organisation hacking
DESCRIPTION
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.TRANSCRIPT
N
HACKIN
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bit.ly/organisationhacking
I don’t think that you can
take a ‘legacy’ organisation
and really, truly, integrate
SEO effectively.
So cheat.
Everybody
Jono Alderson
Head of Insight @ Linkdex
@jonoalderson
Collette Easton
VP Enterprise @ Linkdex
@gincollette
Tactica
lexecutio
n
Organisationa
l
Strategy
Our Challenges
Websites, platforms,
tech, CMS, IT, dev...
In-house...
It’s getting harder to effect change without
actually changing stuff
Agencies...
It’s getting harder to outsource SEO as a
stand-alone or compound service
We Struggle
Understanding
Content/campaign signoff
Technical improvements
Disruptive or real-world change
Legacy Organisational Structure
Departmentalisation
Some organisations can’t,
and never will, have a
content strategy.
You’re trying to do new,
complex things
You’re relying on
processes which don’t
exist
(many organisations don’t have mechanics
for any kind of structured change)
Has everybody seen this?
...and this?
Yikes
.
Opinion, experience &
entrenched behaviours.
So what can you do?
Strategies for winning
Don’t underestimate politics
It’s bigger than
you, and bigger
than SEO.
Stakeholder Impact
Hint: Individual,
human beings,
with goals, fears,
and motivations
The ultimate in change
management?
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.
Stakeholder Persuasion
5:10 - 6:10
ish
Stakeholder buy-in
Create a plan
Some Tactical Thinking
Overcoming Objections
Anticipate, kill, and wow people.
Get off the defensive.
The biggest objection...
There’s a finite amount of this
Newsflash!
Budget holders don’t care about your campaigns,
Google, Pandas or links.
Show the numbers.
Removes
opinion
Nobody’s
gonna’
challenge this!
Compelling.Detail available
Show your working.
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
Manages
objections!
Visualises a
complex concept
Tells a hard truth,
safely, with a solution
But also…...focus on opportunity cost
Fear, greed and loss aversion
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.
Equity is a sexy concept...and equity loss is scary
Great language
for C-levels!
Join up your strategy
with your tactics and
metrics
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
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/opportuniti
es
...before pitching your own
Define what tactical success
looks like...with specific outcomes
Manages
expectations
USPs suck
...and you can’t create them.
Unique value
proposition
Create a UVP instead.
All of this can get quite
complex...
...so make education a freemium commodity
Roadmaps
Reassuring(ly
complex)
Reaffirms the
strategic
context of
tactical actions
Highlights enablers (and vanity requirements)
Complexdecisions
Visualising stops
back-and-forth
One sheet of paper,
every aspect,
requirements and
results
Having a
recommendati
on reaffirms
you as the
expert
...aren’t really for
the techies.
Technical
Briefings
Practice with easy stuff
Change something
inconsequential, just to
stress-test the process*
*This will be a horrendous
experience
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.
Play games to solidify understanding
Allows people to
safely admit that
they’re not the
experts Validates your
recommendation
s & tactics
Entropy sucks
Relationships, businesses and services
(d)evolve
In Summary
Align your expectations & behaviour with
wider business needs
In Summary
Engage with stakeholders in their language,
in their world, in a way they understand
In Summary
Don’t oversimplify, but make it easy.
In Summary
We’re human; we struggle; make it easy to
consume, share, champion.
In Summary
Be transparent, confident, and in control.
People look for opportunities to object.
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.
Thanks!