Leadership Spotlight: Mia Pruett, Head of Search Marketing for Studio

Each month, we’re interviewing members of Volusion’s leadership team to gain insight into the people behind the company. This month, we’re talking with Volusion’s Head of Search Marketing for Studio, Mia Pruett. How did your background prepare you for joining Volusion? I got my degree in Marketing and worked for a variety of companies doing marketing before joining Volusion. I helped those companies with PPC, email marketing, social media, and more. In some of my roles I worked with clients, and in others I worked directly for the company. That has given me the unique opportunity to understand how to help clients with their marketing while still looking at the big picture of helping a company be successful. What were you most eager to work on when you came onboard? When I came on board, really I just wanted to help our merchants be successful. My goal was to help them grow their businesses. I was able to do that when I would directly manage their campaigns and get them more sales. I also have been able to work on webinars and write blog posts arming merchants with the knowledge they need to work on marketing campaigns themselves. What is the best piece of professional advice you’ve ever received? It comes from a Brene Brown workshop I attended: “Clear is Kind.” I feel like that is applicable to so many things. It doesn’t help team members or clients if you aren’t upfront with them. Honesty in feedback is so important for employees to be able to know how best to grow. Additionally, with clients, being upfront about the results of campaigns and how we can best help them makes everyone more successful. What do you think is the biggest challenge for ecommerce businesses this quarter? It’s just a weird holiday season. The typical timeline of waiting to buy presents last minute but still know that they will be shipped on time just doesn’t apply this year. Because of that, a lot of people are planning early and buying presents early. So merchants need to be prepared that sales may happen early on and then trail off the closer we get to Christmas. Additionally, with the pandemic, some people don’t have as much disposable income this year. They are opting for smaller gifts. Because of that, merchants should also have a variety of price points available. What is the biggest thing ecommerce businesses can do to improve their search standings for the New Year? Pay attention to Google news! Google just rolled out a December core algorithm update, and some merchants have been affected. Check your search rankings in Search Console and see if you’ve seen a drop in rankings and traffic. And get prepared now for the Google Core Web Vitals update coming in May! And with Google, it’s all about the user experience. Don’t keyword stuff your pages or alt tags. Make sure you’re writing content for the user and optimizing your site for user experience. Go through your site and do an audit of your content and images. Look at your Google Search Console reports, and then make a plan of attack for 2021.