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Have you noticed your marketing isn't working as well as it used to? When inquiries slow down, it's natural to think something changed with Google or social media. But when was the last time you sent that useful newsletter, updated your website, or shared an answer to a customer's question? In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we look at the marketing habits that slip when you get busy, why the slowdown shows up months later, and how to get your momentum back before the end of the year. What's covered: ✅ How to check whether your marketing stopped working or you stopped doing it  ✅ Why skipped marketing takes a couple of months to show up as fewer inquiries  ✅ What new research says about consistency versus bursts of activity  ✅ Why you should count reps before you worry about reach and engagement  ✅ How to give a channel a fair test before you cut it Three action steps for this week: List the useful marketing activities you stopped doing in the last six months and restart one that was helping. Count how many of the last 26 weeks you actually showed up on your main channel. Before cutting a channel, write down what a fair test would involve: the work you'll do, the business result you're looking for, and when you'll review it. Build some momentum now so the new year begins with people already hearing from you. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode469 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

A new group of personal AI agents is offering to take care of everyday tasks for you, like researching your plans, keeping track of appointments, or negotiating a bill. Unlike a lot of AI tools, these aren't built for tech experts. You message them much like you'd text an assistant. In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we look at new personal agents like Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots, what you might actually use one for, and what to think about before giving one access to your information. What's covered: ✅ What makes an agent different from the AI chat you're used to  ✅ Easy first jobs to try, from weekend plans to the family schedule  ✅ Why "save me money" needs more detail before an agent negotiates for you  ✅ How to give an agent only the access a task needs  ✅ How to tell whether it actually saved you time Three action steps for this week: Choose one personal task and try an available agent on the research or planning part, with a clear budget and other limits. Review its privacy and account permissions before connecting anything, and require your approval before it books, buys, or sends. Check the finished result and compare the total time with doing it yourself. Keep using it only if it helps. Start with something manageable and let the agent earn your confidence through the results. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode468 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

Google Business Profile has been emailing profile owners with the subject line "Update your website for AI search." If you got it, you might be wondering what you need to change. Google's own guidance says showing up in AI Overviews and AI Mode is still SEO, and it names several popular AI search tricks that don't help. In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we walk through what Google recommends checking on your Business Profile and website, and which shortcuts you can skip. What's covered: ✅ Why Google says showing up in AI search is still SEO  ✅ How to check your Google Business Profile against the business you have today  ✅ How to turn your estimates and customer conversations into "non-commodity" content  ✅ What to check in the Google index  ✅ The AI search tricks Google says to ignore, from llms.txt files to tools promising guaranteed rankings Three action steps for this week: Open your Google Business Profile and check your categories, services, hours, service area, and website link against what you actually offer today. Choose one service you want more of and improve its website page with an answer or example from your own work that helps someone decide. Check that Google can access and index your site and that it's easy to use on a phone. Keep your business information current, share what you know from doing the work, and make it easy to find. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode467 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

Your Instagram posts, TikToks, and YouTube videos can show up when somebody searches on Google. Until now, Google Search Console mostly told you how your website performed in Google. It can now also show you when your social content itself appears in Google results, what people searched for, and whether they clicked. In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we walk through two new Google reporting connections worth setting up this week: social content inside Search Console, and Google Business Profile activity inside Google Analytics. What's covered: ✅ What the new Search Console social reporting actually shows, and what it doesn't  ✅ Why the Google query data is the most useful part for planning content  ✅ Why you should verify your accounts now, since the data only starts when you connect them  ✅ The seven Google Business Profile metrics coming into Analytics  ✅ The multi-location and reporting limitations to know before you build anything around it Three action steps for this week: Open Search Console and verify the Instagram, TikTok, X, or YouTube accounts that matter to your business so the social search data starts accumulating now. Once you have some data, look at the actual Google queries and the social content appearing for them, and use those patterns to help shape future topics. Check whether your Google Business Profile is linked to Google Analytics so you can see local actions like calls, directions, bookings, and website clicks alongside the rest of your reporting. These changes give you better clues about what's actually working. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode466 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

You may have started seeing sponsored items underneath some ChatGPT answers. The self-service ad platform is broadly available now, so this isn't only something big brands can experiment with. Before you move money out of Google or Meta, it's worth understanding that advertising inside a conversation works a little differently than what you're used to. In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we talk about how ChatGPT Ads work, what makes them different from the ads you already run, and why this looks like a place to test right now rather than a reason to move your whole advertising budget. What's covered: ✅ Why paying for a ChatGPT ad doesn't make ChatGPT recommend you in the answer  ✅ How context hints work, and why they aren't keywords  ✅ What you can and can't see about the conversation that triggered your ad  ✅ How the Agent campaign type in testing sends people into a conversation instead of to your website  ✅ How to decide what to promote before you spend anything Three action steps for this week: Think about whether your customers are likely to use ChatGPT while researching the type of service you provide, and pay attention when new customers tell you how they researched you. If it looks relevant, choose one specific service or offer you actually want to grow, and define the types of questions or situations where that offer would be helpful. If you test it, give the test its own small budget and tracking, then judge it on qualified leads and real business results before you shift money away from channels already working for you. ChatGPT Ads are here, and conversation-based advertising is worth understanding. But this is still an early channel. Test it if your customers are there, and make it earn more of your budget. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode465 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

We spend a lot of time talking about how to get found online. But every once in a while, one of the best things you can do for your marketing is go touch grass. Your online presence and your real-world presence are supposed to support each other, and one doesn't replace the other. In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we talk about local visibility in the real world and online, why being specific about what you do makes you easier to refer, and what happens when someone finally looks you up. What's covered: ✅ Why the communities you already belong to are the easiest marketing you're not doing ✅ How to get specific about what you want to be known for, and why vague doesn't get referred  ✅ Why you don't need to be equally known for everything you do  ✅ How to show up in local online groups without becoming the "Me! Here's my link!" person  ✅ How to make sure your website and Google Business Profile confirm what people heard about you Three action steps for this week: Write down the three or four communities you're already part of, and one clear thing you want people there to know you for. Choose one local online group where your customers genuinely participate, review the rules, and start being useful there without turning every comment into a promotion. Search your own name or business the way a neighbor would, and make sure your website, Google Business Profile, and social presence reinforce the work and customers you actually want more of. You don't need everybody in your area to know you. You want the people you already interact with to know what you do and feel comfortable mentioning your name when the right situation comes up. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode464 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

"Ends tonight." "Final hours." "Only two spots left." Those subject lines get attention because people believe what you're telling them. If the deadline or scarcity isn't real, you don't just have a trust problem anymore. You may have a legal one too. In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we talk about false urgency in email, why a strong hook still has to be true, and where attention-grabbing marketing can cross a line. What's covered: ✅ When scarcity and urgency are genuinely useful to you and your customer  ✅ The Washington state ruling that made misleading subject lines expensive, and what changed in June  ✅ How to fix evergreen automations that keep making claims that expired months ago  ✅ How to write a strong subject line without inventing a deadline Three action steps for this week: Search your recent emails and automated series for phrases like "ends tonight," "last chance," or other limited-time claims, and make sure they're accurate. When you use a deadline or limited availability, check that the email, the landing page, and the actual offer all match. Take one subject line that relies on fake urgency and rewrite it around real curiosity, a customer problem, or a genuine benefit instead. A great hook gets attention, but the rest of your message has to keep the promise the hook made. Use urgency when the urgency is real, and people learn that when you say Friday, you mean Friday. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode463 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

You already know the questions your customers ask, because you answer them every week. The harder part is getting those answers onto your website in the right place. Some deserve a page of their own, some would make a page you already have much stronger, and some belong together in one useful guide. In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we walk through how to decide whether a customer question deserves its own page, belongs on a page you already have, or should be combined with related content. What's covered: ✅ How to use Google Search Console to see whether an existing page already answers the question  ✅ How to see how Google reads the topic  ✅ Outlining the page first, and what it tells you when the outline repeats a page you already have  ✅ When a question really does open up a different conversation and deserves its own page  ✅ What to do with the answer when it doesn't need a new page Three action steps for this week: Check Search Console to see whether an existing page is already appearing for searches around that question. Search the broader service and the specific question in Google, to see whether it really solves a different problem. Make one decision: create the new page, expand the page you already have, or combine overlapping content. Answer the questions your customers have, and make every page earn its place. The goal is a website where the right person finds the best answer quickly and easily. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode462 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

Earlier this year, we talked about how hard it is to measure whether your business is showing up in AI answers. That hasn't magically been solved, but the reporting is starting to improve. Google and Bing are adding new places to see AI visibility, and it's worth paying attention to. In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we look at three places AI visibility is starting to show up in reporting: Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Bing Webmaster Tools, and how to read them without overreacting. What's covered: ✅ Why AI visibility reports are signals, not scorecards  ✅ Google Analytics' new AI Assistant channel group, and what it misses ✅ Search Console's generative AI reports: are you being seen, not just clicked ✅ Bing Webmaster Tools' AI visibility insights (Intents, Topics, Compare) ✅ Why the real next step isn't chasing a magic AI ranking hack Three action steps for this week: Check Google Analytics for the AI Assistant channel group and see whether any recognizable AI traffic is appearing. Check Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to see whether the new AI visibility reports are available for your site yet. Choose one important service or topic and make sure that page clearly answers the questions your customers ask before they choose you. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode461 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

You did the hard part. The marketing worked, the person is interested, and they're ready to reach out. Then something small gets in the way. They text and you call them back. They message a channel nobody checks. The form says "we'll be in touch," and they have no idea what that means. How people contact you is part of the customer experience, and it may be quietly costing you leads. In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we look at how customers contact your business, how you want them to contact you, and why your website and Google Business Profile need to make that path clear. What's covered: ✅ Why the channel a customer chooses is a clue about how they want to talk ✅ How Google calling and texting businesses makes contact part of search itself ✅ Why you should only offer the channels you'll actually monitor ✅ What a good contact page includes beyond name, address, and a form ✅ The three questions your contact page has to answer Three action steps for this week: List every place someone can currently contact you: phone, form, email, text, online booking, Google profile, and social DMs. Decide which channels you actually want to promote, and who's responsible for each one. Update your contact page and Google Business Profile so the next step is clear, the response expectation is honest, and people know which channel to use for what. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode460 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

Your next website visitor might not be a person. It might be an AI agent gathering information for one of your potential customers. That sounds futuristic, but it points back to something very practical: if the important details aren't clearly on your website, how is any tool supposed to find them? In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we explain the agentic web in plain English, why local businesses should care, and what your website needs to make clear. What's covered: ✅ What an AI agent actually is, without the jargon ✅ Why bot traffic has now passed human traffic online ✅ Why "just add a chatbot" falls apart when the info isn't on your site ✅ The simple test: what could AI confidently learn about you? ✅ Why clarity for people is also clarity for machines Three action steps for this week: List the top ten questions a good prospect asks before they hire you, and check whether those answers are actually on your website. Review one important service page and make sure it explains who it's for, where you offer it, what to expect, and the next step. Ask your web team whether your key forms, buttons, labels, and page content are easy for both people and automated tools to understand, without turning the site into a technical maze. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode459 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

More people are getting answers from AI before they ever visit a website. A new Pew Research study found that about half of U.S. adults now use AI chatbots, and 60% read the AI summaries at the top of search results. That changes how your business gets found, but it doesn't remove the need for trust. In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we look at how Americans are actually using AI chatbots and AI summaries, and what it means for local businesses trying to get found and chosen. What's covered: ✅ What the new Pew data says about how people really use AI to search  ✅ Why customers may form an opinion before they ever land on your site ✅ How to see what AI says about your kind of business, in a few minutes ✅ Why people use AI without fully trusting it, and what that means for your content ✅ The one-question check to run on anything you write with AI Three action steps for this week: Search three real customer questions in Google and in one AI chatbot, and see who shows up and what kind of content is being used. Pick one important service page or FAQ and make it more specific, useful, and human. Add or strengthen one trust signal: reviews, real photos, examples, team information, local details, or a clearer explanation of your process. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode458 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

Social media reach changes. Search results change. AI is changing how people find businesses in the first place. Through all of it, one thing hasn't moved: people do business with people they know. Especially for local businesses. And if the only way you can reach a potential customer is through an algorithm, you don't really have a relationship with them yet. In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we return to a principle that keeps your marketing from feeling fragile: use rented land to get found, and use the channels you own to keep building the relationship. What's covered: ✅ What "rented land" really means, and why those channels still matter ✅ Why your website is the center of everything you control ✅ How one strong piece of content can work in five different places ✅ Why email's real value is familiarity, not coupons ✅ How reviews and referrals fit into the channels you own Three action steps for this week: Look at your main discovery channels and ask: when someone finds us there, what's the next step we actually control? Create or improve one email list invitation: a checklist, guide, seasonal reminder, or simple "get helpful updates" signup. Tighten one relationship-building process: asking for reviews, asking for referrals, or committing to a consistent email at least twice a month. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode457 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

If local customers find you on Google, your Google Business Profile is doing more work than you might think. Google has rolled out a handful of updates recently that point in one direction: Google is putting more weight on profiles that look active, current, and trustworthy. In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we walk through the practical Google Business Profile updates that matter for local businesses, and what to actually do about each one. What's covered: ✅ Why Google Posts aren't meant to sit as a forgotten tab, and how to fill them without a new content plan  ✅ What makes local video work: place, captions, and showing the actual business ✅ Connecting your YouTube and social links so your channels stop feeling disconnected ✅ The new option to connect your Business Profile to Google Analytics ✅ Google's tighter review standards, and the staff-incentive trap to avoid Three action steps for this week: Publish one Google Post from something you already have: an event, offer, or helpful tip. See whether your Business Profile can connect to Google Analytics, and link it if it can. Review your video, social, and review setup: add local context and captions to videos, connect your social links, and remove anything that rewards staff for review counts or specific wording. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode456 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.

For years, showing up online and sounding professional was enough to stand out. That's no longer true. AI made polished, competent content available to everyone in about thirty seconds, which means polished is no longer a differentiator. In a feed full of polished, polished is invisible. The one thing AI can't generate is your point of view. In this episode of Get Digital Marketing Results, we cover why having a real point of view is the thing that sets you apart now, what a point of view actually is, and how to keep yours from getting flattened by AI. What's covered: ✅ Why showing up and sounding professional used to be enough, and why that flipped  ✅ What a point of view actually is, in plain terms  ✅ Why "taste" is just judgment, and where it comes from  ✅ The difference between handing AI the busywork and quietly handing over your voice  ✅ A simple test you can run on any post, email, or page Three action steps for this week: Look at one recent post, email, or page and ask: could any business in your industry have published this? If yes, it needs more of your point of view. Rewrite one section with what you actually believe: what you recommend, what you avoid, what you wish customers understood. Next time you use AI, give it your point of view before you ask it to draft anything, then edit like the final judgment still belongs to you, because it does. Show notes: www.delosinc.com/episode455 Subscribe for more actionable digital marketing tips for local and regional service businesses.