Part I introduced the notion that SEM teams do not always speak the same language and in fact sometimes operate in silos more than they work as a team. In Part II we  focus on 4 more ways in which a search marketing team can become more unified. There are no hard rules to achieve this – in the end it is people working with other people, which means that due consideration is required. The most basic principle is communication.

4. Ensure Minimum Performance Expectations are Clear – fact is, when you’ve been working for an organisation for some time it’s easy to forget that the steps required in performing a deliverable are not as obvious to new team members as they are to you! It is important the team members are aware of what is expected of them so that they are well positioned to deliver. Providing them with tidbits of information rather than clearly painting the full picture may result in unnecessary time wastage, possible confusion and clients receiving service below the expected bar. 

5. Never Assume: Communicate – the saying goes, assumption is the mother of all #&*#$! It is safe to say that if your SEM team is not communicating, a number of opportunities are being missed, work is not being delegated properly and inefficiencies hinder team effectiveness. Don’t assume, confirm. If in doubt, confirm. Don’t ‘think‘ - know. If ever you are unsure of something, be it pertaining to a client deliverable, a relationship with team members or your own work, ask the relevant parties for the required insight or clarification.

6. Communicate With Others as You Wish to be Communicated With – with the dawn of digital technology it appears that two things have been lost – the art of the full sentence and picking up the telephone. One liner answers to emails have their place in certain situations, but providing some clarity and detail around client deliverables may certainly help all team members to get fully on board a given task. The same goes for giving task instructions – the quality of those instructions is often a measure of the number of follow up questions. Rather than getting annoyed at a fellow team member for asking too many questions, use it as a quality benchmark against your instructions. Are you asking someone to perform miracles by holding key facts to yourself – thus wasting their time while they scramble for solutions and answers?

7. Basic Accreditation – ensure that the search marketing team is proficient in the basic fundamentals by providing training in industry recognised certifications offered by the search engines. Even though this type of certification is not always as ‘leading edge’ as other external training programs, these certifications offer a solid core in the ‘basics’ – information that the entire team should know. Sometimes, it is valuable to return to the core for a quick refresher, even for those SEM team members who have years of experience because basics can be forgotten too. Not only will this assist in setting the basic benchmark for both minimum required skills and knowledge for the entire team, but it may help streamline processes. Experienced SEM practitioners develop their own style of management – ever been frustrated working on a project in which three different team members apply different settings, management decisions and bidding rules to a PPC campaign? Returning to the basics may assist in cleaning up these types of scenarios.

The search marketing industry itself is still very young, with ‘veterans’ having 10 – 15 years of experience the timeline of the SEM world closely mimics that of search engine creation, growth and expansion. Up to a few years ago, two years of experience in the SEM industry was regarded as significant while in 2010, the rough industry standard for ‘experienced’ is 3-5 years.

Many SEM specialists learned the ropes in their first position, perhaps in a start up their repertoire grew as the business expanded or they have a programming background and taught themselves SEO. Whether they took some online courses or developed their knowledge through extensive reading, SEM is no derivatives trading, that is to say, until a couple of years ago there were no university courses that taught SEM skills nor how to think as an SEM specialist. What this means is that the skills, level of expertise and SEM background is very fragmented and varied. This translates directly to SEM teams working together, whether in independent organisations or within SEM agencies, do they operate cohesively or in silos?

Speaking the Same Language

How do you ensure that your SEM team is speaking the same language? The saying goes, ‘the only constant in this industry is change’ so as an employer how do you ensure that your SEM team moves ahead of the tide, has the skill set that puts them at the top of the bell-curve and ensure that any new team members are effectively integrated?

There is no steadfast methodology in place and the solution will vary from organisation to organisation, but below we’ll explore 7 ways to proactively ensure that SEM teams work together in an integrated manner:

1. Offer a Robust Internal Training Program – ensure that new recruits are versed in all the important components of SEM. In the training process the new team member should start to develop a sense of performance expectations – the minimum benchmark by which client deliverables are measured. By omitting to do so right from the start of the candidate’s tenure may create dissonance and result in a discovery process during which unnecessary time is wasted. Don’t make recruits guess what is expected of them.

2. Share Internal Knowledge & Skills – grow as a team, rather than just individually. Given the accumulation of skills & knowledge in the SEM industry is so fragmented, this will result in a team with rich pockets of expertise, from varying disciplines. To put this into perspective, it is not like a legal team who will have had similar training & education. For an SEM team, that is so diversified, this can either be a great strength or an almost insurmountable challenge if the team does not share knowledge and work together. Actively sharing knowledge will not only build intellectual property but also create a strong team, capable of handling bigger projects, more demanding clients and greater responsibilities.

3. External Training to Develop Expertise – you’ve heard it before, you’ll hear it again – the SEM industry is in a state of permanent flux. Information is readily available, industry professionals share sound advice on blogs, webinars, books and whitepapers. This has allowed clients to become increasingly knowledgeable and for this reason it is critical that SEM specialists are always a few steps ahead of clients. If the client’s expertise grows and they no longer feel that the specialist / agency is offering real remarkable value, they may start to consider to take their online operation in house. It is important to continually push the boundaries of your knowledge and industry required skills.

As a search marketing agency develops its positioning in the market, whether it is to serve a particular business niche; work with small to medium sized businesses or as a market leader, developing enterprise level solutions for multinationals; it is important to set and maintain a service benchmark by which the agency can be measured.

Within the search marketing team, a gold standard should be set as the benchmark at the highest level towards which every member on the team continually strives. When delivering client solutions, it is key that this gold standard drives the quality of the work presented to the client. What is more important is that every single member of the team delivers this identified level of service quality. Certainly, there will always be a level of hierarchy in skill sets, in which some members will have greater depth & breadth of experience; stronger analytical skills or quite simply they’ve been in the game for a long time.
This should, however, not affect the gold standard, because each team member should be armed with the resources, assistance and training in order to deliver at the expected benchmark.

It’s a Two-Way Street

How does an agency ensure that the quality of work delivered to clients meets its benchmark of excellence? The most obvious answer lies in recruitment – the agency must be able to correctly identify the types of people that meet the agency philosophy and possess the right skill set in order to deliver the goods.

However, beyond the recruitment process, once a candidate has been hired – the new team member needs to be integrated into the team so as to deliver solutions that can proudly bear the agency stamp. This is not to say that the individual should be so deeply pulled into the ‘status quo’ so as to stifle critical thought or be unable to offer a fresh perspective on how things are done, but without some level of integration – it is the individual’s stamp being left on the work and on client impressions, rather than the agency stamp. This can become a problem if there are certain individuals within the agency who are performing at a higher level than their counterparts. It may reflect negatively on the agency – if an individual is held above the agency itself and clients may poorly evaluate the agency if they notice a marked difference in service quality between team members.

Pulling in the Same Direction

By nurturing the skills and required core competences of the entire team, this not only serves to create a stronger team but it also raises the benchmark, so that the gold standard is always being challenged and driven higher. If the team shares ideas, strategies, core strengths and together, challenges the way that things are done this will not only improve the quality of deliverables sent to the client but ensure that everyone is clear on what the expectations are.

No agency will raise its gold standard by operating in silos – without spreading the wealth of knowledge, intellectual property and collective training. Without clear and effective communication, one team member’s interpretation of a service may be completely different from that of another member’s. If both interpretations are equally excellent – this is a positive result, but imagine the wasted synergy if these ideas are never shared and combined to create an even more powerful final result. Conversely, the results can be devastating if poor quality work is sent to a client because of a weak interpretation of the requirements.

In a service driven environment such as search marketing, not only is it fundamental for an agency to invest in its people, but it is equally important to ensure that the teams who work together share the same vision and have an understanding of excellence that drives up the average, rather than averaging out to a mediocre service delivery standard.