The Zoom In, Zoom Out Approach to Successful Search Campaigns

I recently came across an interesting analogy for a decision making approach called “zoom in, zoom out.” Similar to a lens on a camera, you zoom in to see a significant amount of detail in a small area and zoom out to get a wide picture of the environment, leaving out much of the detail. This analogy was developed by Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, and after reading the article on BNET, I determined that the analogy could be applied to search marketing campaigns as well.

 When considering strategies for search campaigns, it is important to consider both the micro details as well as macro-level trends. Often our lens gets stuck at the micro level, or zoom-in mode, preventing us from thinking about the broader planning approach of search, which is important for trending, developments in search engine algorithms, and of course any competitive insights. Some prefer to see things up close and take a worm's-eye view in a campaign's approach versus the bird's-eye perspective. Successful search campaign strategists need the ability to zoom in and out so they aren't in fixed positions and are thus able to "see" the complete picture.

 So how do you know when you're too zoomed-in? You may be thinking too tactically, preferring to see a handful of tactics drive the performance of a campaign. The devil is in the details, and you'd rather spend time executing versus hammering out a plan that may open up other ideas for the campaign. When you're too zoomed-out, you miss out the finer details that can help build strong search campaigns based on knowledge and experience. 

 The idea is to develop wide-angle strategies, looking for patterns or trends in the industry, and then zoom-in and ask "how do I make this happen?" Often the answer comes from fellow teammates and colleagues, the problems get resolved by others, and you've learned something in the process.

 Adjust your lens and I'm sure you'll see more than you imagined.

 Thanks to Sean Silverthorne and Rosabeth Moss Kanter.for the inspiration

A Stronger Need for Transparency In Search?

 We all fib from time to time. Maybe we could be more forthcoming about certain events in our lives. When it comes to business, I would argue that leaders within industry are even less forthcoming. Within the Search industry we are asked to deliver exceptional results without raising the brow of the Search police, sometimes referred to as Google. The competitiveness of the industry will sometimes test our wholesome SEO tactics where we run the risk of tarnishing our white hat. So then the question becomes how transparent do we need to be with clients in order to achieve the results they demand?

There always seems to be trade off of who owns what throughout the Search process in almost every strategy particularly during the content creation and distribution phase. New ideas and Search strategies, whether it is a new twist in link building or content creation, challenge us in revealing every single tactic used to a client. This is most apparent when budget contraints, timeliness of implementation, and client pushback begin to surface. When do we create the Squidoo content or engage bloggers in order to push our strategy without sacrificing tranparency?

I do believe in full disclosure while understanding that there may be roadblocks along the way. Rather than let business as usual drive our Search strategy let productive thinking lead the way in creating new avenues of opportunity.

Thanks to the creators of Boston Legal for the inspiration.

Outsourcing of Strategies in a Knowledge Economy

We live in a Knowledge Economy, well at least that's what Peter Drucker tells us in The Age of Discontinuity. In fact Search as a industry is based on this product which leads me to a question - With the massive growth of outsourcing how does the search industry handle outsourcing in a knowledge economy?

Search is basically a business product within the knowledge economy and we, as search professionals, are knowledge workers meaning that we work with our heads and not with our hands in producing ideas, knowledge, and information. According to Booz & Company (a global management consulting firm) the number of knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) providers has grown 95 percent since 2000. So where does that leave Search? We'll we're outsourcing too, no doubt.

 I understand the need for outsourcing, hell I've done it myself! There's a need but what are we outsourcing and are we outsourcing the right tasks. We talk of transparency in business but I can assure you that our clients aren't aware of some of these business practices. I suppose you can make the argument that as long as the deliverable is bulletproof no worries. That's true but what about understanding the client's goals and objectives and translating that to a strategy or strategies. Do we leave that up to our internal team or does that get outsourced?

Unlike timestamped tasks I believe that strategies cannot be effectively outsourced. I also believe that when it comes to strategies for search campaigns that we, as search professionals and knowledge workers, keep our strategies to ourselves and let the guy overseas execute on them. After all shouldn't the first step in a long term plan be ours?

Thanks to Peter Drucker for the inspiration.

Productive vs Reproductive Thinking in Search Campaigns

 

When it comes to problem solving we know that we sometimes need creative ideas to resolve issues that come along. Productive thinking generates a solution for each problem. In contrast, reproductive thinking reuses an old solution to solve a new problem.

In my years in working with search campaigns I've realized that I've become complacent in not only in resolving issues that sometimes arise but also in generating new ideas for search campaigns. Process has its place in search campaigns, understood. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Ok. There comes a time however where reproductive thinking can be counterproductive. How flexible is your campaign process when a challenging client or a new initiative requires creative thinking to meet expectations? 

Don't become the tethered elephant. Get your team together and brainstorm on how you can improve upon your exisiting process and ways to develop strategies for your search campaigns. Just remember that if you do break it you might have to fix it.

Thanks to Tim Hurson for the inspiration