SEO Reimagined: Owned Asset Optimization With Jonas Sickler

In this episode of the Simple and Smart SEO Show, I spoke with Jonas Sickler, a digital marketing analyst from Terakeet. We explored the importance of SEO evolving with AI advancements, emphasizing Owned Asset Optimization (OAO) as a strategy.

1. Businesses should control their narrative across all digital platforms to improve the accuracy of AI tools.

2. Meet the MACH-6 model: An upgrade to a traditional marketing model.

• Contrasts with the PESO model, emphasizing the importance of building equity in owned assets.
• Integrate SEO with other channels like social media and email for a cohesive strategy.

3. AI and SEO are evolving. How your business can keep up:

• Businesses must tell accurate and updated stories across all digital platforms for more accurate AI-generated content. 
• Optimize for both search engines and user experience. 

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
01:09 Building a Positive Work Culture
02:57 The Importance of Passion in Work
02:57 Coaching and Leadership Insights
06:17 SEO and Business Integration
07:41 The Value of Owned Assets
10:03 Leveraging Multiple Channels
12:26 The Mach-6 Framework
14:24 Collaboration Across Departments
19:05 Optimizing Your Digital Assets
19:37 The Importance of Social Profiles
19:45 Revisiting Neglected Accounts
20:07 Controlling Your Search Results
20:24 Understanding the PESO Model
21:48 Owned Asset Optimization Explained
23:46 Real-Life Examples of Brand Stories
27:32 Leveraging Technology for Customer Optimization
28:59 SEO vs. Owned Asset Optimization
31:55 Connecting with Your Audience

Connect With Jonas Sickler
Linkedin
Twitter

Explore Terakeet Resources
MACH-6 Matrix

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Chapters

• 0:00 I think that's where SEO needs to be.
• 1:09 Building a Positive Work Culture
• 2:57 Coaching and Leadership Insights
• 6:17 SEO and Business Integration
• 7:41 The Value of Owned Assets
• 10:03 Leveraging Multiple Channels
• 12:26 The Mach-6 Framework
• 14:24 Collaboration Across Departments
• 19:05 Optimizing Your Digital Assets
• 19:37 The Importance of Social Profiles
• 19:45 Revisiting Neglected Accounts
• 20:07 Controlling Your Search Results
• 20:24 Understanding the PESO Model
• 21:48 Owned Asset Optimization Explained
• 23:46 Real-Life Examples of Brand Stories
• 27:55 Leveraging Technology for Customer Optimization
• 29:22 SEO vs. Owned Asset Optimization
• 32:18 Connecting with Your Audience

Transcript

[00:00:00] Jonas Sickler: I think that's where SEO needs to be. Especially with A. I rolling out. And whatever version of AI or SGE makes its way into search. 

[00:00:07] I think all of that information that gets generated. Or any A. I. Tools that generate content is getting pulled from what exists out there. 

[00:00:14] So the more businesses can think about telling their story across all of their assets that they have. 

[00:00:19] All the digital platforms and programs and profiles they have everywhere. The more accurate that the AI tools are going to be if they start telling stories about you on your behalf.

[00:00:29] Crystal Waddell: Welcome to the third season of the Simple and Smart SEO Show. The podcast dedicated to empathy driven, brand building SEO. I'm your host, Crystal Waddell. I leverage my obsession with user experience to help business owners just like you optimize your website with confidence. 

[00:00:44] Thank you so much for being here.

[00:00:46] Let's jump into another great episode.

[00:00:48] Welcome back to the Simple and Smart SEO Show Podcast. I'm Crystal Waddell. And I am here with Jonas Sickler, who is a Digital marketing analyst at Terakeet. 

[00:00:58] And you guys are in for a treat today, my friends.

[00:01:01] So Jonas, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the simple and smart SEO show. 

[00:01:06] Jonas Sickler: It's my pleasure, Crystal. I've been looking forward to this. 

[00:01:08] Crystal Waddell: Yay. 

Building a Positive Work Culture

[00:01:09] Crystal Waddell: One thing I wanted to ask really quick before we jump into like the whole conversation of everything else. 

[00:01:15] Following you on LinkedIn, I have just seen so much just positive energy and joy at Terakeet. 

[00:01:22] And like you guys celebrating people who like work there for 30 days.

[00:01:26] How do you build a culture like that? 

[00:01:28] Because so many entrepreneurs are listening right now. 

[00:01:31] They're thinking about making their first hire, maybe second, third, whatever. 

[00:01:34] How do you guys build that culture? 

[00:01:36] Jonas Sickler: It's it's interesting. I appreciate that. There's a lot of work that goes into it. It's not something that just happens by chance.

[00:01:43] We have a lot of people on our hiring team. Our HR team. Who really understand the value of, the people that work at Terakeet. 

[00:01:50] And I think just understanding that people aren't working for your company to do a job. 

[00:01:55] They're working there because they feel like you share the same beliefs and the same purpose.

[00:02:00] And so making sure that we're celebrating everybody on a weekly basis. On a daily basis. 

[00:02:06] If people don't feel connected to the place they work, they're going to find a new place to work. 

[00:02:11] And I think there's like a really important balance that has to be found between being compensated. 

[00:02:17] Loving your job. Feeling connected to the people that you work with.

[00:02:20] And it all starts with just understanding that everybody that you work with is a human and they they need to be celebrated. 

[00:02:27] Even small wins, big wins. Building connections is important. 

[00:02:30] One of the things that we've just started. 

[00:02:32] We recently hired a CMO. And we're starting a tour to connect.

[00:02:36] We're now all over the country.

[00:02:37] As of covid, we used to be centralized in Syracuse. Now everybody works across the whole country in the U. S. 

[00:02:43] So we're launching a tour called Connect on Purpose. 

[00:02:45] Where we are taking groups across the country to connect locally in person. 

[00:02:50] Face to face with everybody. In as many groups as we possibly can.

[00:02:54] I think that sort of thing is really important. 

[00:02:56] Crystal Waddell: That is so cool. 

The Importance of Passion in WorkCoaching and Leadership Insights

[00:02:57] Crystal Waddell: I used to be a high school volleyball coach. And I live in North Carolina. And I went to a coaching clinic with Anson Dorrance. 

[00:03:06] Who coached soccer at UNC for years. 

[00:03:09] And he had something called the cauldron. Where he would have somebody on his staff follow everybody around and take stats during practice.

[00:03:17] And they were statting everything. 

[00:03:19] Hustle plays. Plays off. Goals scored. Whatever you can stat in a soccer practice. They were statting everything. 

[00:03:26] And then that's how they rank their players. 

[00:03:28] Because so many times we miss those statistics. 

[00:03:32] Or it's like somebody was late to practice. 

[00:03:35] You don't want that person starting over someone who was there. Even if they're better skilled. 

[00:03:40] Like there should be multiple ranking factors, just like SEO. And so I love that idea. 

[00:03:45] And I tried and did not fully implement it, in my volleyball program. 

[00:03:51] But I tried. Because I was like, this is what every coach needs. 

[00:03:53] And even like leadership wise. It's like, how do you efficiently evaluate your staff?

[00:03:59] Because there are some people who do things that are so just daily routine and standard for them. 

[00:04:06] That it often goes unnoticed or uncelebrated or whatever. 

[00:04:10] But it's those committed people that often get overlooked for certain recognition. 

[00:04:16] But they're the most important ones that are keeping it all together.

[00:04:18] Jonas Sickler: You know what that reminds me of? 

[00:04:20] Simon Sinek's stories about, about the Navy SEALs and the Marines. And he's always talking about it's never the best person. The strongest. 

[00:04:30] The person that comes into as like their top athlete in college. And they're just huge, muscle bound person.

[00:04:35] They're never the ones that make the cut. It's always the ones that when they have nothing left to give, they reach down and pick up their team. Their teammate. 

[00:04:43] And they, how can I help you? When they are, when they're completely spent. It's the people that have, that are trusted. 

[00:04:49] As, not the person who's trying to be the best, but the person who's like trusted by the most people on the team, those are the ones that excel.

[00:04:55] And so like that idea of figuring out. And I think, interviewing coaches all that would be awesome to figure out. 

[00:05:02] How do you understand what are the key players on your team? 

[00:05:06] That are the unsung heroes? And the ones that sort of, yeah, you have somebody who's scoring the most points every game.

[00:05:13] Your Caitlin Clark's. But who is the person who's maybe supporting them behind the scenes? 

[00:05:18] Who is enabling all that? And people trust for everything? And they're always there. They're showing up early. They're leaving late. They're, picking up the stuff on the court. Who are those people?

[00:05:29] Crystal Waddell: Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:05:31] And we had a girl named Kristy Friesen on my high school volleyball team. 

[00:05:34] We were a bunch of basketball players playing volleyball. It was like basketball was so serious. And volleyball was just something that we're athletic and we could play and it was fun. 

[00:05:43] But we had seven people on the team and that's why we got to the state championship because we barely had any issues with playing time.

[00:05:49] We had one girl that didn't play. 

[00:05:51] But when someone slid on the floor, sometimes me. Super sweaty. This girl would get a towel and sprint to the court and get it dried off. 

[00:06:01] I think about that all the time. Just randomly. I think about that all the time. 

[00:06:06] It's like something I pull inspiration from. 

[00:06:09] But I'm like, those people are just incredible. They don't even know how incredible they are. I'm not even sure I told her, but maybe I'll send her this clip. So. 

[00:06:16] Jonas Sickler: I love that. 

[00:06:16] Crystal Waddell: Yeah. Okay. 

SEO and Business Integration

[00:06:17] Crystal Waddell: So, you've listened to the podcast a little bit. 

[00:06:20] I had listened to you a few months ago, probably on the Voices of search podcast, I think it was. And that's when I was like, Oh my gosh! You're amazing. 

[00:06:28] Because you're just not SEO and statistics. And siloed like this. Because from an e commerce perspective and a solopreneur perspective. And just so you know, mostly entrepreneurs listen to this podcast.

[00:06:40] We have to do everything. So even if we wanted to silo SEO. Even if it was possible or a smart thing to do. It's not possible for people like me. And business owners like the Shopify stores or, small service providers. 

[00:06:53] To hear people like you talking about the integration of all of the areas. 

[00:06:57] Is just like a breath of fresh air.

[00:07:00] So That's one of the reasons why I wanted you to come on the show. 

[00:07:03] Jonas Sickler: Thank you. I appreciate it. You were on Mordy's podcast, on The SEO Rant recently. 

[00:07:07] I don't I say recently because I watched it recently. 

[00:07:09] But you probably recorded it two months ago. 

[00:07:11] And some of the things that you were talking about are exactly the reason that I really wanted to talk to you as well. 

[00:07:16] And that's because I think it's as a business owner, you have this sort of like business first approach. Customer first approach to SEO. 

[00:07:24] That SEO people who grew up through the ranks don't necessarily come with, a lot of the times.

[00:07:28] And so they're thinking more about keywords first. And you're thinking about brand. And unity. And there's brand and there's demand. 

[00:07:37] And there's organic traffic and there's social media and there's all these different pieces. 

The Value of Owned Assets

[00:07:41] Jonas Sickler: And it really struck a chord with me because it's all about the owned asset optimization that we've been talking about at Terakeet. 

[00:07:47] Which is the idea of taking search data to understand your audience. 

[00:07:51] And then using that information to build owned assets on your website. On your blog.

[00:07:57] And then amplifying those across other channels. And I think you said something along the lines and I think it was on Mordy's podcast about. 

[00:08:03] Don't put all of your money in building an Amazon page and then not do something for yourself. 

[00:08:08] You have to invest in your own business. And then you can use Amazon as a channel. 

[00:08:13] But build it on your website. Build your blog. Invest in your own company first.

[00:08:18] And so that really struck a chord with me, really resonated. 

[00:08:21] Crystal Waddell: Wow. That is so cool. Like high praise too. 

[00:08:23] The reason why that happened was because when I started on Etsy, it was a safe place. 

[00:08:29] And I don't know if I've ever told this particular story before. 

[00:08:32] But the same reason why Etsy, offended me and hurt my heart, whatever. There's no crying in business.

[00:08:38] But it was because I, I took advantage of some of the things that they offered.

[00:08:42] If they said. Take your product and pin it to Pinterest. I did that like immediately. And so I learned early, the value of Pinterest. 

[00:08:49] Not necessarily as like an off page or offsite SEO tactic. 

[00:08:54] But just the value of Pinterest pointing back to my shop. And giving me a whole bunch more eyeballs.

[00:08:59] So one day I decided to go to Pinterest and, click on one of my pins. 

[00:09:03] And I realized it sent it back to Etsy. 

[00:09:06] But then at the bottom of Etsy screen, it was like, you might also like these items by Jonas. 

[00:09:12] Jonas makes something exactly like Crystal. And you know what? 

[00:09:15] He actually gives you something free. Or he's got a sale going on or whatever.

[00:09:19] I'm like, Oh, heck no. 

[00:09:20] Like I'm driving thousands of views a month from Pinterest. Back to Etsy and I realized, Oh my gosh, I'm building Etsy's business. Not mine. 

[00:09:30] After I had that little like realization, and just the shock. 

[00:09:34] I realized, I can't be mad at Etsy because I hid.

[00:09:36] This is the point of the story. I wanted to tell you. I hid behind Etsy. I was scared at first. Because I thought, okay, if I fail, it's not Crystal Waddell that failed. 

[00:09:44] It's an Etsy shop, right? So how am I going to get mad that, I'm just an Etsy shop? When I was leveraging that in the first place.

[00:09:53] So I was like, okay, let's continue to leverage that. And let's continue to leverage Amazon. 

[00:09:58] But like you said, now, how can I build a brand for my business? CollageandWood.com. 

Leveraging Multiple Channels

[00:10:03] Jonas Sickler: Yeah, that's an awesome point and there's a lot of risk in putting too much investment in other channels. 

[00:10:10] I think it's important to leverage all of them in a strategic way. But look at Twitter, right?

[00:10:14] Twitter's bought out, by Elon Musk, there was all kinds of things that happened. Advertisers got really scared. And, they had invested so much in Twitter. 

[00:10:22] And then now we have Tik Tok, what's going to happen there? Is that going to get banned? 

[00:10:25] All these brands that have invested in built up their Tik Tok profiles.

[00:10:29] Now that's going to come down. So yes, use them. And use them smartly. But always have some kind of an owned asset that you can refer back to. 

[00:10:36] And that is your home base. 

[00:10:38] That's the thing that you start with. And you find out, okay. 

[00:10:41] We've got this this data, this asset, here's something that we've created.

[00:10:45] It was an article. Whatever it is. That we've published on our site. Now, how do we amplify that on all these different channels? In a way that is unique to each channel? 

[00:10:53] That meets the audience in the channel. 

[00:10:55] Refers back to your article that isn't just as simple as Hey, I'm going to share a link to the article on all my social channels. 

[00:11:01] And just paste it in and go away. 

[00:11:03] And email it and say, here's our latest article, but you're going to put the value where the audience is.

[00:11:07] And so maybe that means creating a video about your blog post and putting that on LinkedIn or on Twitter. Maybe it's creating a thread on Twitter and itemizing some of the key points. 

[00:11:17] Maybe it's sending some, an email out. That is that summarizes some of the value in the article that they don't have to go back and read it if they don't want to. 

[00:11:25] But you can leave a few nuggets that entice them and say, Oh, this was great.

[00:11:30] I love the value I got here. I want to get all the rest of it and go there. 

[00:11:33] Crystal Waddell: My business and a lot of businesses are cyclical. 

[00:11:36] So if I serve sports families, different seasons are going to come up every year, right? 

[00:11:41] Basketball season is going to come up.

[00:11:43] Football season is going to come up. All those things are going to happen.

[00:11:45] So if I create that owned asset. 

[00:11:47] You made me think of the fact that, okay. Once I've created the owned asset, now I can do what you said. 

[00:11:54] Instead of taking the easy road and just saying, Hey, there's a blog post. I can actually do something with it now. 

[00:12:01] And I never thought about that. I was just moving on to the next thing.

[00:12:04] Like I had made this, created an item, created an asset. 

[00:12:07] But I never thought about how to leverage it better. 

[00:12:11] And so you just gave us a whole bunch of different great ideas, like how to do that. 

[00:12:16] But I think that's so key because it's like, yeah, you create it once and you can use it forever. 

[00:12:20] But then you can keep making it better for your audience. And so I want to thank you for that. 

[00:12:25] Jonas Sickler: Huh. 

[00:12:25] Definitely. 

The Mach-6 Framework

[00:12:26] Jonas Sickler: And there's an article on Terakeet. We have this framework called the Mach-6. So if you haven't seen it and go check it out. 

[00:12:32] What it is basically a list of all your channels that you would use in marketing.

[00:12:36] And they're organized instead of if you're in marketing, you probably heard of the peso model. Paid, owned, shared, earned.

[00:12:42] Which kind of organizes channels in a way based on like whether you own it. 

[00:12:46] Or you're sharing it with some other thing. Or you're, earning it through PR.

[00:12:50] But we felt like there was a lot of things wrong with that model. Particularly that marketing should be based on ownership and control. 

[00:12:58] And so we developed that MACH-6 model. 

[00:13:00] Which organizes all of these channels based on the level of control that brands have over them. So you can look at the visualization, and you can say here's all of the assets that I have full control over.

[00:13:09] These are the ones I'm going to prioritize. But what is really cool is that it helps you almost plan your campaigns. 

[00:13:15] Because you can start by planning them out and saying this is where the core owned assets going to live. And then here are all of the different channels that I use. There's influencers, there's news media. There's PR, there's email, there's advertising.

[00:13:28] How can I amplify this on each of those channels? But always keeping my mind around the idea that which ones I have the most control over so that I retain as much value as possible in my own business and build the equity there. 

[00:13:40] Crystal Waddell: That is so amazing. Like right now, I'm just like, I want to go look at it so bad.

[00:13:44] The fact that you've organized it in that way is so cool. 

[00:13:47] Because the small group that I lead, I help entrepreneurs. And right now it's really about organizing the information in a way that's easy to understand. And like to create systems and processes around.

[00:13:59] And so that's going to be such a, Referrable resource. Because you get a picture of like how these things work together.

[00:14:06] It's hard sometimes for people to think that social media and SEO can work together. Or, SEO and email have to work together. 

[00:14:16] Like all of these things are connected, but like you said, just organizing it in that way that just brings so much clarity.

[00:14:22] Jonas Sickler: Yeah, I'll send you a link afterwards. 

Collaboration Across Departments

[00:14:24] Jonas Sickler: And I think that entrepreneurs specifically have the mindset to think that way. 

[00:14:29] For some reason, as companies get bigger and bigger silos start getting built. Walls start getting built. Departments start emerging. And eventually, especially at the really big companies, they're thinking so, so sequestered in a way that they're like, Hey, we're going to run a social media campaign and it's going to be about all these things.

[00:14:47] And they've lost the ability to think across all of the different departments in marketing at that point. 

[00:14:53] And SEO is, has become a victim of that in a way, because what happens is... I've talked to so many people, but how do you prove the value of SEO right to your business?

[00:15:01] How do you get more of an SEO investment within the business that you can do more? And they always. Everything is always just about revenue and transactions through organic search. Why is it only organic search? 

[00:15:12] If you think about the fact that you have taken search data, understood your audience. Created an asset that they love, that they need, that they're asking about in real time, when they go to Google. 

[00:15:23] And that asset is not valuable if they come from social media? It's not valuable if they come from email? Or if they've if you've written a byline?

[00:15:31] All those different places that people could potentially reach that asset on your website. But they're only tracking the value that comes through organic search. It blows my mind. And I think it really robs us, our SEOs of so much of the value that they're actually providing. 

[00:15:46] And then because of that, you've got the social media team saying that came from social. So that's our conversion.

[00:15:51] The email department saying we sent that traffic. So that's ours. So they're each trying to provide, and prove their own value in their own corners. Instead of coming together and saying, let's create an asset together.

[00:16:01] Let's create something that we can all gather around and say, this has value. Our audience wants this. 

[00:16:07] Now, how do we each decide how to amplify this in our own channels, in our own ways. And then we can collectively claim the value of that at the end. 

[00:16:14] Crystal Waddell: Yeah. It's funny as I talked to, my social media marketing manager and my podcast editor, and then also the owner of CollageandWood.com. 

[00:16:22] Me, myself, and I, we have these, team meetings, we all share the credit. 

[00:16:26] I thought for a long time since I came into this world of optimization and the different, departments of everything.

[00:16:33] I'm like, wow. 

[00:16:35] What a luxury they have. That like you could just have one job.

[00:16:39] Like one thing that you have to be responsible for without thinking about everything. 

[00:16:42] But like you say now, just a few years later, I feel so fortunate. 

[00:16:48] Because I know how to leverage all of those different things. And how they work together.

[00:16:52] And I see the value of them working together. Now, is it hard still to do it as a small business person? Yes. 

[00:16:59] But like you said, I think there's lots of value in that. 

[00:17:01] And it makes me I don't know, it's sad. It's not the right word, I feel so connected to my customers, and my business is my business.

[00:17:08] It's not my family. At the same time, I truly do care about my customers and their experiences and, That they have a great senior night or a great graduation or whatever. 

[00:17:18] I can't imagine being so far away that I don't talk to them. And understand, what they need. I just, that is, that's just really odd to me.

[00:17:28] And then, especially even if you take it back to data, like Google Analytics, GA-4.

[00:17:33] I get these notifications all the time that search is responsible for this percentage of conversions. 

[00:17:39] Or it's this many touch points that a customer will take before they purchase.

[00:17:44] And then I also talked to my client and I say, Hey, how'd you find me? And they say, Oh first I was doing a search for senior night gift ideas. And guess what? My website comes up. 

[00:17:55] And then it's then I wanted to search on Pinterest just to see if there were some more ideas. 

[00:17:59] So I go to pinterest. Guess what? i'm over there on pinterest, and then what do they do?

[00:18:03] They end up typing in My website. And I get a lot of direct Visit conversions. 

[00:18:09] But a lot of times Pinterest was the first one. 

[00:18:13] Or the blog was the first one or whatever. They were all connected. They all contributed. 

[00:18:17] So I just wanted to give that example as like an entrepreneur example of how that works as well.

[00:18:22] Jonas Sickler: And which is astonishing to me. Like when I think about how you're able to, you. Specifically, are you able to do all of those things with the resources that you have? 

[00:18:30] Because even bigger companies aren't doing that. And yet you're thinking, okay they start getting, I think what happens is that at a certain point, revenue becomes king. 

[00:18:38] And then everything gets poured into how can I make money fast.

[00:18:41] And it's, there's a lot of paid that takes over on that. And then the paid is it's such a transactional medium that. That brand slides away. 

[00:18:50] In the middle of that sort of entrepreneurial journey. And then once businesses get back on track and they start, okay, now we're, we're performing at a different level now.

[00:18:57] And so we can start thinking about brand again. So I think it's really important for people to always keep that brand front and center. And customers front and center. 

Optimizing Your Digital Assets

[00:19:05] Jonas Sickler: And when we're talking about Optimizing your assets. 

[00:19:08] We're not only talking about your website. We're also the social profiles, like you're mentioned Pinterest. 

[00:19:14] Because when somebody does search Crystal Waddell, right? 

[00:19:17] There on Google. Just for reviews of. Or they want to know, are you a trustworthy company? Are you reliable? What's coming up? 

[00:19:24] So that search landscape kind of is. Is your resume in a sense in that way, it's not just about going to your website. And your about me page telling the story. 

[00:19:33] The SERP is telling the story for you as well before they even land on your website.

The Importance of Social Profiles

[00:19:37] Jonas Sickler: And so optimizing all of those other things that maybe are not owned and controlled, the social profiles. But making sure that they're telling the same story. 

Revisiting Neglected Accounts

[00:19:45] Jonas Sickler: Maybe you started a. I don't know some Flickr account or some, I don't know if that still exists. 

[00:19:50] Some accounts long ago and they've been neglected and they tell a very different story about you because you've evolved as a business. 

[00:19:56] Go back to those accounts, make sure that everything has been updated so that you have this resume.

[00:20:01] And this portfolio of content that appears in your search results. And optimize those things as well.

[00:20:06] Not just the website. 

Controlling Your Search Results

[00:20:07] Jonas Sickler: You want them showing up. Essentially to give you as much control over what shows up in the page one, page two of Google as possible. 

[00:20:14] Crystal Waddell: Yeah. Oh my gosh. I can't remember who said this, but they I remember him just going, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. And that's just what you said.

[00:20:21] That makes me want to grow. That's just beautiful. Okay. 

Understanding the PESO Model

[00:20:24] Crystal Waddell: Going back to the, that peso thing you were talking about, that was actually something on my list that I wanted to ask you about. 

[00:20:29] Because again, when you decide to start a business, a lot of times you don't have a marketing background. 

[00:20:34] You don't have the acronym vocabulary that kind of comes with business. And in every aspect. 

[00:20:41] So could you explain like the old peso model again. 

[00:20:44] And like what that means and why people used it? 

[00:20:47] Jonas Sickler: Yeah, I'll do my best. Our marketing director wrote an awesome article about the peso versus the the owned asset optimization model and the Mach-6.

[00:20:55] And ultimately the peso models is organized around four key sort of channels. If you want to call it that. 

[00:21:02] Paid the paid channel, the earned channel the shared channel earned as being like PR. I'm getting, I'm going out and getting articles written about me. 

[00:21:10] The shared channel, it's just like social media platforms.

[00:21:13] So like we don't own the platform, but we're engaging in conversations. And then the owned channel, which is like your own assets. The problem with the way that we see the errors in that model is it's quadranted. 

[00:21:25] So it makes it look like each of those things is equally weighted and should be invested in equally.

[00:21:31] It also starts with paid as in the acronym. And that is, we look at that as some of the weaknesses. 

[00:21:37] Because if you're investing in paid, that's not going to build equity. And our approach with owned asset optimization is all about building equity in your brand and in your business.

Owned Asset Optimization Explained

[00:21:48] Jonas Sickler: So starting off with the owned assets that you can control is is the most important. And those assets can be things like, obviously your website and your blog. 

[00:21:56] But also your personas, your buyer personas your brand messaging, your brand purpose. 

[00:22:01] Anything that you can leverage that you have full control over, that then can inform your marketing on other channels.

[00:22:07] So if you're building equity first in those things and not going straight to a paid program or building working with influencers right off the bat, where. 

[00:22:17] All of those types of models are like cash registers, money in, money out. And when you're not putting money in, you're not getting money out.

[00:22:25] It's almost like renting a space, versus buying a home. Where every time you put money into a piece of content that you own on your website, it's going to be there forever. 

[00:22:35] Yeah, it's going to need a little fresh coat of paint once in a while, but you own that. It's like you own your house and it just builds equity.

[00:22:41] And at some point, you. Publish it and it will perform for a while. Maybe you tweak it and it'll perform for a while. But you don't have to continuously put in a dollar every single day in order to get that dollar out. 

[00:22:51] And all businesses go through cycles. So if you're operating on a model that requires you to keep pumping money in order to get a profit out of it at all times, what happens if you need to cut expenses.

[00:23:02] And all of your expenses are in those paid channels in the influencer channels?

[00:23:06] Where if you turn it off, you lose all of that revenue versus the other side of it being, if you're investing in the SEO side, if you're investing in those owned assets. 

[00:23:14] Then you can turn it off. You can turn the investment down for six months and still be getting that revenue. 

[00:23:20] And then when you have the investment back in, then you can improve them again.

[00:23:25] So I think those are the main points that we find that the peso model is looks equally weighted. 

[00:23:29] And it should be weighted more towards the things you own and also that it appears to prioritize paid over the other channels. 

[00:23:36] Crystal Waddell: I'm just over here blown away because like you're describing things that we've had people talk about on the podcast as being important. 

[00:23:44] And one of them that really stands out to me.

Real-Life Examples of Brand Stories

[00:23:46] Crystal Waddell: That I want to share an example of we had a a copywriter on her name is Emma Boshart. 

[00:23:52] She's from Canada and Vancouver. I think I can't remember, or maybe yeah, Vancouver, because I said I was going to go see her family in Toronto and stay with them. Even though I don't know them. 

[00:24:01] But anyway, she was talking about brand stories and brand messaging and.

[00:24:06] Simultaneously, I know this doesn't necessarily seem related. I was learning about word count on a page and how you could have low word count and thin content and all this type of stuff. 

[00:24:17] But I was like, let's just say like a wooden letter a or something. 

[00:24:20] It's how much can you say about a wooden letter a right? 

[00:24:23] And Emma's shared about the brand stories. 

[00:24:26] And I realized, Oh my gosh, I can share examples of what people have sent me of what they've done with their letter A. 

[00:24:34] And I can put that on the letter A page. 

[00:24:36] I could put it on all the letter pages if I wanted to, but I could put, individual stories about each letter, what I've gotten from different customers, and then I can also share the brand story of why we make wooden letters, and by default, it was hilarious because Naturally, those pages are going to rank, right?

[00:24:53] For the keywords that I'm talking about, or at least for the search intent of somebody searching for it. 

[00:24:58] Because if they want to use that letter for a like reception table at their wedding. 

[00:25:04] Or if they want to use it for a door hanger, if those, if that's what they're searching for. 

[00:25:08] And I'm telling the story of a client who did that. They're going to go, Oh, wow, cool.

[00:25:12] Look, this person did this with this letter and I can buy it right here. 

[00:25:16] Jonas Sickler: Yeah. I'm now my wheels are turning. I'm like, Ooh, what if I got a Terakeet logo and I may have you make one of those. 

[00:25:22] And then I can put it on the wall behind me here. That would look pretty cool. 

[00:25:26] Or if I can even figure out a way to backlight it or something, that would be super cool.

[00:25:29] Crystal Waddell: Oh my gosh. It's easier than you think. 

[00:25:31] All have to do is get like battery powered LEDs. Yeah. 

[00:25:35] Even with our marquee letters, we use remote control uh, led lights.

[00:25:40] So you can probably even get some sort of remote controlled battery powered where you don't actually have to turn it on right here,

[00:25:47] Jonas Sickler: love the space too. 

[00:25:47] And I've always wanted to do some kind of like slate tiling or something on the wall. 

[00:25:51] Like you've got the herringbone wood. 

[00:25:53] Crystal Waddell: I'd love to create that for you. Side note. 

[00:25:55] But yeah, but this idea of own asset optimization. 

[00:25:57] It's just, I never thought about it as our brand story. I never thought about that as an owned asset. 

[00:26:05] Jonas Sickler: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah your purpose. Your values. 

[00:26:08] Your messaging framework, all that stuff.

[00:26:11] Is something that is completely controllable by you and informs your other marketing efforts.

[00:26:16] And that's why some of those assets might be internal. 

[00:26:19] That are not necessarily customer facing and other ones you might put on your website, on your about us page. And therefore it is. 

[00:26:26] But they all speak to your customers and and differentiate you. From others. Why are you doing what you're doing?

[00:26:31] That certainly resonates. People don't just want a wooden letter because they like the look of the wooden letter. There's a reason that they're buying it. 

[00:26:38] There's a story that they have for wanting to do that. Maybe it's just their letter of their name. 

[00:26:43] Maybe it's the letters of their grandchildren's names or something. 

[00:26:46] There's always reasons that people have for doing that. 

[00:26:48] Crystal Waddell: Yeah, that's awesome when you can connect. 

[00:26:51] And that's the benefit again, as being able to communicate with your customers. 

[00:26:55] SEO taught me that rather than having say, hey, senior night. 

[00:27:00] Maybe you should put like baseball senior night. And basketball senior night. 

[00:27:04] And because the baseball mom's not searching for basketball. The basketball is not searching for swimming.

[00:27:08] And those people want what they want for their specific person, right? Once I figured that out, I was like, Oh, yay. Now the conversions are going to come. Yeah. 

[00:27:15] They went up a little bit. 

[00:27:17] But I was talking to people, they were having issues like uploading their photos are always emailing me about uploading their photos.

[00:27:23] How do I do that? Where do I do that? And it's Dropbox drive, all these places. And I'm like, I can't get into your snapfish, whatever. 

[00:27:29] So I was like, no, this isn't happening anymore. 

Leveraging Technology for Customer Optimization

[00:27:32] Crystal Waddell: Thankfully there was an app in Shopify. 

[00:27:34] Check your content management system to see if there's a tool that already was created to help you solve your own problem for your customers.

[00:27:42] But now I can, when people order something for me, they can upload their images. 

[00:27:47] And when they upload their images, everything stays together. It's already in a folder. I download it and go. 

[00:27:53] The other thing that would happen is people would jam me up. 

[00:27:56] So as a maker, I physically have to make things and then ship them. 

[00:28:00] So there's lots of different timings that need to take place.

[00:28:04] And I'm a people pleaser. So if you were to ask me like, Hey, Crystal, could you make me, 15 of these signs and have them to me by Friday? I would say yes, Jonas, because I don't want to disappoint you. 

[00:28:14] Or, I'd probably email you later and say, no, I can't actually. Be passive aggressive that way.

[00:28:19] But what helps is when you have a tool. 

[00:28:22] Now I have a calendar tool. So it says people can't order closer than three weeks. So then they have to actually reach out to me. And now we can have a conversation about what that really looks like. If it's possible. 

[00:28:34] But the technology is now available to help us optimize for the customer and all of their different challenges.

[00:28:40] And I'm so thankful because people have told me exactly what their problems are. 

[00:28:43] Okay, let me see if I can find a solution for you on the website. But to just create something on your own, a lot of times you're missing the most important parts for your customer.

[00:28:52] Jonas Sickler: Yeah. 

[00:28:53] I love that because it also it speaks to the other side of owned asset optimization. 

[00:28:57] I think it's easy to think. 

SEO vs. Owned Asset Optimization

[00:28:59] Jonas Sickler: Oh, we optimizing it to rank in organic search. Yes, but that's SEO as well. And owned asset optimization is that, and then. 

[00:29:07] I guess what is the difference between SEO and owned asset optimization?

[00:29:10] The differences are that for the most part, SEOs can argue I do this too. And I do that too. It's good. Then you're doing parts of owned asset optimization. 

[00:29:17] You're not just doing SEO. It's it's. You're, yes, you're optimizing a page to rank for keywords.

[00:29:22] Yes. But you're also optimizing that page to convert better. 

[00:29:26] To understand user behavior. 

[00:29:28] And what are people doing on the page? How can we improve it? Not to just rank, but also to convert better, to drive more revenue. 

[00:29:36] And what are the different things that we can do on that page?

[00:29:38] And then if you also think maybe this isn't the case as, as much with smaller businesses. 

[00:29:44] But many companies have a website, especially if they're e commerce, but they also have a blog that's separate from that. 

[00:29:49] So they have multiple owned assets that are not on the same domain.

[00:29:53] And you want to optimize those. Not individually, but together so that they're working together to tell the story. 

[00:29:59] And there's going to be areas of overlap and there's going to be areas where there's, where they're separated. And so how do you understand what to publish here and what to publish there? 

[00:30:07] Especially when all topics are connected in some way.

[00:30:10] So you have to figure it, figuring out all those pieces together and optimizing disparate assets. Some, sometimes we work with customers that have dozens and dozens of websites. And blogs. 

[00:30:19] And they're all, different and are all publishing content, but none of them are often speaking the same language or they're, they're running into each other.

[00:30:26] And in some cases you might have a business that buys another business and absorbs their website and their blog. And how do you integrate those two things in a way that kind of preserves what's working on each end? 

[00:30:37] All of that is still owned asset optimization. You're just optimizing it for users. And thinking about it that way, regardless of what channel it's coming, bringing traffic in from.

[00:30:46] Crystal Waddell: Yeah you have such a great. Way of describing like the nuances of all of this, and yet also conveying empathy to both sides. 

[00:30:57] And I feel like that is the future of SEO more than anything. 

[00:31:01] Because you've got to have, you've got to have both plus the technical knowledge.

[00:31:06] And so I just I have pages.

[00:31:09] And pages of questions that I wanted to ask you. And I think maybe I only asked you one, but it was the most important one, we got to talk about the owned asset optimization, which is really amazing. 

[00:31:20] Jonas Sickler: I think you've been doing great things. 

[00:31:22] And I love that you have this, higher level business mindset. 

[00:31:25] I think that's where SEO needs to be. Especially with A. I rolling out and whatever version of AI or SGE makes its way into search. 

[00:31:33] I think all of that information that gets generated or any A. I. Tools that generate content is getting pulled from what exists out there. 

[00:31:40] So the More businesses can think about telling their story across all of their assets that they have. 

[00:31:44] All the digital platforms and programs and profiles they have everywhere. 

[00:31:49] The more accurate that the AI tools are going to be if they start telling stories about you on your behalf.

[00:31:54] Crystal Waddell: if. 

Connecting with Your Audience

[00:31:55] Crystal Waddell: Someone has really connected with you like I have. 

[00:31:58] And they want to learn more, is there some places that people might be able to connect with you?

[00:32:01] Or again, could you share where we could find the resources? 

[00:32:05] Jonas Sickler: Yeah. 

[00:32:06] So if you want to connect with me, on LinkedIn is probably the best place. I'm pretty active on Twitter as well, but I think I share. I use Twitter for more of an SEO type of content. 

[00:32:16] And LinkedIn is a little bit more. It's SEO, but more business.

[00:32:19] I would say I talk more about just higher level. How do we understand audiences on LinkedIn a little bit more? 

[00:32:25] If you want to find those assets that we were talking about, the MACH-6. And learn more about owned asset optimization, you can go to Terakeet.com. 

[00:32:33] T E R a. K E E T. Or search Terakeet in Google.

[00:32:38] You'll find us. 

[00:32:39] And the homepage, the, what we do page, will have a lot of the information that that we talked about today. 

[00:32:44] The Mach-6 is on the what we do page at Terakeet. And it's slightly interactive. 

[00:32:49] You can click on boxes and expand them and read little bits about each of the sections.

[00:32:53] And if you want to send me any of your questions that we didn't get to touch on. Send them over. I'll, I'll answer them all. And then and, I'm happy to do that. 

[00:33:02] Crystal Waddell: Oh, Jonas, I don't know if you want to open that box, but I'll take you up on it. 

[00:33:06] But yeah, I really appreciate that. 

[00:33:08] Jonas Sickler: Awesome. I really appreciate this is a great talk. 

[00:33:10] And you're doing an amazing job with your podcast. I still am baffled. I feel like you've got a time Turner in your pocket or something from Harry Potter. 

[00:33:17] And you're just like, you're spinning the clock back and being able to do all these different things you're doing because each one of them is a full time job.

[00:33:24] Keep it up and and keep doing what you're doing online because you are also a positive force and all of your discussions lift people up. And that's important. 

[00:33:33] Crystal Waddell: Awesome. I appreciate all of that. And thank you so much for being here today. 

[00:33:37] ​