Allison Schwam is Skiing Her Way to Search Success
Prepare to be green with envy.
I’m entirely jealous of Allison Schwam. She’s the Senior Search Analyst at Backcountry, an outdoor sporting goods operation. Allison guest posted over at the Inside AdWords blog about how in between ski runs down fresh powder, she keeps an eye on her AdWords campaigns.
She gets up at 7am, eats breakfast and checks her AdWords account. If her goals on target, she emails her boss to inform of her plans to go hit the white powder – and I do mean snow.
Her boss is ok with this.
She makes her 10 minute commute to Canyons Ski Resort. Allison skis to her heart’s content until noon, when she finally makes it to the office until 5pm.
Her boss is ok with this.
Then she heads home and data-crunches until 8pm. She takes advantage of the quiet to really focus on the numbers.
And yes, her boss is ok with this.
Allison likens her data crunching and paid search optimization to skiing (of course!). She says balancing chair lift time, snow quality and vertical is akin to maximizing cost-per-click, conversion rate and and top-line revenue.
That’s genius. Taking skills from a hobby you love or a skill you’ve previously mastered and transferring them to search marketing. If your new to search, get inspired by Allison’s approach.
If your a search or marketing manager, don’t be afraid to let your employees engage in their hobbies. It may provide inspiration they can apply to their work. And don’t be afraid to let them work from home, if just for a few hours a day. The quiet may help them dig into data and maximize those precious ad spend dollars.