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May
8
SEM Dharma
May 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
NEARLY EIGHT WEEKS ago I wrote a post about Zen Master Bernie Glassman and his work with the Greyston Bakery and JIT. In the post I mentioned that the more I study the Toyota Way and the Toyota Production System (TPS) which JIT is a part of and the more I study the teachings of Dogen Zenji through the works of Glassman and more recently Hardcore Zen author Brad Warner -the Toyota Way and Zen Buddhism are one in the same. If you spend any amount of time reading about each and comparing TPS and Zen practices the level of discipline and simplicity are strikingly similar.
SEM Dharma
Since the post about Bernie Glassman, I came across another article which validated my conviction that elements of the Toyota Way and Zen practices are closely related. In Bob Butera’s Editor’s Note in the recent issue of Yoga Living, he defines dharma as ‘the essential order of things’. There are other translations and uses of the word dharma in Buddhism, but for me, I read Butera’s definition and liken that to the TPS tool 5s. The 5s tool (Sort-Set in Order-Shine-Standardize-Sustain) is simply a standardized way of organization. If this is your first time to this blog I have written about 5s and its use in SEM keyword organization here and here.
Additionally, In Brad Warner’s recent book ‘Sit Down & Shut Up‘, he devotes and entire section of the book to the practice of cleaning in the aptly title chapter ‘Cleaning Up Your Room’. The practice of cleaning and organization is a large part of the daily activities at a Zen monastery as it is on the shop floor of Toyota and should be when you manage an AdWords account. (Okay, daily keyword kills might be extreme, but you get the point).
Brad Warner is not only a Zen author, but also a Zen Priest and the bass player for the 80’s hardcore band Zero Defects (0DFX). Clearly a guy I’d be friends with. In both of his books - ‘Hardcore Zen’ and ‘Sit Down & Shut Up’, Warner makes several references to basic Zen practices of learning by doing and respect for the universe. The Toyota Way is founded on two main principles - continuous improvement and respect for people. As it relates to Zen, Toyota actually extends it’s respect for people beyond people into the community and the environment. The practice of learning by doing is defined by the integral part of TPS called genchi genbutsu.
The other clear relation between the Toyota Way and Zen is the fact that when one practices Buddhism one can never fully reach enlightenment. You can practice and begin to see things more clearly, but reaching for enlightenment is a never ending process. Similarly, at Toyota and what seemingly should be everywhere else, manufacturing a product such as a car or managing a process such as SEM with Google AdWords can never be fully optimized. Continuous focus on improving the process, just like continuing to reach for enlightenment, is also never ending.
One may ask that if you can never reach enlightenment or you can’t slack off and set-and-forget your AdWords account but instead it has to be continuously maintained then what’s the point? The answer is - I don’t know - but if you take the time to learn - in either case you’ll gain more clarity into seeking the answers for yourself.
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May
7
AFTER WORKING FOR some time now in the Search business I thought it would be helpful to share some thoughts about what to consider when thinking, assessing and planning for SEM (Paid Search) in a structured process sort of way. In doing so I’ve developed a 4 phase process model for SEM in which its core principles are based on the Shewhart/Deming PDCA cycle.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Process Model offers a way to address the context in which the process of managing SEM is a continuous in nature. It pulls together specific tools and a step-by-step approach for assessing, planning and integrating the Strategic, Tactical and Cultural elements of a successful SEM initiative.
The model’s flow is based upon an iterative four box model of process management. Depending on how you think about SEM process management, one either begins in the Where Are We? box by thoroughly defining and understanding the current SEM situation or alternatively, in the Where Are We Going? box, creating a vision of a preferred future of your Online Marketing program. How you begin is somewhat a moot point because the second step is the box you didn’t begin with. The third step, How Do We Get There? consists of creating detailed plans that address the main elements that need to happen as well as the supporting elements that are critical to the quality of your SEM program. Finally, you must ask How Do We Know If We Are Getting Closer? and answer by showing progress through continuous analysis and actionable reporting.
The iterative nature of this model is that it continuous and never stops asking those questions. The current situation is updated as the SEM program starts to move in the desired direction, the goals or targets are refined and clarified as we move closer to it, plans are modified to meet unexpected demands or changes in the search engine algorithms or other outside influences, and whatever progress that has been established is kept front and center to keep us on track and let us know when we need to adjust.
Where Are We?
The SEM process for success consists of four sections built around this Process Mangement Model. The Where Are We? Section provides specific tools to help assess:
Current State SEM Program
Current Measurement Drivers
Process Initiatives Map
Current SEM Program. First and foremost it is critical to understand the current state of the clients or your own SEM program. Defining opportunities for success or improvement help identify how much time is needed for initial set-up or re-organization and how soon to expect results. However, it is critical to remember to focus on the process first. Focusing on process should ultimately produce desired results.
Current Measurement Drivers. A new or re-organized SEM program almost always involves some change to the key measures that your client uses to drive the business. Before new measures can be created, the existing measures that people use to drive the business must be mapped. For example a switch in analytics applications or a switch from calendar to fiscal month reporting should be fully understood and validated before moving forward.
Process Initiatives Map. Another factor which makes changes to an existing SEM program so difficult is that often SEM managers try to make several significant changes at once. If all of these efforts hit at the same time, it becomes more challenging to measure the planned improvements and derailment of one or more of the changes is likely. Further, what can also make matters worse is that the initiatives are sometimes working at cross purposes to one another. It is critical to know that in some cases it can take anywhere from 4-8 weeks to fully understand and realize the impact of dramatic changes made to a paid search account.
The Where Are We? section concludes by constructing a plan of what needs to be implemented or re-organized. By going over all of the various assessments, the SEM Manager can begin to create a picture of the various elements that will need to be set in place or changed.
Where Are We Going?
The section Where Are We Going? consists of tools and other approaches to paint a picture of the preferred future that the SEM program is trying to move toward. Elements that need to be identified here are based on the client’s targets and goals for SEM. Some questions to consider asking are:
Are the goals targeted towards ROI or ROAS?
Are these the right goals?
What is an acceptable CPA or CPO?
What does the competitive landscape look like?
Does your current business model make sense for SEM?
What are the overall short term and long term goals for SEM?
How Do We Get There?
How Do We Get There? presents a step-by-step approach to planning and continuous improvement. In the world of SEM the success of the program is dependent on:
Software
PPC Best Practices
Campaign Organization
Communication
Market Stability
Software. The reliance on software to automate bidding, ad creative testing and other key PPC tasks should be used in areas that add the most value. Complete automation of PPC is not recommended. Software should be used in support of the SEM manager, not in replace of one. Automated SEM software, such as ClickEquations, that helps to save time, report SEM data accurately and frees up the SEM manager from routine, manual tasks enabling her to be more informed and make effective decisions for the client is critical.
PPC Best Practices. Current knowledge of how search engines such as Google, Yahoo! & MSN calculate their Quality Scores and how to manage your campaigns to take advantage of the potential for a lower CPC and higher conversion rate is critical.
Campaign Organization. This is the most important component of SEM Process Management. Highly targeted ad groups within campaigns with tightly grouped keyword sets matched appropriately with ad creatives and landing pages is the key factor. This is a highly disciplined approach to campaign organization and typically where most SEM managers fail to succeed. The level of success of a SEM account is dependent on logical, targeted campaign organization.
Communication. Reporting on the data gathered from a SEM account in a way that is actionable should be the only way this information is communicated. Actionable dashboards that are clear and in context are all that is necessary.
Market Stability. Compared to other industries Search Engine Marketing is more easily impacted by the state of the economy. Added to this is the expected yet unknown influence Google, Yahoo! and MSN can have by updating search engine algorithms which Google does often or changes in bidding rules which Yahoo! recently implemented.
How Do We Know We Are Getting Closer?
The final section helps validate and re-evaluate the planning and implementation in previous steps, provides a way to track progress and helps with continuous improvement planning around the major successes in SEM best practices. As mentioned earlier, clearly defined and actionable dashboards and other reporting mechanisms that report SEM data in context helps stimulate thinking about new measures or implement countermeasures which can be used to drive the business.
Conclusion
On a good day, Search Engine Marketing can be incredibly difficult. The forces conspiring to derail your SEM effort always seem to outnumber the forces on your side. This Search Engine Marketing Process Model is a resource for evening the score and will help assure your SEM goals are achieved more effectively and efficiently.
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Apr
12
The debate about which is more important - process or results - which of the two the customer is willing to pay for - is like the age-old question of the chicken or the egg. Like the chicken or the egg question it is next to impossible to have results without process. And for lack of better reference - the results a customer desires is the result of a solid, continuously improving process. Although I’d say it’s easier to argue that you have to begin with focusing on process. I’ll leave the chicken and egg debate to the scholars.
For me the answer to the process or results question lies in what I have read about the lean management system and what I am now beginning to implement within my daily work as a Search Engine Marketer. The most compelling confirmation of focusing on process to drive results can be found in the excerpt below from Bob Emiliani’s book Better Thinking, Better Results
The senior management team’s focus was on managing the box score, not the scoreboard. Fore example, the head coach of a football team does not tell the players that they should win the game by a score of 27 to 24. In business terms, this would be like setting up a top-level profit, cash flow, or multi-million cost reduction goal. Instead, the coach focuses on basic units of measure that players can relate to such as first downs, time of possession, running yards, passing yards, turnovers, etc. In most cases, a sports fan can look at the box score and figure out who won the game. Orry Fiume [Wiremold VP of Finance & Administration] recalled how he handled a new product line team leader’s request for product cost information:
” We hired a new product team leader. After a few days on the job, he came to me and asked for a report that showed the selling price and cost of each product that his team was responsible for [results]. I asked him why he thought it was important to know the cost, and told me that he wanted to ‘cost reduce’ those items that were not making an adequate profit. I ended up telling him that his job was to eliminate waste [focus on the process] and not to worry about the cost of any individual item. And by eliminating waste, he would be able to reduce the total cost even further than by focusing on individual part numbers.”
The message should be loud and clear - focus on the process and you will achieve or exceed desired results. Even though this example is related to finance and administration within a manufacturing company, the focus on process to drive results can be applied to any industry, even Search Engine Marketing.
When it comes to Search, and specifically PPC, myself and team members at Commerce360 focus on the process of building or re-structuring paid search campaign structures in a way that is logical and clear. Do we care about results? You bet. And so do our clients, but there has to be a starting point and it begins with the process of developing a campaign structure in a way that lends itself the potential for great results. To better clarify, it is impossible to start with a result of generating X% ROI and build an AdWords campaign structure to meet those requirements. Instead, working through a process of developing a thoroughly planned and logically implemented AdWords campaign structure will ultimately generate the desired ROI as conditions allow. And I say ‘as conditions allow’ because we can organize and continuously improve campaign structures with great efficiency, but ‘after the click’ we are left in the hands of the user’s decision to make the conversion.
The added benefit the process of building and continuously improving paid search campaigns in the way we do at Commerce360 lends itself to being able to reduce the number of poorly targeted ads (defects) being served on the various search networks. Alternatively, when there is a problem our paid search campaign structure enables us to immediately identify where the problem occurred and how to fix it.
So if there are any results driven readers out there who would debate that results should be the focus rather than focusing on process please drop me a line.
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Mar
30
IN THE RECENT issue of Fortune magazine there is an article titled “Web 2.0 Gets Over Its Goofing-Off Phase” which discusses the use of Social Media sites to save time and make money. And as we know, It’s All About Time…
In the article there is a section that discusses Twitter and how NY bases video start-up Blip.tv uses twitter to ‘eavesdrop on its customers’. the short of it is that Blip.tv began to hear chatter on Twitter about one its services and was able to quickly correct the problem. Blip.tv COO Dina Kaplan says that “If we hadn’t seen those Twitters, we might not have fixed that problem for six months.”
In a way, to me anyhow, this almost seems like an andon board used on the shop floor in a lean environment. In this case though it’s a virtual andon board used by customers who identify problems or hidden factories indirectly notifying the service provider of a problem through the use of Social Media. The only draw back to this analogy is that the traditional use of an andon board is to quickly identify problems before they reach the customer. In any case, it’s an interesting use of gathering voice of the customer data and sovling problems quickly.
In other virtual VOC related news, also this week I came across Get Satisfaction - The People Powered Customer Service website. The gist of Get Satisfaction is basically ‘a place where people can get the most from the products they use, and where companies are encouraged to get real with their customers’. In digging a little deeper into more detail -
Get Satisfaction is a direct connection between people and companies that fosters problem-solving, promotes sharing, and builds up relationships. Thousands of companies use this neutral space to support customers, exchange ideas, and get feedback about their products and services. Get Satisfaction is open, transparent, and free. You’re free to ask, free to answer, and free to start a new conversation. Everyone is invited and encouraged to participate: companies, employees, customers — anyone with an opinion, an answer, or something to say.
This is pretty powerful stuff and to some extent I would think that what Get Satisfaction is doing will help break down the traditional walls of customer feedback and integrate customers/users more intimately into the problem solving process.
Aside from that, Get Satisfaction has a real smooth logo.
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Mar
29
Online Branding for Manufacturing Companies
March 29, 2008 | 1 Comment
AS I MENTIONED a post or two ago, I tend to look outside of the Online Marketing industry to see what is happening elsewhere in regards to Search. One publication of interest to me that does a great job of writing Online Marketing articles is Industry Week magazine whose focus is on the manufacturing industry. Brad Kenney who writes most, if not all, of the Information Technology articles for Industry Week writes at a high level and covers the basics when it comes to SEO & SEM in a way any C-level subscriber should be able to comprehend.
In his March 2008 article titled “How Strong is Your Brand Online?” Kenney discusses the widening opportunities for manufacturing companies to take advantage of their websites to generate business, build customer loyalty, create brand awareness and gather market intelligence. The article is comprised of three steps to building an effective online marketing campaign with advice given by Andy Komack of Komarketing Associates.
The steps include using SEO (or losing it), stressing the importance of content and the benefits of pay-per-click advertising on Google, Yahoo! & MSN. Although brief, all points are informative and worth the read.
The PPC advice was especially interesting to me since managing PPC has been my life for the past several years. The only thing that I disagree with is Komack’s comment ” if you don’t have a consumer focus, you should keep away from Yahoo! and MSN until your Google AdWords is fully optimized.” I agree that we typically begin with Google to see what work and what does not, but in most cases whether we are targeting Revenue or Traffic in support of SEO, Yahoo! tends to have a cheaper cost-per-click and the volume to support implementing pay-per-click advertising on Yahoo! sooner rather than later. The other thing I disagree with, and this is 100% being nit-picky, but in thinking about this from a lean perspective, pay-per-click campaigns can never be fully optimized.
Kudos overall to Brad Kenney and the team at Komarketing for bringing awareness to Online Marketing SEO/SEM issues into the world of Manufacturing.
Related article: SEO at John Deere - the Case Study
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