The Moment of Relevance

I was recently at the University Continuing Education Association Annual Marketing Seminar in Scottsdale, AZ. At the conference, Stefan Tornquist of Marketing Sherpa talked about online marketing in terms of "The Moment of Relevance." This idea really resonated for me.

So, what is the moment of relevance? It's that special moment in time when a consumer is searching for a specific product or service - one that YOU offer. The science and art of online marketing is about making certain that your product/service comes up when the consumer searches the internet. That sounds easy enough, right? Wrong.

There are a lot of factors to consider:

• Have you optimized your site for search engines? In other words, have you found out what keyword phrases your customers are typing into Google at their moments of relevance, and are you then making sure that those keywords are well represented in your title, description, and page-text? Is it working?
• Are you running a paid search campaign on the search engine that the consumer has chosen to use? Google has over 60% of the market share, but if you're only on Google, you could be missing out on 40% of your potential consumers?
• Is your site attractive, functional, and up-to-date? If any of these are missing, it could mean missing a moment of relevance?
• How are you interacting with your customers? Are you available for a live chat? Do you talk to them on your blog? Are you taking advantage of the many other ways to get noticed online like squidoo.com?

These are just a few of the many things to consider to capitalize on "The Moment of Relevance." What other ideas do you have?