Sazbean

Put Your Content to Work

Sarah Worsham — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:00:21 +0000

Posting over at Insights Group today:

You spend time out of your day writing a blog entry (and thinking about what to write). Why not get the most out of your time and effort? Use your content as a way to provide useful and interesting information to your customers. To do this most effectively, think about ways you can get your message out. – Put Your Content to Work – Sarah Worsham

Read the full article ->

Internet Strategy, Marketing & Technology Links – Nov 20, 2009

Sarah Worsham — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:30:34 +0000

We post links to stories about how to use the web for business throughout the day on Twitter, Google Reader Shared or Delicious. Also, if you have a post or link you think is worth sharing, please let us know!

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Technorati tags: internet strategy, web strategy, online strategy, internet marketing, technology, marketing, business, strategy

Interview with WordStream founder, Larry Kim

Sarah Worsham — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:34:07 +0000

Larry Kim founded WordStream, a keyword management tool for PPC & SEO campaigns, in 2007 while he bootstrapped search marketing consulting to pay for development. He secured funding in 2008 and soon after stepped down from the position of CEO to focus on marketing and product development (as VP of product development). WordStream recently released some new features including Google analytics integration and a free keyword tool, which we reviewed. Larry was kind enough to take a bit of time away from his busy schedule to answer a few questions…

Sazbean: WordStream was created in 2007, while you bootstrapped in order to provide funding. This is a particularly difficult phase for any startup. How did you get through it?

I caught my first big break in 2007 – I got to pitch my ideas to venture capital firms early on and got rejected by all of them! Rejections can be valuable if they include feedback. So, I worked for about 9 months, using revenues from my search marketing consulting business to grow my team, trying to address their concerns. When I met with them again the following year – demonstrating that I could listen, was committed to the business, and had made progress on my own, it went a long way with the investors.

Another huge break was finding awesome people early on. Every dollar being spent on an early-stage software company should be put towards advancing some kind of working prototype and trying to find customers to validate the design. I was fortunate to find a very highly skilled engineer early on in the process, who in turn, knew other very skilled engineers. And a friend referred me to a fantastic sales and marketing manager. Finding talented people is so hard – especially trying to convince people to join such a small business. I was very lucky in my recruiting efforts.

Finally, you have to be willing to forgo job stability and feel financially uncomfortable for a while. All in, I budgeted approximately 250k of my own money to fund just under a year of salaries, contractors, and capital expenses like hardware & software, to try to get past the bootstrapping phase and a successful funding event.

Sazbean: You acquired funding in 2008. How is the company different now?

It’s different (and better!) in a lot of ways:

I have investors to whom I’m accountable for results. Goals are both a source of motivation and pressure for me. Luckily, I’ve found I work better under pressure.
We have board meetings. This requires more formality in terms of business reporting and analytics. The exercise of pulling this data together allows us to better understand and react to our business challenges.
I can staff positions and acquire capital ahead of revenues. We’re 20 people strong today and have a nice office. (We used to meet in Panera Bread!)
We’ve hired a president and CEO. Rob challenges my ideas and assumptions and the product is always better as a result of it.
I’m learning a lot from very experienced business professionals who have a track record of building and growing successful organizations.
The most profound way the company is different for me personally is adapting to my new role as company founder. For example, I am learning that the most important contribution to advancing the goals of the company isn’t the work I produce, but rather the confidence and encouragement I can provide to the team.

I must say that Sigma Partners has been a great VC firm to partner with.

Sazbean: You recently announced some major upgrades, including integration with Google Analytics and a free keyword tool. Where do ideas for upgrades come from – in-house, customers, or both? Why these particular features?

Our engineering ticket list could be broken up into three sources of roughly equal size:

New features requested by customers
Experimental, innovative new stuff that nobody ever asked for
Fixes and enhancements to existing features

Another way to break up the ticket list would be according to product objectives, for example:

Stuff that makes life easier for our existing users
Stuff that would broaden the appeal of the product to new customers
Stuff that would enable our product to achieve specific business goals, like improving customer conversion rates, customer retention, etc.

I wrote a blog post that describes in detail why we think integration with Google Analytics is important for a Keyword Management Tool.

Sazbean: What other features are on the horizon?

In general we’re looking at the most painful, repetitive tasks in search marketing, and trying to provide innovative new solutions to help make search marketers more effective and productive. Sorry if that’s not the juicy answer you were looking for!

Sazbean: A lot of small business owners realize that pay-per-click advertising is important, but they usually turn to Google AdWords entirely. Why should they use your product?

WordStream takes a totally different approach to PPC campaign creation and management. We help you build better campaigns (by which I mean highly organized campaigns designed to earn high Quality Score) from the ground up, starting with more effective keyword discovery and providing tools to help you analyze and act on those keywords. The keyword grouping features of WordStream are especially powerful. They really make a huge difference in terms of how profitable your PPC advertising can be and how long it takes to organize a campaign. (And these features are incredibly useful for SEO as well.)

Sazbean: Electrical engineering to software to product management to marketing. Sounds a little like my own path. Why the change from software to the marketing side?

In college I did internships in various electrical engineering jobs – I worked in an industrial power plant and even a copper mine! The nice thing about software is you don’t have to work in noisy, dirty factories or dark underground mines, and wear helmets and safety boots to work.

But because I’m not a very good software developer, I decided to focus on software marketing and product management.

The best career advice I have for people is to specialize in something that they’re both good at and excited about. It seems pretty obvious, but I am always surprised by how many people don’t understand this.

Sazbean: You stepped down from the role of president and CEO in 2008 to go back to marketing and product management. What is the allure in marketing and product management?

I have a lot of respect for company founders who invent an innovative product and can turn it into a successful business as president and CEO. But I personally view the role as more of an organizer, whereas marketing and product management are more about idea generation. I think they take different breeds, and I’m definitely the latter.

Sazbean: Thanks, Larry!

Review: WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool

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Technorati tags: keyword tool, seo, marketing, ppc advertising, business

Internet Strategy, Marketing & Technology Links – Nov 19

Sarah Worsham — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:30:04 +0000

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Technorati tags: internet strategy, web strategy, online strategy, internet marketing, technology, marketing, business, strategy

Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say

Sarah Worsham — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:11:37 +0000

If you’re going to make some sort of guarantee or have a marketing message, it’s very important that you say what you mean (and vice versa). When consumers go out of their way to pick your brand based on your message, you want to make sure that they get what they think they’re getting. If a customer thinks you mean one thing, and finds out it isn’t so, they won’t just be confused, they’ll be a little peeved – which can undo all the effort you’ve spent marketing the message in the first place.

So I recently bought a Canon MP980 multi-function printer. Very nice. Pretty happy with it. Like most printers, it’s a bit of a ink hog, and I ran out of a few inks yesterday. I was out running errands after a meeting and remembered that Staples advertised an “in stock” guarantee on printer cartridges. Normally I buy refilled cartridges from a local shop, but I haven’t been there for this printer and it was out of the way, so Staples seemed like a good way to save myself time. After spending quite a bit of time looking through all the cartridges to find the ones that were listed on the card for my printer, I still couldn’t find the special yellow ink (that’s specific to this printer). - As an aside, why don’t they stock inks based on the printers instead of making you look everything up? -

I found a stock person to help, and he looked down the list and said, “we don’t stock that one”. To which I replied, “what about the in stock guarantee?” ”Well, you have to order that one online, where it’s in stock.” OK. I guess technically in stock could mean that it’s available somewhere in your company. To me, in stock means that if I go to your store, you’ll have it right there. The second option is valuable to me as a consumer – it saves me time from having to hunt for the ink. The first doesn’t get me anything – I can do my own searching online – and the minute I do go online, I’m going to search all supplies, not just Staples.

Upon searching their site, Staples does have some fine print that says that the guarantee applies only to the inks they regularly stock. So, I guess they covered themselves, but as a consumer, I don’t particularly care. I just know that they don’t necessarily have an ink in stock, even though they claimed so. Fine print may be fine for lawyers, but consumers don’t really care.

What do you think?

(photo by digitalART2 @ Flickr CC)

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Technorati tags: customer service, brand, customer experience, business,marketing strategy, marketing

Internet Strategy, Marketing & Technology Links – Nov 18, 2009

Sarah Worsham — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:30:08 +0000

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Technorati tags: internet strategy, web strategy, online strategy, internet marketing, technology, marketing, business, strategy

Being Able to Use Tech Isn’t the Same as Knowing How to Use It

Sarah Worsham — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:59:13 +0000

There’s this notion flying around in the real world that if you’re able to use a certain technology – say Twitter – you also know how to use it. What I mean by how to use it is using it in a way to accomplish some sort of goal – like increasing sales for your business. Being able to use any technology is certainly the first step in starting to understand it, but humans use technology for a purpose – and understanding those purposes (and all the ways to use a technology) requires a deeper level of understanding.

So what you say. Well this is important, because any good technology professional will tell you that you’re wasting a lot of time if you decide to start using a technology without some greater goal in mind. This is why many companies view their IT departments with distrust – they tell them to buy the latest and greatest technology (without understanding the biz reasons behind it), shrug off any disagreements and then are disappointed when it fails.

OK. What’s the proper way then? First you need to understand the business reasons why you’re looking for a particular piece of technology. Really this should start without considering technology at all. What’s your business goal? What are you trying to accomplish? Once you have your business needs, you can start to look at how technology can help. On the tech side, you’ll need to understand how any tech can help you fulfill your business needs, and then you’ll start looking at specific types of tech and whether they fit the bill.

Everything should start on the business side first. By understanding your business needs, you’ll be better able to seek out technology that helps fulfill those needs. Then you won’t view tech so much as a cost, but as a tool to help your business.

What do you think?

(photo by deanj @ Flickr CC)

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Technorati tags: IT strategy, strategy, technology, IT, business

Internet Strategy, Marketing & Technology Links – Nov 17, 2009

Sarah Worsham — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:30:58 +0000

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Sazcast Episode 7 – The Google Show

Sarah Worsham — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:10:49 +0000

Welcome to episode 7 of our Sazbean podcast – Sazcast. This week we discuss Google Chrome and Google mindshare – It’s the Google Show!

Show notes. Here are the links we discussed in the podcast:

Subscribe to the Sazcast podcast:

Subscribe in iTunes
Subscribe to the feed
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-5a5853ef1e849c70385dd61091eebe2c}

We hope you’ll also join us in a week for our next episode. If you have a topic idea you’d like us to discuss, please email us at sazcast [at] sazbean [dot] com. Intro Music by: Band: Tripudio, Song: Blue monday

Internet Strategy, Marketing & Technology Links – Nov 16, 2009

Sarah Worsham — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:30:08 +0000

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Technorati tags: internet strategy, web strategy, online strategy, internet marketing, technology, marketing, business, strategy