Kerstin Baker-Ash

SES in the T-Dot

I'm baaaack... for my second time at Search Engine Strategies Toronto, that is. SES Toronto is one of my favorite conferences, not least because I don't feel self-conscious saying aboot and eh during a presentation. It's a smaller conference, which means you get access to some of the top search marketing practitioners in the field without having to wade through throngs of people to ask a question. The quality is also great; these are speakers which have spoken at international conferences and bring the same level of insight and search marketing motivation they would if it were a big conference.

Programmed by one of the industry's most intelligent and insightful minds, Andrew Goodman (who is a - ptew, ptew - Habs fan for those of you who would immediately scream fangirl), SES Toronto kicks off on Monday, June 8th with a keynote from Tara Hunt. Ms Hunt's Whuffie Factor, which gets props from Wikipedia's founder Jimmy Wales, discusses how to raise social capital in online communities and translate social capital to real, tangible profit.

My session, Internationalizing Your Campaigns and Sites, immediately follows the first keynote. I'll be speaking about pitfalls and ways around them for English-speaking markets. In a world that is seeing a sharp decline in sales and market confidence, it's not about the timing of expanding south of the border (or across one of the ponds) but how you choose to package your product to seemingly similar audiences.

I'm especially looking forward to the Geek Track (aside from my own session, which is in suit-and-tie corporateville). The Ins and Outs of Twitter and the Extreme Site Clinic look like great lineups - rockstars abound.

Aside from the conference, I get to take a trip to my hometown. I've been lucky so far this year; several trips back home have allowed me to stock up on all the Canadian essentials - Kraft Dinner, Swiss Chalet Sauce and Maple Oatmeal (and see my family as well). There are some great restaurants and sightseeing opportunities within spitting distance of the Sheraton Centre Toronto, where the conference is being held. I know the exchange rate isn't wonderful anymore, but the Hudson's Bay Company store within the Bay itself is great for Canadiana, and the Eaton Centre is just across the road.

If you plan on attending SES Toronto, drop your Twitter name in the comments and let's connect. See you in the T-Dot!

Coming Up...

Yeah, yeah. Promises, promises.

Trust me, if you had a full time job (which did not involve the tiniest bit of blogging), a mountain of actions and to-do lists and two conferences to prepare for, you'd be a little light in the blog updates. I'm not complaining - far from it. I like being busy, I like being kept on my toes. I just need to prioritize sometimes, and while I love writing... hey, my $2.16 waiting for me in AdSense won't pay the mortgage (or for my latté habit).

SMX was great - I had a really nice time catching up with old and new friends, and not-so-secretly believe that the panel I was on with Kate Morris and Guy Levine was the most entertaining and informative. Takeaways from the conference (I only attended the first day because of work commitments) were a push to get search at the front of mind of clients (even from a research perspective), a desire never to be in a sales pitch or tool demo at any conference (I was in two), and that nitty gritty search marketing techniques are still the way to go for meaningful testing and actionable results. 

What's next for me? SES Toronto, of course. I'll be in town from Sunday afternoon, so feel free to suggest coffee (remember the latté habit discussed above), geeking out about search or the best place for dumpling soup in Chinatown (there's only one, and it's splendiferous). I know I've rabbited on about a sneak peek for my panel on SES, so keep your eyes peeled this week for a preview.

My Interview at SES London 2009

 

My interview with Byron Gordon of SEO PR at SES London in February 2009 - I mainly repeated my content = intent mantra with funny eyebrow movements. Enjoy.

SES London Overview

Okay - the title is a bit misleading. My overview can be summarized in a half of a sentence; a high calibre event with incredible opportunities to learn from the community on both sides of the pond. I spoke on a panel and a clinic, and a big thank you to Ian Harris, Frank Watson and Ben Jesson for their great insights; it was a pleasure meeting all of you and a privilege to share a panel with some very talented people in the industry.

One thing I very much wanted to address is the perceived lack of British speakers on panels and Clinics. Forgive me for inviting a bit of controversy here, but it simply wasn't the case. Yes, there were several members of the industry invited to speak from North America, but on the whole I found it to be balanced and representative of the expertise we're all seeking. To complain that Search Engine Strategies was full of American- and Canadian-based rockstars is similar to getting uppity about Aerosmith performing in your high school gym; what a great coup for the conference that these leaders in our industry thought the quality of SES London was good enough to fly over and participate. Also, a bunch of American accents (including my own Canadian-affected one) that attendees heard were actually based in the UK; we made very conscious decisions to have our presentations or clinics UK-centric. I'm surprised that grumblings were heard as much as they were, and it is perhaps (rightly or wrongly) borne of the assumption which sees UK-based practicioners feeling slighted at international conferences.

Rather than launch into a gushy Oscar-type speech (I'll save that for Kate Winslet tonight, perhaps?), I'd like to thank those people who shared their time, insider knowledge and company throughout the conference. I'll leave the session by session recaps to the very capable people on the Search Engine Watch blog, and just reiterate how grateful I am for the openess and spirit of sharing that existed at the conference. Li Evans from Search Marketing Gurus and KeyRelevance has posted her photos from the event, and you can see how the conference evolved (140 characters at a time) on the Twitter feed.

Thanks again for a stellar conference - looking forward to SES London 2010!

Content = Intent

One of the things I've been trying to drive home during my panels at SES London has been the concept of matching user intent to advertiser content. Simple things like following through on a promise you've made in your initial ad copy does wonders for your conversion rate, and I wanted to expand a bit on it from some of the fundamental elements of content matching intent.

You run a website that sells electronics. On an ad, you've highlighted the fact that you undersell your competitors by 10%. Eagerly, I've clicked on your ad, thinking that I'll surprise my cinephile husband with a new Blu-Ray player for his birthday. I look all over your landing page, and there's no information on the discount you've promised in your ad, nor is there any evidence that you've discounted the price. Dejected, I click the back button; you lose the conversion, I can buy elsewhere.

That entire transaction took place over 10 seconds or less. Ten seconds. That's the amount of time you have to fulfill the expectations of your potential customers, matching your content to their intent. My intent? To save 10% on a new Blu-Ray player. Your content? It didn't match. Hey - you may have the information somewhere on your site, fair enough. I didn't bother looking around your site because I immediately judged that the information you were promising to me wasn't there. If you take the 10% off at checkout, tell me on the page I initially land on. There's no point in waiting for customers to find the information out by themselves; they're impatient, and they like to have complete reassurance. Customers are giving you their money. Don't make them feel like they're the ones having to do the legwork to get something you've promised them anyway.

When you reassure your potential customers that you genuinely want to engage with them, you'll see a spike in conversion almost instantaneously. By appearing disingenuous and not following through on your promise to give them what they've specifically come to your site looking for, you not only lose that conversion at that moment - you possibly lose them for good. And you know what they say about negative user experience. They'll tell their friends, and you can potentially ruin a great customer base for the sake of a sentence of reassurance on your landing page.

Content, Intent. Content, Intent. Make sure your content matches the customers' intent, and you're golden.

SES London - Where I'll Be

Yeah, it's a tad stalkeriffic... I know. But hey, if you really want to come up and shoot the breeze, or talk about the best pubs in the area (I don't know, but I'm good at making London pub names up at the spur of the moment - Rooster and Bubbles, anyone?), this is my mostly-solid agenda for the next two days of SES.

Wednesday, February 18th

Session 1: The Orion Panel

Session 2: Listening to my colleague and fellow Torontonian, Judith Lewis (there's chocolate!)

Session 3: Searcher Behavior Research Update 

Session 4: I should probably plan on going to my own session - Search Advertising 101 

Session 5: Following on the Torontonian appreciation, Winning Strategies

Session 6: The Organic Listings Forum piques my interest - I don't want to keep it all PPC

 

Thursday, February 19th

 

Session 1: Again, should attend my own Ad Copy and Continuity Clinic

Session 2: Looking forward to the rockstars on the Social Media Optimisation Panel

Session 3: I got a lot out of the Advertising Clinic last year, looking forward to it again

Session 4: Beyond Linkbait looks fun, but all three sessions will be great quality

Session 5: I might go Beyond the Basics for the last session of a great SES London

 

If you're around, come up and 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.

Holy E-Mails, Incisive!

To the folks at SES and Incisive, thanks for the e-mail list. :) Whoops.

SES Toronto Recap - Finally

And so begins a long-overdue post about Search Engine Strategies in Toronto. It was a very busy two days, and I was honored (or is that honoured?!) to speak about the UK market alongside some pretty big names in the industry.

Frederick Marckini got "back to basics" during his opening keynote. Get your initial strategy right, and don't wait for the success to come to you. 'Nuff said.

Many people who read this blog (and don't read this blog, to be fair) know that I am an avid user and fan of Twitter. I was especially excited to attend the Twitter session with great presentations from Lee Odden, Chris Winfield and Dave Snyder. I'll let the links speak for themselves, although I'm disappointed that Kevin Ryan still hasn't been swayed into much more Twitter usage after such great presentations from high-profile advocates of microblogging...

The Advanced Issues in PPC track was refreshing, with Bill Tighe providing a bit more than just standard Google fare. I also stopped by the SEMPO Canada booth (I belong to SEMPO UK) and chatted with Alexandre Brabant in Franglais, a bit of Shiac and some Quèbecois thrown in for good measure. Result? I need to work on real French, not just the mangled stuff I picked up at university.

I was torn between the SEM Toolkit and Social Media Success panels, but since I've been on a bit of a social media bender of late (and I'm pretty pleased with my current toolkit), I went with the latter. I was especially impressed with Li Evans' presentation.

The Yahoo! Canada/Epiar party gave me a great opportunity to schmooze with some people I greatly admire in the industry, and at the risk of over-gushing, I'll leave it there.

A great conference overall, and the smaller size made making new friends and contacts within the industry easier. I'm looking forward to more SES events on the horizon, and continuing to be aided in the development of my skills by some of the best and brightest SEMs. Thanks for a great conference, guys!

Holiday Recap - The Condensed Version

Ola everyone! It's been a packed couple of weeks, with some time off for good behavior and a presentation at SES Toronto. I want to do an entire post recapping a great two days at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, so I'll leave that for later.

We had a plan going to Canada this year, which involved trying to relax as much as possible, see some family and then relax some more. We got off the flight, cleared customs (after a lengthy Q&A session with, I assume, a new customs officer who asked me to not only recite my parents' addresses but my entire family tree and their whereabouts in Canada) and drove straight to the cottage. The mosquitoes are bad this year - so much so that they seem to have forgotten my unappetizing flesh (summers spent being bitten in Muskoka used to have a great effect, they didn't like the taste) and instead ate me alive. I had about thirty bites on my legs and arms in total, but my husband fared far, far worse; on one leg alone we counted thirty-three, and that was below the knee. It was also nice to be back at the place we were married - nearly three years ago. Wow. The garden path is still there, as is my family's sign for it - they think my husband is a saint; I agree!

My grandmother's family came from deepest, darkest Europe in the middle of the 19th century, so it's neat to see things that they've built or contributed to during their time in Canada. We visited the road named after them, as well as the war memorial where my grandmother's cousin has his name. There's something wonderful about connecting to your roots, and I count myself very lucky to have my grandparents as tour guides.

We were able to take in a little wine tasting in Niagara while we were in Southern Ontario. Inniskillin is our old standby, but we also tasted at Pillitteri and Cave Springs. Unfortunately, we're good kids and don't import more than our limit allows, so we only have two bottles to show for it. If you know of an Ontario wine importer in the UK, please let us know - my first name at this domain. I'd even be happy to do a blog post about it for gratis - these Brits don't know what they're missing!

'Tis the season to get married, fa la la la la, la la la la. We had the pleasure of attending the first of three weddings this year, this one in Maidstone. The weather was fabulous, we got to schmooze with family and friends and it was a great party. We'll be back in Kent in three weeks for another wedding and another chance to wear a hat. English weddings are wonderful.

Stay tuned for a blog dedicated to the fantastic show at SES Toronto, including a recap of a great Twitter session from Lee Odden, Dave Snyder and Chris Winfield. Definitely my favorite session of the conference, so thanks for that!

We had a great holiday, but it's nice to be home. Until next time, Canada.