Happy Holidays & The Spirit of Giving

Happy holidays, and Merry Christmas! Today is a special day. It’s a day to spend time with family, reflect, enjoy great times, and open a few presents. The last two years, I shared some of the cool digital marketing gifts I received from partners (2011 gifts, 2012 gifts). 2013 was no exception, with a multitude of generous gifts coming my way from treasured partners within the digital marketing space. Rather than share pictures of those gifts, however, I wanted to take an opportunity to share an image (and a story) of some very special gifts I gave this year…

Family Giving Tree Gifts

What you see above are gifts that Nicole and I donated to the Family Giving Tree. My amazing employer sponsored a huge Family Giving Tree drive and we took this opportunity to select three gift packages for in-need children. How does Family Giving Tree work? They are really amazing… They find families and individuals who cannot afford gifts this holiday season. They determine the gift wishes of those in-need and then share those gift wishes with elfs. Nicole and I decided to buy gifts for three children this holiday season. We purchased Star Wars action figures, a Thomas & Friends train set with extra train, and a doll stroller system. We had so much fun shopping for the children, and know that these gifts will bring joy to three special children today!

Overall, 2013 was a record year for us in terms of charity/donations (and was one of my major goals going into the year). Those of us in the digital marketing space are so incredibly fortunate. Take a moment to reflect and help others. Do everything you can throughout the day to help your team, co-workers, partners, and really anyone you interact with. Outside of work (or as a work/team activity), donate your time to those less fortunate. Outside of work (or again as a work/team activity) find ways to donate money and gifts. This truly is the season of giving. It’s time to give back and help others in need. As an industry, we can make a truly positive impact on this world, not only through our work but through our kindness and spirit of giving!

Image of Family Giving Tree Gifts © PPCIan.com

The Values-Driven Business Professional

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Nov 12 1

Are you a values-driven business professional? Following are some of my favorite core values, those of a true leader in business. The values-driven business professional:

Core Values

Arrives on-time or early.
Has a positive attitude.
Strives to help others – co-workers, business partners, clients, everyone.
Truly believes in their company, and is a proud member of the team.
Is willing to do any task, no matter how small.
Sees someone in the lobby at their office and goes out of the way to help that person, even when already in a rush.
Avoids complaining, no matter what the circumstance.
Stays late and works long hours.
Creates opportunities for others.
Celebrates the success of others.
Finds new opportunities to grow the business.
Uplifts others and finds ways to motivate.
Is a fearless leader.
Drives stellar results without taking shortcuts.
Has an unbelievable level of focus and execution.
Thinks about the short-term and the long-term.
Takes a stand when something is being done incorrectly, or could be done better.
Does the right thing.
Never gives up, no matter how difficult it gets.
Thinks about their job all the time.
Constantly thinks about ways to improve and grow.
Commits to their employer for the long-run, stays the course and drives long-lasting results that take years to build.
Treats their team like family.
Rewards those on their team.
Places trust in others.
Writes everything down so nothing gets forgotten.
Enjoys and thrives in a state of challenge.
Portrays an incredibly positive image of their company.
Is trust worthy.
Checks their work email 24/7, and responds right away.
Finds ways to help others each and every day.
Looks for the best in others in an objective manner, even during challenging times. Sees situations from all perspectives.
Admits when they are wrong, proactively apologizes to others when they make a mistake.
Is not afraid of failure. Learns from their mistakes and shares their own lessons with others.
Truly loves what they do!
Is an “iconic” brand/leader in their industry and at their company, not because of self-promotion but because of what they have accomplished.

Image of Core Values © iStockPhoto – cosmonaut

Customer Service: It’s The Little Things

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 27 0

If you’re a marketing professional, you should be incredibly aligned with your customer service organization. Great customer care is often the foundation of a great brand. Moreover, you can learn so much from your customers. Partner with your customer service team and you will learn new and exciting insights about your customers which will help your overall marketing strategy.

The moral of today’s post: Always strive for excellence in customer service. In my opinion, customer service is just as much about the little things, as the big things. The smallest of changes/optimizations in your customer service program can truly delight and dazzle customers.

One simple observation: I enjoy dropping by Krispy Kreme on the way home from work once in a while. I’ll treat myself to an original glazed donut, one of my favorite deserts around. I’ve noticed something really amazing about the Krispy Kreme Silicon Valley drive-thru. No matter who is handling my order, they always give me the donut(s) before taking payment. Even if I have payment in hand an I’m passing it through my car window to the employee, they still hand my order to me before receiving the payment! This is such a small nuance/change compared to the typical fast food model of taking payment and then giving you the food, but it makes a huge impact! It makes me feel, as a customer, like the brand has so much more trust in me and values me as a customer. I believe this may be part of Krispy Kreme’s customer service protocol – give the food before taking payment. What an incredibly smart and clever, yet simple, move.

Building one’s brand is not only about great marketing. It’s also about great product and great customer service. Partner with your own customer service team to see how you can collaborate! Take your customer service to the next level and that brand equity will truly come thru in your customer acquisition efforts, making the job of the customer service marketer easier. And, remember, it’s often the little things that set your brand apart from others!

Image of Donut and Coffee © iStockPhoto – kgtoh

Are You Learning From Your Team and Co-Workers?

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 14 0

What’s the best part of the digital marketing career path? You never stop learning! Each and every day, there are new lessons to learn. I’m always picking up new insights from blogs, first-hand campaign management, conferences, friends, and most importantly from my team and colleagues. As a people manager, I always try to hire the best of the best. When you recruit those “A Players” you as a manager should be learning from your team and you should observe your team teaching and training others. You get a true network effect in this case, a team of teachers and educators within your organization.

Learn Lead Earn

Today, I wanted to share a really cool tip I picked up from one of my team members recently. This is more of a people/communication tip, and is definitely relevant for anyone in the digital marketing career path, especially considering how quickly we move. In our discipline, things move fast. We’re like traders on Wall Street, except there is no opening nor closing bell! The trading never stops. As such, this career is well suited for those who truly embrace what they do and have a high-energy personality.

No matter how good you are dealing with intensity, we all get a little stressed out once in a while. Or, we just get so caught up in our work that we are not thinking about everything we say. It’s at that precise moment that, despite having the best intentions, we may say something to a colleague that just does not come across as hoped! We say something that makes us think twice, and regret the delivery of the communication. Sometimes you know you made a mistake right away, however most of the time it will hit you a few days later.

We all get into these types of situations from time-to-time. My team member has a simple solution! This smart professional makes a point of circling back with others and apologizing for poor delivery/communication. The idea here: Truly care about the well-being of others. Relationships are everything in business and you don’t want to make others unhappy (or upset) with you. It’s all about taking responsibility for our actions/communications and owning up if they may have come out in a sub-optimal manner. Oftentimes, it’s a two-way street and when you open up, the other party will open up to their communication mistakes too!

While seemingly simplistic and obvious, I can tell you from first-hand experience that people dislike admitting they are wrong. They don’t always want to revisit an awkward situation. Moreover, they get super busy and may not “have the time” to circle back on a prior incident. Long story short, most people do not follow this tip! And, if you do, you will truly set yourself apart as a leader.

A few lessons from this post:

Hire smart, “A Players”. You will learn so much from them! Not only did my team member share this tip with me, but this smart professional also explained how they had to drive back to the office to apologize to somebody even though we were offsite coming home from an event. Now, that’s character – someone who is not afraid to admit their mistakes/lessons (even to their manager) and someone who is putting the feelings of others above their own pride and potential awkwardness of an apology situation. I could not be more proud and honored to work with such a leader.
Always listen to others. You can learn from your boss, peers, partners, and those that work for you. Those that work for you should actually teach you more than anyone else.
Be cognizant of your communications with others, especially during fast-moving times. If you said something that may have come out wrong, take the time to circle back and apologize. This is the hallmark of a true leader!

Image of Learn Lead Earn © iStockPhoto – almagami

Fun Times Playing Golf For Charity

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 23 0

I’m a huge fan of giving back and charity. In fact, giving back is one of my top 2013 goals. Recently, I had the honor of playing golf in the 9th annual Gatepath Golf Classic at the Stanford Golf course. You can see a picture below, it was an amazing round of golf and a true honor. I enjoyed golfing with co-workers, donating money to Community Gatepath (they had mulligans for purchase, a special “Vegas” hole, and a raffle), and overall supporting an amazing cause.

Gatepath Golf Tournament

Community Gatepath is all about turning disabilities into possibilities. The provide support and education to both children and adults with disabilities, helping them learn and grow. Community Gatepath opens up doors and opportunities, and is such an amazing cause to support.

I’m truly fortunate to work at a company that supports and values charity events like this one. I’m all about living and working in a values-driven environment.

I find that the more you give, the more you receive. A fun story… Just about a year ago, I had the honor of playing in several other charity golf tournaments. At most of these events, they have a fun raffle with the goal of donating money to the charity being represented. I always try to participate in the raffles and donate as a fun way to give back. At the Friends For Youth tournament about a year ago, I won a one night stay at the wonderful Garden Court Hotel in downtown Palo Alto.

Nicole and I have been so busy over the past year that we hadn’t enjoyed our free room at the Garden Court yet. So, we decided to take a break this past weekend and enjoy our raffle win. We had a true blast. They upgraded us to a top floor suite. The room had a skylight, separate living room and bedroom, balcony, and large bathroom with separate shower and tub with jets. The hotel has been renovated in recent years and I highly recommend checking it out. We truly enjoyed our time into downtown Palo Alto, and had fun times at some old favorites including Il Fornaio restaurant and Acquarius Theatre. I never expect to win anything in these charity raffles, the fun is truly in giving back and helping others. However, I always seem to find that the more I give, the more I get back!

I wanted to take this opportunity to also give a shout out to my good friend Marc Poirier, Co-Founder and EVP of Business Development at Acquisio. I try to surround myself with others who are values-driven business leaders. Marc is truly that. Despite being one of the most influential and busy leaders in our industry, he always makes time for others. One recent example: Marc is raising money for the Make A Wish Foundation, via biking in the 48-hour Ride For Wishes. I am incredibly impressed, and I was sure to donate in sponsorship of Marc. Just one more reason to check out Acquisio, in addition to their amazing technology, their culture is one of helping others and giving back.

I also wanted to take a moment to call out my good friend Steve Kroll, President of Rocket Clicks, another values-driven business leader. Steve is someone who had done incredible things with his career, and always looks for ways to grow his team. I typically find that those who help others go incredibly far in life and business. If you’re looking for a digital marketing agency, make sure to check out Rocket Clicks!

Do you enjoy helping others and supporting charities? Make sure to give back each and every day, it’s truly an honor and privilege!

Image of PPC Ian Golfing © PPCIan.com

Empower Your Team & Help Build Careers

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jul 19 3

It’s a ton of fun to empower and help others! Whether you directly manage a team and/or indirectly manage others on large-scale projects, you are in a great position to empower and build careers. By doing so, you are not only helping out but also optimizing results for your entire organization. A happy team is a learning, growing, productive, and powerful team. Following are a few great tips for empowering and building a world-class team! These tips not only apply to digital marketing but really any team.

Building Careers

Treat your team like family. Plan a lot of fun team-building events. The results from a team are truly greater than the sum of the team’s members. By fostering an amazing team environment, the results are even more amplified. I’m particularly impressed with InsideVault SEM Platform as a case study. Check out their Facebook Fan Page. These guys have incredibly clever and fun team building events regularly. Some recent examples: Beer tasting, team lunches, Jamba Juice day, outdoor movie night, birthday celebrations, team BBQ, movie day (team offsite to local movie theater), and so much more. InsideVault is a true family and that culture has yielded staggering results. They have built one of the most amazing digital marketing platforms around.
Truly care about your team and others. People can tell when you care. People appreciate when you care. At the end of the day, a team’s success is driven by passion and energy. You will energize your team when you truly care and are there to help and grow careers. This tip comes down to values. When it comes to having amazing values, there are few teams like the Rocket Clicks SEM Agency team. My good friend Steve Kroll along with other senior leaders at Rocket Clicks have fostered a truly inspiring environment of values-driven business. Focus on that core value of helping others (both at your company and externally) and you will build an amazing organization with flourishing careers!
Delegate like crazy! In a fast-paced field like digital marketing, everyone needs to scale and grow, rapidly. Keep empowering your team by delegating challenging, new work. This is a super way to grow careers by stretching everyone to learn new, exciting things. Similarly, embrace new work! Proactively look for new and exciting opportunities for yourself and your team. It’s an ever moving continuum and when the conveyer belt stops, the empowerment can leave. Keep things exciting and interesting by stretching yourself and your team members on a daily basis.
Share everything you know. Be a sponge for information. I’m talking about high level company strategy, industry trends, and overall technology news. Foster an environment of sharing. The more knowledge we share, the quicker our team grows.
Celebrate Success on your team. Be your team’s greatest cheerleader. There are many ways to celebrate success, just don’t forget to do so.
Foster a high-performing team. Is your team a team that works really hard, delivers results, and gets a ton of respect from your overall company? If not, get out thre and make a change! It’s incredibly motivating to work for a highly-visible team.

I like to track career progression on my team as a barometer for my team’s success and contribution. Everything is aligned. When those on your team are achieving career success and progression, you know that your team is delivering results for your organization and that you have an empowered and high-performing team!

Image of Building Careers © iStockPhoto – donskarpo

My Long Weekend Musings, 4th of July Style

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jul 4 1

Happy 4th of July to all my US-based readers! Happy Friday/weekend to everyone else! I wanted to take a moment here to share some fun musings, an idea originally inspired by my good friend Morgan Linton, domainer, entrepreneur, and awesome blogger who inspired me with the weekend musings idea. Let’s jump into this long weekend’s musings…

4th of July Fireworks

Search marketing swag is awesome! I have accumulated a ton of swag over the years, and have started a fun new experiment on Facebook and Google+ where I share my “Search Engine Swag” of the day. Make sure to follow PPC Ian on Facebook and Google+. My first Search Engine Swag is my cool Yahoo! basketball. Honestly, Yahoo! has some of the best account management in existence and our AM team always thinks of us. When I’m pondering big new ideas, you can often find me bouncing my Yahoo! basketball. I’m not going to add new swag every single day but you’ll find me posting cool new items every few days. Do you have a favorite piece of Search Engine Swag?

I’m so excited for the long weekend. I have a long four-day weekend here and I’m totally thrilled. I’m taking time to really enjoy the weekend with my amazing wife, Nicole. We both work super hard and are thrilled for some time off. I know the folks on my team and pretty much everyone I know in the digital marketing industry works incredibly hard (that’s you). Make sure to take it easy this long weekend! And, make sure to say thanks to everyone who has made our country so special, we are truly fortunate.

Make sure to thank great people in the digital marketing industry. Do you have a partner or vendor who treats you well? Take a few minutes to write thank you emails. Maybe call them out on Twitter. Make sure the thank you emails and words of praise go to your day-to-day rep and also the senior leaders. Call out success and make others look good. If you pause and take time to celebrate the success of others, you will make someone’s day each and every day. What’s better than that?

I’ve been in the digital marketing game since 2004, loving every step of the way. I was discussing with a co-worker on Friday that I’ve now been doing digital marketing for longer than I was in college and high school combined. That’s almost unbelievable, it’s gone by so fast. Digital marketing is intense, never forget that this is your life. Take it all seriously, but never forget to have fun each and every day. Never forget to force everyone on your team to have fun each and every day. As a leader at your organization, you have the opportunity to add great value and impact not only to careers but lives as well.

Treat your team at work like family. You are there to empower and uplift others. Likewise, look to your team for strength and motivation. The power of a team is so much greater than the sum of the parts. Find ways to build an incredible presence of strength, confidence, and results as a team. Digital marketing, at an enterprise level, is definitely not a solo sport.

That’s all for today everyone. Wishing you a fun, happy, and safe 4th of July. I truly appreciate your support!

I’m a Fan of Enhanced Campaigns

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jun 20 2

I’m a big fan of Enhanced Campaigns. The more I learn and the more I experiment, the more I like Enhanced Campaigns. Sure, I was a bit skeptical at first, but I quickly became a believer. I wanted to write this quick post today to share my enthusiasm and a few of the top reasons why I’m a fan of Enhanced Campaigns. There are still a lot of skeptics in our industry. I wanted to write a post to try to change that! So here goes…

Change

Enhanced Campaigns make your life easier. No longer do you need separate campaigns for mobile and desktop/laptop. It’s all about a unified campaign structure. Campaign structures were getting too complex/messy before Enhanced Campaigns. It was nearly impossible to have complete parity across campaigns across devices at all times, especially with very large enterprise accounts. Enhanced Campaigns build in instant parity across desktop/laptop, tablet, and mobile smartphones.
Looking to grow your presence on mobile smartphones? You should! The mobile future is here. Organic search is less prominent on mobile smartphones, paid ads occupy most of the landscape. As such, you want your paid presence on mobile smartphones to be amazing. Enhanced Campaigns make this super easy. Due to the instant parity mentioned above, your mobile campaigns will likely be more built out than ever before.
Enjoy call extensions but have limited call center hours? Enhanced Campaigns make it easy to schedule ad extensions to your days/hours of operation. Ad extensions are becoming a very important component of any Google AdWords program. Enhanced Campaigns give you a lot more control over ad extensions.
If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a while, you know I’m a tremendous fan of bidding automation. What’s the foundation of the most successful bidding programs around? Great data! Enhanced Campaigns offer some really neat, new ways of tracking and cross-device/cross-media type. One great example is call attribution. If a phone call lasts greater than a certain threshold (say 60 seconds), you can count it as a conversion!
The overall Enhanced Campaigns platform opens up doors for a multitude of new innovations. Google is hard at work taking advantage of their new platform and releasing a ton of new stuff. Enhanced Campaigns pave the way for very exciting second half of 2013 and 2014.
The “issues” with Enhanced Campaigns in my opinion, are not real issues. Moreover, Google is truly listening to advertisers and perfecting the platform. Issue 1: We now have less control over tablets. That said, I do not see this as a tremendous issue. Tablets used to be a novelty. More affluent customers had these new devices, and therefore their conversion rates used to be different from desktops/laptops. However, tablets are no so widespread that they likely convert the same as desktops/laptops for most advertisers. Issue 2: It’s a little difficult to get used to bid multipliers. Solution: The best SEM platforms around are making it easy. Partner with a great SEM platform that truly gets Enhanced Campaigns. Issue 3: Less granularity around mobile bidding. This used to be the case when bid multipliers were on a campaign level. Google listened to our feedback and placed bid multipliers on an adgroup level! Long story short, the “issues” you hear about Enhanced Campaigns are mostly non-issues in my opinion.

The only constant in our industry is change. As digital marketing professionals, it’s all about embracing change. Enhanced Campaigns are here and I highly recommend embracing them. In my opinion, this is just the beginning!

Are You A Big Tipper?

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 14 0

When it comes to digital marketing, I’m about as frugal as they get. I like to get the absolute maximum return for my advertising dollars. It’s all about cutting costs, and being efficient and optimal. When it comes to life, I’m prudent from a financial standpoint. However, I do enjoy tipping and consider myself to be a big tipper. It really is all about doing the right thing. When someone does a good job and provides good/great service, I like to give a great tip. Many people rely on tips as an important source of income. Tips are my way of giving back and making others smile.

I recently had the pleasure of attending two amazing digital marketing conferences: I spoke at Search Insider Summit and I attended AdWords Performance Forum. At these conferences, there were many opportunities to tip: waiters, hotel employees, housekeeping, drivers, and so much more. I took these opportunities to tip, I always bring a stack of fives and singles when I travel, for this very reason.

In life and business, I have noticed that there are others like me who enjoy tipping. However, I have also noticed that there are people who do not tip. I like to pay attention to the tipping habits of others because you can learn a lot about someone from their tipping generosity (or lack thereof). Just a few points you may wish to ponder, when analyzing someone from a tip perspective:

Are they generous, or could they be cheap? Generous is a very good thing, someone generous likes to look out for and take care of others. They are a team player. Someone cheap sometimes has poor judgment, because they fail to invest money when it makes prudent financial sense or is simply the right thing to do. Cheap, however, is not to be confused with frugal. Someone who is frugal is often smart because they cut costs on the right items but are smart about investing when it makes sense. Frugal individuals can still be tippers, but cheap individuals are often not.
Do they truly care about others? Do they value the happiness of others? Do they value good work and how it adds value to society? If someone likes to tip, I am often able to infer great things about that person. If they avoid tipping in very key situations, I sometimes start to wonder.
If I were to do business with this person, would they try to nickel and dime me? Or, are they going to be more flexible and collaborative when it comes to money.
Does this person like to cut corners? Tipping is a “finishing touch” in my opinion. Those who like to tip are leaving no stone unturned, they don’t like to cut corners.
Does this person have the right values and global perspective (caring about others and not only themselves)? Tipping can help demonstrate character.

Important word of caution: You do not want to fully understand someone based on their tipping habits alone. That would be far too little data. It’s just like digital marketing: You need a statistically significant sample size to truly understand someone. Tipping alone is not enough. However, observing someone’s tipping habits can help round out your perception.

As you journey through life and also business, pay attention to tipping. See what others do, it can sometimes tell you quite a bit. Also, I encourage you to take a look at your own situation. Do you tip those who do great work? If not, why not? Remember: No tip is too small, anything is better than nothing! Every good thing you do for others will end up coming back to you in one way or another.

Tips For Business and Life

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Mar 21 13

In both business and life, it’s not all about your knowledge, skills, and accomplishments. It’s also about how you go about your day-to-day. It’s been a while since I wrote a post about attitude and perspective, however I got inspired this week! This is probably one of the more important posts you will read here on PPC Ian. It’s a shorter one, but I’m telling you, these tips work. Above and beyond “working”, following these tips will make the world a better place. Enjoy…

Tip Theory Into Practice

Ask yourself every single day how you can help others. Make it your mission to help out. This year (check out my 2013 goals) I’m striving to help 5 people per day. Applied practically, I view myself as an enabler at my job. I do everything possible to help my team, co-workers, partners, and customers.
Try to find a company that has few/zero politics and stay there. There simply is no meaningful benefit that can come out of gossip, alliances, and politics. Once you have found a workplace that has very few politics, hang on tight as you are in a very nurturing and positive environment. If you thrive in an environment of politics or even partake in the gossip, take an unbiased look at your situation and seriously consider an adjustment. This type of behavior will permanently hold you back from true leadership.
Celebrate the success of others. Never look down on your friends or teammates for their achievements. Make sure to share in their excitement. Those that celebrate others have achieved true leadership-level maturity. (Check out my post about Celebrating Your Team’s Success.)
Avoid saying negative things. The spoken word is very powerful. When you say something negative, that word has the opportunity to alter the way you think and perceive the world. That word also has the power to influence others. Even more important: Avoid writing anything negative. The written word, in my opinion, is even more powerful than the spoken word.
Stay extremely positive and speak/write positive statements. This tip is the converse of the last one. Positivity is contagious and energizing. True leaders have the ability to energize everyone around them.
Get into work early, on a consistent basis each day. The consistency and early start is the mark of a true leader. Do this even at the expense of sleep. Never miss your queue.
Always expand your knowledge. Keep learning, have a hunger for knowledge. You’ll be amazed how quickly you can turn new knowledge into actionable results. Become a repository of knowledge and new ideas for your employer.
Be a true perfectionist, take pride in everything you do. Never settle for less. Demand the same quality from others. Inspire true quality.
Develop an unparalleled network. Treat your connections as friends, not just acquaintances or business partners. Treat your friends very well and help them out.

Of course, there are many other tips, however I just wanted to share a few that are top of mind for me this week. I hope these tips help you out in both business and life!