Blog Articles from Fawkes Digital Marketing

Are Popups Good or Bad for Marketing?

By John Marx on 01/08/2026

Some marketers swear by them. Others blame them for poor user experience and higher bounce rates. And many businesses don't realize how much timing, intent, and execution matter.

Your Marketing Needs a Rebirth

By John Marx on 01/07/2026

Welcome to Fawkes Digital Marketing, where marketing doesn't just evolve - it is reborn. In a world where traditional SEO is fading and AI is reshaping how businesses are discovered, we help brands rise above the noise and claim their position as industry leaders. Guided by the phoenix, we rebuild outdated strategies into powerful growth engines designed for organic search, local dominance, AI visibility, and the next generation of search technology. This isn't marketing as usual - this is the future.

Consistency Is the Competitive Advantage

By John Marx on 01/06/2026

At Fawkes Digital Marketing, we see this pattern play out every single day. And the businesses that win long-term aren't the ones that panic when results don't show up immediately-they're the ones that understand how momentum is actually built.

"There's something brewing in my mind..."

By Steffani Nicole Shelby on 09/11/2023

A cup of coffee is usually the first thing we grab once we get to the office. Most employees agree that coffee breaks are important, even essential during the day at work. During your break, usually with your co-workers, you discuss company matters. These mini-meetings promote collaboration, productivity, as well as creativity and the relationship of your workforce. The coffee break can be used to ease tensions, maintain team spirit, but most importantly as a sense of belonging.

Creating a social media strategy

By John Marx on 04/02/2023

I truly love how in tune the JM2 team is when it comes to marketing and helping companies grow on social media. Yesterday afternoon when I got back into the office late Kyle was wanted to talk about some concerns he has not only with our clients but with social media/digital marketing. At first, it was related to all things in Northwest Indiana but turned to nationally and then internationally. This is what you call a progressive team player that is thinking not only how to help and assist others in being successful. His concern was about how people are completely screwing up their social media which goes well beyond social media. This is social media, digital marketing, and websites altogether. With what he talked about I know he will be writing several articles on it, but I started thinking of several items that can help your brand achieve success when doing social media.

Why technology matters with SEO and Social Media

By John Marx on 11/03/2022

We feel it is great that companies in Northwest Indiana and really all over the United States are looking to streamline and save money. The question comes to where do you automate and have truly in-personal communication and where do you have that personal touch we all enjoy? Technology has a place to help cut costs. No longer do you need to pay $500-$1,000+ for social media digital marketing management. Technology can help keep costs low and increase your brands reach. Let the computer do the heavy lifting that used to take hours to gather information so that you can focus on what matters; the customer. Let's look at where technology can (and should) be used, where it can (and shouldn't be), and where you need to still use that 100% personal touch.

Too much social

By John Marx on 02/27/2018

Back before 2010, and even today some people have too much social media. One might wonder how you can have too much social as social is getting out there, talking, and getting your good word out to the masses. Well, it can happen to everyone, including you. You can have too much social and when you do you will actually set your social media back. Social media is as important to have a website with great content and optimized for not only your readers but the search engines.

Creating a Digital Marketing Plan

By John Marx on 02/07/2018

Digital Marketing is one of the key areas that we cover for our clients and creating a digital marketing plan is critical to any success. What I will be covering today is the foundational blocks to creating a plan that will allow any small business to grow online. A digital marketing plan can be done on a single sheet of paper. It won't be complete but will give you a start. What I am going to cover is something a bit deeper than the single page start and not as complete as a book. This is what I feel every business needs at a minimum to be successful and grow their business online

Customer Growth

By John Marx on 12/29/2017

We pride ourselves when it comes to educating, informing, and teaching our clients in all aspects of social media and websites. We believe every client is more than capable of doing the work themselves and that we are their tool so they can focus on their business rather than the marketing aspects. A client should have knowledge in doing even if they don't want to do it. They should be made aware of the latest terminology so that they comprehend any information they hear in an effective manner.

How to Verify Your Business on Facebook

By Kyle Hovanec on 08/02/2017

If you own a business page on Facebook, you may have heard about being Facebook verified. What appears to be a simple check mark next to your business's name, the purpose it serves means so much more.

Building a new era marketing firm

By John Marx on 03/17/2017

With great growth, a company needs to take a step back and look at everything it does to further provide value. We are focused not just on the local small and medium sized businesses but those across the entire country and around the world. We continually look at the paper purchased, the way our solutions work for our clients, and to the services that are offered. Each item has an impact to the bottom line of the company and if done incorrectly can truly cost the company and ultimately our customers. Keeping our budget tuned, living within our modest means, and checked constantly we can keep prices down while continually providing more value and grow each month. In just four years we've moved from a home office in Michigan City Indiana to a 2,000+ square foot office in downtown Valparaiso Indiana. We encourage everyone to read through this article on what makes JM2 Webdesigners unique and capable of meeting your businesses growing needs.

Two Weeks of Predictions

By John Marx on 12/27/2016

This week and next week will be two weeks of predictions from industry leaders and those in the digital marketing field. For some these will be guesses while others are more educated guesses with some hard research behind them. For the past three years, we have predicted trends in the digital marketing space. This year is more exciting than the past as we have a large variety of sources we tapped into, cancelled many of our old marketing methods that produced no results, as well as tests we did internally to make this year's set of predictions. We are going to only write about what we see as the top 5 items.

Build out your Digital Marketing Campaign

By John Marx on 12/24/2016

Each year we go through and establish the core fundamentals for the coming year for not only ourselves but each of our social media maintenance plan clients. When a digital marketing campaign is built, you create directions for your business to build your brand and market to your current and future customers. These are plans and not written in stone as the further we look out the more we know things will change over the time. Whether you are a fortune 500 company in the Chicagoland area or are in a growing community like Merrillville Indiana your time spent on your digital marketing campaigns will benefit your business.

Making a Difference the JM2 Way

By John Marx on 10/29/2016

This past weekend we met with two great clients on Saturday about how together we will work collaboratively together with their website, branding, and marketing of their organizations. The first lasted several hours about our services and digging deep into the realm of what our social media offered. The next inquired why we would want to work with their specific industry as they said they were slow pay and were by design hard to work with. In this article, we're going to look back at these two meetings and see how two different approaches align well with our Valparaiso Indiana company and why it shows why our three-year building process has put us in a place for rapid growth.

Let's Talk Maintenance Plans

By John Marx on 09/07/2016

Coming off of Labor Day weekend we thought we would talk and discuss maintenance plans. Maintenance plans are specific tools for getting the job done in a timely and efficient manner. A form of labor that JM2 Webdesigners from Valparaiso Indiana does to help your business grow. Your employees are dedicated to helping your business grow in the real-world. We become employees for you in the virtual world and help them come to the real-world to learn about your products and services for a lot less than you think. In this article we go over everything in our "Web and Social Media Package". If you only want search engine optimization (SEO) take the social media away and that's that package. These are designed to be simple and complete to meet every need your business has when doing digital marketing.

Why text marketing works better than email marketing

By John Marx on 12/30/2015

We send out monthly emails like most businesses that have a marketing strategy to stay in constant contact with their customers. Email is extremely effective in getting your information in a person's inbox. Text marketing will take your email marketing to a new level that is read more often, more quickly, and is great for time sensitive information.

2015 Prediction Results

By John Marx on 12/09/2015

In our 2015 Website and Social Media Predictions we made several predictions that would happen in 2015. As the year comes to a close we are going to dig into what we predicted and what actually happened in relation to those predictions. Every one that is an industry expert whether nationally or in their local area will make such predictions.

Facebook Insights - Overview

By John Marx on 11/10/2015

Our next supplement into digging into the analytics provided by Facebook is the Facebook Insights Overview. Within the overview you'll get more information than you received on the main page of your Facebook business page which we covered here. Within the overview you'll see a lot more details along with visual graphs on how you're doing in the last seven days compared to the previous seven days worth of information.

Know Your Facebook Analytics - This Week

By John Marx on 11/09/2015

Facebook provides you with some really great analytics when you visit your page. At the top of your page is Insights which gives you some really great in-depth information. We're going to keep this article short and sweet and cover six core items you'll see on your Page. This information will help give you a quick gauge on how you're doing. We'll later go into details on the Insights and how they can benefit you.

Common Social Media Mistakes

By John Marx on 10/23/2015

Whether you perform your social media on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or any of the other popular sites the possibility you will make a mistake is truly great. Before you began you have most likely used the social media outlet you're going to be working on. You also most likely investigated your competitors that are both local and across the nation if not the world so that you can "do it better". By moving to social media, even with an expert, there will be uphill battles as well as mistakes that are made. In this article we will cover some of the common mistakes we see people make as well as how you can avoid them for each of the core areas.

LinkedIn: Getting the word out

By John Marx on 09/13/2015

When you have a new product or service a common issue is getting the word out about your new great solution to solve a specific problem. Using the posting (blogging) capability of LinkedIn you can make a huge impact in getting your information "out there". You will be talking to your peers about something that you are passionate about.

2015 Website and Social Media Predictions

By John Marx on 01/06/2015

In our December 22, 2014 newsletter we included some predictions that drew a lot of questions. The link below is our newsletter post with additional information added to go into more detail for those that asked for it. It covers core items you need to know for 2015 on the Internet. May your 2015 rock!

What's your digital marketing strategy?

By John Marx on 10/13/2014

If when reading the title your first thought is "I don't have one?" or "Why would I need one?" then you are ripe for an improvement. A digital marketing strategy today is more critical than ever. Between your website and the social media outlets that you have decided to go with (and most of us should not go with every social media channel). The first thing that many people do is create their website, create their social media page(s) and then do an ad hoc method of updating them. Going this route will not only hurt your business in the long run but make you look unprofessional to potential clients. If you already have started don't fear this can be improved upon as you do need this step but need a strategy to achieve success.

We believe in an initial four-step process when it comes to digital marketing and your business. These being to decide what your business objectives are, research your competition and implement a strategy to achieve your objectives.

Online Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

By John Marx on 03/09/2014

Marketing your business is never an easy task. With small businesses even more so as small businesses have smaller budgets than larger companies but want to achieve the same results as their larger brethren. Smaller budgets can be effective, efficient and profitable. The key is to not count the internet out when it comes to marketing your business, even if your product isn't sold online. There are many online marketing mistakes businesses make and we've come up with ways to do a good job at online marketing.