Some SEO Insights

in ,

I picked up some good insights on search engine optimization (SEO) over the last few weeks. For those that aren't familiar, SEO is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results. So these are not the 'bolded' results at the top or right hand side of a Google search page. 80% of users click on the organic links instead of the paid links (personally, I almost never click on paid links).

16% of Google searches that occur each day were never searched for before.

Google’s primary job is to satisfy the user, so they’re going to send the user to the place that will make them the happiest. So the primary drivers of good SEO results (in no particular order) are:

    1. Number of inbound links to the content
    2. Amount of content
    3. Recency of content
    4. Click-through rate (from search result to click)
    5. Stickiness of site (time spent on site)
    6. Lack of dummy content (content that isn't relevant to the page or topic)

There have been incidents in the past where e-commerce sites would intentionally and blatantly ripoff a portion of their customers -- causing those customers to go to the internet and write bad reviews with links back to the offending site. It used to be that this kind of behavior would cause the site to be listed higher in organic search results (more links = higher SEO score).

To prevent this, Google has started to use something called sentiment analysis or opinion mining. By applying an algorithm against a variety of social media sites, discussion boards, blogs and news sites, Google can get a pretty good sense of whether or not the internet likes your site. And if they do, you'll rank higher.

Of course, sentiment analysis is complicated and not 100% reliable (due to cultural factors, language nuances and wide-ranging contexts) but is a useful way for Google to ensure that individuals aren't gaming the system.

In short, I think the key insight is that if you want to rank high in SEO over the long term, you have to do the right thing. You have to give users a site that makes them happy. You may be able to fool Google for a little while, but they'll eventually catch up and when they do you can forget about SEO as a source for acquiring new business.

What Healthcare CEOs Are Focused On

in

A few weeks ago someone sent me a copy of a whitepaper that was recently published by Deloitte titled, A look around the corner: Health care CEOs’ perspectives on the future. It’s definitely worth reading if you’re into this type of thing. But the most interesting part of the paper for me was the survey that asked a large group of healthcare CEOs what they viewed as their top near term challenges. Here were the top 10:

  1. Facilitating physician alignment and integration into leadership roles
  2. Reducing operating costs to respond to cuts from payers
  3. Integrating non-acute services to become a system of care
  4. Managing in uncertainty as a result of health reform, payer consolidation, fiscal constraints
  5. Implementing health information technologies and integrating them into evidence-based care
  6. Building new/non-conventional relationships with commercial health plans to share risk and savings
  7. Engaging more directly with employers and consumers
  8. Redesigning current acute clinical programs to be responsive to innovations in diagnostics and therapeutics
  9. Engaging consumers in wellness, preventive health, and personal accountability
  10. Protecting or enhancing the brand and reputation of the system

The recurring theme in this list speaks to the substantial change that healthcare executives are focused on: financial changes, facility changes, technological changes, payment model changes, and a larger focus on the patient and patient experience. This is an awesome time to be working in healthcare. This list should give us all hope that big change is on the way.

The UP By Jawbone

in , , ,

UpThe other day I bought a Jawbone UP, the popular health monitoring device that tracks steps, sleep and sleep quality. I’ve only been using it for a few days but so far so good. I mostly bought it for the sleep monitoring feature, and because I've been generally a bit anxious to test out a health monitoring device.

I’m slightly obsessed about the amount of sleep I get. Often there are nights where I get a good night’s sleep, but I don’t think I did so I worry about it. UP has begun to put my mind at ease – I’m actually getting more sleep than I had thought. The sleep part of the app monitors how long it took me to get to sleep, how long I slept and even deciphers periods of deep sleep versus light sleep.

I measure my daily workouts fairly closely and I use the MapMyRun app for my outdoor runs so the step measuring feature isn’t all that useful to me. Though I think over time it’ll be interesting to look back at the data to see how much I’m moving, and how I'm moving more or less during different periods. I also like being able to view my general activity levels in contrast to my rest.

The wristband itself is good. It looks decent on my wrist, seems durable, the controls are really responsive and it's easy to sync. The iPhone app is fabulous. It’s easy to use and has a seemingly endless number of ways to slice the data it collects.

There are a few more features I haven't used yet that I'll try out in the coming weeks. Lots of people believe that this kind of self-monitoring is the future of healthcare (particularly to help monitor various physiological statistics and behavior change for people with acute illness and/or high risk factors).

I'll write another post on my experience with the UP in a few months after I've compiled a bunch of data.

My Investment Approach

in

Lately I've been investing in individual stocks a bit more than usual. I'm pretty picky about the stocks that I buy. I was talking to a friend the other night about how I pick them and thought I'd post my approach here. When buying an individual stock, I only invest in two types of companies:

  1. Companies that make products or services that I use and that I love. This includes stocks like Amazon, Tumi and FedEx.
  2. Companies that are in the industry that I work in, that I know a lot about and that I believe in. Currently, this would be a company like Athena Health.

The only way to gain an advantage in the stock market is to bet against conventional thinking -- and be right. By investing in companies that I personally know and love or know and understand significantly more than the average investor, I'm at least putting myself in a position to gain an advantage.

Disclaimer: while I would certainly advocate that others use my approach to investing, I of course wouldn't advocate that anyone invest too much of their worth in individual stocks (it's too risky, regardless of your approach). Best to put most of your wealth in less risky, diversified investments with a modest but reliable return.

What A Startup Needs To Start Selling

in ,

Over the last few weeks I've been helping a CEO of a very early-stage startup with her go-to-market strategy. She's planning to hire a head of sales in the coming weeks and she asked me to brainstorm what that person should be responsible for. To me, there are two broad buckets: 1.) that person should be able to get deals done quickly and 2.) just as important, that person should create and publish process, systems, collateral and other documentation (that should continuously be iterated) that will allow the company to scale.

With #2 in mind, I put together the list below. A lot of the things on the list are required to start selling, but many of them are there to ensure that the product and positioning of the product are setup to constantly be iterated. Most successful products and new product pitches look very different than they did when the entrepreneur initially went to market. It's critical that there are systems in place that enable constant change.

Pipeline

  • Lead Framework
  • Build Lead List
  • Segment Leads (A, B, C)
  • Key Contacts at High Priority Leads (email/phone)
  • Inbound Lead Management Process

Access Approach

  • Script(s)
  • One-Pager

Collateral/Documentation

  • Presentation Deck
  • Presentation Scripts/Talking Points
  • Proposal Template
  • References Document
  • Order Form (business terms)
  • Agreement (legal terms)

Sales Cycle Management

  • CRM System Implementation (e.g. Salesforce.com, Excel, etc.)
  • Stage Development
  • Key Leading & Lagging Metrics To Track
  • Leading & Lagging Metrics Targets and Timeline
  • Key Reports (weekly, monthly, quarterly)

Other

  • Difficult Questions (and answers)
  • Cast of Characters Document (who do we care about and what do they care about?)
  • Urgency Angles
  • Competitive Matrix
  • Qualitative Results: What works / What doesn’t (documented weekly)
  • Insights/Learnings (documented weekly)

Patient Acquisition Segments

in ,

I had a great conversation with a healthcare executive last week about segmenting and targeting new patients. When you think about acquiring new patients, you can bucket them into four segments. Patients that care about...

  1. Brand -- they want to see a doctor that is employed or affiliated with a prominent hospital or health system.
  2. Facilities -- they want nice, clean offices in a good neighborhood.
  3. Convenience -- they want easy access to good doctors near their home and to get in and out quickly
  4. Cost -- they want to pay a smaller co-pay, receive less expensive services, etc.

We agreed that very roughly 25% of patients prioritize brand, 35% prioritize facilities, 35% prioritize convenience and only 5% prioritize cost.

My personal take is that the fastest growing segments are the cost and convenience segments. Federal and state governments are providing a variety of incentives that are driving patients toward the lower cost providers, and I think we'll see that trend continue. And just like most industries that begin to move online (healthcare is a laggard in this area) consumers will begin to value convenience and ease of access more and more.

And I think it is the brand segment that is shrinking. As quality and cost become more and more transparent to patients, brands will become less important. If a patient finds a doctor online that went to a decent medical school, that has good reviews from other patients, and good availability, the brand that they're affiliated will matter less and less.

Top 20 Movies

in

I had a debate with some friends a couple weeks ago about the best movies ever made. Here's my list. It's impossible to rank them from 1 through 20...so I created two lists: the top 10, and the next 10.

Top 10

  • Shawshank Redemption
  • Scent of a Woman
  • A Time to Kill
  • Michael Clayton
  • The Big Lebowski
  • A Few Good Men
  • Fargo
  • Good Will Hunting
  • Bourne Identity
  • Juno

Next 10

  • Capote
  • Little Miss Sunshine
  • Field of Dreams
  • Traffic
  • Silence of the Lambs
  • Driving Miss Daisy
  • Saving Private Ryan
  • Forrest Gump
  • The Fugitive
  • The Natural

Honorable Mentions: ET, Margin Call, Man on Fire

3 Random Marketing Thoughts

in

Here are three random marketing related things on my mind this week.

  1. Facebook is becoming more and more powerful as a marketing channel. One neat thing they’re doing is allowing advertisers to send them a list of all of their customers' email addresses. Facebook will then cross reference the advertiser's emails with their own user base and re-target ads to drive repeat purchases. I’m sure there are some privacy questions around this but that’s a super compelling proposition for advertisers -- a very efficient way to spend ad dollars.
  2. If you’re shopping for a television on Best Buy’s website, you might be shocked to see small advertisements for televisions from other merchants on the page (with links out to their websites). The risk that you might click on one of these ads is apparently offset by the high CPA Best Buy will get if you end up clicking away and buying the television from someone else. That’s pretty amazing – and a clear sign that the consumer is so much more in control these days. Best Buy's thinking is, "hey, if people are going to shop around, we might as well get a piece of it."
  3. A while back, I learned (the hard way) that when you misspell a word in the subject line of a marketing email, it’s very likely that you’ll get a higher response rate than if you had spelled the word correctly. The mistake jumps out and gets people’s attention. I got an email from Choice Hotels last week that spelled Worcester, Massachusetts as “Worchester”. I opened it right away…to find that they had spelled it correctly in the body of the email. Not a tactic I’d recommend, but sometimes you just gotta do what works.

Are The Boston Celtics Better Without Rondo?

in

Rondo

There was a good article on Red's Army the other day asking the question that most Boston Celtics fans are asking since Rondo went down with an ACL injury back in January: are the Celtics better without him?

Looking at the Celtics record, you'd certainly have to conclude that they are better. The Celtics were 20 and 23 through the first 43 games of the season with Rondo. Since he went down, they're 16 and 6.

When you dive a bit deeper into the numbers, you'll find that the Celtics offense (the part of the game where Rondo thrives) is almost exactly the same from a statistical perspective. They have virtually the same shot percentage, 3-point percentage and points per game.

But when you look at the defense (something that basketball fans often forget is 50% of the game) then you do see that the Celtics have improved. Boston has a defensive rating of 100.5 points per possession when Rondo is on the floor. When he's off the floor that drops to 98.3, which translates to about a 4 points per game improvement without him in the lineup.

So the Celtics are the same on offense and a little bit better on defense. But I don't think this kind of analysis really captures some of the important intangibles:

  • The attitude of the team seems to be a lot better.
  • The younger and newer guys are getting the ball a lot more and feel more empowered.
  • They don't take as many nights off.
  • They don't fight with the refs as much.
  • They're spreading the offense around and playing at a faster pace.
  • Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett have been forced to take back their leadership role.
  • The team seems much more coachable.

Obviously all of these things are hard to measure but there's no doubt they make a difference. I have to say, I really like this team without Rondo.

But all of that said, it'll be interesting to see how they perform without him in the playoffs. They don't really have a young superstar on the court without him. And often that's what you need in the playoffs. It's awfully easy to forget that Rondo was the Celtics leading scorer in 3 of the 7 playoff games with the Heat last year and that he put up 44 points in game 2.

The good news is that we will get some closure on this soon. Right now the Celtics are slated to play the Knicks in the first round of the playoffs. If the Celtics show they can play with the best teams without Rondo, they will have some clarity and may have to make some tough decisions in the offseason. On the other hand, if they get knocked out early, a lot of sportswriters will have some apologizing to do. I'm looking forward to watching.

Yahoo! & Working From Home

in ,

Much has been made of Marrisa Mayer’s controversial decision to stop allowing Yahoo! employees to work from home. I've heard pretty convincing arguments for it and against it. I feel pretty strongly about allowing employees to work when and where they’re most productive. Personally, I’ve often found that I can be incredibly productive working from home on Saturday mornings. And not so productive when in the office on a Friday afternoon. And often it can be vice versa. But having the flexibility to manage my own productivity makes me a better employee. Having that kind of control is really important.

But none of this takes into account collaboration with my company and team. There are things that I can’t do on my own time. I have to collaborate with my colleagues, and when and where we do that is not always up to me. So I need to balance optimizing my own productivity with finding time to collaborate and learn and innovate with my colleagues. Ideally, a CEO should allow individuals to manage that balance on their own. But when a company is going through a massive change in management and structure and mission (like Yahoo! is right now) it absolutely makes sense for the CEO to mandate that balance.

Right now, according to Mayer, it appears that Yahoo! is in transition. And in need of better collaboration and teamwork and that’s why she made the decision to bring employees back to the office.

In short, I guess my opinion is to not have an opinion. Those of us that are not on the executive team at Yahoo! can’t really know the circumstances at Yahoo! and, given those circumstances, can't really make an intelligent judgement about the most appropriate work from home policy.

The Power Of LinkedIn

in

I received this email from LinkedIn the other day. LinkedIn Email

I'm surprised I'm in the "LinkedIn one-percent". I don't share all that much on the site, or many other social networks for that matter. 95% of my sharing is done on this blog. I've always been reluctant to share very actively in too many places; I prefer to share in one place that I can be really proud of.

That said, I have built up an amazing network of colleagues, friends, partners, clients and mentors that I can easily speak to through LinkedIn's platform. And this email is a good reminder of how much of an asset that network can be.