Can you really impact your clients’ bottom lines by becoming more efficient in your internal processes? The answer is yes! In this session I’m going to walk through some of the successes we have seen in our company as well as in our projects with our clients and how becoming more efficient as an organization has fostered this impact.

1. MN Search 11/18/15
@NatePlaunt

2.  Sr. SEO Strategist at Three
Deep
 Workflow Engineer sub-
contractor for 3M
 Optimizer of things
@NatePlaunt
@NatePlaunt#MNSearch

3.  Client successes
 SEO
 PPC
 Email
 Analytics
 Business successes
 13% increase in revenue YoY
 Largest increase in 4 years
 New office – we’ve outgrown our capacity
@NatePlaunt#MNSearch

4.  Marketing success
 52% increase in website traffic YoY
 31.5% increase in organic traffic YoY
 318.5% increase in website conversions
@NatePlaunt#MNSearch

5. @NatePlaunt#MNSearch

6. @NatePlaunt#MNSearch

7. 1. AM sells project
2. PM estimates the project
3. SME works on the project
4. SME Completes the project
5. All talk about why the project was over budget
@NatePlaunt#MNSearch

8.  Unclear input – the ask
 Time wasted up front
 Unclear output – deliverables
 Time wasted at the end
 Little transparency into the work of other teams
 Unnecessary projects
 Inaccurate estimates
@NatePlaunt#MNSearch

9.  Clearly defined upfront ask
 No work is started until this is clean
 Clearly defined project deliverables
 Agreed on and stated at the project start
 Measure ourselves
 Improved internal communications
 More accurate estimates
@NatePlaunt#MNSearch

10. @NatePlaunt#MNSearch

11. 1. Account/Strategy teams sell the right thing
2. SME/PM estimates the project
3. SME teams work on project tasks
4. Operations team measures input (ask), output
(deliverable), and time per task
5. All complete the project
6. All talk about how great the project was
7. Give/get high fives
@NatePlaunt#MNSearch

12.  Accurate estimates =
 Time saved on project =
 Happy client =
 More business from client =
 Ability to apply project learnings to new project =
 More at-bats with prospective clients =
 More new business!
@NatePlaunt#MNSearch

13. - Paul Wellstone
@NatePlaunt#MNSearch

14.  Attempting to quantify effort led to an unsuspected side
effect
 Each delivery team created their own internal
processes to make their work easier to quantify
 Transparency into work
 Efficiencies in project work
 Efficiencies in day to day
 Improvements in outputs
 More accuracy in estimates
 Time savings
@NatePlaunt#MNSearch

15.  “Automated” SEO sales scan
 Development of SEO audit process documents
 20% time savings
 Clearly defined deliverables and expectations
 Everyone knows what to expect
 Repeatable results time after time
@NatePlaunt#MNSearch

16.  Rebuilt our entire internal workflow process
 Utilized tools to help measure and improve problem
areas
 Invested in internal training
 Deployed it company-wide
 …2+ years to get here
@NatePlaunt#MNSearch

17.  Start small – take one process or department on at a
time
 Be consistent – pick a driver
 Socialize the results
 Continuous improvement
@NatePlaunt#MNSearch

18. @NatePlaunt#MNSearch