Students of communication know that meaning never travels in a straight line. Meaning-making consists of an interplay, a transaction, between involved parties. Clarity and relevance are the necessary conditions for keeping that interplay on the right track.

So, how best to do that? To this question, there are a multitude of answers. Two that warrant attention are persona development and SEO analytics.

Critical to persona development is qualitative inquiry. To develop a truly useful persona, you must know not only Jane Doe's actions but also the significance of those actions relative to your business goals. Why does she shop for clothes at Lands' End? How does that motivation affect your messages to her? Those are questions that human beings must answer narratively, as they entail an interpretation of experience.

On the other hand, SEO analytics is, well, so analytical. The discipline of predictive analytics involves extracting quantitative data from user behavior and using it to predict future trends and behavior patterns. What does "User A" do? And what does that tell us about what he's likely to do in the future?

Qualitative, quantitative. Which is more valuable to marketers?

The answer, of course, is neither. Or both. Understanding what your customers do is crucial; understanding why they do so and who they are is critical. Quantitative SEO analytics can be a part of persona development; persona development can be a part of the design producing the user experience that drives action. That action will contribute to persona development. And so the interplay continues.

A recent Web & Multichannel Marketing Peer Group meeting focused on these two disciplines. Dino Eliopulos, Managing Director of UI consulting firm TandemSolutions, spoke about advanced techniques in persona development. P.J. Fusco, Senior Search Strategist at Covario, spoke about driving SEO performance. Both were excellent.

As always, these presentations are available to member companies in both Mediasite (Web-based presentation displaying video of the speaker along with slides) and PDF formats. I highly recommend them.

Kyle Henderson is the UWEBC's Marketing & Communications Director. He lectures frequently on e-communications topics and does communications-software training at Madison College. He also lectures on web copywriting and branding at the UW-Madison Small Business Development Center. He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in history from Excelsior College and earned his MS in Communication from UW-Whitewater. You can reach Kyle at khenderson2@wisc.edu or 608-890-2449.