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The Small(er) Screen: How Smart Businesses Attract Customers on YouTube

Remember those cheesy local ads that used to be on TV all the time? Here’s a New Orleans classic. It’s memorable and fun to watch, but TV ads have their shortcomings, specifically cost and targeting. TV is also starting to lose its biggest advantage: the ability to reach a wide audience. According to research compiled by The Atlantic, streaming services have eaten away at the presence of traditional TV, causing a drop of 25% in viewership among adults aged 18-49 since 2010. As a result, more and more small businesses are choosing to advertise online. However, videos are still a great way to promote your business. On average, research suggests that videos are five times more engaging than text or image ads.

Basics of YouTube Advertising

Over the past few weeks, many of us here at Search Influence have worked toward becoming certified or recertified in Google’s wide range of advertising platforms. Google constantly updates its advertising features and search algorithms, which is why we’re always educating ourselves on the most recent best practices and information. Part of maintaining our status as a Premier Google Partner is consistently demonstrating our expertise in all of its advertising networks.

Most recently, we have been working on certifications in Google’s Video Advertising platform. Businesses can place their video ads on YouTube and Google’s Display network. Let’s focus specifically on YouTube’s Trueview in-stream ads. These are the ads that run before a video on YouTube. Viewers can choose to skip the ad after several seconds, which allows them to indicate their interest in the ads.

YouTube reaches more people between the ages of 18-49 on their mobile phones than any TV network, even during the prime time slot of 8-11 p.m. Advertising on YouTube is available at a fraction of the cost of a 30-second TV ad. Plus, most smartphones have cameras that make shooting professional-quality videos much easier to do on your own.

Benefits of YouTube Ads

As I mentioned earlier, viewers can skip an in-stream ad after five seconds. YouTube only charges for an ad if someone watches it for at least 30 seconds. This prevents advertisers from wasting money on people who aren’t interested in their services. It also provides advertisers with quick feedback on the placement of their ads. No one will engage with an ad that isn’t relevant to them.

About 60% of people watch YouTube on their phone, but they don’t just use their phones to watch videos. 91% of Americans turn to their phones when trying to solve a problem, which presents business owners with the perfect opportunity to advertise.

To give a concrete example, picture Jim. Jim is thirty years old and lives on the third floor of his building. His sink sprang a leak last weekend, and it’s only gotten worse since then. Jim uses his phone to search “how to fix a leaky sink” and watches the first YouTube video he sees. With the right keywords and location targeting, the ad for your plumbing company can be featured right before the video, prompting Jim to call you to schedule an appointment instead of spending all day trying to fix his leaky sink. Utilizing this feature is an easy way to convert your viewers into paying customers.

Keeping that in mind, make sure your site is mobile-friendly. This blog post can help you ensure that your website is optimized for people browsing on their smartphones.

What Does This Mean to You?

Advertising on YouTube can be a powerful tool for any business, but an ad campaign’s results depend on its execution. Google provides numerous study guides to help people learn how to make the most of their advertising networks; but most business owners don’t have enough time to read through hours of material about negative keywords, bidding options, and ad rotations. Fortunately, we are here to help. Reach out to one of our experts to learn more about video ads.

Images:

Sad TV

Man Using Phone

September 20, 2017
SI Is Ending Summer With a BANG — Welcome Our New Influencers!

This month, Search Influence welcomed a lot of new faces to the office! Meet the newest members of our team.

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Jenna Mire – Account Coordinator

Jenna recently moved to New Orleans from Atlanta, GA after the horrific fall of the Falcons in the 2017 Super Bowl. Jenna graduated from Centre College where she received degrees in Behavioral Sociology and Anthropology while playing basketball. She is also the winner of the 2007 Hot Dog Eating Contest, women’s division, sponsored by Energizer Batteries. Jenna enjoys playing Sudoku, parallel parking, and eating Cheetos Puffs.

Katie Burke – Accounting & Administrative Assistant

Katie grew up in Liberty, New York and moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane University. She recently graduated from Tulane with her Master’s degree in Accounting. When she has free time, she loves to bake and sometimes sell specialty cakes for weddings, birthdays, and special events.

Ceallaigh Montgomery – Sales Executive

Originally from the North Dallas area, Ceallaigh (pronounced Kay-Lee) graduated from LSU with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. Before joining the team at Search Influence, she worked as a Benefits Consultant with Aflac for a year where she really got a taste for Business-to-Business selling. While in school, she was in the LSU Tiger Band. So, it’s safe to say she is an avid LSU football fan. In her spare time, she loves cooking up good food and tailgating.

Rhonda Ladner – Sales Manager

Rhonda has spent the majority of her career in some form of sales & sales management. She grew up in technology sales at BellSouth and then AT&T, and over the years she has owned two different sales-related businesses: Sandbox Solutions (focused on sales training) and Ladner Consulting (focused on sales/process consulting). She is a proud born-and-raised New Orleanian with a husband and two sons. In her free time, she loves cooking, traveling, and spending time with family & friends.

To Jenna, Katie, Ceallaigh, and Rhonda—welcome to Search Influence! We’re excited to see all of the great things you’ll do here.

September 6, 2017
Search Influence Makes Inc. 5000 List for 7th Straight Year

Inc. magazine has recognized Search Influence on its 36th annual Inc. 5000 list, making this our seventh straight year achieving this coveted recognition! It’s important to note that the Inc. 5000 list includes an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies and represents the most comprehensive look at the most esteemed segment of the economy—America’s independent entrepreneurs. The distinguished ranking started in 1982 and has since become the hallmark of entrepreneurial success.

Recognized as one of 47 Louisiana firms included in the 5,000 fastest-growing companies, we remain amongst the ranks of groups such as Yelp, Pandora, Timberland, Dell, Domino’s Pizza, LinkedIn, and Zillow, as well as many other industry leaders who gained early exposure as members of the Inc. 5000.

A Company Built From Search Discovers Its Niche

Our company founded on the basis of search engine marketing began its journey in 2006 when Angie and I obtained our first client in need of SEO services. Three years later, we began delivering Google, Bing, and Facebook paid ads, becoming a Google Partner in 2011 and a Premier Partner in 2016. Having handled paid media budgets from as little as a few hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands per month, we were able to achieve direct and sustainable results for our clients. Our successes span the nation and even bolster the initiatives of major-league companies like ALCC American Language with their international goals. It has been milestones like these that have fueled our expansion and ultimately become the cornerstone of our agency’s mission in helping our customers to successfully market themselves online by developing tools, technology, and the knowledge of experts who support them.

By 2010, we had begun redirecting our focus on the homefront and started our first enterprise work in the local community with Audubon Nature Institute, thus establishing our dexterity in the areas of tourism, non-profit, and event marketing. Other current and past local clients of note include industries of expertise, like New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation, Center for Restorative Breast Surgery, The National World War II Museum, and Tulane School of Professional Advancement.

Recognition as a Result of Innovation

We’re certainly excited to celebrate this recent accomplishment, especially on the heels of our newest announcement which details notable advancements to our employee experience. Our dedicated team consists of 50+ in-house employees and dozens of contractors. Our team includes specialists in content marketing, online advertising, technical SEO, local SEO, social media marketing, advertising, and online PR.

Our ability to sustain long-term growth can be attributed to the dedication of many key employees, like Gabrielle Benedetto, who joined our ranks in January 2012 and has spent 5 years deep in technical challenges & strategies for digital marketing.

Gabrielle notes, “Search Influence is known for crafting a team of collaborative, enthusiastic, and dedicated employees. Around the office, you see tenure flags covered with stars representing the number of years Influencers have spent with Search Influence. It’s our long-standing employees who drive this company forward. We’re encouraged to be leaders and pledged to do what’s best for our clients. When you empower a team to put the client first, the company will always move forward. I’m so excited to be part of this growth, and can’t wait to see what we tackle next!”

It is precisely this kind of dedication that has been the basis for the restructuring of our compensation philosophy. Our recently updated perks and pay reflect a leading-edge approach to talent management reflecting our belief that only with happy employees can we have successful clients.

We recognize our employees are our greatest investment and we’re hopeful that with the recent changes, prospective employees and current team members will see Search Influence as a progressive employer when it comes to pay, benefits, and paid time off, providing the ability to work hard, do great work, and take advantage of all of the great things that life in New Orleans has to offer.

Interested in Learning What Sets Us Apart?

Our drive to help clients find more customers online has enabled us to become the largest digital marketing agency on the Gulf Coast. It has been our ability to achieve reliable results and our desire to teach what we’ve learned that has made us a recognized national leader in digital marketing.

If you’re interested in learning more about how we help businesses grow, please get in touch. To learn more about our approach to talent management, read about our recently updated compensation philosophy and please visit our current openings to learn how to join our team of dedicated professionals.

August 24, 2017
Search Influence Compensation Philosophy, New and Improved for 2017
We’ve made some big changes for the Search Influence team in 2017, and the year is only half over.

Whether you’re an employee (current or future) or a client, these changes will have a direct impact on you. Our goal is to improve the employee experience so that our employees continue to produce great work for our clients.

We know that an investment in our employees is an investment in growing our capabilities as a business. It benefits us all—employees, Search Influence, and the clients we serve. That’s why we’re excited to share with the world what we’ve been working on.

Read on for a discussion with Angie Scott, COO of Search Influence and my co-founder in all things since around 2002, on how all of this came about. A detailed explanation of what we changed and what you can expect from our team moving forward will follow the Q&A below, so read to the end!

Will: So Angie, why after 11 years a shift in pay and benefits? Isn’t this a big change?

Angie: The idea of checking in on our compensation isn’t really a new thing.

We did a pay analysis a couple of years ago and there was another done prior to that. So the team who’s been with us throughout all of those has seen this happen before. As the New Orleans tech community grows, we have to be agile in our approach to comp. This time, though, we wanted to be more transparent with the team on the process and decisions that were made.

This analysis also resulted in some broader, more sweeping changes than our analyses did in prior years. And, we touched more perks and benefits than just base compensation, too.

It was clear to us (and the market was reinforcing) that comp is not just about the salary you make for the job you do. Compensation can and should be a total package including base pay, monetary benefits like 401k and health insurance, as well as perks and flexibility.

Will: So you’re saying it’s not a new thing. That, in fact, we’ve gone through and looked at pay and benefits before, and in each case come back with what seems to be better opportunities for the team that stays with us, right?

Angie: Right.

Will: So tell me a bit about the process which got us here?

Angie: We made a game plan, which included a survey by a third-party HR consultant, reaching out to our talent competitors throughout New Orleans, including tech companies, marketing companies, a bunch of different industries around New Orleans. The goal was to figure out what their pay structures look like and try to compare them to our team.

That wasn’t as fruitful as we had hoped, but it still helped us frame some of our perks discussions. And then we looked at PayScale.com which provides employee reported compensation, and we looked at Salary.com for employer reported pay structure.

Will: So what are some of the things that changed in this analysis? As you already said, what started with just pay turned into a pretty big review of comp and perks overall, right?

Angie: Right. In addition to base compensation, we also analyzed our paid time off, health insurance that the company covers, and working remotely. We reviewed our core hours to see if we could change so that we could allow for more flexibility for the team. And we looked at doing a transportation stipend.

Will: So we got the information we could from New Orleans companies, which wasn’t much. We got aggregated information from these big websites. And in the process, some of our team reached out to friends and family who were in markets that might be more advanced in the employment market, including New York and some on the West Coast, to see what some of perks they have access to involved. What came back from that was actually this idea of core hours.

When we started the process, we weren’t even thinking about core hours, were we? It was about “summer Fridays,” which was kind of a hot button for some folks. But then, we live in New Orleans, we’ve got summer, pretty much, year round. So we decided instead to create what we’re calling “core hours” where our team can decide the length of their day as long as their day includes being in office during those times that we specify as must-haves.

Our new core hours are:

Monday through Thursday: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Friday: 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Now, this is not to say that they only have to come to work six hours a day. If they want to work 2 10-hour days and take a half day off on Friday, then they can do that.

Angie: Right! Because our core hours on Friday are 9 – noon.

Will: We were hopeful that the team will balance out with different people having different desired times off, and we’ll keep an eye on it. It seems like a great way to accommodate the desire for more control over time off and to be really flexible.

There was something else, too. We’ve gotten, historically, a lot of requests for working remotely. So why don’t we set the stage for that?

Angie: We decided that the team could work from wherever they want two days per month, as long as they have internet access. So anybody on the team, after you’ve worked with us for six months, can go and work from a coffee shop, or from your house, or from a friend’s house, whatever it is.

Will: This is one of those which was interesting to us because we’ve always been very accommodating with people that have a special need to be somewhere else. The feedback we got was that some employees felt like they were taking advantage when they asked for a slightly different treatment. This way, we can accommodate the desire or need to work remotely and employees don’t feel like they’re asking for special treatment or getting away with something.

Angie: Two of the biggest perks that we’ve heard the most excitement around were actually paid time off getting increased (we went up quite a few days for each tier, based on how long you’ve been with the company), and the transportation stipend.

Will: Oh, and Lundi Gras.

Angie: Lundi Gras, that’s right.

Will: Such a challenge.

Angie: I knew there was something else.

Will: Yeah, a challenge that our non-New Orleans colleagues might not be aware of is that Mardi Gras is not just a holiday. The entire city shuts down for Mardi Gras. And in the weeks leading up to it, there are parades many evenings. And Lundi Gras, Lundi being French for Monday, is the day immediately prior to Mardi Gras day, the culmination of a big party leading into the observance of Lent. And many of our team members didn’t understand why they had to work while their other, local friends had Lundi Gras off.

In the past, we believed that we needed to be available to our clients since we have customers all over the United States, and, throughout the North American continent.

But still, it was a pain point for our team. We’re hopeful that in support of a great team dynamic, and hopefully the kind of work that they’re looking to us to provide, that our clients will understand why on one Monday and Tuesday in February or March, our team is not there.

Will: So, Angie, what’s your favorite of the perks?

Angie: Hmm… my favorite is the core hours, because they’ll allow the whole team to have more flexibility. When I think of people who are like me, I think of our working moms. I hope the new core hours will enable them to pull a couple of longer days, and then go pick up the kids early from daycare or school. I’m proud that we can offer them the opportunity to be more flexible with their hours so that they can be there for their team at work but also be there for their family at home.

Will: I think that’s a great one. The idea that as long as you’re getting your work done, you can do it on your time is the most important thing. And I’m glad that through the inclusion of core hours, and the remote work benefit, that we are going to start living this belief as well.

Angie: So what’s your favorite perk?

Will: It’s a tough one. Honestly, my favorite perk is the transportation stipend. Because we’re in a downtown location, and I know that transportation costs have been a challenge for some folks. But the real reason why I like this one is that we didn’t just say, “We’re gonna cover parking.” We said, “It’s for whatever transportation looks like for you.”

Because we’re in New Orleans, it’s a great environment to ride bikes, and we’ve got public transportation. The way that we’re doing it is through a stipend. We don’t need to see receipts. It’s not a reimbursement, but it is specifically for transportation. And therefore, if your version of transportation is two new tires for your bike and a couple of Po-Boys, then you can do that and nobody’s going to give you a hard time about it. So that’s my favorite. Do you have any last thoughts, Angie, on these changes we’ve made?

Angie: I’m really excited to see how it plays out with the team, and to actually get all of the perks into action so that we can have a lot of happy faces around the office.

Will: Yeah, I’m with you. I think that the key here, and you’ll see this in greater detail when you read the actual, outline of the new philosophy, is that we want to be able to expect the best of our team. We want to work like professionals, with professionals, in the kind of professional environment which I think is becoming more the norm in other parts of the country, but to which New Orleans has not yet caught up. I’m hopeful that with these changes, prospective employees and our current team members, will see Search Influence as a very progressive employer when it comes to pay, benefits, paid time off, and the ability to work hard, do great work, and also have a life and take advantage of all of the great things that the New Orleans area has to offer.

Search Influence Compensation Philosophy

The Search Influence Compensation Strategy is designed to:

…compete for the best talent

Our employees are our greatest investment and we’re selective about whom we hire. We will conduct regular market analyses and make adjustments to compete for the best talent in the most relevant labor market(s).

…live our core values every day

To enable employees to “live CHARGED” at every level, we offer a progressive total compensation strategy including abundant benefits and flexible perks that support a healthy balance and encourage productivity and creativity.

…incent individual & team contribution & retain talent

We encourage dedication by rewarding individuals who contribute above and beyond their job descriptions, deliver excellent client results, and support colleagues in their pursuit to do the same.

…expect excellence from our team

We won’t settle for less than excellence for our clients or in our employees’ work.

Outline of Perks
- Monthly transportation stipend for each employee
  - No need for reimbursements or submitting receipts
- Total of 10 paid company holidays annually
  - Including the addition of Lundi Gras beginning in 2018
- Generous and progressive Paid Time Off accrual rates, for employees to use as they choose whether sick or vacation (no doctors’ notes needed!)
  - Employees with the company less than 2 years = 15 days annually
  - Employees with the company 2 – 5 years = 20 days annually
  - Employees with the company 5+ years = 25 days annually
- Remote work opportunities
  - Employees with the company for 6+ months are allowed 2 remote working days per month, no questions asked
- Core hours and flex time allowing employees to design their own work week around 24 core in-office hours
  - Core hours:
    
    Monday through Thursday: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
    
    Friday: 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
In addition to other benefits, which include:
- Benefit-rich health insurance plan
- Voluntary Dental, Vision, Life Insurance and Short Term Disability
- Employer-Matched 401(k)
- Team Building events and activities
- Paid maternity and paternity leave
August 7, 2017
The Big Switch: Transferring to a New Department at Search Influence

Transferring to a different department at a job is not uncommon and, for many, it is seen as an excellent career opportunity. Making a choice to work on another team provides an employee with new training, skill sets, responsibilities, and can help give a broader understanding of a company as a whole. In fact, research has shown that this type of career development can help employers retain their most productive employees given their broad knowledge and understanding of the company.

Influencers Expanding Their Horizons in the Workplace

Here at Search Influence, several employees—including myself—have made the switch when the opportunity arose. Check out these employees’ department moves to see what it’s been like for them to get used to a new team, environment, and job responsibilities.

Jared Jones

Former Position: Senior Internet Marketing Associate (Technical) – 1 year-7 months

Job Responsibilities: My job responsibilities weren’t necessarily confined to a rigid container but instead a malleable collection of duties in relation to helping to improve a client’s search visibility from managing their directory presence, implementing blogs, writing image optimizations, completing competitive research, completing comprehensive site audits, scheduling social media posts, and much more.

Current Position: Web Developer – 4 months

Job Responsibilities: Implementation and styling of various types of content directly on a client’s site.

What do you like about your current department?

Though the description sounds more focused, there is actually still a very wide variety of work due to the difference in CMSs, client-requested content, and the increased technical aspects required to perform day to day job duties. There’s also a nice feeling of instant gratification when you see some nice changes go live (correctly) on your first try.

What has been a new challenge of the department switch?

The most challenging thing about being a web developer is that there is a lot less rigidity in the daily work flow. There are some tasks that may seem relatively straightforward, but there can always be multiple solutions based on a wide array of existing (and even non-existing) conditions of client’s site.

Rosie Nolan

Former Position: Editorial Internet Marketing Associate – 6 months

Job Responsibilities: Writing, editing, and optimizing web content for clients ranging from social media posts to press releases, ad copy, and blogs.

Current Position: Digital Advertising Coordinator – 4 months

Job Responsibilities: Writing and implementing ad copy for Google paid search clients, monitoring and adjusting paid search client budgets, performing ad campaign research to deliver ads to achieve qualified leads, and promoting Facebook advertising.

What do you like about your current department?

I enjoy that this position allows for a lot of client-facing tasks, which really helps me to see the product of my work in a tangible way.

What has been a new challenge of the department switch?

There are a lot more numbers involved here, which was a little difficult to get used to at first!

Ariel Kizer

Former Position: Editorial Internet Marketing Associate – 5 months

Job Responsibilities: Writing and editing content for clients including blogs, articles, social media post, website content, BuzzFeed articles, press releases, and ad copy.

Current Position: Sales Executive – 4 months

Job Responsibilities: Reaching out to a variety of inbound and outbound leads to promote and sell Search Influence’s services through phone calls, presentations, and proposals.

What do you like about your current department?

The sales department is very supportive of one another and is always willing to give constructive feedback, tips, and kudos.

What has been a new challenge of the department switch?

Switching from a non-client facing position to a client facing position has been a new challenge. Learning how to discuss digital marketing without using internal jargon has given me a deeper understanding of our services as well as how we can help potential clients grow their business.

Cory Agular

Former Position: Editorial Internet Marketing Associate – 6 months

Job Responsibilities: Responsible for editing and writing website content, social media posts, press releases, blog posts, business descriptions, amongst other things.

Current Position: Technical Internet Marketing Associate – 1 year-11 months

Job Responsibilities: Managing, editing, optimizing Google My Business, overseeing AWR, and managing Sendible. Schedule blog posts and social media posts. Also, performing SEO audits on client’s site as well as a plethora of backlink analysis, acquisition, and clean up.

What do you like about your current department?

It has given me the opportunity to learn more technical aspects of site design and how all of the processes we do interact with search engines. I’ve also learned a lot about social media management and strategies that are effective for our clients.

What has been a new challenge of the department switch?

Getting up to speed with all the new work processes was basically like starting all over, and although it felt like it took awhile, it was definitely the right move for me.

Making a Long-Term Impact

It’s evident that making a career move such as a department change can be both challenging and rewarding. Employees making this switch can guarantee that they’ll be able to add new skills to their professional toolbox. Transferring to a different job within a company is seen as a motivator for development and makes a lasting impression on a company.

Interested in joining the Search Influence team? We’re always looking for driven professionals! Check out our careers page.

August 3, 2017
Join Us in Welcoming Our Newest Team Member!

SI is happy to have new team member Shelby Emens in the office, adding a bright new face to our endless summer of Influencers.

Shelby Emens (Junior Web Developer)

Recently relocated from rural Michigan, Shelby completed her Bachelor of Science in Technical Writing from Grand Valley State University. She is excited to join the Search Influence team and is looking forward to not dealing with snow during the winter! Outside of work, Shelby enjoys spending her free time reading, playing video games, and spending time with friends.

Welcome to the team, Shelby!

July 31, 2017
Three New Team Members Join Search Influence

While New Orleans is busy with festival season, Search Influence has hired three new Influencers. We are excited to welcome Rob Monk, Sierra Kellogg, & KD Minor!

Robert Monk – Junior Software Developer

Born and raised in southern Louisiana, Rob grew up building and taking apart computers and any other electronic he could get his hands on. After advancing his skills through a coding boot camp in Boston, he decided to come back to the city he loves. Rob enjoys poboys, crawfish, and local festivals. In his free time, he can be found riding his bike around the city, enjoying anything and everything it has to offer.

Sierra Kellogg – Junior Graphic Designer

Born & raised in New Orleans, Sierra graduated from Delgado Community College with an Associates Degree in Graphic Design & a Certificate in Photography. Previously, she worked at a newborn photography studio. In her spare time, you can find her doing arts & crafts & watching (highly addictive) makeup tutorials on YouTube.

KD Minor – Sales Executive

A native of Lake Charles, LA, KD got her start in marketing at the InterContinental New Orleans Hotel as their Content Marketing Manager. To stay ahead of the curve, she became a certified Advanced Social Media Strategist and enrolled in Tulane’s School of Professional Advancement where she studied Media Arts. In her free time, KD enjoys spending time with her kitten “Dr. Manhattan,” cooking for friends, and visiting her favorite bartenders for their latest cocktail creations.

Welcome to the Search Influence team, Rob, Sierra, & KD!

May 1, 2017
A Day in the Life of a Sales Executive at Search Influence

Meet Bailey Colomb! Here’s a glimpse into what an average day looks like for Bailey as a Sales Executive working at Search Influence. From her favorite breakfast food (hint: think Ron Swanson) to some of her favorite perks of the job, you’ll get an insider glimpse into what it’s like to join the SI sales team.

Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school?

I’m from New Orleans. I was born and raised in Lakeview and went to Mount Carmel for high school. I went to college at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, MS. I graduated in Hospitality and Tourism. I wasn’t interested in working at a job that was behind a desk with no social interaction.

When you’re not working, what are some of your favorite things to do around New Orleans?

I’m very close with my family. Almost my entire family lives in New Orleans. Every Sunday we’ll do lunch or dinner at my mom’s and my family will all come over. I also have a lot of friends here from college and high school, so we like to do a lot of happy hours. A lot of us after work will go out for happy hour, too. Anywhere that has live music, alcohol, and fries—I’m interested!

What is your ideal breakfast to get you through a busy workday?

Anything that includes bacon. I’m not a huge breakfast person before work, but my ideal breakfast would definitely be bacon oriented.

What led you to this position at Search Influence?

I was an account manager for almost a year and a half. I’ve been in sales a month, so it’s a very recent transition. I think as an account manager (AM), there are a lot of great things about it, and everybody on the AM team really enjoys being creative and thinking of out of the box ways to help clients, but sometimes the day-to-day responsibilities cloud that. That was an area of opportunity that I wanted to pursue. Being in sales lets you focus on this fresh canvas. These new potential clients have never been approached by anyone, and I get to create this really broad creative strategy to help them.

What was the craziest job you had before you started at SI? Did you learn anything from that experience that you apply to your sales position today?

I worked at the Royal Sonesta, which is in the 300 block of Bourbon. My shift that I normally worked was 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. I would get to work when people were going to bed.

I think that everyone should work in some sort of customer service job because it teaches you about literally everything. It taught me to listen first and hear what people really needed, and then figure out how to help them instead of just assuming. Sometimes you’re so quick to get to the solution that you’re not actually listening to the problem.

If I talked to your co-workers, what are some adjectives you think they’d use to describe you?

I would say outgoing and definitely chatty. People always make fun of me because I have a story for everything. I would hope that they would say knowledgeable because I feel like I really have learned so much since being here. It’s cool to be in a position where people are asking you the questions, instead of you asking the questions.

What is the first thing you do when you arrive at the office?

The first thing I do is make my coffee. And then I check my email, I check my calendar and get my whole day forecasted. At 8:45 we have our sales meeting, which is great. It’s a touchpoint at the beginning of the morning to see where we are, if there are any updates, check our metrics and any deals we’re working on. Then, we share our daily priority. That is the most important thing we think needs to get done. A lot of the priorities will be making calls if there are prospects to reach out and call. Or, if you have a call that’s in the presentation stage, then preparing the presentation to have ready for the next call.

Describe an average day at work.

Right now we are working through our cadences. The cadence is setup to have different touch points throughout the week to try to make that connection with someone who could use our help. After the initial conversation, if they are interested in learning more, then we set up a discovery call so we can get to know their business and get as much information as we can to put together a broad strategy. If all goes well, the next step would be to send a contract and have a kickoff call with an AM who gets into the nitty gritty details of the deliverables.

What are some big milestones your team is currently working toward?

We just rolled out our sales playbook, which has been really great. It’s a huge resource for all of us to turn to with tips and tricks for the best ways to leave a voicemail, best ways to send an email, or how to handle pushback when we’re on the phone. It’s been a really good resource for all of our new team members to use. The cadence is also something we recently rolled out that has been really successful. Since the cadence, we’ve had about five outbound calls that have turned into sales presentations.

What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

The most challenging is, coming from an AM perspective, you have a lot of platforms that tell you exactly what you need to do, so you know what your day looks like. I’ve had to adjust how I come in and organize since there’s less structure. It’s made me change the way I stay productive and organized throughout the day.

What is the most fulfilling part of your job?

The most fulfilling part of the job, for me personally, is that everything is a trial and error right now because it’s so new. We’re all learning together to figure out what works and what doesn’t. I get to be one of the people who is helping to get the department up and running. It’s all the more fulfilling to be able to build new relationships with people here who have so much knowledge.

What skills do you utilize from previous positions in your career to succeed in sales?

Definitely customer service, and with that, having no shame. The worst they can do is hang up on me or tell me no, so I might as well just call them. Being in the service industry for so long has helped me be a good communicator and make people comfortable. That’s important in sales because you want to be as conversational as possible and the least sales-y as possible.

What are some of the perks of a sales job?

Happy hours! Getting out of the office to mingle more. The second week I joined the sales team was New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, and we got to go out and network and hear speeches. That’s definitely been fun to meet new people.

What stands out about the culture at Search Influence that makes your job more enjoyable?

The people. I feel like everybody says that, but it really is what keeps people motivated, keeps morale up, and keeps people here as long as they’ve been here. I remember when I interviewed here, seeing the people coming in and out of the office, I knew I wanted to work here because everyone looked so cool and laid back. Everyone is so easy to work with and collaborative. I think that is one of our strongest competitive advantages.

What’s your favorite work memory at SI?

Me and my friends at SI have a “Ladies who…” group, which is just an event once a week where we do something different. Like ladies who lunch, who happy hour, etc. It is super fun to not only build those relationships in the office but also build those friendships out of the office, too.

What would you like others to know about your job that they may not expect?

I think, for me, it was hard switching my AM brain to a sales brain. But, it was interesting to see how much in common the positions had—sales encompasses a lot of the things that each department does each day. Also, it’s just not that scary. I thought it would be really intimidating to pick up the phone and talk to a doctor, but we don’t know what they know, and they also don’t know the things that we know.

What are your biggest goals for your career in the next 5 years? Beyond?

My biggest goal in the next few years is just not to get too comfortable and to always stay challenged and learn something new every day. It’s easy to get in a rut and just do what you do because it’s a routine and not because it’s challenging.

Looking ahead, what are you most excited to achieve and take part in at SI?

Some big sales! I’m excited now that we are really focusing in on the direct side; it’s exciting to be part of the team that is supporting and growing that. I think we have great clients now who have supported us for a long time, and it’s cool to be a part of the team that’s going to help contribute to that.

Sometimes it can be hard to explain what we do in the SEO world. What are some successful tactics you’ve used to inform new clients about our industry?

The way I always describe it is that I help local businesses rank on Google. Obviously, there are a lot of little technical things that go into it. But at the end of the day, our main goal is that when a user searches for something and types in a keyword related to one of our local businesses, it’s our client that shows up in the first five rankings. That’s who the user clicks on and engages with. Everyone Googles things, so it’s easy to relate to that.

In your opinion, why does online marketing matter for small business? What role does it play in the local economy?

I think it’s important for small business because people might not know that you’re there unless you tell them. You do that through online marketing. That’s how you make your brand known in this day and age; not doing it is not an option.

What are prospective clients most surprised to learn when you talk to them about the benefits of online marketing?

I think that a lot of people obviously know about Google and know how it works, but I don’t think they know how or why those businesses are ranking. They are surprised by all the things you can do to improve your rankings. I don’t think that they understand the actual manpower it takes to manage all these things so that when you do type something into Google, it’s your business that shows up.

What were you most surprised to learn about this industry when you started working at SI?

I literally knew nothing. I straight up Googled, “What is SEO?” Every day was different; it was an uphill battle because it’s such a vast level of knowledge. My surprises were very similar to our clients’ surprises.

What advice would you offer to someone considering a sales position in this industry?

I would say go for it! I definitely do not regret trying something new. I had never done sales before. There’s an aspect of selling in everything you do, but I had never picked up the phone and tried to sell something. It’s changed the way I think about my work. It’s helped me build on the character traits I already had, and also build new ones as I get more comfortable and gain more experience.

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If you’re interested in learning more about a sales position at Search Influence, please visit our careers page to view our current positions available. We look forward to meeting you and discussing a potential career at Search Influence!

April 25, 2017
Meet Amy Cannon, Our Hardest Working Woman in New Orleans Contest Winner!

In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2017, and in the spirit of last month March being Women’s History Month, Search Influence held a contest to honor the hardest working woman in New Orleans. Local businesses and individuals were encouraged to nominate a woman who either owns her own business or works 40+ hours making a difference with a New Orleans company. The goal of the project was to raise awareness about the importance of equal pay for women and company benefits that allow women to succeed in the workplace without sacrificing the responsibilities of motherhood. After receiving countless nominations, Search Influence selected Amy Cannon as a true example of a hard-working woman who has made a difference and achieved great success.

Amy Cannon is a Corporate Director of Human Resources at Hammerman & Gainer Inc., a Louisiana-based firm that provides a wide range of third-party administrative management services, business process outsourcing, and project management services. Amy works at the New Orleans office where she plans, develops, and implements the firm’s HR functions and performance to build a world-class human resources department.

Outside of her dedication and long hours at work, Amy is committed to her family. She is a single mother to three children—one in college, one in high school, and one in elementary school. It’s no easy feat, but Amy manages to financially and emotionally support her children, as well as work immeasurably hard at her job. Her family, friends, and colleagues who nominated her describe Amy as selfless, amazing, hard working, kind hearted, and genuine.

Search Influence is thrilled to have presented Amy Cannon with a spa day of relaxation for her continued hard work, contributions to her job, family, and community, and for not sacrificing being a wonderful mom.

April 3, 2017
We Are MAD About These Two New Influencers

Search Influence is kicking off March Madness with two new Influencers on our team. We are excited to welcome Alula Amare and Liesbeth Vigil!

Alula Amare – Sales Assistant

Alula was born and raised in Kenner, bruh. He went to NYU and majored in Marketing and Creative Writing. Although he loved the city, he missed New Orleans. So a couple years ago, he moved back on Endymion. In his free time, he’s probably playing soccer, listening to music, or using the Oxford comma.

Liesbeth Vigil – Executive Assistant

Liesbeth joins Search Influence as our new Executive Assistant. She is from the greater New Orleans area, where she graduated from Tulane with a B.A. in Communication and a minor in Spanish. Shortly after college, Liesbeth lived in NYC for 5 years and is happy to have recently returned to her hometown. In her spare time, Liesbeth enjoys morning runs, takes salsa dance classes, loves cooking, and attends sporting events and music shows.

Welcome to the team Liesbeth and Alula!

March 14, 2017