Fastlane Founders and Legacy with Jason Barnard: Personal Branding, AI Strategies, and SEO Insights for Visionary CEOs

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Media is the New Marketing (Joe Pulizzi and Jason Barnard) Oct 21, 2021

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Joe Pulizzi talks with Jason Barnard about media is the new marketing. This doesn’t feel like a podcast episode, this more feels like a media marketing crash course!! Rather than fighting with organizations with the same audience as yours, Joe Pulizzi and Jason Barnard believe in the power of networking which brings you to a massive, ever-expanding audience - something you can’t achieve with a walled garden approach. So an intelligent mix of consortiums, guesting, side projects, partnerships, and self-produced is the winning formula ;) Trying to be present everywhere and creating content for the sake of content both get a big, big thumbs down from Joe (the content marketing master). He greatly believes in niching down, in finding a place or two where you can shine and create a remarkable impact. Oooh and as promised for this episode, Joe discusses the seven steps to build an online audience that can lead to multiple revenue streams WITH ANY BUDGET! It begins with identifying the audience’s pain points then offering a solution which turns out to be your product or service (the order of these two tasks is important).Second point, doing better than anyone else consistently over a long period of time.Point four is moving your social media audience over to a more controlled asset (email list).Point 5 is where you can diversify into multiple channels.Point 6 is knowing the right time to monetize ;)Lastly, looking for an opportunity to sell your property… or choose to build it bigger. After each question, Joe sighs delightfully just before giving the most eloquent, helpful, and creative answer ;) What you'll learn from Joe Pulizzi 00:00 Joe Pulizzi and Jason Barnard00:58 Joe Pulizzi’s Brand SERP in the US ad Mauritius02:08 How far can a networking approach take you?05:36 Content about you is great for your Brand SERP your EAT, and expanding your audience08:28 How many years should you dedicate to building your audience?12:36 Identify the intersection of your expertise and your future customer’s needs15:27 Determine how to “tilt” and find a sweet spot where little or no competition exists18:33 Establish your #1 channel for distributing your content (blog, podcast, YouTube, etc.)20:54 Producing more and more content is a losing proposition24:26 Use social-media and SEO to convert one-time visitors into long-term subscribers30:19 Grow your business by expanding into multiple delivery channels32:18 Monetize your product or service for ultimate business success38:57 Understand how to sell your content asset for millions or build the business into a large enterprise This episode was recorded live on video October 19th 2021 Recorded live at Kalicube Tuesdays (Digital Marketing Livestream Event Series). Watch the video now >>

How to Use Pinterest for B2B Marketing (Alisa Meredith and Jason Barnard) Oct 14, 2021

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Alisa Meredith talks with Jason Barnard about how to use Pinterest for B2B marketing. Alisa Meredith is a Product Marketer, Pinterest Nerd, fluid painter, and a cat person. She believes in the power of visual marketing and is in love with Pinterest advertising. Over 20 years in the marketing industry, she has achieved a lot: she ran a social media and blogging agency that became a HubSpot partner agency, she was a Content Marketer at Tailwind, and has hosted several shows, including The Superheroes of Marketing where she interviews smart professionals in the industry like Neil Patel. Today, she has a weekly live show where she shares incredible marketing tips. You might imagine that Pinterest is a bad choice to promote your B2B company, but in this groovy episode, the delightful Alisa Meredith explains to Jason Barnard that is an incorrect assumption ;) She starts by sharing the B2C industries that work best on this highly visual platform, and then goes on to mention some of the B2B industries that work on Pinterest, such as finance - a topic you would not imagine performing on a visual platform! Alisa explains why: Pinterest is about planning for your best future. Over the 40 minutes, she shares a multitude of juicy tips and insights: the right content marketing approach for infographics, actionable tips for idea pins, dealing with keywords, tagging and linking for your pins, and commenting on the pins of your target market which can bring visibility for your brand, follows to your account and visits to your site ;) This is a super marvelous chat full of fun, tips & tricks, and experiments. Tune in! What you'll learn from Alisa Meredith 00:00 Alisa Meredith and Jason Barnard00:17 Alisa Meredith’s Brand SERP and videos vertical03:18 What works best on Pinterest?05:20 How does B2C work on Pinterest?08:23 Everyday shopping pins on Pinterest09:23 Pinterest audience insights. Which interesting topic comes first?10:54 Pinterest is about planning for your best future12:12 An infographic trick to drive traffic to your website13:45 Pinterest user demographics have changed16:03 Stories (ideas) that last forever19:45 Examples of B2B pins 25:13 How to deal with keywords on Pinterest?29:39 Tagging and linking 31:11 User personality types on different social networks32:27 Why commenting on idea pins is powerful33:35 The Pinterest algorithm37:05 Planning and creating pins for B2B This episode was recorded live on video October 12th 2021 Recorded live at Kalicube Tuesdays (Digital Marketing Livestream Event Series). Watch the video now >>

It’s OK to be a Webmaster (Simon Cox and Jason Barnard) Oct 07, 2021

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Simon Cox talks with Jason Barnard about it's OK to be a webmaster. Simon Cox is a jack of all trades (and proud of it) - technical SEO consultant, webmaster, designer, typographer, developer, blogger, model maker. In this fantastic episode, Simon and Jason Barnard talk about the idea of leveraging multi-skills and high-level understanding for project oversight in the web development process. Simon explains what it means to be a webmaster and why companies, either big or small, need a generalist. Jason responds with a fun analogy comparing ultra-experts to a wonky table, something you definitely should watch out for. They go on to exchange stories and insights into why it might be a good move to be a generalist and not be dragged into specialisation. The roles and opportunities for a generalist are probably more varied and interesting than you imagine. Simon shares his experience with the Badger Trust, but also how he “killed” the Linotype machine operators’ jobs by being one of the first Mac desktop publishing experts in the UK. Plus you’ll also get his predictive insight of where the ultra experts in the fields will end up if they don’t take some time to get bits of experience from other fields. As always, the show ends with passing the baton…Simon groovily hands over to next week’s stunning guest, Alisa Meredith. What you'll learn from Simon Cox 00:00 Simon Cox and Jason Barnard00:48 Simon Cox’s Brand SERP04:47 What was the role of a webmaster in the 1990s?10:43 Why we need webmasters today more than ever12:54 Where a webmaster really shows their value16:26 Is the role of webmaster only appropriate for small businesses?17:46 The problem with being an ultra-specialist SEO21:55 The foundational skills a generalist SEO needs23:52 Knowing where to look is more important than knowing26:56 Dangers of over-specialisation in SEO30:53 Example: Simon explains his role at The Badger Trust36:06 Variety is the spice of life… even in SEO41:43 Passing the Baton: Simon Cox to Alisa Meredith Helpful Resources: SimonCox.com This episode was recorded live on video October 05th 2021 Recorded live at Kalicube Tuesdays (Digital Marketing Livestream Event Series). Watch the video now >>

Looking at Google’s SERP as a Product (Gennaro Cuofano and Jason Barnard) Sep 30, 2021

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Gennaro Cuofano talks with Jason Barnard about looking at Google's SERP as a product. Gennaro Cuofano is an international MBA, and creator of FourWeekMBA, a blog about business modeling and growth marketing. He is the head of business development for WordLift.io, where he works closely with small businesses and publishers across Europe and America to help them grow their business via digital marketing and SEO. He is also a contributor to various industry publications and runs a blog where he focuses on dissecting business models. Google knocked down the walled gardens of the major players on the Internet in the mid-nineties. But now that they have billions of people in their garden, they seem to be going full circle and are rebuilding the walls they have onced wrecked? In this episode, the rather groovy Gennaro Cuofano starts by taking Jason Barnard back to the 1990s to give him the historical context of business models of the major online players. At the end of the last century, access to the Internet was controlled by a small number of major players such as AOL, Netscape and Mosaic. He shares the strategic thinking behind these companies and explains how they were able to monetize at the time, then how the players and the business models evolved through the noughties… and what that now looks like from a Google perspective. He also gives us a glimpse into the future: what might happen next. Along the way, Gennaro shares some astonishing knowledge nuggets: how to differentiate a freemium platform from an asymmetric one, and how Google handles the data they collect from users to create new products while finding the balance between free and premium experiences. This episode contains a stunning array of insights about Google’s monetization of their products, an incredible analysis of the business models of the Internet giants over the years… and much more! This is a must-listen-to episode! As always, the show concludes with passing the baton... Gennaro passes the virtual baton to next week's brilliant guest, Simon Cox. What you'll learn from Gennaro Cuofano 00:00 Gennaro Cuofano and Jason Barnard00:45 What is FourWeekMBA?01:35 Gennaro Cuofano’s personal Brand SERP with “Kalicubed” images04:56 The historical context of how Google business model developed08:06 Netscape’s freemium business model10:03 The beginning of Google Ads and Google AdSense12:30 How did search engines get the right balance in engineering an advertising business model?16:01 Google is growing fast, but the balance is fragile. 18:41 Is Google’s SERP a freemium or asymmetric business model?21:30 How are we, as users, paying for using Google?24:56 Will Google trip up and fail at some point?26:59 How might Google make money through vocal search?29:16 Google building a product knowledge graph using Google Shopping31:16 Will Google continue its walled garden approach?35:19 What could kill the symbiotic relationship between publishers and Google?38:26 Gennaro’s diversify or die advice to search engines43:00 Passing the Baton: Gennaro Cuofano to Simon Cox This episode was recorded live on video September 28th 2021 Recorded live at Kalicube Tuesdays (Digital Marketing Livestream Event Series). Watch the video now >>

Split Test SEO Experiments (Kevin Indig and Jason Barnard) Sep 22, 2021

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Kevin Indig talks with Jason Barnard about split test SEO experiments. Kevin Indig is SEO Director at Shopify and is the creator of the Growth Memo newsletter and Tech Bound podcast. In the past, he worked at G2 and Atlassian as head of SEO and has helped companies like eBay, Eventbrite, Samsung, Pinterest, and many others grow their organic traffic. To take your SEO activities to an exceptional level, you need to remove the guesswork. But how would you do that? A rigorous and scientific approach called statistical SEO split testing is the key. In this fascinating and insightful talk, Kevin Indig and Jason Barnard lead us through the theory and practicalities behind evaluating SEO strategies using split testing. Here, they discuss how split testing works both on templated and non templated sites,how to plan, the pointers that matter in the process, how long the process takes to finally evaluate the results and the external factors that might occur in the middle of split testing. Kevin is delightful, funny and he is super obsessed with this topic: he’s definitely the geek you would want to call when it comes to running analytical SEO experiments ;) P.S. Kevin also answered some live chat questions from SEO split testing experts. Watch out !! What you'll learn from Kevin Indig 00:00 Kevin Indig and Jason Barnard01:21 Kevin Indig’s Brand SERP in America and Australia03:22 What are Split Test SEO Experiments?05:33 Kevin’s insights into Google core algorithms08:20 Types of SEO testing for aggregator sites11:36 Split testing on non templated websites13:23 What matters more than the number of control pages15:52 Every SEO test is a quasi experiment19:09 Pointers for DIY split testing21:47 Subtle factors that can make experiments go sour24:37 Coverage of Kevin’s split testing environments26:07 Transferring Google Ads split testing to SEO strategy28:02 The cool down period before running another test30:32 How to deal with external factors in the midst of split testin33:14 Differences between neural networks and Google Causal Impact for analysing results Helpful Resources About Split Test SEO Experiments SEO First Principles This episode was recorded live on video September 21st 2021 Recorded live at Kalicube Tuesdays (Digital Marketing Livestream Event Series). Watch the video now>>

Live Streams as an Influencer Marketing Tool (Anton Shulke and Jason Barnard) Sep 15, 2021

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Anton Shulke talks with Jason Barnard about live streams as an influencer marketing tool. Anton Shulke is the Head of Influencer Marketing at Duda, a role he previously filled at Semrush. He is also the Livestream Production Manager for the Kalicube Tuesdays webinars. Over the last 6 years produced over 600 livestreams with the experts in the digital marketing industry. Anton believes that livestreaming is one of the best and most cost-effective Influencer Marketing tools. This approach has multiple benefits: cost-effective and easy to organisea worldwide audiencea speaking opportunity for the experts and a chance to promote themselves There are many reasons livestreaming is a great influencer marketing strategy, but the most powerful is that everybody wins. In this episode, Anton Shulke talks with Jason Barnard about all the advantages of real-time broadcasting versus conferences and face to face interviews. Anton also shares effective tips for small companies with a less recognisable brand on how to make their first livestream a hit… and how to maintain the success over subsequent events. They also shared how they began working with each other and how they have built a solid foundation in livestreaming together over four (long) years. Also, watch out for their sports team analogy that will help you better manage livestreams ;) 40 amazing minutes and an insightful conversation! What you'll learn from Anton Shulke 00:00 Anton Shulke and Jason Barnard01:40 Koray Gübür - Brand SERP: What is it and How to Optimize?02:32 Anton Shulke’s Brand SERP04:57 Why do we do livestreams? 09:31 Strength of livestreams versus face to face interviews17:37 How to begin and end your first livestream20:50 What is the goal of your livestream?24:11 Why a single appearance on a livestream isn’t enough26:56 Livestreaming goals of a less recognisable brand versus a famous brand29:53 The mutual transaction in livestreaming35:15 Lessons from the combination of wrong people37:29 Limitations in the job of the livestream guy Helpful Resources: We Are SaaS: Mergers & Acquisitions This episode was recorded live on video September 14th 2021 Recorded live at Kalicube Tuesdays (Digital Marketing Livestream Event Series). Watch the video now>>

Dissecting the GMB Panel (Joy Hawkins and Jason Barnard) Sep 09, 2021

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Joy Hawkins talks with Jason Barnard about dissecting the GMB panel. Joy Hawkins is the owner of the Local Search Forum, LocalU, and Sterling Sky, a Local SEO agency in Canada & the USA. She writes for Search Engine Land and is a widely known Local Search speaker and has spoken at dozens of Local SEO conferences over the years. Google My Business panels are ever-increasingly important to the success of local businesses since Google local search is the dominant trusted source customers look at before visiting bricks-and-mortar businesses. Keeping it up-to-date is the minimum investment for local SEO, and managing the ever-expanding range of information it shows is the next step up if you want to increase foot traffic to your store :) But how much control and influence do we have on our own GMB panels? Jason Barnard quizzes the delightful Joy Hawkins as she walks us through the local knowledge panels of several different business types to know which information and features we can control, which we can influence and which are off-limits! They cover dozens of GMB items, from the most common (reviews, primary category, opening hours…) to the less obvious (descriptions, popular times, events, new features added recently because of health restrictions, Q&A…) and even delve into GMB as part of Google’s role as an assistive engine. Joy also gives Jason a free consultation on the images he’d like to rectify on his GMB panel ;) This is a super groovy chat. And if you’re a local SEO or a local business owner, you'll be glad you listened. What you'll learn from Joy Hawkins 00:00 Joy Hawkins and Jason Barnard01:01 International Brand SERP for Joy Hawkins03:33 Dissecting Oxford Cheese Co’s GMB Panel04:40 Selecting a specific primary category and generic categories in GMB08:09 Evolving GMB attributes caused by Covid restrictions13:41 Popular times - where does the data come from?14:44 3 visible reviews in GMB rarely change17:13 How much GMB control does Google give restaurants?23:33 Why are doctors' GMB panels so sparse?24:42 Can a local business owner post a question and answer it themselves?25:28 Google as an assistive engine26:08 Setting the reservation button and business hours29:05 Adventure Land have a hybrid GMB / Knowledge panel 31:21 Why Google shows Jason’s photo instead of Kalicube’s logo on its GMB?35:07 GMB posts and events: Does it show up anywhere? Helpful Resources About Dissecting the GMB Panel How to Succeed With Google Posts: What We Learned From Analyzing Over 1,000 Google PostsHow to Get a Place Label on Google MapsGoogle My Business Category Changes by Month This episode was recorded live on video September 7th 2021 Recorded live at Kalicube Tuesdays (Digital Marketing Livestream Event Series). Watch the video now>>

Ranking Signal vs Ranking Factor (Eli Schwartz and Jason Barnard) Sep 02, 2021

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Eli Schwartz talks with Jason Barnard about ranking signal vs ranking factor. 2 billion sites in the world: Less than 1% of sites using SEO versus those with just great content. Which does the Google algorithm favour? That is just a taster! Just one of the dozens of delightful and super-interesting SEO topics in this conversation between the groovy Eli Schwartz and Jason Barnard. Eli moves from defining the distinction between Ranking Signals and Ranking Factors to the incredible power and importance of timeliness (with examples) to pieces of advice on getting on the right side of Google algorithms. They also have the most amazing discussion of how machine learning works, how Michael Jackson inspired a massive Google update (surprising, to say the least), using specific user needs to drive product-led SEO … plus Eli’s anecdote of his bug discovery ;) Eli is super delightful, smart and funny. This is an episode you won’t want to miss ;) What you'll learn from Eli Schwartz 00:00 Eli Schwartz and Jason Barnard01:08 The Brand SERP for Eli Schwartz’s (with an incorrect knowledge panel)04:48 Explainer: Ranking Signal vs Ranking Factor08:02 Examples of signals and examples of factors13:22 Ranking signals vs ranking factors, where do you focus?15:12 Measuring the success of the algorithms. Should we look at the Metrics?16:58 Great plugins vs great content for SEO20:49 Answer bots, aggregators and arbiTRASH23:14 What product-led SEO can do for specific user needs26:48 Factors doesn’t fit into Google’s mission28:57 Are Google’s data silos talking horizontally to each other? 30:28 Real-time signals vs Google Dance (is it back?)32:37 What happens with Google My Business during Covid lockdowns?38:40 Why Google need to be careful with the information it allows into its knowledge graph39:15 How can we effectively focus on ranking signals in SEO? This episode was recorded live on video August 31st 2021 Recorded live at Kalicube Tuesdays (Digital Marketing Livestream Event Series). Watch the video now>>

Marketing Agencies Must Become Media Producers (Erin Sparks and Jason Barnard) Aug 25, 2021

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Erin Sparks talks with Jason Barnard about marketing agencies must become media producers. Erin Sparks is the founder and president of Site Strategics, a premier digital marketing agency, and also the creative force behind The Edge of the Web Podcast, a popular digital marketing show featuring interviews with recognized thought leaders in marketing and technology. The delightful Erin starts by taking us on a tour of the grooviest podcast studio in the whole wide world ever! From here he produces his podcast which is one of the longest-running, and one of the top-ranking SEO podcasts in the world. Its mission is threefold: to speak to the community of digital marketers, to improve digital literacy among corporate executives, and to help his team learn new strategies from his guests. Erin Sparks joins Jason Barnard to spill the beans and share his amazing approach to omnichannel content curation. He generously and clearly shares the process, explains the importance of being present on the consumer’s preferred “lanes” and the strategy of gently upselling services to the audience you build. Jason and Erin also enthusiastically swap their fun methods of making their interviewees comfortable to get the best responses. Oooh and don’t miss out on his brilliant way of getting his clients to stay longer and commit to an omnichannel strategy for the long term! And Erin is the master of analogies. I’m pretty sure you’ll have fun with the groovy analogies he uses in this conversation. Have a blast :) What you'll learn from Erin Sparks 00:00 Erin Sparks and Jason Barnard00:55 The Personal Brand SERP for Erin Sparks02:33 A quick tour in Edge Media Studios04:28 Why did Erin build a fantastic studio for a podcast?06:51 Podcast: Fount of research and development11:04 How an omnichannel content curation process works13:23 Meet consumers in their preferred lane (channel)16:08 Making your clients the star of their content18:36 The "foxhole" method of building trust22:35 Number of content pieces Erin Sparks does in a week (a lot!)24:08 Asking the right questions 29:51 You need committed client buy-in for the omnichannel method to work32:20 What are good KPIs to then get clients to commit long term?36:56 The immense benefits from teaching and sharing knowledge with your audience This episode was recorded live on video August 24th 2021 Recorded live at Kalicube Tuesdays (Digital Marketing Livestream Event Series). Watch the video now>>

Strategic vs Tactical Local SEO (Mark Bealin and Jason Barnard) Aug 19, 2021

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Mark Bealin talks with Jason Barnard about strategic vs tactical local SEO. Mark Bealin is the Founder and Principal of SearchLab. He is an in-demand speaker, podcaster, and educator, sought out for his expertise in Local SEO, Paid Search, and Analytics. He has been a search marketer for over a decade. In this episode Mark talks with Jason Barnard about the tips, tricks … and strategies he has learned for local SEO. There’s a lot to be tackled when it comes to local SEO and you’ll find the main things here. As we often say, there is no single strategy suitable for every client, so the delightful Mark Bealin shared his brilliant way to customise the strategy for his growing number of clients. Teamwork between the clients and the SEO agency is always the key to a successful local SEO strategy. He shares some of the victories, flops, and great strategies that worked for his clients - and a large number of those require getting them more involved offline with the local community. It might seem strange but offline marketing is vital to online local SEO! Links are also essential for local SEO according to Mark, but reviews are vital too… and Mark shares his three ways to manage reviews as well as his non-magical method to deal with horrible and poor reviews. Also! Watch out for the great audience Q&A portion at the end of this episode. What you'll learn from Mark Bealin 00:00 Mark Bealin and Jason Barnard01:37 Where Suds and Search podcast started03:13 Mark Bealin’s Brand SERP and surprising Maps results04:52 Strategic versus tactical local SEO09:16 Reinventing the wheel or a garden variety strategy?10:16 How do you define a great local strategy? 11:55 For the thousandth time: Link building is important13:27 How teamwork works in link building15:01 Are your clients participants in their local communities?16:04 Three ways to manage reviews18:18 4.7 stars is greater than a perfect 5 (in reviews)20:20 Dealing with bad reviews the Mark Bealin way25:22 The benefits in posting on Google My Business26:47 Is the Knowledge Graph and GMB connected in some way?29:09 Yelp is sloping downhill30:37 Are citations still valuable in local SEO?31:51 Where is Apple local/maps heading? 34:04 Advertising on Bing: 2% of Google’s users is still a large number36:01 One-time events in local SEO37:50 Mark Bealin’s favourite local SEO tools 39:32 Additional insights into local SEO strategies41:01 How to incorporate the locals in your SEO efforts? This episode was recorded live on video August 17th 2021 Recorded live at Kalicube Tuesdays (Digital Marketing Livestream Event Series). Watch the video now>>

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