Marians Honest IM Tips & Reviews

In February of 2018, Facebook announced plans to prioritize personal content and de-prioritize content from pages. That means that if you’ve got a Facebook page for your local business, your content is only being seen by a very small percentage of your followers unless you pay to promote it. Nothing to be done, right? It’s one of those things that you can’t control… or is it? It turns out there’s a super-easy (and FREE) way to connect with both existing and potential customers on Facebook without paying to promote your content. It involves creating a Facebook group to promote your brand. Here’s what you need to know. Group Content is Prioritized Ahead of Brand Content  The first thing you need to know is that Facebook has downgraded content posted by company and brand pages. However, it still prioritizes content from groups. Why? Well, the short answer is that people must voluntarily opt in to a group. You might be thinking that users have voluntarily followed your page, too ...

If you’re paying attention, you know that cybercrime is no joke. In 2015, cybercrime cost $3 trillion annually , and projections indicate that number will double by 2021. Yikes. The real question is, what are you doing to protect yourself? A lot of local business owners do the bare minimum and tell themselves it’s enough. I’ll let you in on a little secret: it’s not enough. If all you’re doing is updating your anti-virus software and filtering out spam, you’re still vulnerable. Scared? You should be. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do something to protect yourself. Cybersecurity experts are working constantly to stay ahead of hackers. Here are 8 ways you can protect your website and data. #1: Keep All Software Updated Have you ever received a notification that your software needed an update and delayed it because it wasn’t convenient? The answer is probably yes, and yet delaying updates for your website can leave you vulnerable to hackers. One of the best ways to protect your si...

As a business owner, you’ve got to wear many hats in the course of a day. You might be a salesperson one minute and a human resources manager the next. It’s a lot to do. And, when it comes to add items to your to-do list, you might do everything you can to minimize what you take on. Your time’s limited – and valuable – and there are only so many hours in a day. Website maintenance is the perfect example. It might seem unnecessary – and you might wonder if it’s something you can ignore. Hot tip: It’s not. In fact, website maintenance is essential to everything from SEO to user engagement – and those things both lead directly to your bottom line. Here’s why. Google and Website Maintenance Let’s start with something that’s a huge priority for most business owners: earning (and keeping) a high Google rank for your primary keywords. As you know, Google doesn’t make its search algorithm public. However, we do no some things about it. For example, we know that: Google prioritizes fres...

Having a great-looking website that represents your company is enough to keep your business healthy and growing – right? If only it were that simple. The sad truth is that most local businesses aren’t doing everything they can to generate leads online. And, it all starts with their websites, which – let’s face it – aren’t getting the job done. In fact, I’ll take it a step further. If you’re not opening your inbox to find new leads from your website every day, you might as well not have a website. The good news is, you can change that. Your website might be basic or have all the bells and whistles. It might be years old or freshly designed. No matter what it looks like, you can make it better and turn it into a 24-hour marketing machine. I’m not going to bore you with the same old advice you’ve heard a million times. You know that your site needs great content and a killer call to action. Instead, let’s dig into some of the next-level stuff you can do to kick your website’s lead-gen...

Right now, potential customers are online looking for your business. And you might be missing them. Scary thought, isn’t it? Let’s face it, there’s a ton of content out there. It can be hard to find what you’re searching for – and if the content you’re producing isn’t providing what the people in your target audience need when they need it, then they’re likely to end up with one of your competitors. The answer? Understand the moments when customers pick up their phones to look for your business and craft content that gives it to them. One way is to use what Google has coined Micro Moments, I.E. “the Customer Journey.”  What are they and how can you use them to find new customers? Here’s what you need to know. What is a Micro Moment? Google coined the term Micro Moment to respond to what they saw as a growing trend. You already know that most consumers in the US are tethered to their smart phones 24 hours a day. But they’re more intensely engaged at some moments than at oth...

You’ve got to spend money to make money. That’s they say, right? And yet, for some small business owners, a generous marketing budget just isn’t in the cards. You can skimp on marketing, but I’m willing to bet you haven’t considered something that you should be thinking about… And that’s the lifetime value of each loyal customer you attract with your marketing campaigns. You know that it costs more to attract a new customer than it does to retain an existing one – but how much can you really afford to spend to attract a new customer? Knowing the lifetime value of your customers is the key to creating a workable budget for marketing. That number should dictate how much you spend. Spend too much and you’re losing money in the long run. Spend too little – and you’re missing out on an opportunity to grow your business. How to Calculate Your Lifetime Customer Value Don’t know how to calculate the lifetime value of your customers? Here’s a simple, five-step process to get to the numbe...

What does your marketing mix include? If you’re like most local businesses, you’re probably doing a mix of online and offline marketing. You might be engaging with customers on social media, hosting local events, blogging, and advertising in the local paper. Perhaps you’ve even targeted mobile customers by using Facebook’s “Call Now” button on your ads. But guess what? There’s one thing that you’re probably not doing that could help you connect with customers when they’re most likely to stop by your business. And you might not even have considered it. I’m talking about SMS messaging, more commonly known as text messaging. More than 2.5 billion people worldwide own a smart phone that’s capable of text messaging. That’s a staggering number – and it begs the question: Why aren’t more small businesses using text messaging for marketing? Texting by the Numbers Text messaging has the potential to be a marketing superstar for your business. To get an idea of just how effective it can ...

The robots are coming for your business. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but the truth is that in recent years, artificial intelligence has become more sophisticated than ever before. And while you might think that investing in AI is for huge companies with huge budgets, the truth is that AI is more affordable – and more versatile – than you might think. Artificial intelligence, if programmed and used properly, can help you increase your sales, enhance your customers’ experience, and manage your business more effectively. Here are 5 things you can do with artificial intelligence starting now. #1: Expand Your Customer Service There’s no denying that there’s a link between customer service and sales. Customers who are happy with your service are more likely to buy from you again. They’re also likely to recommend you to their friends. Adding a simple customer service chatbot to your website can do a great deal to improve service. It can: Provider customers with the imme...