SEO Stakeholder Management
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The document outlines strategies for effective stakeholder management with an emphasis on communication, processes, and relationship-building in a corporate environment. Key principles include understanding stakeholders' needs, preparing data-driven business cases, and proactive engagement to foster collaboration and minimize risks. It emphasizes the importance of adaptability and thorough preparation when proposing initiatives or addressing urgent issues.
SEO Stakeholder Management
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- 2. SEO Stakeholder Management Search Summit Sydney 18 May 2022
- 3. Optus acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands on which we live, work and serve. We celebrate the oldest living culture and its unbroken history of storytelling and communication. We pay our respect to Elders – past, present and future – and we strive together to embrace an optimistic outlook for our future in harmony, across all of Australia and for all of its people.
- 4. 4 What’s on Know your process 1 Guiding principles 2 Talking to non-digital departments 3 Talking to developers 4 Talking to C-suite 5 Escalation 6 About me 7 Questions 8
- 5. 5 Notes: 1. <use a full stop after the numeral. Note number superscript in slide body> 2. <use a full stop after the numeral. Note number superscript in slide body>
- 6. 6 Know what your new initiative / financial request process is – and follow it! Know when you need to have proposals ready by to plan for the new year. Particularly if you’re looking for a big budget or a lot of people… Process, process, process
- 7. 7 You can have all the buy in, but if you don’t have budget or time…
- 8. 8 it doesn’t matter how good your idea is, it probably won’t happen.
- 9. 9 • Getting big initiatives done (or proposed) • Close to the end of your financial year • When things are going in unexpected ways (good or bad) When do you most often work with stakeholders?
- 10. 10 Remember your stakeholders are people, too. Get to know them.
- 11. 11 • Sarcasm and humour rarely land the way you want them to • Speak to their level (technically and metaphorically) • Sometimes the best way to build a relationship is to ask for a small favour A few reminders about communication in general
- 12. 12 Be Organised Guiding principles for stakeholder management Before you get in touch with any stakeholder You should make their lives easy by: • Respect your stakeholder’s time − For emails, get to the core of your ask quickly and be clear about what you want from them, and how it’ll help them − For meetings, set a clear agenda, and use the shortest amount of time possible, 15 mins is ideal • Have a business case ready • Remind yourself of what you’re getting in touch with them about so it’s fresh • If you can’t explain it in 30 seconds using simple language, revisit and make sure you can • Be clear on how it’ll benefit them 1 Know Your Stuff 2
- 13. 13 Guiding principles for stakeholder management Before you get in touch with any stakeholder You should make their lives easy by: • Come up with answers to their likely objections • Know their KPI’s and what matters to them • Have data on hand to reinforce your business case • “Strong convictions loosely held” • Be fully present in the moment and genuinely take on any feedback they offer • Re-educate gently if it’s needed – ask questions like “Where did you hear that?” Anticipate Listen Actively
- 14. 14 Working with non-digital departments (e.g. brand) • Never punch down – don’t make fun of the people or departments who are your stakeholders, even if you’re a part of that group • Provide wider business context and avoid using SEO jargon • Get in touch with them while they’re in planning phases, not the week before a launch – even if they wanted to, it’s too late to make changes at that point • Offer a proof of concept, lower the barriers to entry, reduce intimidation • “Yes and…” rather than “Yes but…”
- 15. 15 Delegate it, delete it, defer it or delay it If you have to say no…
- 16. 16 How to educate gently 1:1 or small department sessions • Helpful for stakeholders you’ll be working with more frequently • Allows for more specific questions and less public embarrassment • Takes more of your time New starter or onboarding packs • Get them while they’re fresh • Relatively low effort, potentially high impact • Asynchronous communication can be impersonal Create advocates • Creates a network of SEO advocates you’ve trained and who understand the benefit for their department • Have “office hours” for questions • You can’t directly control what they say, where or how they say it
- 17. 17 Working with developers • Know how they operate: − What are their sprint and release cycles? Does the request need to go through their PO first? − Have a ticket written to their ways of working − What kind of changes need to go through approvals or testing? − What languages does the website use? What framework is the JS? • Go into the conversation with a problem to solve and a potential solution based on your research • Be flexible; assume you’re going to find a compromise rather than implementing your ideal solution • Share how it’ll impact their KPIs (site speed, conversion, technical debt)
- 18. 18 Talking to C-Suite or upper management • Use progressive reporting – you shouldn’t get into the nuts and bolts • Line up to things they care about: market penetration, share of voice, revenue • Find out the data sources and people the C-suite trusts. Use those. • Use real-world examples to answer the “so what” – is your main competitor doing x? Do users say they’re confused about y? Ground it. • If you don’t know the answer to the question they’re asking, don’t blag – say you don’t know and when you’ll get back to them with an answer. Actually follow up.
- 19. 19 Find all this information by being curious and proactive.
- 20. 20 Where do I get started? In house process • Finance team • Devops • Legal • Business Analysts • Your boss or PO • Long-serving team members Stakeholder preferences • Your peers in their team/juniors • Your boss or mentor • Their PA (if they have one) • Their LinkedIn • Long-serving team members Business Cases • Brand team (brand and customer sentiment) • Customer service team(NPS and direct customer feedback) • Paid media team (revenue impact) • Competitors • Industry studies and stats from Google and others
- 21. 21 If it’s urgent and you need to escalate • Evaluate and make sure it’s really a substantial and urgent risk to the business, not just SEO. • Be able to clearly articulate what the risk is in business terms: “We need to immediately fix the robots.txt or else we’re in danger at any point of losing the entirety of our month’s organic revenue, estimated at $xx.” • Do it in person or over the phone if possible – where your stakeholders can hear your voice • Only use “high importance” flags on your email in these moments – train your audience. • Cash in your social currency to get it done – call in favours. • Send a follow up on what was done, who helped and the positive impact to the business – “we saved a potential $xx in profit.”
- 22. 22 If at first you don’t succeed… • Use a technique by James Crimmins – think of the process of getting an initiative up like building a house. • If you didn’t get your desired outcome and have done all the things you feel like you should, you’re losing water somewhere. There’s a leak in your foundations. • Go back through what you’ve done and find the leak –be critical of yourself and your own actions. • For the first few times you propose big initiatives, keep a record of what you do so this is easier.
- 23. 23 If there’s only one thing you come away with, it should be: know your stakeholders.
- 24. 24 • SEO since 2010 • Analytics since 2012 • CRO since 2015 • Lived in 3 countries, visited 40+ Who, me?
- 25. 25 Continue the Conversation Amanda King SEO Manager for Mobile Phones @ Optus [email protected] @amandaecking
- 26. Questions?