What You’ll Learn From This Episode: You want to make sure that when your audience is searching on Google, Especially when they’re searching your own brand name, that they see the message as you intended. Why you need to educate Google like you would a child. Don’t make the mistake Amazon did for over 20 years. Related Links and Resources: Jason’s Gift to you: Copywriting Secrets for SEO in 2022. Get your copy right here:https://solutions.kalicube.com/produce-great-copywriting-for-seo-in-2022Summary:Jason Barnard (The Brand SERP Guy) is an author and digital marketing consultant. He specialises in Brand SERP optimisation and Knowledge Panel management. Jason has over 2 decades of experience in digital marketing, starting in 1998 (the year Google was incorporated) with a website for kids based on the cartoon characters Boowa & Kwala that he built up to become one of the 10,000 most visited sites in the world. In the 1990s he was a professional musician with the Punk-Folk group The Barking Dogs. In 1988 he graduated from Liverpool John Moores University with a degree in Economics and Statistical Analysis. Learn more at: https://kalicube.com/
[00:00:00] Bill Prater: Hi. This is Bill Prater, and welcome to Supercharging Business Success, where our mission is to provide you with timely, provocative, and actionable resources that will inspire, promote, and accelerate your quest for business excellence.
Introducing the Topic and the Guest, Jason Barnard (The Brand SERP Guy)
[00:00:19] Bill Prater: Today we’re going to talk about the secrets to managing your brand message on Google, and we’ll do that in just 7 minutes with Jason Barnard. And Jason is known as The Brand SERP Guy. He is an author and digital marketing consultant. He specialises in Brand SERP optimisation and Knowledge Panel management.
[00:00:41] Bill Prater: He’s had over 2 decades of experience in digital marketing starting in 1998, the year that Google was actually incorporated, with a website for kids based on the cartoon characters, Boowa and Kwala, that he built up to become one of the top 10,000 most visited sites in the world. In the 1990s, he was a professional musician with a punk folk group called The Barking Dogs. In the meantime in 1998, he graduated from Liverpool John Moores University with a degree in economics and statistical analysis. You’re a polymath, my friend.
[00:01:28] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Right. Yeah. I’ve had a varied life, starting in the countryside where I grew up amongst the cows and sheep in the North of England, moving to Liverpool, as you said, economist, musician, double bass player, blue dog, digital marketer, and specialising now in managing your brand message on Google.
Who Are the Ideal Clients of Jason Barnard (The Brand SERP Guy)?
[00:01:49] Bill Prater: But you’ve maintained your fantastic personality in the meantime. So, tell us exactly who’s your ideal client.
[00:01:57] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Our ideal clients are businesses who want to make sure that their brand message is projected through Google in the way that they want it to be projected. So when you’ve spent thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars creating a brand message that truly resonates with your audience, you want to make sure that when your audience is searching on Google, especially when they’re searching your own brand name, that they see the message as you intended. But that also goes for the people within that company, the founders, the CEOs, all of the C-level employees in a company.
What Is the Specific Problem That Jason Barnard (The Brand SERP Guy) Solves for His Clients?
[00:02:31] Bill Prater: Okay. All of that is part of your brand, no doubt. So, what is the specific problem that you solve for these people?
[00:02:39] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yeah. The problem that people have is that Google is not showing the brand message they intend, and we solve that problem by educating Google like you would a child. We explain your brand message and explain how it should be presenting that brand message to your audience.
[00:02:57] Bill Prater: Okay, interesting. I like the way you said like a child. So, you have a certain language that you have to talk to Google with, I’m sure. So, tell us about the right brand. What sort of feelings, emotions, symptoms are going on in our listeners that would give them a signal, I got to talk to this Barnard guy?
Why Should the Audience Talk to Jason Barnard (Kalicube)?
[00:03:19] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Basically, search your company name or your own name and look at what you see. Is it what you expected to see? Is it what you want to see? And is it the best you could possibly imagine seeing? And you look at those three questions, and I am sure that you’ll come to the end of it and you’ll say, I need Jason Barnard, I need Kalicube, because I want this message to be the best possible message for my audience when they google my name.
What Are the Typical Mistakes People Tend to Make When Managing Their Brand Message on Google?
[00:03:48] Bill Prater: Yeah. I think it’s a fantastic thing to do. Now, many, maybe all of our listeners are people that say, well, I need to solve this problem myself. So when they try to do that, what are the typical mistakes, Jason, that people tend to make?
You simply need to write in a way that makes sense to human beings and to the machine.
jason barnard (the brand serp guy)
[00:04:05] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yeah. You mentioned the idea of a child is they don’t speak the right language, and I don’t mean geeky language of a computer. I mean that they simply don’t present it very well. And so, the typical mistakes are to not realise the importance of the initial message explained in a way that Google can understand. And the machine understands very much like a human being can understand. And you simply need to write in a way that makes sense to human beings and to the machine.
[00:04:36] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And then they vastly underestimate the importance of consistency. So, what we do at Kalicube is we help with that initial explanation to Google. We help with the consistency by finding all of the sources where your brand message is being pushed out. And we help you to correct all that so that the child correctly understands.
What Is The One Thing That People Can Do Today for Free When Managing Their Brand Message?
[00:04:58] Bill Prater: Okay. So, tell us. I know there’s a lot of things people can do, should do actually, but what’s one thing they can do, maybe today, that’s free for them to do?
[00:05:08] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Change your homepage in terms of not necessarily the design of the homepage, but search your brand name, you’re probably ranking number one as a company, and look at the title and look at the description. Is that the best possible brand message to somebody who already knows who you are? Because somebody searching a brand name necessarily knows who you are. And I’ll give you a really quick story about Amazon. Amazon’s title in Google when you search for Amazon used to be cheap Hi5 bikes and books and audio or something really awful and salesy.
[00:05:42] Bill Prater: So, even the big brands can screw this up.
[00:05:44] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Yep. And then a year ago, they changed it to smile more, pay less branding. And it took them 22 years to figure that out. They should have come to me 22 years ago, shouldn’t they?
A Free Resource Gift From Jason Barnard (The Brand SERP Guy): Join the Kalicube Support Group on Facebook
[00:06:02] Bill Prater: That’s a fantastic story. And I think that resonates with people to say, okay, I can do that. And then make sure that what shows up is what you want to show up. So, I know you got a great resource for people, free resource. So, what is the free gift, Jason, and where would they go to find it?
[00:06:21] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): Right. The free gift is come along and join our Facebook. If you search on Google, Kalicube Support Group, that’s Kalicube Support Group, come along, join the support group. Every month, we have a giveaway. And the actual, the real value of the group is we share and help people with the simple things they can do to improve their brand message on Google, nothing geeky, nothing complicated, good common sense, and marketing. And it’s a community of a few hundred people where we share what we know to help other people move along with Google.
Why did Jason Barnard (The Brand SERP Guy) Start Looking at Brand SERPs?
[00:07:06] Bill Prater: And I think going through that exercise of searching that way, they’ll see exactly what you’re talking about from the services you provide. So, look, I told you I’d asked you 7 questions in 7 minutes, but I only had 6 thought up. And so, what’s the question, Jason, that you were waiting for me or wanted me to ask you? And then tell us the answer to the unasked question.
[00:07:30] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): I think, for me, one of my favourite questions is why did I start looking at Brand SERPs? And the answer is the blue dog, who’s sitting behind me on this poster. And it’s a nice story because it’s very illustrative of how Google functions. I was pitching for work as a digital marketer, and I didn’t sign as many clients as I thought I would. I would go into the meeting, give them my business card, convince them. I thought, wow, this is sold, this is a shoe in. And then they wouldn’t sign.
I educated Google to redesign my Google Business Card, which is another way of saying Brand SERP.
jason barnard (the brand serp guy)
[00:07:59] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): And the reason was that when they searched my name, Jason Barnard, it said at the top, Jason Barnard is a cartoon blue dog. So, what was happening is that they were seeing Google represent me from my previous career. So, what I then did and why I got into Brand SERPs is I then set about educating Google that Boowa the blue dog is part of my life, but the current part is that I’m a digital marketer and I want to be seen to be credible. So, I educated Google to redesign my Google Business Card, which is another way of saying Brand SERP.
[00:08:42] Bill Prater: So, that was probably not as expensive as what Amazon went through to accomplish the same thing.
It took me 3 months, what it took Amazon 22 years to do.
jason barnard (the brand serp guy)
[00:08:47] The Brand SERP Guy (Jason Barnard): No. And it took me 3 months, and it took them 22 years to figure it out.
Businesses do not become extraordinary in a single moment. They get there as a result of the owner first learning, and then applying a proven combination of developing the right strategy, and a dedication to a high-performance team.
Bill Prater
[00:08:51] Bill Prater: That’s beautiful. That’s a beautiful story. Thanks very much. I love that. That was great. I would never have thought of that one, so thanks for that 7 question and answer. So, everybody, look, in closing, focus on this simple fact, and that is that businesses do not become extraordinary in a single moment. Instead, they get there as a result of the owner first learning and then applying a proven combination of developing the right strategy of having a system of execution, and number three, a dedication to a high-performance team. So, thanks for listening. Jason, thanks for sharing your time with us today.
