Maybe this is obvious to the seasoned professionals out there, but I thought this was really cool.

I was reading DuctTapeMarketing’s page on getting found by local search enginges. One of his example pages was for a biz in Kansas City called Schloegel Design Remodel. At the top of the little profile, along with contact info, etc., was the phrase (linked): “Jake Schloegel answers remodeling questions”.

Again, pretty obvious – but powerful. Jake is willing to give away free advice, and he’s willing to put it right at the front of his thing, not hide it on some buried part of the site. The effect is that I am immediately interested in Jake though I didn’t think I had any remodeling questions, etc.

Being willing to put your free information right out there in front—and not just some generic tips, but being willing to answer actual questions people have—will grab people’s attention, instantly make them appreciate you, feel grateful for your time, and put you first in their mind. Immediately, you’ve gotten three or five steps further along the decision chain, by putting yourself right out there in the open. What’s more, by being open to actual, random questions, you’ll get a great sense of what a cross-section of your audience (the people who are actually looking you up) are actually thinking about.

And on Jake’s site, the main page is actually a blog, where each post is a question from someone, with Jake’s answer. So, the site gradually becomes a knowledge base of pertinent information about remodeling.

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I was looking at del.icio.us. I searched on “marketing fun” (because just “marketing” might pull out tons of really boring stuff). (This is a really fun way to browse the web, by the way.)

Somehow, I noticed a site called MailChimp.com. It had been saved by 156 previous del.icio.us users. After browsing the site for about three minutes, I was completely sold on it, and realized it was obviously a great tool, that I would use, love, and meet my needs. To be honest, I realize I have not even given myself enough time to completely verify that this is true—but the point is that everything about the site told me exactly what I wanted to know, and it did so in ways that are not obvious.

First, I did not “read” the site at all. I scanned it. The site is beautiful. Everything about the clean, clear, crisp design tells me they have already thought through what their users want and worked out the bugs. The MailChimp tag line is “You Design. Me Deliver.”

The first subheading reads “Features you’ll actually use”. So I know (a) they have a sense of humor; (b) they’re concerned about tailoring their tool for actual users, not just being hype-meisters.

The site has a ton of “marketing” information, all of which is tailored to giving me the information I need to make a good decision. “MailChimp email design guide. Free! Click here!” “Quicklinks – Free trial… Pricing… Screenshots… Testimonials.” “Kudos from our clients…”

I guess part of my point is, the fact that they are making all the right information available for me, in a scannable format, sold me, without my even having to read it all. The fact that they know to provide it gives me the information I need to want to use their service.

I think this all points to what happens when you really, genuinely think about your customer, what they want, and what they would need to know in order to decide to use your service. The site gives a pervading impression that there’s no shenanigans hiding underneath the surface, and that’s something you can’t really fake.

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