When I was a kid, my father liked to play mind puzzles with me.  One of his favorites was to find contradictory common sayings.  In other words, it always fascinated him that for almost every statement of “common wisdom”, there would be another one which would contradict it.  My job – as a twelve year old – would be to find them.  For example, “The More the Merrier” seems to conflict with “Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth.”  “The Early Bird Gets the Worm” battles with “Look Before You Leap.”  “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” vs. “Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder.”  You get the point…

The same problem exists in business.  Sometimes I’m not sure whether I need to Cross the Chasm, make something Built To Last, or just Think Outside the Box.  Do I have the Innovator’s Dilemma or do I just need to Win Friends and Influence People?  Frankly, this is why I have given up reading business books…sometimes it feels like I’m in just one big Dilbert cartoon.  It’s way too easy to make any point of view sound credible (including those in this blog!)  And many of them conflict anyway. 

And anyone who’s had a holiday dinner with relatives and dared to bring up topics like politics or religion, you know that everyone has an opinion!  There is a seemingly relentless pursuit of the “truth” when so such thing exists.  Such is the paradox of life, I guess. 

On the web, however, there is at least something that approximates the truth.  And that’s what your visitor does on your site based on what you present to them.  Yet, we still fall into old habits.  We debate the “truth,” we consult experts, and we go to conferences for epiphanies.  However, often all we get is selected, potentially irrelevant, and often conflicting advice!  For every person that says red is better, another will say green.  Within companies, this often manifests itself in the HiPPO problem.  Yet the online world brings us the freedom and luxury that no marketer has ever had before – you can run a truly controlled experiment with your customers!  You can learn, in real time, what they are responding to and you can react accordingly.

So, the next time you’re looking for answers, don’t go to the latest craze of business books.  Sure, we can all benefit by going Good to Great, but the way to truly be great is to bring your customer into your decision making process.  Target content to them, test what works, respond, and repeat.  It’s a journey, not a destination.  A full solution here includes both a website optimization tool as well as a robust web content management and targeting solution.  These tools will likely not help you with those political debates around the holiday dinner table, but you’ll certainly come closest to finding the truth online – the most relevant, targeted, and engaging content delivered to each of your visitors to maximize conversion rates and revenue.