Secret Life Podcast Ep. 96 Meg Casebolt

Barb 0:00Today’s guest helps businesses show up in search results, get more leads and sell more products with intentional Google first content. Meg Casebolt is the founder of Love at First Search, an agency devoted to helping online businesses get found in search results and turn those new readers into lead subscribers and sales.
Barb 0:25Meg and her family live in Rochester, New York. And one of her family members even joins us during the podcast, her 80 pound Pitbull. She has an insatiable appetite for smores, Broadway musicals and romance novels. But it’s not a conversation we had time for.
Barb 0:42Today’s episode is brought to you by my very own, Get Found Digital Marketing. If you are a local business, or nonprofit who needs to attract more customers, more support, or simply make more time. Check out Getfound.live. Now on with the show.
Barb 1:02So Meg tell us a little bit about yourself and your business.
Meg 1:06I am the founder of Love at First Search, which is a marketing agency. We’re really focused on helping people to show up in Google for the most part.
Barb 1:16wow. Okay, so wait a second, let me get this straight, you’re not telling people that they have to do all the things on social media and they can find new clients?
Meg 1:26That’s correct. I actually also have a podcast called Social Slow Down, because I think that so many of us start marketing our businesses on social media because it is free, and it has a low barrier to entry and our audience is already there.
Meg 1:41And then we get dependent on those social channels, because they’re built to make us dependent on them. You know, if you set up a Facebook page, then suddenly you have to post on that Facebook page at least once a day in order to please the algorithm gods.
Meg 1:57And it can be very stressful. And a lot of those decisions about whether or not what you’re creating is seen are completely out of your control. And also, I think with a lot of social media channels, people aren’t really there to make purchasing decisions. They’re there because they want to be entertained. So we can market our business on these platforms. But like, the people are there for cat videos, they’re not there to buy.
Barb 2:22Exactly. And you know what, I could be wrong. But I believe every social media company, if you look at the stock exchange, is actually an entertainment company. So their goal is to entertain you and distract you. Right? And so okay, if I’m going to think about finding my customers from Google, and I want to stay away from social media, which I always like to call social media, the equivalent of junk food from a marketing perspective. Because sure, it’s fun, it tastes good at that moment, but then it’s gone, you get absolutely no nutritional value from that junk food you just consumed. How you enjoyed it in that moment while you watched your cat video, but then it’s gone. Right? And so how do we start to build long lasting content that compound value for our business? When you look at Google?
Meg 3:13Well, I actually want to disagree with you respectfully about social media, okay, I don’t think that it’s necessarily like the root of all evil, and it’s not going to do us any good. And it’s just sugar and dopamine in our brains. There is, I mean, it has been documented that social media does give you that dopamine in your brain. So there is definitely a correlation there between that.
Meg 3:35But I like to think of it more like social media as a place to nurture the relationships that we already have, you know, if there are people who are already in a Facebook group, or we’re connected with them on LinkedIn, or they’re following us on Instagram, whatever that connection point looks like, they already know us, that’s a great way to get to know people who are already familiar with you.
Meg 3:57So whether that’s commenting on their posts, or you know, DMing them and sending them some information. It’s a good nurture space. Right?
Meg 4:06I don’t think that social media is the best platform for discovery. Okay, yep. And that’s the difference that I like to put in here is people aren’t going to, you know, LinkedIn and being like, Who do I know that’s a plumber, right? Like, your basements flooded. You go to Google, and like, this happened to me, right?
Barb 4:27Very top of mind. It’s very timely.
Meg 4:29I wasn’t like, oh, I have two inches of water in my basement. Let me go look for a hashtag about it. So I can find someone who lives across the country right away when I have a problem. I go to Google to solve that problem. And I’m much more likely to take action on that decision because I am actively seeking out a solution to my problem by being in Google.
Barb 4:53Do you think it matters what kind of business you are?
Meg 4:57I think that the types of things that people want or expect to find from you are different. I do think that almost all businesses can benefit from having some search traffic.
Barb 5:08Okay. Yep, I think that’s very fair. So if I look at and so let’s, let’s build on that the whole idea that you can nurture relationships. If you’re on social and your audience, you can tell in your reach and your impressions, your numbers are high. But nothing’s happening. What would you say to a client? So I’ve got all these followers and you know, my videos are being viewed, but my bank account is dry. How do you help a client with something like that?
Meg 5:40I think the problem is that if you, if you are focused on metrics that are not related to revenue generating activities, then you might be tracking the wrong things.
Meg 5:52You know, it’s wonderful to have a lot of people who love you, it feels really great to know that you’re getting lots of engagement on your posts. But if people aren’t buying from you, then potentially either something is wrong with you’re a little bit off, not wrong, maybe a little bit off with your messaging and the types of information that you’re sharing with your audience, or you haven’t trained them to go to your website and check out what your services are, what offers you have, what products you’re selling.
Meg 6:20So it may require a bit of a shift to your social media strategy to include more information about how people can work with you. Or you may want to diversify your marketing.
Meg 6:31And as you were talking about a couple minutes ago, before, what, wait, no socials, not all bad, it’s just not ideal. It’s not the only way. Right, one of the things you were trying to get at Barb is you can create information that’s on your website, or that’s on a specific type of content channel like YouTube, like a podcast that people can find in a much more evergreen, long term way than what you’re creating on social media.
Meg 6:58And so I think, you know, if you have a big social following, but you’re not making a lot of money from that group, either adjust the way that you’re talking to those people to retrain what to expect from you more, spend some time creating something that when people are searching for that solution, they find you.
Barb 7:18Yes, absolutely. One of the things I like to say to the folks in my audience is that when we think about Google, customers are trying to solve a problem. You have a solution, they have a problem, Google helps you make the match. And so whether your solution is plumbing, or maybe your solution is executive coaching, anything in that spectrum, people are looking at it, they have a problem, we go to Google with a problem.
Barb 7:47So while I’m talking with my folks, I always like to think about how do we build something that is sustainable, and helps you continue to grow investment in your business, the end of the day, when we’re done with our businesses, most of us hope to either sell them or have some value built up in there. Right. So how would you do it? What do you think about compound value in content? What do you think about Google, Google Content having value?
Meg 8:18Well, I think that there’s a couple different benefits to having a strong presence on Google.
Meg 8:26The first is probably the most obvious, which is if you’re getting traffic to your website, from whatever search engine of your choice, you know, 95% of your traffic’s gonna come from Google. You will also throw in Bing, Ecosia, DuckDuckGo, and all those right like, but, you know, having search traffic to your website, if you’re thinking of selling your business or trying to find a way to move along, that is an asset that has taken a long time to generate and will move even if you like, sell your website that will continue to go to the website if you don’t change anything.
Meg 9:05So that is an asset that is incredibly valuable and can be monetarily determined what that value is. Yeah. And there are, you know, tools that will do that for you and say, if you’re getting this much traffic for these keywords, and you need to pay for that traffic, here’s how much it would cost.
Meg 9:25So that’s right does add a monetary value to the assets that you’re creating. And I think the other benefit to you long term when you’re thinking about, you know, the overall value of your company, is the brand awareness and the authority that comes from showing up in those search results.
Meg 9:44When somebody looks for something and they see you show up. They trust that Google has already done a lot of the research and the vetting to give the best solution that they can based on what you typed into that search box. People trust search results more than they trust, even like friends and family recommendations, a lot of times the research says that I don’t, I don’t always trust Google as much as I trust my friends and family.
Meg 10:09But the research says yes, it is one of the most trustworthy sources of information. So if you’re thinking about when people are looking for a solution to their problems, they trust Google more than they trust, you know, Yelp.
Barb 10:24Exactly, yeah. And I think there’s an expectation that the content on Google has already been vetted, so that we’re not getting the spammy content showing up in our search. If you think back to some of those first Google ads, do you remember how spammy those Google Ads used to be?
Barb 10:40And I believe that to this day, that plagues the click through because we all click through on something that was just pure garbage. And so people don’t want to click anymore. And in fact, you know, I talked to many people who are like, I am never clicking on those ads. They are the worst ads, and they’ve changed so much. But people still don’t trust them.
Barb 11:02And so I think Google actually hurt themselves a little bit when they started with those ads. Definitely. So what do you think? I don’t know, let’s just say top three? What are the top three things that people need to focus on? When they think about trying to get found on Google?
Meg 11:17Yeah, I would say the first thing would be technical, it would be making sure that I’m gonna, I’m gonna throw three things into my first answer, BB. So I’m trying to break the rules a little bit. I would make sure that your site loads quickly, that it is secure, and not likely to be hacked, and that it looks really good on a mobile device.
Meg 11:41And I want to talk about that last time a little bit. Google looks at the cell phone version of your website before it looks at the desktop version of your website. Yeah. So if you can’t navigate around it, or if you don’t, like when you go to order food from a restaurant, you have to like to scroll into the PDFs to figure out what exactly it is. That’s not gonna work. Yeah, Google doesn’t like that. Because people don’t like that. Yes,
Barb 12:05exactly. And that PDF, that’s not readable by Google. So you’re actually not helping yourself, by having all of your content hidden away in that PDF, get the content onto your website, let Google actually read that content. And hey, when I’m looking for the best chicken wings in my city, now, you might come up because you’ve got chicken wings on your website, right. And that’s one of the things that I net, a lot of people forget.
Meg 12:30And that’s the second thing that I was gonna say is make sure that the words that people are looking for are on your website. This is where we want to be really clear about what we offer and who we help, and not be so clever. Yes. And
Barb 12:47focus on the words that the customer uses, not your industry jargon. If you’re a plumber, I don’t care about the bits and bytes, and whatever else might go into replacing my furnace, tell me in my language, that you can replace my furnace after hours on a long weekend on a Sunday. And hey, you know what, you’re gonna get my click. So is there still a third one?
Meg 13:10I would say that since you know, a lot of the people that we’re talking to at our local businesses, I would say that the third thing that you want to do is set up your Google business profile, which used to be called Google, my business is the same thing.
Meg 13:22But basically, your Google business profile is the information that would show up in your Google Maps listing. So that’s a free tool that you can use in order to make sure that you’re showing up on Google Maps so that people who are local to you can find you easily and understand where you serve.
Meg 13:38If you’re a home based business, you don’t have to put your home address in so people can come by your house at all hours. Oh, yes, sir. Knocking on your doors to get around that? Yeah, definitely get that set up and start to use that to ask for reviews because Google pays attention to where your reviews are coming from. And if people have like, used their Google account to write a review to your Google business profile, it will mean more than if they post on your Facebook page with a reveal.
Barb 14:06Exactly. Yeah. And I think the one thing I would add to that is because Google business profile is such an amazingly strong tool for local businesses, those same words that you wanted to use on your website to help customers understand the problem you solve, you want to use those in your Google profile on your posts in your description, you want to make sure that Google makes a connection between those two pieces, and that customers see you in those top three listings that show up in your search results. Now, where you are made, do you guys still have a three pack? And I’m hearing rumors about some larger snack packs or local packs being tested by Google? So do you guys have three right now or do you have more?
Meg 14:50We still have three where I am. Okay. Yeah,
Barb 14:53I’ve heard of it in a couple of countries. They’ve been testing 10 packs. And I’m like, wow, that actually feels a little bit overwhelming. And then what happens to your organic search results? Yeah, and businesses that should be there. So that makes that first page pretty darn long if 10 businesses still get to stay there. So I don’t know if that’s maybe in larger markets? I don’t know. I’m curious to see where that will go. Do you remember hearing the rumor last year that they were going to start to charge us for our Google Business Listing?
Meg 15:23You hear that rumor? And then I think what they did instead is they did the local search ads. So instead of charging for businesses, now they’re allowing people to basically provide ads on Google Maps? Yes. But not everyone needs to pay for them. So similar in the way that there are Google ads on specific search pages, but not all of them. And, you know, I’m fine with it.
Meg 15:45If people it’s kind of like, when you go to Disneyworld, and some people want to pay for the Fastlane and some people don’t like that’s all that it is, is you can choose to pay to go to the front of the line, but then you’re paying for every single click, whereas exactly organic folks are going to wait longer. But it’ll be a less expensive outing to Disney World than everyone still gets to ride the Matterhorn.
Barb 16:05Exactly, yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. To me. That’s a very good comparison.
Meg 16:12Clearly I have young kids,
Barb 16:15yeah, no, don’t give them an IV using like the teenage comparisons, I’m one of the things that I find really cool about Google is you can get your website on Google, by doing the work yourself, you can get your listing into that snack pack or that local pack by doing the work yourself.
Barb 16:31In both instances. Google’s not asking you for any money. Right? If I want to do something on most of the social media channels, other than run organic content that disappears within minutes or hours of being posted out there, I have to pay something.
Barb 16:48And so in that way, I find that Google lets you build your business on their foundational rock, so to speak, at a much lower cost or investment. I don’t have to post to my Google listing every day, I don’t have to worry about, you know, creating videos, and no, I can and they might get more engagement.
Barb 17:09But I don’t. I don’t have that sense of I have to or I disappear. Right? Where I find on social channels, I have to get a post out there, watch a real one for a week, I better get something out there, oh, I haven’t posted a video, I need to get a video out there. So there’s a lot of pressure that comes along with maintaining those social profiles, especially if you’ve created numerous profiles over time, right.
Barb 17:34So when you start to think about the, I’ll say, the amount of work, the time the effort that goes into either maintaining your Google or maintaining your social, what’s your gut feel on what you hear from your folks about, which is easier and where they’ve had more success.
Meg 17:54I would say that the amount of time that you’re going to eat, let’s put it this way, you’re going to spend time on your marketing, no matter what. And the platform that you choose to create first is your choice. But this doesn’t have to be an either or situation you can create for social and then copy and paste that and expand that into a blog post. Yep.
Meg 18:18Or what I tend to recommend to people is to search first, create the evergreen content first, and then repurpose and distribute it out to social media. Yeah, so for my business, we start all of our content from YouTube, because that’s the most time consuming place where we can be spending time you know, like for me to sit down and record a YouTube video is going to take me 45 minutes, even if it’s only a 10 minute video, it’s going to take me 45 minutes.
Meg 18:52But then once we have that YouTube video edited down to that whatever, 10 minute time slot, when we get it transcribed, we turn it into a video, we strip out the audio, we turn it into a podcast, we take excerpts from it, we put it on social media, we take clips from the video, and we turn them into reels, which we can then put onto you know, YouTube shorts and Instagram reels, you know, I take 45 minutes to create that we turn it into 10 or 15 different pieces of content and put it into a scheduler that can continue to push that out repeatedly.
Meg 19:25Exactly. It’s up. The process doesn’t have to be to create the one thing and then create the next thing the next day and then create the next thing the next day and always be in a loop on it. Exactly. It’s possible to maximize like if you’ve heard of the strengths finder, one of my top five strengths is Maximizer.
Meg 19:44Why create it 10 times if you could take one thing and turn it into 10 things.
Barb 19:48Exactly. Yes. So I always like to talk about Google first content, create for Google first, whether that be YouTube or your blog, wherever that fits, and then start to create all of those secondary pieces of content, because different points are going to attract different customers.
Barb 20:07Some are going to find the YouTube video and subscribe and follow along with your message. Others are going to prefer to sit down and read a blog post, right? It’s been transcribed. So it’s all those bits. And I’m just like you where I want to create for Google first. And then I can turn every blog post into 10 different social posts that show up, you know, over the next three months and bring traffic back to my website.
Barb 20:31So something that, okay, you’re doing really good. You do it in 45 minutes, I probably do it in 90. Right, but you create the video, and it’s there forever, as long as it’s correct. And you know what, when it’s not correct anymore, boom, go in, hit the delete button, right and do the new version. Because if there’s one thing that Google does like to do to us, oh, we change the rules today, we’re just gonna change it up a little bit. So now we’re gonna do it this way. Right, one of the most common things that we see coming from Google.
Barb 21:02So yes, I agree with you wholeheartedly. How can you create Google first content that helps you build and grow your business, attract new customers, and then think about those secondary uses for that content? Because the more you can push your content out there, people will see it, engage with it, and comments start to follow, right. And I think that’s a big part of how we start to attract more customers into our space. Now that describes our process. Meg, you and I are marketers. And so our brains are hardwired to be like, Hey, how do I get my message out there? But what if I’m a plumber? How do I take that same process? And make it my own? How? What do you want me to show on YouTube? Don’t show me changing a furnace filter? Like, what do I do? What do you think?
Meg 21:54I would say that a lot of times, especially if you’re working in a local market, one of the things that you can do is have, you know, case studies and conversations with the customers that you’re working with to tell their stories. The benefit of doing that is that you can also if especially if you’re working in a local market, say, you know, I helped Meg had a Meg’s house in Rochester, New York had a flooded basement, and we were able to dry it out within 24 hours and save the, you know, the priceless foot painting that her grandfather made, and get that dried out.
Meg 22:31You know, like by telling the stories, I think that can especially be an amazing way to do it in local markets. Because it’s not some anonymous person around the internet. It’s this person in this town who Hey, actually, I know her, especially in smaller towns, you know, everyone, and if somebody has given their permission to share that story, then you trust it even more, when you see a face that’s recognizable to you, even if it’s just like, Oh, I saw her in the grocery store. Right? It doesn’t always have to be your best friend. Exactly.
Meg 23:03Have a, you know, acquaintance level relationship with somebody that’s going to benefit you as well. So it doesn’t always have to be, you know, here’s how, Hey, your basements flooded. Let me show you how to fix your sump pump. No. That’s not how to is not always the best solution. That’s right, telling the story, developing trust, explaining your process, explaining the benefits of working with you all of that can go really far.
Barb 23:31Yep. And when I think about what you’re describing, that’s Google’s know, like, and trust process, right? People have to get to know you, they’re gonna come to like you just like our friendships, right?
Barb 23:42We didn’t meet our best friend and go, Hey, you’re awesome. Let’s be best friends and get to know the person you found those common experiences with, you found common ground, you’re like, hey, you know, I kind of want to hang out with you a little bit more. Right. And so you move through that process where you go, now, I trust you, I know you. Now I want to be your bestie.
Barb 24:05And it’s no different when we think about that customer journey, to get to trust where somebody is going to actually spend their hard earned money with you have to have built that relationship. And that is where he will say that, you know, you can build it all on Google, but by being there very regularly with social media that helps build that relationship. Right. And so I think that, you know, being able to move customers through the spectrum, that’s one thing that social media can help us do is move through that process, right?
Meg 24:43Like trying to mute myself because my dog has decided that this is the time that he needs to hit him scratch. Oh, and scratch sorry. This is real life, right? Like,
Barb 24:55Exactly, yes, we might be at the tail end of COVID but this is still a real life reality podcast.
Meg 25:02Since 2013, this has always been my real life. Exactly, you make a really good point, which is that it can take a while for people to trust us enough to buy from us. And I also like to point out that SEO is just the introduction, right? People don’t need to go back to Google to remember who you are, they might continue to find you if they continue to search for new things and trust you more every time you answer one of their questions.
Meg 25:28But I like to think of it when you’re saying like, we’re, we’re starting to develop a friendship. It’s like when you get to us, when you when you’re on Google, when you’ve used SEO to get onto Google, you’re just swiping right, it’s just getting the first date. Yeah.
Meg 25:43And then it’s up to your website, to get the second date and the third date and to figure out how to get that person’s, you know, email address, so that way you can keep in touch with them. And then it’s social media’s job to continue to grow and email marketing is so important to continue to grow those relationships, I think even more so than social email is going to be the thing that helps people decide to buy from you. So don’t think that SEO is the end all be all solution. SEO is an introduction to new audiences.
Barb 26:14Yes. And I think that’s a great analogy. I like that SEO becomes the first date. And once they hit your website, you know, are they swiping left? Are they swiping right? Like what do they want to do with that relationship? Right? And that the power is entirely in your customers hands. So it’s your job to make sure that you’re serving the content to the customer that they’re looking for. Right? Is that a fair statement
Meg 26:36Your job, that you’re helping them qualify whether or not they’re a good fit for you?
Barb 26:41Isn’t it? It’s okay, as a business, to not be a good fit, right? It’s okay to prequalify your customers and say, Hey, here’s who we work with x, we don’t work with you. And that’s okay. It’s not something you see a lot, but it is okay.
Meg 26:58It’s just as important to know who you don’t work well with as it is to know those that you do work well with otherwise we’re in to carry on this metaphor. Otherwise, we end up going on a lot of first dates and kissing a lot of frogs. And for those of us that are, you know, running businesses that aren’t traffic based that are relationship based, we would rather get to really great relationships sooner by not spending a lot of time on, you know, discovery calls that are people who are not a good fit. Let’s let them go find someone else. That’s exactly it. Release them to go find what they need. Exactly.
Barb 27:33Yes, I hear you make believe it or not, we’re already at a time can you share with folks how they would find you? I know it’s the fastest 26 minutes of your life.
Meg 27:44Yes, please come over and find me at loveatfirstsearch.com. Or if you’re a podcast listener, go into whatever your podcast of choice is, and search for social slowdown. That’s my podcast to talk about finding ways to market your business without being dependent on social media.
Barb 28:00Awesome. All right. Well, thank you to everyone for joining us today for Secret Life. Thank you Meg for popping in talking a little bit of Google and a little bit of social. And just sharing a few of your secrets around how you support your clients. And what you’re seeing is working out in that Google space.
Barb 28:17If you’d like to be a guest on the show, you can email me at Barb@ZebethMedia.live or reach out on our Facebook and Instagram page @Abovethefold.ca.
Barb 28:28Just a reminder, you can even ask questions in advance of our live shows.
Barb 28:33I’m your host Barb McGrath, local business owner and GoogleGirl. Remember, you worked hard for your success. Don’t keep it a secret. Bye for now.