There is something that is kind of bothering me about this forum, so I thought it might be useful to start a thread to discuss it. For a marketing forum, I see very little discussion about how to reach people -- how to communicate with them, engage them, and provide a valuable service or product. Most of the discussion is about anonymous traffic and how to get it. Granted, many of us are geeks and find it much easier to talk about traffic, as opposed to relationships, but it seems to get lost that traffic is people. And it is people who are searching for something, who have a need/want. If we think of ourselves as in the business of meeting needs/wants of real people, then I think it would make a huge difference in the quality of our product.
A good point. And it shows up most when people are referring to social networking sites and their uses for promotion. Too many see it as a matter of racking up numbers - followers, friends, whatever; and not enough about the possibilities for dialogue.
I think what you're referring to really borders on copy writing strategies and consumer behavioral studies.
Those that are really successful Online have understood that it's all about building relationships... heck, you can have a list or unique visitors in the 10's of thousands but if you are not building that relationship what good will those be for you!!! Cheers, Pete