Omi Sido is an SEO and Web Development professional with 6 years of experience in both web and traditional advertising, promotions, events, and campaigns.
He has worked on integrated campaigns for major clients such as Vectone Mobile, Delight Mobile, The Global Real Estate Institute and Daily Mail.
Currently, Omi Sido is Senior Technical SEO at Canon Europe.
As a true SEO at heart, nothing excites Omi more than to help others understand algorithms and the effect of new technologies on the market, business, and human behaviour.
How did you start your digital marketing career?
In all honesty, I never had any intention of being a digital marketer. It sort of happened to me.
One day I was a front-end developer and the next day I was doing Digital Marketing and specialising in SEO.
Back in the day front-end development and Digital Marketing had nothing in common.
Nowadays SEO professionals and front-end developers are the perfect digital marketing team.
I am happy doing Digital Marketing as this is one of the most challenging, exciting and fastest-growing marketing technologies.
I tell all my interns “If you want to make a career in digital marketing, then I can promise you will never be bored and disappointed”.
Looking back what is your hardest struggle when it came to delivering results?
When you think about it, struggle is a form of training.
It really prepares us mentally and physically to be ready for the next step.
Nothing good in life can ever be achieved quickly. When it comes to SEO becoming a good SEO is impossible without years of hard work and studying.
The hardest struggle when delivering results in SEO (and Digital Marketing in general) is managing client expectations and commitment. “How long before we are number one in Google?” may sound like a joke but it’s probably the question I hear at least 10 times a week.
Clients want everything to happen quickly. Clients want to see the result tomorrow.
From my experience, websites normally see results in 3 to 6 months.
Here and there I can rank a page well within a day, but these are exceptions rather than the rule.
Ranking for a competitive keyword in a competitive industry takes time and effort.
Consistency is important when it comes to any kind of SEO work.
Stick with your SEO plan, even if you aren’t seeing noticeable results after month 3, time and commitment will get you the online visibility results you want to see.
How did you get your first client back then, and what kind of service did you do for them?
The first is probably the hardest. Kill it with your first client and referrals will flow in.
I remember starting my SEO journey by offering to work for free for non-profit organisations or small businesses that didn’t rank well.
After finishing a job, I always asked the same question: “Is there anyone that you think would be interested in my services?” I still ask this question at the end of every single project.
Asking for referrals is crucial to bringing in valuable new customers.
From my experience, clients would much rather do business with SEO agencies they know or other businesses recommended to them.
What do you find most rewarding about what you do?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of working in SEO is helping people solve their problems and at the same time helping businesses sell their products or services.
In SEO I always have to learn new things. I love the gratitude I receive from clients for helping them.
You’ve been tasked with redesigning the company’s brand strategy from the ground up. Walk us through your process.
Knowing the ins and outs of your company is key to successful rebranding.
You really need to know who you are and what you represent before splashing out a lot of time and money into rebranding.
The initial point should be market research. Spend some to understand how your target audience sees your brand story, your products and exciting reputation.
Categorising your audience into groups will help you create buyer personas.
Use this information to align your future brand image with your intended audience.
Your next step should be to find and understand what makes you unique.
Your Unique selling proposition (USP) should be the focal point of the rebranding process.
Important to remember: do not try to appeal to everyone!
Step three would be to redesign all your brand touchpoints.
Every time a client or a potential client interacts with your business they should see the new brand image of your company. If your customers find you online the touchpoint is your website.
If your customers come to your office the reception desk (and even the coffee mug) is a touchpoint that you need to align with your new brand image.
Before taking your new brand to the public I would strongly recommend talking (and aligning) with your employees so they know exactly what the new brand business values and strategy is.
Get your workforce excited about the new brand image.
The final step would be to reveal your new brand to the public.
Make it quick as people don’t like confusion and uncertainty.
I would strongly suggest while informing your customers of the new brand image to also inform them of the reason for your rebrand. Be transparent and as people are more inclined to trust you when you are been honest.
Last but not least highlight how the rebrand will benefit them.
What do you do to stay up to date with new marketing techniques?
I’m going to be honest with you: keeping up with digital marketing trends is not an easy task.
Just when you think you know what works best for your clients, three new algorithms are rolled out. New automation tools, new products, new software – the list goes on and on.
Thankfully, I love learning new things and thankfully there are so many ways to keep up with the industry.
What works best for me is networking and attending tech meetups and conferences.
There are so many SEO experts out there looking to share their knowledge, insights, and perspective that can help you grow your personal brand and career.
As a plus attending industry conferences gives us a chance to meet potential clients and discover new SEO software.
What advice would you share with other Marketer’s who want to become more productive?
One thing I always do (and I highly recommend) is to break down your marketing campaigns into smaller and easily achievable goals.
In fact, brake up your marketing project into small chunks before even setting the timelines.
Having a clear, granular understanding of what’s being asked and how to deliver result will not just speed up your workflow but also give you the confidence that you can predict the end-product quality.
Can you tell us about a past situation where you had to juggle multiple projects with competing deadlines?
I work for a big multinational company so juggling multiple projects with competing deadlines is something I do every single day.
Not just that but I also work with multiple teams across Europe, Asia and Africa.
My 3 pieces of advice to successfully manage multiple projects:
- Manage and communicate expectations clearly and early. In my opinion, the best way to do this consistently is to find a task management tool that allows you to share status and progress updates with your clients (stakeholders) every time a task is done. I work with JIRA but any management tool will do.
- Always prioritise the work that will make the most impact. Whatever you do, do not start with the easy projects (marketing campaigns). Instead, prioritize them based on what will make the largest impact on your client’s end goals. For example, you (or your team) may be working on 3 roughly equal marketing campaigns. While they require roughly the same size time and effort to complete, one of them has the potential to make a much larger impact on the client’s revenue than the other two. Well, make sure that you have enough time and resources to complete the most profitable project (campaign) before the spending time on the other two.
- Be flexible when priorities change. Setting priorities early in a project is key to success but you should be also flexible enough to pivot when you need to. Don’t take shifting priorities personally, maintain your focus and going back to my first advice always set expectations as clearly and as early as possible.
If there’s one Marketing Guru you’d recommend who and why.
I am a doer. I don’t follow digital marketers who are just talking and not actually doing the job. My favourite digital marketer (SEO) is Aleyda Solis.
Her talks are always incredibly well-researched, data-driven and practical.
My favourite talk by Aleyda is What makes your SEO fail (and how to fix it).