While it may seem obvious to many of us in the industry (The so-called veterans) it may not be that obvious to all.

That is, no matter what rankings you achieve or how much you are spending on your PPC in a month, you really should only consider one thing: Your customers. 100% of your efforts must revolve around who your customer is.

In this article I give some tips to ensure that your marketing campaign revolves around your customer.

While I was unable to attend Search Engine Strategies in New York this year (I went last year – it was an incredible experience) I was surprised and glad to hear that there was an over -riding theme coming out of the sessions both from the SEM’s presenting as well as the engines.

That theme is user intent.

That means, one must understand what the user – their customer – wants when they visit the search engine and ultimately click on a search engine result whether it is paid or organic.

I started to think about my clients over the years and some of the things they have said when I ask them, “What are you looking for in this campaign?”

Many of the responses include: “I want to be number 1 for [insert keyword here]” or, “I need to lower my PPC costs by [insert value here]” or, “I need to beat my competitor [insert competitors name here].”

What is the most important element missing from these comments (and, I think, from many clients in general)? The focus on the customer.

In the years I’ve been asking the question “what are you looking for in this campaign?” I think I can count on one hand how many people responded to my question above with, “I need to reach my target audience effectively.”

While it is true that many companies are beginning to realize this now, it hasn’t been that way for some time.

I think what is changing in today’s world is that companies are beginning to realize that search is big business. As such, they have marketers interacting with SEM firms and not IT people. It is these marketing people who are asking the right questions or, in many cases, answering them the right way.

Here’s an example: I recently sat in on a call with a client and one of the first things they said was, “We have devised seven unique personas for our site and need to target each one individually.”

”What? You’ve already done the personas? We usually do those.” But you know what? They did an incredible job. After reviewing their persona information, I could put a face to the persona. I knew what that person looked like, and what his or her intent was with the site.

And that is the most important thing to consider in today’s SEM world – you MUST know who your customer is. You MUST understand their intent if you are going to succeed.

For example, if your customers tend to have completed the research stage and are in the buying stage, don’t send them to a PPC landing page with product specs. Instead, send them to a landing page with pricing and shipping information.

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