Not long ago I came across a post on Moz which explained the notion of TAGFEE. Having never been particularly keen on industry acronyms, I baulked slightly, expecting some kind of marketing mumbo jumbo which didn’t say much. But then I began to take on board the simplicity of those six letters, standing for: Transparent, Authentic, Generous, Fun, Empathetic, and Exceptional and I realised that, as mission statements go, this is just about the best I’ve ever come across. Our whole industry, in fact, could benefit from a little understanding of TAGFEE: here’s why.
As the owner of an SEO agency, I meet a lot of people for whom SEO is something of a dirty word. Perhaps their websites have suffered some kind of penalty as a result of over-zealous link building, or they’ve spent a fortune with several different firms only to leave themselves no better off and considerably in the dark as to where their money went to. Somehow the world of digital search, much like the world of party politics or investigative journalism, has suffered from a lack of transparency. We need to change this state of affairs and be entirely frank about what we do, why we’re doing it, and how much effort it’s taking along the way. Clients need regular communication, a good understanding of the processes we’re involved in to build their brands, and detailed reporting to prove this in black and white. Perhaps even Google could learn a thing or two from this first, all important, letter in the TAGFEE acronym: not many of us are buying that its withheld information on traffic and conversions is really down to ‘“user privacy” See Rand’s useful post here if you want to find some ways and means around that one….
Authenticity
In many ways Authenticity,concerning the truthfulness of origins, attributions and intentions seems similar to transparency, but it carries another element, too. If transparency is about showing our clients exactly how we work, and encouraging them to reflect the same principles via their own brands, authenticity is about finding your own voice, and running with it. That means don’t write content which sounds like everyone else’s, but write in the way which reflects your own personality (It worked for James Joyce, right.). It means forging your own path despite the well-trodden route others have taken before you. Branding, which is something I feel every company should think about far before considering SEO, entails a level of self-definition, ergo discovering what makes you authentic. As Robert Goffee and Gareth Jones point out in their book,Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?: “To attract followers, a leader has to be many things to many people. The trick is to pull that off while remaining true to yourself.”
Generosity
What does generosity mean in business, and particularly the world of digital marketing? It means going the extra mile, checking in with your clients more often than necessity dictates, being effusive in your advice. When building a piece of great content, for example, be generous with your outbound links and you’re rewarding browsers with rich sources of information, and a means of greater education. A website which blocks your exit with annoying pop ups is adopting a stingy, grasping attitude to their visitors which, in my opinion, never makes for an effective long term strategy, despite short term gains. Earlier this year Rand wrote about generosity in a blog that detailed his strategy for open office hours and frank exchange with co-workers. As marketers we need to take this advice and put it out there in the wider community. That means being brutally frank with our clients about what’s best of their websites, not what’s going to give us the greatest number of billable hours as their search consultant. In a real sense, generosity of spirit carries the same charge as transparency and authenticity: all of these inject humanity into the world of corporate transactions.
A Sense of Fun
Since when does leaving college and joining the grown up world mean you have to throw away your funny bone. Although much of what we do is fraught with earnestness, fiscal acuity and hard-nosed analytical brainpower, the basic mechanism of laughter and play remains key to running a business, working with clients, and pretty much everything else that’s important, too. Dutch scholar Johan Huizinga posited, as far back as 1938, the theory of homo ludens as an alternative to contemporary theories which said war was core to human nature. Huizinga saw play as pretend combat, and as the source of all human culture. Man is not the animal who survives because of his capacity for battle, he suggested, but an animal who plays for the sheer joy of it and thus thrives!
Empathy
For me, empathy allies closely with transparency in the TAGFEE acronym. Not understanding our clients need for a clear understanding of how we’re helping them succeed reflects a lack of empathy. Not offering clear reports reflects a lack of empathy as does sighing inwardly when the new client you’ve been working with for only a couple of months gets on the phone and rants at you because they’re not number one yet. Now as someone who’s had this conversation a thousand times, you may inwardly sigh and brace yourself for another reiteration of the key point you outlined in your initial client interview: this process takes time. But put yourself in that client’s shoes: you’ve sent out two monthly fees now, your worrying about your overheads, you don’t really know what this SEO company is doing for you and dammit you’re a little concerned! As a digital marketeer, this is a time where your level of empathy is going to either alienate a worried client, or make them a dedicated fan. “Leaders with empathy,” writes psychologist Dr Daniel Goleman, “do more than sympathize with people around them: they use their knowledge to improve their companies in subtle, but important ways.”
Being Exceptional
If your business model is not about being exceptional, you’re likely to plod along in the furrow of mediocrity for some time to come. Being exceptional doesn’t mean you have to be a genius but it means you have to try to separate yourself from the crowd. Are you doing what your competitors are doing or significantly exceeding them? Are you coasting along on past glories or are you forging new ground and looking to the future? In a sense, being exceptional is the end result of the first five letters of the acronym and comes as a reward for succeeding in them. If you are Transparent, Authentic, Generous, Fun and Empathetic, you’re pretty much ahead of the curve and likely well on the way to being exceptional. Being exceptional doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the best at what you do: it means you are more bent on going all the way to the top.