Kerstin Baker-Ash

A New Job

That was quick... I have a new job, pretty much immediately after I ended my last one. It's a nice feeling, because I'm now allowed a bit of luxury (and not feeling like I have a gun to my head looking for a new one). When the time is right (it's not, right now) I'll share more details, but I wanted to make it known that I'm off the market, rather officially.

I'm very excited about the role. It fits like a glove (not like an OJ Simpson glove, either), and I've already had the pleasure of getting to know some members of the team. It's one less stop on the Tube and no changes on the line, so even the small things about the job (and the proximity of many, many coffee shops) are getting me pumped up.

The thinking is that I'll start soon-ish. I'm taking the time off to cross off a couple of things that need doing around the house, and organization of my life and routine. I'm also chasing the not-so-helpful people over at Taylor Wimpey (who built our house) to fix the garage door for the second time; if you're in need of a guillotine in the Hertfordshire area, please let us know - until it's fixed, our garage door serves as an effective one.

It's amazing how going full tilt at work and taking vacations away from home have caused boxes to pile up on us, unopened for the most part. Grand plans of unpacking boxes from our move to the UK from Ireland (two years ago) and even from Canada (nearly four years ago) only started this weekend, and we've found many treasures along the way. My brother gave me a pair of Roots earphones many moons ago, and I serendipitously found them just after my current ones handed in their notice. Photo albums from high school made a welcome reappearance (no, I will NOT be posting what I looked like with braces), and I found some very nice soap from Lush (a gift from my father last year, thanks for the hint!) which had been waiting patiently in a suitcase from Canada. My mother who, up until very recently, operated coffee shops in Toronto, gifted us some coffee which I've been drinking during my "woman of leisure" mornings. I'm looking forward to starting; fresh, relaxed and ready for a wonderful new challenge.

/cheese

My Work Farewell Letter

It’s been a great eighteen months at I Spy.  From the warehouse in Battersea to swanky Haymarket, I’ve had a wonderful time and met an amazing bunch of talented and energetic people. Thank you all for helping me grow and develop within the SEM industry; you have each taught me things I wouldn’t have been able to learn without your help. I will miss the team at I Spy, not least because you have helped contribute to a wonderful working environment which pushes everyone to achieve great results; that has been reflected in the honours and recognition we’ve received so far, and I can only see many more to come for I Spy.

 

I will cherish my memories here, especially the banter and camaraderie that has developed so organically with each team member; it’s been wonderful to meet and develop friendships with you all.  Being a part of a company that has grown substantially over the past two years and has great prospects for the future has been an honour and a privilege, and I wish each and every one of you the best of luck.

 

Trying not to sounding like a high school yearbook entry –  please do keep in touch. Stevenage has a hopping bar scene (i.e. my house) and I’d be happy to host a night on the big town. J

 

All the best,

 

Kerstin

Seeking New Challenges and Greener Pastures

If the cat isn't out of the bag already, I'll be leaving I Spy Search on Friday, January 23rd. I have nothing but good things to say about I Spy; the team is made up of a great bunch of people and I'll look back fondly on the times I've had during my eighteen month stint. I've been developed, challenged and supported and I'm ready to move on to the next big thing.

This means a couple of things. Firstly (and most importantly!), I'm back on the market. It means that I'm looking for a company with growth opportunity, challenges and a great atmosphere; ok, so it's a bit clichéd. My ideal role would be one where I get to specialize and develop within different aspects of SEM, where my passions and talents are nurtured and recognized. I'm looking for a company who are considered to be thought leaders and innovators in the industry, with a reputation of pushing the envelope in developing new techniques and ways of looking at SEM best practices.

What will you get in return? A passionate, energetic search marketing professional with six years of experience in the search space; a multi-lingual practitioner who delights in engaging clients and colleagues across the spectrum with best practice, granular account management and a track record of exceeding expectations. The small print includes GAP Qualification, Microsoft AdExcellence, SEMPO membership and a classically trained mezzo soprano (if you ever need a presentation done via song or the company wants to enter in an industry-wide karaoke competition) who has performed at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center - which means I don't know the meaning of stage fright. I'm a voracious reader, and digest a lot of industry news to see what I can do for my clients to improve their campaigns. I love speaking, and have been honored to be invited on panels at Search Engine Strategies and SEM Canada. 

Would I be a good fit for your company? E-mail me, and let's have a chat.

SES London!

I'm incredibly honored to be speaking at SES London next month. I'll be speaking on two panels, and I'm looking forward to having loads of valuable learning opportunities, and a chance to connect with some of the people I respect most in the industry.

My first SES gig was in Toronto back in June, and I'm excited to get back in the saddle, share some industry know-how and develop myself professionally. I'm a bit of a tart when it comes to speaking in public; where some people get stage fright, I get a huge kick out of it and genuinely enjoy engaging with people across the industry spectrum. 

What am I looking forward to the most? I think it was a brilliant choice to kick off the conference with a keynote from Matt Mason, the author of The Pirate's Dilemma. So often, it's a technology talk or where search is headed spiel, but this is an all-encompassing, culture-shifting look at how we will do business and engage with a new generation of adults with a vastly different concept of ownership to those even in my own generation.

Other sessions I'm psyched about:

Social Media Optimization with Li Evans, Jennifer Laycock and Lisa Ditelfsen

State of Search Integration with Erica Schmidt, Ross Barnes, Bill Hunt and Neil McCarthy

Mobile Search Update with Cindy Krum, Motoko Hunt and Michael Boland

Beyond Linkbait with Greg Jarboe, Debra Mastaler, Dixon Jones and Brian Turner

Of course, I'm hyped up about my two panels - Ad Copy and Continuity Clinic and Search Advertising 101 with a great bunch of very intelligent industry folks including Ian Harris, Andy Atkins-Krüger, Frank Watson, Anne Kennedy and Ben Jesson. The panels are all about engaging with colleagues in the industry, sharing some knowledge and ideas - you know, the fuzzy bunny sort of stuff we like to wax poetic about. I'm looking forward to seeing you all there - feel free to drop your Twitter username in the comments and connect before the conference or say hi at the Business Design Centre in Islington.

See you soon in London!

Update from 23.02.09 - The recap I posted about SES London is here.

Yahoo Cans Content Match

Logging into Yahoo! first thing this morning, I've noticed what was reported yesterday by PPC Hero and Search Engine Land; Yahoo is canning content match in the UK. A bit of mild work is necessary to opt out of the content network:

1. Click on the Administration tab.

2. Click the "Edit" button, found in the "Tactic Settings" box.

3. Set "Content Match Status" to off, then save your changes.

Lather, rinse, repeat for all your accounts. Is this a suggestion by new Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz that there are more changes in store, or is it something that's been on the cards for a while? I suspect it's the latter, and just curious timing rather than a prediction of more cuts.

The Holidays Might Be Over, But Are Yours?

Living in a world where technology has evolved in service of our business and personal needs, you'd think brands would understand that changing ad copy over the holidays would be beneficial to their brand perceptions. It surprises me how far pay per click marketing still has to come to be regarded as a profession; right now, it seems like it's still chock full of half-baked attempts by offline marketing managers interested in "that internet thing".

As simplistic as the process of ad scheduling (dayparting for you old school types) is, it seems to have escaped a number of retailers this year. In the spirit of the holidays, I'd like to offer a very quick and easy way to ensure that 2009 is the year you start looking like a rockstar to your board.

Step 1: Create two campaigns - one for pre-holidays and one for after. This is especially important if your business is expecting to put on a Boxing Day or January Sale.

Step 2: Create a list of keywords and copy them across both campaigns so that your keyword inventory is identical. This only makes sense if you don't have any seasonal-specific keywords (we'll get to sale keywords later); don't copy "Christmas Turkeys" over into your post-holiday campaign - chances are the people that are searching for that keyword might be looking for something else.

Step 3: Write some ad copy. Keep it relevant to the season - Christmas Special: Socks on Sale, Guaranteed in Time for Christmas is great for your pre-holiday searchers, but make sure you create an equally relevant ad for your post-holiday traffic. Something along the lines of 20% Off All Socks - Boxing Day/January Special! usually works a treat.

Step 4: In "Edit Campaign Settings", opt in to ad scheduling (i.e. turn it on!):

Step 5: If you've never turned Ad Scheduling on before, you'll have to specify your time zone. For single time zone countries like the UK, it's relatively easy. For US and Canadian marketers, make sure you select the right time zone for your business (if you have a physical location in Houston, it makes zero sense to set your time zone to pander to Yankees on the East Coast; make sure you set it to Central). Setting up different campaigns for different time zones is another post altogether, so we'll keep it relatively simple. Remember - you cannot change your time zone once it's been set. Make sure you don't accidentally set it to Tapei (GMT +8); it can get a tad confusing.

Step 6: Christmas Day was on a Thursday this year, so you can set your ads to go off  without interrupting your turkey conquest plans. Name the time you need your pre-holiday campaign to go off, and it'll go off. Then, all you need to do is make sure that you do the same for your post-holiday campaign - except this time you schedule a time to turn it on.

This is a pretty simple way to protect your brand reputation online. For instance, I'd be very unlikely to purchase something from the retailer at the top of this post, just because they haven't shown me that they care about their products or their brands enough. I know it's not advanced PPC techniques, and there are a load of programs out there that can switch on and off by specified date - this is just a ridiculously simple, band-aid fix to make sure you look like you want your customers' business post-holidays, even if you're still sipping mojitos in Varadero.

Bonjour, 2009!

We have a lot of things to look forward to this year, not least of which is a clean year with no mistakes in it. Personally, I'm looking forward to welcoming two new baby girls to our family in Canada in January and April (lots of pink!), my grandparents' 62nd wedding anniversary in July, James' cousin's wedding in August, and a host of brand spanking new things we don't even know about yet.

I had meant for this to be a post about my goals and aspirations for 2009, but I think that's a bit forced. I want to engage in the SEM industry even more this year, get a bit further professionally, and put blinds up in my living room; that's about it. I desperately want to take a breath this year, relax and enjoy living in the moment. I want to make use of our home gym which my husband has kitted out like a luxury contractor (he's an actuary, but a brilliant handyman on off-hours). I want to get the aforementioned and pictured grandparents over to the UK for a visit. I'd like to see the industry advance in the United Kingdom (and Europe) as much as it has in the States last year. I'd like to start video blogging, and maybe sing some more (not in the same video). I'd like to spend more time in my garden and kitchen, and have aspirations about making bucketloads of jam and tomato sauce from scratch. I'd like to learn a new language - not to be fluent at it, but just to be able to order fish in Portugal or wine in Prague would be nice. I would appreciate more feedback on my writing, my blog and my offerings to the industry. I want to engage more in the industry, and make a name for myself. Above all, I desire health, perspective and a fresh outlook on my purpose in life in 2009. It's a big, ambiguous ask list, but one that truly reflects where I am at the moment and where I need to get to.

Happy 2009, all!