many words. Constraints can lead to more memorable stories by forcing the writer to focus.

Check out this start to a talk by Richard St John:

“This is really a two hour presentation I give to high school students, cut down to three minutes. And it all started one day on a plane, on my way to TED, seven years ago. And in the seat next to me was a high school student, a teenager, and she came from a really poor family. And she wanted to make something of her life, and she asked me a simple little question. She said, “What leads to success?” And I felt really badly, because I couldn’t give her a good answer. So I get off the plane, and I come to TED. And I think, jeez, I’m in the middle of a room of successful people! So why don’t I ask them what helped them succeed, and pass it on to kids?”

If he’d had more time, perhaps he would have gone into a lot more detail. But would it have been as punchy?

Many Audiences

Audiences always vary in terms of existing knowledge.

Unless you’re talking one-on-one, there will be some experts who have heard it all before, some people who are new to it all, and the rest falling on a continuum somewhere in between. It can be difficult to please everyone in such circumstances, so be clear what you goal is keep the end in mind, and work backwards then identify the most significant audience i.e. the people who must understand your message in order for you to fulfill your goal.

If your goal is to enlighten newcomers about the benefits of SEO, then you would craft your explanation to appeal to them, and spend less time talking to the advanced people. If you need to talk to both groups, then you’ll obviously need to bring the beginners up to speed first. Those with advanced knowledge don’t tend to mind you going over old ground, so long as you signal that is what you are doing, and there will be a payoff for them later.

Start at the end. What is the one thing you want people to do after they hear or read your communication?

Crafting The Message

1. The Five W’s

Journalists are taught to cover five questions when information gathering and researching:

who?what?when?where?why?

Known as the “Five Ws”, this is a good strategy for your topic research phase, as it helps us get the “full story”. Each question should have a factual answer.

Focus on “why”. Start with the “why”. Once people understand why you’re doing something, they’ll more readily listen to the rest.

“People don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it.”

2. Create A Catchphrase

No doubt you remember the phrase “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit”.

In “How To Deliver A TED Talk”, Jeremy Donovan talks about what makes for a great catchphrase. They are rhythmic. They often have internal rhyme (fit/acquit).

“When you construct a two part catchphrase, make the second part positive and sharply contrasting with the first part”You must acquit if the glove doesn’t fit” simply does not have the same ompf”.

Catch-phrases bury themselves in the mind, and stay there. “Don’t be evil” is a rather unfortunate example, of course

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