Ya know how it is when you meet new people. You go through a polite social dance, introducing who you are and telling what it is that you do. I meet new people quite regularly and have recently found an awkwardness to talking about what I do for a living. Even with family I have a hard time.
For the better part of the past 8 years, when asked what I did, I told people “I teach computer software classes.” That was usually enough to satisfy curiosity. Sometimes I’d get asked deeper questions and be able to explain the software aps I worked with, but for the most part, once they had the answer they left me alone. They didn’t dig deeper to get a better understanding of what it was I did. Computer training is computer training, self explanatory. If the person didn’t feel like they knew a lot about computers I usually heard a reply something to the effect of “Oh you would hate having me in class” or “I should have you teach me xyz.”
With PPC it is a different story. When someone asks what I do, I tell them I am in Internet Marketing. But of course they don’t know what that entails, so they inquire further. Oy. How to explain without sounding either evasive or snobby? Nobody understands what I do, and further more, nobody cares to learn it! Can you sum it up in a nutshell? They don’t get it and I get a blank stare.
Internet.com says: Short for pay-per-click, an Internet marketing formula used to price online advertisements. Same as cost-per-click (CPC).
Here’s how I try to sum it up:
I increase my clients web exposure. How? I make it happen that when Martha from New Hampshire is surfing the web, she finds what she’s looking for. Martha is looking for a 12-volt motorcycle battery for her husband Bob. My client’s advertisement shows Martha exactly what she’s looking for. Martha clicks on the ad, finds what she wants at my client’s webiste and buys it.
Martha gets what she wants (more accurately Bob gets what he wants because Martha is such a thoughtful wife), my client gets what they want and everybody lives happily ever after.
I try to sum all this up for the people I meet but it takes so long! More often, I just say “It’s complicated” and let it go at that!