Follow Your Nose! – Scent Marketing
Scientists have determined that of our five senses, smell (scent) is our most powerful sense, the one that evokes or conveys the strongest memories and feelings. Similarly, the concept of scent marketing in landing page optimization and search engine optimization is one that’s vital to understand and take full advantage of.
“Scent marketing” alludes to Internet users as being information foraging animals; we use textual and visual signals, or scents, on each site and landing page to which we are directed, following a path toward the information we seek.
The scent of information on a website consists of textual and graphical cues that:
- Facilitate clear navigation (where can I go)
- Allow for quick orientation (where am I) and
- Communicate content value (should I click on this link)
As an online marketer, you want to map out the entire user journey, from the first search term or word he types in to the purchase of your products or services.
From a marketing standpoint, searchers should ideally be able to query search engines and be delivered to pages that contain exactly the information they want.
If a business owner needs to write an employee handbook, for example, she wants to see samples of employee handbooks; details about local, state and federal HR policies; perhaps even case studies of how to incorporate a new employee handbook into overall business operations.
Information retrieval on the web is, of course, far from perfect. Coupled with the fact that most content providers don’t necessarily understand search-engine-friendly copywriting, searchers are often not taken to a page with the information they want. They might, however, land on a page that can lead them to that desired information – perhaps a category listing or FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page on your website.
The scent of information actually originates with the user before they even type a word or term in the search field of the search engine. It starts with how they think and feel about your product, service or brand — in other words, the user’s mental model.
This pre-disposed mindset will dictate what users search for and how they search, so it should also dictate how you design your site. If you aren’t matching your user’s mental model, chances you are losing revenue, as your users probably aren’t finding your valuable content.
A study conducted by search expert Jared Spool revealed that when visitors spotted “trigger words” — keywords that either get stuck in their heads, either consciously or subconsciously, often from advertising — on the page they’re sent to, they were content with what they found a whopping 72% of the time. But, when these same visitors didn’t see their trigger words on the pages they found, they deemed their search successful only 6% of the time.
When designing your website, ask these questions as if you were the searcher:
- Is the information I wanted available on this page?
- If not, where can I go to find this information?
- How can I get there?
- What pages have I visited? What pages haven’t I visited?
- How can I go back to pages I viewed previously (if applicable)?
- How confident am I that I’ll be taken to the desired information if I click on this link?
- After clicking on a link, was I taken to a web page that had the information I was looking for?
An effective information scent also lets searchers feel comfortable navigating your website. A keyword-focused information scent can make a site search-engine friendly as well as user-friendly.
To learn more about scent marketing, watch this short video interview with Bryan Eisenberg, author of Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimization and Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results.
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