The Internet was still new when Krishen Iyer graduated from San Diego State University in the early 2000s. He earned a degree in Public Administration at the well-known university near his hometown of Carlsbad, California. With a fresh new degree in hand, he saw the Internet as a source of extensive opportunity. This gave him an immediate edge over industry peers who still felt leery of the newer technology.
Iyer's first position after graduating from college was in the insurance sales industry. His job was to create traffic and new leads for his clients. Because of this early experience, Krishen Iyer has deep experience with both insurance and marketing. Although he has retained what he learned about insurance, Iyer has also become a marketing expert across several verticals. His experience buying, selling, and operating businesses in multiple industries make young entrepreneurs take notice when Krishen Iyer speaks.
Krishen Iyer on the Topic of Onsite Search Performance
No one lands on a website expecting to spend time looking on each page for what they need. They take it for granted that the business website will have a robust search function instead. If they do not find one, they will quickly click away to find a more user-friendly website. Businesses obviously miss a potential sale, but they also lose the chance to gain actionable insights.
As a marketer with more than 20 years of leadership experience, Iyer feels that people often misunderstand site searches. All too often, he sees marketers collecting first-party and third-party data about customers in roundabout ways.
Krishen Iyer would like to see marketers in all industries do a better job of understanding customer motivations. The more they can achieve this, the better they meet searchers' needs and keep them interacting with the company's website. He recommends implementing the five steps described below to provide users with a better search experience.
Make Sure the Marketing Team is Working towards the Same Goals. A company or client's marketing team should have the same goals and expectations regarding website search functions. This is true whether the team consists of two people or 100 people. With different marketing staff publishing content at various times, it is easy to lose the purpose of the department's work.
Regular status meetings and check-ins are essential to avoid unintentionally creating a frustrating experience for website visitors. Everyone needs to work as a team, remembering that the goal is to create a cohesive search experience for all.
Krishen Iyer Recommends Initiating Search as a Service. Website maintenance is a huge task that many businesses complete in-house without realizing that other options exist. Today's business owner can outsource the work of search engine software as a service to a third-party vendor. The advantage of outsourcing is that it allows employees to focus more on marketing campaigns. Management does not need to concern themselves with search engine maintenance since an outside vendor has taken over that responsibility.
Know the Difference Between the Customer's Search and Overall Experiences. The ease in which customers find the information they need is only a small part of their total experience. Krishen Iyer feels he cannot stress this statement enough. Even people who find what they need in their first search may not have a positive experience as a customer. From personalized recommendations to the simplicity of using the shopping cart, many factors determine how well customers rank their experience. Marketers simply cannot afford to ignore what happens after people find what they need via search.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Are Valuable Tools When Used Correctly. Krishen Iyer states that marketing automation and artificial intelligence (AI) should work in unison these days. When using the toolbox version of AI, the marketing team can easily interact with the system to make necessary changes. The automated form of AI makes it possible to improve the efficiency in which the marketing team completes tasks. The result is a team that has more time to devote to their marketing tasks.
Utilize A/B Testing Often. Marketing teams have long used A/B testing to determine the effectiveness of other parts of a website. For example, they may run two different landing pages to see which one performs better. Krishen Iyer feels the time has come for marketers to use the same testing strategy with search algorithms. Uncovering which functionalities help them the most during A/B trials will ultimately be useful and time-consuming for website visitors.
Finding Solutions for Clients
Providing advice to clients on topics such as onsite search is just part of what Krishen Iyer does each day. He currently operates as the founder and CEO of his own company, MAIS Consulting. His firm assists clients with company policies, contracting, marketing, and strategic growth. His duties keep him busy, but it does not feel like work because he loves what he is doing.
Starting businesses is nothing new to Krishen Iyer. Before he launched MAIS Consulting, Iyer founded Quick Link Marketing. The company later changed its name to Managed Benefit Service, and Iyer served as its CEO. The primary service MBS offered clients was helping them generate leads for their business.
The first company Krishen Iyer launched after college and several years of work experience was Name My Premium (NMP) in 2009. The business thrived under his leadership, making it to the Inc. 5000 list six years later. Krishen Iyer sold the business in 2016. He worked as CEO of MBS from 2016 until 2020 and launched MAIS Consulting in June 2020.
