Pulse Theory – An Approach to Modern Marketing

In today’s world of online marketing, you need a framework or approach to string together all the activities that are seemingly countless of theories are approaches.

This is a theory or approach I have pulled together after years of marketing. This is a combination of both strategy and tactics. What is pulse marketing? Well, think of it like a body. No matter what the size of the body, it needs a pulse to give it life.  After designing countless large websites, something occurred to me. We would be building these large bodies, but not creating a system or mechanism to generate or maintain a pulse. What is “Pulse” ? Pulse is the regular activity or updates you do to evolve or change your website.

Why is Pulse important?

Whether you have a large site or not, “Pulse” is important because you need a steady stream of information kept  up-to-date for both users and search engines. Creating new content for users makes obvious sense. Users are looking for new information when they come to the site. Static sties without a “Pulse”  have a tendency to have lower return rates of traffic.  Unless your intent is to put up the equivalent of an online sign, you need to evolve. Therefore, creating content on a regular basis is the equivalent of maintaining a regular “Pulse” for your site.

The second element of the equation is creating regular content for search engines. This can be a highly contentious issue for marketers. I would totally agree that creating content exclusively for search engines is a bad idea. However, I would say to the horde of people who are not optimizing for search engines that they are missing an opportunity. Regular content updates are one of the mechanisms Google and other search engines use to determine how relevant your site is. To the uninitiated, search engines, such as Google, send spiders to your site to see what is new. Based upon how regular your “pulse” is they send more spiders to your site to make sure their indexes are up to date. Part of the Google algorithm is based around the age of that content, simply meaning that the newer it is the better chance you have of getting it listed higher. This also feeds into big picture of how Google ranks the relevance of your site.

Why Use Pulse ?

There are countless analogies I could use as to why acting like a smaller or more nimble creature will help you to win in the long run.  I will spare you the metaphors and get to the meat and potatoes. Here are a few reasons why one should use “Pulse”.

1. It focuses your activity around building a lean website that you can update quickly.

Rather than building a large website that is difficult to manage, you can build a smaller site with a more active “Pulse”. Over the years, I have invested a great deal of energy having discussions and arguments over site hierarchy, which shade of blue we use, which recycled piece of clipart of two people shaking hands you use. I would argue that, to an extent, some of those long-winded discussions are a waste of energy and focus. The days of designing a website by committee appear to be winding down, but still many waste a lot of time through over-consultation. By using a “Pulse” strategy, you can build a leaner and more streamlined operation, which then focuses each of the involved stakeholders to work towards producing useful content and not simply argue over minutiae.

2. It allows you to create a steady stream of content for social networks

While  I would argue that many marketers are over-investing resources in Social Media, you can use a Pulse strategy to feed social media. Right now, many groups divide content creation and the mechanisms or tactics in which information is prepared. The key to any good marketing strategy is to maintain and build a consistent message while getting as many impressions as possible. For many smaller organizations, the strategic re-use of information is critical to build relevance. The core of “Pulse” is to pick your first point of publishing information – this could be an website or blog. Secondly, take that information and pick all of the tools or mechanisms to publish it. This could include the following:

1. Email
2. Twitter
3. Facebook
4. Landing Page
5. Blogs

3. It allows you to sync your activity into other marketing streams

As you build a series of content for one information stream you can use it to build others and reinforce older messages. Rather than creating brand new content for your email newsletter, take highlights from your blog, Facebook posts and tweets to build your message. Today, marketing departments are being asked to do more than less, therefore you need to be tactical about creating and re-using materials. Creating an effective flow and method of re-using content is essential.

4. Allows you to evolve your website.

One of the biggest problems is the issue of decaying content. Every time you post a new piece of content, especially one  associated with an event, it has a half life. Unless you have new content to replace it your website will look dated. Traditionally, as stated earlier, many companies or organizations would spend a lot of time building and launching the Titanic. The website was usually then released to great fanfare. The reality is, though, that unless you are ready with your next act your first one can be quickly forgotten. “Pulse” gives you a framework to do that so that people will remember your finale rather than just your opening act.

5. Allows you to involve multiple stakeholders

By creating a regular channel for people to participate you can assign responsibility to multiple stakeholders for contribution. Rather than fighting over the minutiae, assign each key group as a content contributor. One must move beyond the traditional committee approach and find a way to turn all parties into content developers. Entities like YouTube have made it possible for anyone to be a content creator.  You can apply this concept to your own site.  This can be easier said than done, especially with established power structures within larger organizations. I will write a future article on how to manage the politics around changing  or evolving a corporate website.

Summary:

This article is just the tip of the iceberg of what Pulse Marketing is.   This article is aimed at giving a high-level outline as to what “Pulse” is and how you can use it effectively to evolve your marketing department. This will be the first in a series of articles on finding your “Pulse”.