Think People, Not Traffic

How much traffic does your website get?

Wrong question. Your website isn’t a highway, is it?

Rather, it’s a place designed to help a very particular type of person solve a very particular type of problem.

How often do you treat them as people, instead of traffic?

I am not an “audience”

We want to be acknowledged when we talk to people, whether it’s a business who can help us or an old friend. We want them to know where I’m going, and want to help us get there. We are not just an “audience”, but individuals. The more you make your message hyper-relevant to each person, the more each person will want to have a conversation with you.

I like feeling special, too

Hand-written letters don’t have measurable ROI. Personal videos aren’t particularly scaleable. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider them.

We’re humans. Not robots. We choose what will help us move forward, but we also choose what we like. What we have a connection with. You can’t really A/B test ‘like’.

The pursuit of automation and optimization often entices companies to abandon the idea of going personal. Their loss can be your gain: people want you to care, so use the channels available to you to show that you do.