Building a business from the ground up is a great opportunity to develop amazing content, disrupt, and embrace effective SEO.
But what about established organisations - those with entrenched processes, legal teams, departmentalisation and small marketing teams? In the real world, large businesses don't change direction quickly or easily. Many organisations struggle to develop content strategies, implement technical changes, and embrace modern, integrated, effective SEO not because they don't want to or don't understand the opportunity, but because they can't. It's too big. Too complex. Too hard.
So, as a consultant or in-house practitioner, how do you effect change and move the needle?
We explore some practical, tactical hacks for getting things done in a world which struggles to live up to our expectations.
24. Stakeholder alignment
Start at the top
A CEO’s job is to be in
control. Frame your
language around this.
Talking in terms of
management and
competition makes it real
and familiar.
33. People struggle to maintain
an understanding of
complex concepts
Visualise it. “Can you do me a one-pager on that?”
means they struggle to grasp the
complete concept
36. Lost salary for 2 months whilst finding a new job
X hours repairing social reputation, on an equivalent day rate of Y
20% pay cut to overcome hiring challenges x 18 months to recover
Total negative ROI = ???
What’s the ROI of not wearing
your trousers to work?
Trousers it is, then.
37. Equity is a sexy concept
...and equity loss is scary
Great language for
C-levels!
38. Join up your strategy
with your tactics and
metrics
39. Connect Objectives to KPIs to Tactics
bit.ly/digital-marketing-by-numbers
Objective Goal KPI Key Segments Performance
Be seen as
thought leaders
Get people reading
and engaging with our
blog
# > 2 minute, 60%
scroll visits to unique
blog posts (per month)
Category
Author
Post
Total daily applause
rate from all blog
content (rolling, daily)
Provide the best
customer service
in our sector
Provide great content
which answers to (and
pre-empts) user
questions and needs
% satisfaction rate
(rolling, monthly)
Site section
Page type
Author
Enable visitors to fulfil
their objectives
% task completion
rate (rolling, monthly)
Task
Persona
Full process here
40. Define what competitor
strategy looks like
Pretend you’re your
competitor. Articulate
their strategy in the first
person.
Back up with
supporting evidence
Highlight
weaknesses/opportunitie
s
...before pitching your own
41. Define what tactical success
looks like
...with specific outcomes
Manages
expectations
42. USPs suck
...and you can’t create them.
Unique value proposition
Create a UVP instead.
43. All of this can get quite complex...
...so make education a freemium commodity
47. Practice with easy stuff
Change something
inconsequential, just to
stress-test the process*
*This will be a horrendous experience
48. Processes
Provides transparency
and reassurance
(any process is better than no
process)
Gentle reminder of
effort, skills and
decision-making
involved
Clear next steps
and owners, with
escalation
processes
Applies to simple
processes, too.
49. Play games to solidify understanding
Allows people to
safely admit that
they’re not the
experts Validates your
recommendations
& tactics
56. In Summary
Get the right people to tell compelling
stories in the right language, considering
the bigger picture scenario in a way which
pre-empts objections.