Practical Tips for Presenting SEO Projects to Executives — Whiteboard Friday

Any time you must current your website positioning work to different departments or executives, you are going to have completely different teams of stakeholders with completely different pursuits, so it’s good to method them in a different way. That will help you, Bethan walks you thru her prime 5 suggestions for sharing your work with the C-suite.

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Video Transcription

Hello. So my title is Bethan Vincent, and I am the Managing Associate at Open Velocity and I am right here to speak to you about the way to ship higher shows to govt stakeholders. 

1. Set the groundwork

So we’ll begin off with a tip that form of happens pre-presentation, and primarily it is setting the groundwork to grasp your stakeholders.

In any scenario, you are going to have completely different teams of stakeholders with completely different wants and completely different stakes, and also you need to method them barely in a different way. So I like a magic quadrant. So right here we have got one which mainly reveals you inside any decision-making course of you’ve got bought folks with excessive affect and low affect. Stakeholders will be people or teams of people. Maintain that in thoughts.

You have then bought folks or teams with a excessive stake, so they have a excessive form of curiosity within the end result of the choice, and folks with a decrease stake. So primarily in any course of, you need to divide and conquer, and that is one thing I counsel you do. Do not spend a great deal of time on it. It is extra a thought train. You are able to do it on the again of a serviette. However take into consideration who’re the folks with excessive affect and low stake, as a result of these persons are very fascinating and they are often your champions within the decision-making course of, as a result of primarily you may leverage their affect.

I’d be as express to go and converse to the person or group of people that I feel fall in my champions field and say, “Hey, would you champion this choice? Would you assist it get pushed by means of? That is what it may imply for you. That is what it may imply for the group.” You have then bought the excessive affect and excessive stake teams, and people are the folks that basically you need to spend nearly all of your time on partaking, persuading, and galvanizing.

Basically, you need to present them: How is that this choice, how is what I am proposing going to be higher for them? How is it going to supply higher outcomes? How is it going to contribute to income for the corporate? How is it going to contribute to one thing tangible? So spend quite a lot of time with these folks, as a result of in the end, truly, if you cannot get it previous your form of precedence stakeholders, the choice might be not going to go in your favor.

So you’ve got then bought the folks with a excessive stake and low affect. This, I am afraid, is usually advertising and marketing, particularly relating to initiatives like, for example, CRM adjustments. We love a shock CRM change. Basically with this group, you do need to seek the advice of them as a result of the impression of the choice goes to be so excessive on them that you simply need to seek the advice of them and just remember to’re not likely irritating them, you are not going to introduce one thing that makes their life, their work unworkable.

You have then bought your form of low stake, low affect group, and people are folks you need to inform and also you need to mainly monitor their form of suggestions on the proposed choice since you may truly discover these folks that you simply assume are low stake and low affect transfer into certainly one of these teams if you totally unravel truly what their work is, what are they attempting to attain.

In order that’s one thing to be aware of. So set your groundwork. Interact folks pre-presentation. Get these champions on facet. 

2. Maintain it succinct

So secondly, if you come to current to govt stakeholders, and whether or not it is a formal presentation with a whiteboard and slides and all of that form of stuff, or whether or not it is in a gathering and also you’re simply proposing an thought, I need you to maintain this barely weirdly named BORA acronym in thoughts.

So that you need to hold it succinct. Any presentation, any form of pitch to senior stakeholders, you need to hold it actually digestible and comprehensible. The best way I prefer to construction my form of presentation, or even when it is a doc that I am presenting to senior stakeholders, is I am going to begin off with the background, begin off with the context, paint the image.

I am going to then get straight to the chance. So what tangible factor is on the bottom? What can we truly get out of creating this choice? How is it going to impression the corporate? How is it going to drive income? Then you definitely need to transfer on to the request, and I feel that is one thing that folks usually miss out of shows. So that they will form of set the background, set the chance, after which form of depart it as much as the senior stakeholder to form of work out what they’re asking for.

Be actually express. What’s your ask? Is it funds? Is it useful resource? Is it a choice to be made? Then lastly, stick your entire appendices with this data. If folks need to go into element, be certain they have the info, be certain they have the contextual stuff readily available, however do not attempt to get by means of all of it inside a gathering, as a result of frankly you are simply not going to have the ability to get by means of all the nuance of the fabric inside a good timeframe as a result of I feel it is truthful to say that if you’re presenting to senior stakeholders, their time is usually actually valuable, and in the event you’ve bought an hour or half an hour for the presentation, frankly that is all you’ve got bought, so it’s good to hold it very, very time-bound.

3. Anticipate interruptions

This brings me on to level quantity three. You have to anticipate interruptions. So I feel quite a lot of us have been in conferences with senior stakeholders the place we have began off doing our presentation, doing our pitch, and we have been interrupted with questions. Lots of people discover this fairly irritating. what?

To a point it’s a little bit irritating, however I feel we have got to grasp that senior stakeholders are sometimes questioning stuff as a result of they’re actually invested, they’re , they’re attempting to dig into issues a bit bit deeper. Truly, there’s nothing worse than doing a presentation to senior stakeholders and there’s tumbleweed and silence. That is a worse signal. So the actual fact you are getting these questions is great. However you have to anticipate them.

You have to construct them into the assembly construction. So once more, this comes again to maintaining it succinct. Begin off with the background and your alternative, perhaps in form of 5 or 10 slides, or a one-page doc. However then give that area for these inquiries to occur and simply anticipate. It’ll. You may’t combat in opposition to it. However then additionally on the finish of the assembly, you have to convey it again round to the request, as a result of once more, in the event you’ve been derailed, some folks run out of time, oh my gosh, I’ve bought 5 minutes left, or have run out of time and people folks have gotten to go and so they’ve not bought something out of the dialogue.

So anticipate interruptions. Convey it again to that request. You have to know your request, know your ask earlier than you are going into the assembly. 

4. Weekly updates

We will transfer on to some extent that is linked with virtually my first level, which is about setting that groundwork and earlier than you form of do your proposal or your presentation, ensuring you perceive the stakeholders, you perceive the panorama. You have executed a few of that pre-work.

After you’ve got executed the assembly, I feel there’s quite a lot of form of post-decision work. So hopefully you’ve got bought the choice. You need to mainly hold folks abreast of the nice work you are doing. What I like to do is ship round a weekly replace. It is a actually tremendous quick e mail I am going to put collectively, or it may go on an inside wiki, for instance, as effectively, in the event you’ve bought that. However I am going to ship it to the broader group, not simply stakeholders, and it retains folks abreast of the nice work you are doing.

It may be so simple as a abstract, so that is what’s occurred this week, a bit little bit of, once more, setting the background, after which a bulleted checklist of updates. That is what we have executed. These are the outcomes we have achieved. These are the issues we have launched. It’s possible you’ll not have a great deal of stuff that you’ve got launched. It may simply be that is what the group has been doing. That is what they’ve loved engaged on.

It does not should be actually in-depth or something like that or something scary. Then lastly, that is a very powerful level of this communication — shut with an invite to interact. I’ve executed these earlier than and despatched them round organizations and despatched them to builders and engineers, and really opening that door and saying like, “Look, that is what Advertising is as much as. These are a few of the issues we have been doing. These are a few of the outcomes, the outcomes we have got. Hey, does anybody have any questions or ideas on them?”

It invitations that dialog, and it actually helps you form of nurture your inside viewers. We’re superb at nurturing exterior audiences, however I feel we will do higher internally as effectively. 

5. Why I go

Lastly, I simply wished to form of give a bit little bit of context on why I am now comparatively, effectively, fairly senior in my profession, I run an organization, and why I go typically on issues my group brings to me.

So firstly, I go on stuff as a result of frankly I do not perceive it. I feel there’s this sort of false impression that folks in actually senior positions know all the things. We undoubtedly do not. Particularly after we’re coping with specialists, like website positioning specialists, you’ve got bought a complete depth and contextual data that I could not have. So typically I simply do not get it.

I do not get what I am speculated to do right here. I do not get the context. I do not get the background. So then that goes again to maintaining it succinct. Secondly, I simply merely do not have time or funds. I feel when persons are form of proposing and ask, that they have a proposal to do one thing, they may put within the funds price of it, they may put within the monetary price of it, however they do not essentially acknowledge that there is a time price.

Finances and time are the 2 issues which are very, very finite inside a company. So have a bit little bit of a take into consideration the time implication and what you are asking for and does the group have the useful resource to ship on that. So typically, yeah, I simply do not have time and I haven’t got the funds for it. Thirdly, I do not see the large image. What I imply by that is you are pitching one thing to me, and I do not perceive or I am unable to make the hyperlink between what you are pitching and our organizational targets, our enterprise targets.

That is the place it is actually necessary, even in the event you’re an website positioning specialist, PPC specialist, no matter, that you simply perceive that organizational goal that you simply all ought to be working in the direction of. Any good enterprise ought to have a marketing strategy and may have the ability to talk that to you. So wherever potential, be certain what you are proposing matches into that larger image.

Then lastly, I simply do not see how that is going to make us cash. Companies exist to generate income. We reside in a capitalist world. We form of cannot combat in opposition to that. So typically I simply can’t see the path to ROI. I do not essentially should see the direct route. It does not should be we’re assured this ROI inside this time interval.

I do perceive, particularly in issues like website positioning the place it takes time, there’s quite a lot of unknowns, that it may be a bit extra intangible. However I would like to have the ability to see the causal hyperlink. If I am unable to see that, I am not going to signal it off. So I hope that is given you some context about the way to method these conversations with senior decision-makers. Thanks.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com