By now you probably have figured out if you want to improve awareness around your brand, you will need to have a social media presence. Whether you have a brick and mortar business or an e-commerce site, there is a lot of competition out there, and social media offers a great way to differentiate and establish your own brand identity.

Small business owners have a lot to deal with, and social media may be the last thing on their list–if it is on there at all. Employees can contribute by making a post here and there, sharing a post or asking friends to follow your business pages. But will this be enough to grow your online presence?

If you simply don’t have the time or the skills to properly promote your business via social media, you may want to consider looking into hiring a company that specializes in social media management. But how do you do that?

Read on to learn more about how to pick the right social media packages for your business!

1. Evaluate Your Business Needs

Consultations for social media management packages need to come with an evaluation of your business to determine your needs. Not every social media platform is right for every business. Having a business page on a platform that does not appeal to your target audience is a waste of time and resources.

A quality social media manager will be familiar with all primary platforms. Too often people specialize in Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest, without having the understand of how and when to pursue each platform. It is important that your social media team is able to gauge the social media habits of your current customer base.

2. Are There Multi-Level Platforms for Social Media Packages?

Pricing is always at the forefront of any business transaction. Don’t let the fear of how much it will cost scare you. Hiring someone to handle your business social media marketing may not cost as much as you think.

Having the flexibility to tailor your package to the specific needs of your business is important. Social media marketing is not a one size fits all situation. You want to ensure that you are not paying for services you do not need.

The option to choose which platforms, posting frequency and more is key to choosing the right social media strategy. There will also be specific tasks that should be considered to get the best bang for your buck.

Social media management packages should also come with the option to pick and choose the services you want to create the experience you desire.

3. Posting, Sharing, and Interaction

The basis of social media marketing services is to take the brunt of social media interactions from the plate of business owners. When looking to outsource these services it is necessary to be clear on your expectations.

As mentioned, outlining posting frequency and strategy is key. Make sure you this is well defined before engaging with any social media management company.

When it comes to interactions, you will need to be extremely clear as to what this should look like. Interactions include liking a comment, responding to a comment and answering specific questions.

The person running your accounts needs to be personable to facilitate engagement with your audience.

Make sure your social media package includes campaign monitoring and engagement, unless you would prefer to manage that yourself.

4. Customer Service

More and more we are seeing consumers turn to social media pages in search of answers to their questions or to find a solution to a problem. Part of this surge is the integration of new interactive capabilities for social media business channels.

Will you want the social media management provider to offer customer service duties or will these questions or posts be directed to someone on your staff?

It is one thing for someone to send a direct message to a company and have someone internally monitor the messages and respond to the customer. It is a different ballgame when people are posting negative reviews or posing questions in the comments field.

Knowing how these will be handled ahead of time is crucial to your business online presence. It also allows you to have prepared responses available.

5. Analytics

Any social media site that offers business platforms most likely has some form of analytics and insights reporting. It is important to know if the person handling your social media can retrieve the data and decipher the information.

You will want someone who can understand what the numbers mean and how to use it to plan for future marketing strategies. It is also a good thing for you to understand it as well. This way you know if the work being done is useful.

Analytics can tell you a lot about your social media presence on particular sites. Having Google Analytics will be a greater measurement of whether the strategy is driving traffic back to your company website or crossing over to other platforms. For example, are users sharing your Facebook content on Twitter and vice versa?

Your analytics will also be able to narrow down the demographics of your users and the range of your audience.

6. SEO Services

Do social media marketing services packages include SEO services? If not, they should. A big part of having social media channels is to drive traffic back to your website for lead conversion.

If the ultimate goal isn’t to close the deal on your product or service, then you should be questioning why you’re spending the money.

SEO services and social media marketing are able to intertwine to the power of your website. The company you use should understand SEO in addition to being social media experts.

They should understand that keywords are at the heart of all algorithms. Certain topics will always garner organic traffic, and people are drawn to photos and images. All of this should be considered as part of a strong social media marketing strategy.

A social media marketing firm may not include SEO within their social media packages, but they may offer SEO services. Don’t be afraid to ask about multiple service discounts.

7. Social Media Ads

The ability to promote your business, products or services is vital to the success of your social media presence as a business. Unless you are a big brand with name recognition, you will need a little help in the beginning.

Social ads are often included as part of a good marketing plan, so make sure you discuss this as part of your social media marketing package. You also will want to discuss who will be responsible for creating the ads and developing the rules for when and how they will run.

Payments for ads are drawn from a banking method associated with the social media account. Setting a monthly budget will be wise.

Also understand, each social media platform comes with its own set up, pricing, analytics and guidelines. The secret to successful social media ads is to know what you’re doing or hire someone who does. If not, you can waste a lot of money in a hurry by purchasing ads.

8. Social Media Content Creation

By now you know there is a lot to consider when shopping for social media marketing services packages. But it doesn’t stop with the previous tips. If hiring a social media specialist to manage your channels, you have to be mindful of the content that will be going out under your brand.

With the popularity of sites like Instagram and Pinterest, images and video have become must-haves for every social media marketing campaign. You will have to decide if you are okay with stock images or if you want a personal touch that reflects the true essence of your business.

To provide authentic engagement, you will want a true representation of your brand. Let your social media specialist know your desires and together work to make it happen.

9. Brand Awareness

At the center of all online marketing is your brand. Your brand is how people see your business and what is associated with it. For this reason alone, selecting a social media marketing package that speaks to your core beliefs is needed.

Attracting the right followers who are interested in your product or service is your goal for expanding your reach. You want a provider that is committed to getting those followers to your platforms. You don’t want a company that will tarnish your brand by buying followers or engaging in other gimmicky behavior.

You are paying for professionalism, quality service, and their expertise. A successful social media management package will give you all of this. The return on your investment will be seen in a rise in your brand awareness.

If your company does not see any tangible proof that your brand identity has grown, you may be using the wrong provider.

Ready to Step Up Your Social Media Marketing Game?

Not all social media packages are created equal. Anyone can claim to be a social media specialist. But without proof of proven success, they can’t be taken seriously.

If you’re looking for the perfect social media package for your business, reach out to our team of social media experts.

Click here to contact us for more information on how we can go to work for you!

The post Social Media Packages: How to Choose the Right One appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Instagram is one of the most powerful social media platforms for marketers today. By the end of 2017, businesses are expected to buy over $4 billion worth of ads on the platform.

You should be buying Instagram ads. But there are plenty of ways to use Instagram as a marketing platform that don’t involve making a purchase.

Instagram SEO is an incredibly effective marketing technique. But it needs to be done properly. If you want to profit off of your Instagram presence, you should follow these tips.

How Many Hashtags Should You Use?

This may seem like an obvious one. But it isn’t as simple as people think.

The truth is, there’s no clear roadmap for how many hashtags you should use on Instagram. Instead, ask yourself which hashtags you should use for your strategy.

Using unpopular hashtags can be a total waste of time. Comparatively, a few well-chosen hashtags can give you a massive base of potential customers.

So, just like with regular SEO, Instagram SEO requires strong keyword research. If you want to do some research, you should look into tools like Websta.

Websta displays the top 100 hashtags on Instagram. You can narrow them down by a variety of categories, such as location. This will help you to reach the customers you want.

You can also look at what the most influential accounts are doing. Instagram Influencers, celebrities, comedians, and models can all be analyzed. This way, you can learn more about what you should do with your own strategy.

Should You Use Ads?

Instagram Ads are an incredibly effective way to reach customers. That being said, you shouldn’t use them to the exclusion of organic content.

They’re an amazing tool. Particularly since Facebook brought Instagram, you’re now able to analyze the demographic appeal of your ads to find your ideal audience.

That being said, there’s an emotional connection that you can only get from making a natural post. So, use advertisements. Just don’t make them the entirety of your strategy. They’re also not a substitute for good Instagram SEO.

Social media ads can be a great thing. No digital marketing teams or consultants worth their salt will ever tell you to completely forgo PPC or purchased advertising strategies.

Just don’t make them the basis of your Instagram presence, and you’ll find some absolutely incredible success.

What Should Your CTA Look Like?

A good CTA (call to action) is essential to any advertisement. But a CTA on Instagram is a lot different than a CTA on your website or in a printed advertisement.

To make things even more confusing, the CTA that you use on different types of Instagram ads can vary greatly. Having a good CTA strategy can be just as important as having a good Instagram SEO strategy. In fact, it can be even more important.

What’s the value of getting a post viewed if views don’t translate into money?

If your post is aimed solely towards generating brand awareness, you should encourage people to like and share the post.

Simply telling people to do those things can be incredibly effective. In fact, you can create brand evangelists out of typical viewers through this technique. That being said, there are strategies that go beyond user engagement.

If you want to advertise a sale or other event that requires people to make an order or be physically present, don’t be afraid of making a proper sales pitch. Telling people to make a purchase or a visit can be incredibly important for your business.

Your CTA strategy is dependent upon your goals for a specific post. So, make sure you think it out so you can turn clicks into cash!

How Can You See If My Strategy Works?

You can have an incredibly well-planned strategy. But if you want to succeed, you need to know that it’s working. One of the best ways to do that? Start by using the variety of business tools Instagram offers customers.

There are a few pieces of information you can get by using Instagram Insights. At the most basic level, this includes:

• Impressions (views for your posts and stories)
• Reach (views by unique accounts)
• Website clicks (the number of clicks you have on each link)
• Profile views (measured in unique visitors)

On top of this, you can get a demographic breakdown of your viewers. That includes location, gender, and age. This information can be incredibly important to your Instagram SEO strategy.

If you know your products are most profitable among 25-year-old women on the West Coast? Well then, you want those women to see your posts — instead of 54-year-old men from Alaska.

This is particularly important for companies with physical stores. If you have a limited shipping or sales range, it will not be helpful for you to get a lot of clicks from eople outside of that area.

Make sure you take advantage of these insight tools if you want to successfully market on Instagram. Knowing who your customers are, and where they are, is essential.

Who Should I Hire For My Instagram SEO?

An Instagram SEO strategy is incredibly complicated and important. If you want to make it profitable, you need to hire the best digital marketing team for your Instagram presence.

Our SEO and digital marketing team is incredibly capable and experienced. We have a passion for helping businesses succeed online.

We want to help you.

One look at our portfolio reveals the great number of successful ideas behind our marketing philosophy. When you work with us, you can add yourself to the parade of businesses who have found success by our side.

If you want to take your digital presence to the next level, you absolutely need to get in touch with us.

Contact us to start making money today!

The post How Many Hashtags Should I Use? Instagram SEO for Beginners appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Over 80% of marketers say that they use Facebook to help to generate leads and beef up their content strategy.

In fact, in a single year, the number of brands using Facebook to advertise their products/services has grown by about 50%. 

But how can you use social ads on Facebook to generate valuable leads?

Read this guide to find out!

How Do Social Ads Work?

Basically, Facebook ads take the guesswork out of finding your target market on social media.

After your brand provides Facebook with some information about your company, your mission, and what you sell or offer, Facebook finds users they know will be interested in what you’re all about.

Then, an ad will show up in the “news feed” of your new potential customers. These ads are a much more targeted way to get new clients than traditional digital marketing methods. You’re playing to your niche, not the whole world.

Usually, these ads will feature a special offer (like a discount or a free gift with purchase) created by your brand to entice customers. Then, the Facebook user can essentially “sign up” to get the offer. This means you’ve got a quality lead.

How To Make The Most Of These Facebook Ads

Of course, as social media users are exposed to more and more ads every day, you need to work hard to ensure that yours stand out from the competition.

Start by selecting a wider age range when you’re asked to name your target demographic.

First, doing this will these lead to more clicks to your site, which will ultimately boost your site in the Google rankings. But it will also allow you to “test out” the interest of a wider age range before you totally overhaul your marketing plan to cater to them.

You can also get more specific about the exact interests of your target market through a new Facebook ad feature called “Detailed Marketing.”

This new feature lets you set the required interests of the Facebook users who will see their products in their news feeds.

As opposed to a broader set of interests that possibly fit with your branding, you can get specific about the exact interests you know your target market has.

For example, if you’re a natural beauty company, instead of just “cosmetics,” you may be able to say something like “natural beauty products.”

Doing this won’t just increase your conversions, it will also ensure that you’re spending your advertising money the right way on social media.

You’re Ready To Get The Most Out Of Social Ads

The reality is that Facebook, and other social media platforms, are some of the most important tools when it comes to reaching new customers and keeping past ones coming back.

No matter the economic climate, your business can use digital marketing, content, and social media strategies to thrive.

Ready to get started on making this your most productive quarter ever?

Get in touch with us to learn more about the services we offer that will get you more hits, higher rankings, and unreal profits.

The post Social Ads: How to Generate Real Leads on Facebook appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Digital Marketing for Dentists: Is it Really Necessary?

Not too long ago, choosing a dentist was an simple process. People would ask their friends for recommendations or would check with their families and picked based on instinct. Today, the tech revolution has taken the guesswork out of finding the right dentist for their needs and budget. Digital marketing for dentists is more important now than ever before.

Unlike a few years ago, when the only sources they could trust were their friends and families, people now have access to a wealth of information right at their fingertips. They can use search engines like Google to look for dentists in their area, read reviews on Yelp or use social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube to seek medical answers. In fact, 40% of consumers say that the information they find online affects their health decisions. 93% of them claim that it’s more convenient to find answers online than to call a dentist’s office.

Digital marketing for dentists has become more important than ever before. This change in how consumers research and shop their services can mean either bad news or good news.  It all depends on how you react to the new rules of engagement. If you’re accustomed to getting new patients from referrals, it might be hard to adapt. Now that patients are flocking to the internet, dentists who don’t market themselves online will be at a real disadvantage. If your online presence is weak, you will get lost in a sea of dentists who understand that if they want to grow their practice, they need to conquer the digital world.

Because we know how overwhelming online marketing for dentists can be, we’ve put together this step-by-step guide to help you promote your practice.

Let’s dive in!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) For Dentists.

In the past, people would have to visit their dentists for practically everything. Since they didn’t have access to specialized information, the only solution was to jump in their cars, drive to the dentist’s office and ask them about their medical issues. These days, due to the wealth of information online, people don’t necessarily have to book an appointment for a simple diagnostic.

Even when it comes to finding a dentist, people often turn to Google before they turn to friends and family recommendations or direct mail ads. So, if you want potential patients to find your business, you need a search engine optimization strategy.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Make Sure Your Website Contains NAP Information

The first thing you need to do is to check if your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) appear on the homepage of your website and preferably at the bottom of every page. Make sure the information is text and not an image. Google’s spiders cannot read images.

• Search Google for “Dentist + City/Zip Code.”

Pretend you’re a potential patient looking for a dentist in your area. Go to Google and enter the search term “Dentist” and your city or zip code (example: “dentist in Portland”) By analyzing the search results, you will get a better understanding of where your business is situated.

• Research Keyword Ideas

Most dentists think of the main keywords that are related to their business and use them to optimize their websites. But search habits can vary, and not everybody uses the same word or phrases.

For example, you might think that when people are looking for dental services, they type in “dentist in Portland, Oregon” or “dental office in Portland.” But what about variations of your main services? For instance, some people might search terms such as “dental implants” or “teeth whitening,” while others might search for more broad keywords like “dentist near me” or “dental care.”

To get a comprehensive list of keywords, go to Google’s Keyword Planner, type a keyword phrase (e.g.: “dental services”) and carefully examine the suggested ideas and ad groups.

If you are struggling to think of more keywords people might be searching for your dental practice, use Google Autocomplete. This tool is based on actual searches performed by users, so it can give you a valuable insight into what people are searching for on a particular subject.

Open Google and type in keywords like dental, toothache, root canal, implant, and so on. See what results you get.

Google Related Searches is another tool you can use to get related queries people might have used. Go to Google.com, type in your keywords and look at the related search terms suggested at the bottom of search results.

• Make a List of Relevant Keywords

After you’ve carefully researched all possibilities, it’s time to create a list of keywords that are truly relevant. Go through the list and remove everything that seems unrelated. Use keyword research tools to get valuable insights about how well your keywords will perform.

• Check for Both Head and Long Tail Keywords

Head keywords are typically just one to three words long and are very generic (example: “dentist”). Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are made up of 3 or 5 words and are more specific (example: “affordable dentist in Portland, OR”). As a result, long-tails aren’t very competitive, but they can rank you higher than head terms.

It is important to have a balanced keywords strategy, so you should check for both head terms and long-tail terms. Although long-tail keywords don’t receive high search volumes, they are less competitive and, thus, convert better. Additionally, keeping a regular blog is a great way to improve ranking for long-tail keywords as you can build your blog strategy around specific terms!

• Use the Keywords in the Right Places

Now that you have a list of relevant keywords, it’s important to place them properly.

Website Backend: The critical places you need to put your keywords on your website backend are: the page title, meta description, meta keywords, alt tags for images, and the URL itself.

Website Frontend: The most important places you need to put your keywords on your website frontend are: page heading, subheads, main body, and image captions.

Search engines are becoming more “human” every day, so the best search strategy you can do is have a comprehensive website with a lot of useful information related to your key search terms.

• Avoid Keyword Stuffing

One of the biggest SEO mistakes you could make is using too many keywords. For example, don’t just throw everything you have on the homepage (dental services, dental implants, emergency dentist, toothache services, etc.) That will only confuse Google, and it won’t be able to identify what the page is about. Instead, create different landing pages that target a specific keyword. For example, create a specific page for “Dental Implants” where you can use keywords related to implants.

Now that we’ve covered the basics of SEO, it’s time to move to social media promotion.

Facebook Ads for Dentists

With 1.86 billion active users and the possibility to accurately target potential patients without draining your budget, Facebook advertising can generate significant business for your dental practice.

Why Facebook and not other social media networks?

Think about it this way. First of all, most of your audience is probably already on Facebook. The average American spends around 40 minutes a day on Facebook. Secondly, Facebook advertising provides extensive targeting options that include multiple variables, such as location, gender, age, demographics, behavior, and so on. You can use these factors to put your dental practice in front of specific, often motivated, potential patients.

Here’s how to increase your chances of getting more patients through Facebook ads:

• Write Compelling Headlines

One of the reasons people use Facebook is to unwind. Presenting them with your ads without being disruptive or intrusive can be a challenge. When your headline looks the same as your competitors’, people will ignore it. Spend enough time on your headline to ensure it communicates your message quickly and effectively. Use physiological triggers like curiosity, anticipation, or social proof to grab their attention. Don’t be afraid to be fun and conversational too!

• Make Your Ads Relevant

Relevancy is a crucial element when it comes to Facebook advertising for dentists. If your ads don’t target your audience needs effectively, then you are just wasting time and money.

• Make Them Visually Appealing

The human brain can process images 60,000 faster than text, so it should come as no surprise that visual ads get more engagement than text. Make sure to use compelling images that are relevant to your business. Most importantly, stay away from stock imagery if it looks too cliche.

• Include a Compelling Value Proposition

Tell your prospective patients why you are better than your competition. Describe how your services can solve their problems and improve their lives and explain the specific benefits they can expect.

• Include a Strong Call To Action & Offer
  

When writing your CTA, make sure to keep things simple and straightforward. Don’t make potential patients guess what they should do next – tell it to them in an easy-to-understand language. If possible, present new patients with an offer for coming in the door.

• Test Multiple Versions of the Ad

Test the headline, the ad text, the call-to-action, and so on. Make time to create multiple versions of the same ad and then test each one. Test different headlines with different ad texts, different call-to-actions and so on.

Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) for Dentists

Before potential patients can find you on Google or like you on Facebook, they have to know that you exist. You can use SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing to grow organically and slowly get at the top of everybody’s mind. However, that takes time. In fact, it might take between three to six months to see any results from your SEO efforts. If you’re a small dental office struggling to stay afloat, you can’t afford to wait that long to increase your ranking and drive traffic to your website.

That is where Google AdWords comes into play.

Here’s what you need to know to get the most out of PPC:

• Set Specific Goals

The first step to any PPC campaign is to set measurable goals. Write down the results you are expecting to get and how much effort you are willing to invest. Example: “I will spend $500 on PPC advertising, and I will get 20% new leads in three months.”

It helps to have a good idea of your conversion rates and lifetime customer values before you engage in PPC advertising. That way you can easily know how well your campaign is performing, and if the ad spend is sustainable.

• Build a Comprehensive Keyword List

Research both your industry and your competition to come up with a list of keywords and key phrases that are relevant to your potential patients. Use the Keyword Planner to discover keywords you might not have considered.

• Select Your Target Audience

If you aren’t careful when targeting your ads, you might serve them to searchers who aren’t interested in your services. Best case scenario, they will ignore your ads; worse case scenario, they will click on them and then bounce without converting, costing you money.

Pay special attention to the targeting process. Target attributes like the geographic location; make sure it’s within driving distance from your dental office. Target the specific types of audiences based on age groups or income. Target the devices they are using and use other smart targeting strategies.

• Use Negative Keywords

One of the best features of Google AdWords is that it allows you to use negative keywords to let the search engine know which keywords it should exclude from searches. For instance, if you provide luxury dental services, you don’t want your ads to show up for “cheap dental services” or “affordable dental care.” So, you should add “cheap” and “affordable” as negative keywords.

• Test

A/B testing, or split testing, is a great way of measuring the effectiveness of your PPC campaigns. By creating a second version of your best performing ads, we can determine whether changing the ad text, the image, or the call to action can result in higher click-through rates or conversions.

Content Marketing for Dentists

Few dentists can take content marketing seriously. They can’t understand how posting a few articles every week or month can help them get patients.

But, here’s the thing: companies who blog regularly get up to 97% more links on their website than those who don’t (great for SEO). More than that, those who focus on blogging are 13 times more likely to enjoy positive ROI.

Here are other ways content marketing can help your dental practice grow:

• Content Marketing Can Help You Nurture Relationships with Your Prospects: Content marketing is a great way to target different audience segments and guide them through the sales funnel. Through how-to posts, FAQ pages, and infographics, you can answer their questions and motivate them to move to the next stage of the funnel.

• Content Marketing Can Establish You As an Industry Leader: Once you’ve proven your expertise as a trusted and reputable dentist, you can become the go-to source people turn to when they have a question. The authority you gain as an industry leader can make potential patients more likely to choose you over the competition, thus increasing your bottom line.
• Content Marketing Can Help You Rank in Search for Keywords: If you write a blog post on a specific search term and you have a good SEO strategy in place, there’s a good chance that post will rank well in Google and other search engines for that term.

Conclusion

The way people search and purchase dental services has changed. If not too long ago you could rely on referrals to grow your patient list, nowadays people use search engines, social media, and review sites to look for dental services. If you want to remain relevant in this digitally-driven age, you need to go where your customers are. Digital marketing for dentists is no longer negotiable for practices looking to grow.

Although online marketing is an effective way of increasing your practice, it requires your full attention. To keep your current patients engaged and attract prospective ones, you need strong SEO efforts, active social media profiles, and effective PPC strategies. And don’t forget, your dental website design is important too!

If you feel overwhelmed by the amount of time and effort you need to invest in putting your dental practice in front of the right people, then we can help you. Contact us today for more information on how we can collaborate to help you use online marketing to grow a successful dental practice – we have specific experience with digital marketing for dentists, just like the one above!

The post Digital Marketing for Dentists: A Step-by-Step Guide appeared first on Midas Marketing.

There’s a huge misconception among business owners about Facebook’s ability to generate leads with B2B Facebook ads. Facebook isn’t just for consumers sharing motivational quotes and posting holiday photos. With 1.59 billion active users, there’s surely something for B2B companies here as well. But, how can you crack the code on Facebook ads and open up the floodgates to success?

Let’s find out.

1. Don’t Limit Your Ads to Your Facebook Page’s Audience

Sharing content on Facebook regularly is a great strategy for your business. But you can’t really grow and acquire new leads if you limit yourself to the people following you. Here’s the thing: if you are sharing content with an audience of 1,000 people then they’re the only ones engaging with you. Of course, you might get some shares, but that’s not always guaranteed.

Facebook advertising gives you the possibility to target an audience of over one billion users. You don’t have to have any connection with them, and your Facebook ads will appear in their newsfeed as sponsored content. However, make sure that the people you target match your buyer’s persona profile.

2. Take Advantage of Custom Audiences

Setting a Custom Audience is a powerful tool that allows you to create lists of people you want to target. Most people use the same email address for all their social media accounts. So, chances are, you have a bunch of email addresses lying in your database, unused. Facebook allows you to upload these addresses and target users based on them.

If you want to get more B2B leads, it would be smart to segment your database into specific demographics.

3. Target B2B Audiences

You probably know already that you can set up your Facebook ads based on location, age, or gender. But, did you know that you can make the job title a factor, as well? Use this great feature to target different work categories and to secure more B2B leads.

• Employer: Take advantage of this category if you already know which companies you want to target for your Facebook ads.

• Job Title: Facebook’s advertising platform allows you to target broad categories, such as doctors, lawyers, or entrepreneurs, but also specific job titles, such as creative director or executive accountant.

If your company sells a network security service, you’d likely want to target decision makers working in IT departments.

4. Make Your Offer Appealing

B2C companies often lure prospects with discounts, vouchers, special offers, and other incentives. You can use the same strategy to get more leads. But, instead of getting a prospect to buy a product right away, you likely need to convince them to subscribe to your newsletter or visit your website. Offer them something they can’t say no to, such as free access to exclusive content or an important industry report. After you get them logged into your CRM, your ongoing marketing efforts and your sales team should be able to close the deal!

5. Focus on Lost Prospects

Sure, getting new leads is important, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore lost ones. In fact, you should use the information you get from them to improve your Facebook ads. Try to figure out why they bounced off your site without taking any action. Use the Facebook Pixel to target users who visited a specific landing page and to make your offer more attractive to them.

Facebook offers a whole spectrum of possibilities to B2B companies. But you need to take advantage of them and learn how to use them to generate more leads.

If you need help with your Facebook advertising needs, don’t hesitate to contact us. We’d love to learn more about your business and help you identify opportunities!

The post Facebook Ads for B2B: 5 Ways to Generate Leads appeared first on Midas Marketing.

The science is in: video has proven to be one of the most effective content formats for businesses. Recent reports show that social media videos generate up to 1,200% (no, that’s not a typo) more shares than text and images combined. Integrate the most powerful content format with the world’s biggest social platform and you get an unstoppable weapon.

Facebook Live was launched last year, and it already became a marketer’s favorite tool. Available to everyone, Facebook Live allows you to stream real-time videos to connect with your audience. All you need is a Facebook account and a smartphone, and you are ready to go live.

One of the biggest benefits Facebook Live offers marketers is the opportunity to humanize their brands and give customers a glimpse behind the scenes.

If you are new to Facebook Live, you are probably wondering what type of video formats will get you the best engagement rates. Here are a few suggestions.

1. Daily Updates

One of the best ways to engage and inspire your audience is to share daily updates and helpful tips with them via Facebook Live. Numerous social media and business gurus, life coaches, fitness trainers, and other service-oriented businesses have implemented this tactic with great results. Just look at blogger Darren Rowse, and the engagement he gets on every live video he records.

2. Behind the Scenes Videos

People love to feel special. And what better way to pamper your prospects than to give them exclusive access to something that most people don’t have access to. Lift the curtain on your day-to-day operations and let people take a peek at the processes behind the products/services they love. For instance, a fashion designer can use Facebook Live to let followers know what it means to prepare for a show.

Behind the scenes videos normally perform very well for any business involved with the DIY crowd.

3. Ask Me Anything Videos

Ask Me Anything Video, or AMA, perform amazingly in terms of engagement. And the best part about this video format is that you don’t need to do a lot of preparation in advance. Announce your followers that you will hold an AMA session and ask them to write their questions in the comment section. Then, hit the live video button and answer their questions and curiosities.

4. Demonstration Video

What better way to persuade prospects to buy your products than to demonstrate their performance in real-time. You can show people how the product works, and you can highlight certain features, such as usability or durability.

5. Livestreamed Events

Another great way to use Facebook Live to engage with your audience is to live stream from events or conferences your company is hosting. Without a doubt, there are numerous followers who want to attend the event, but can’t afford to or don’t have the time. Make the event accessible to everyone by live-streaming sessions, keynote speakers, and other moments that might be relevant to your audience.

Facebook has created a space that can help you achieve your goal: to improve your social media engagement rate. Have you tested it yet? Contact us for a free brainstorm session around your business!

The post 5 Facebook Live Video Ideas to Engage Your Audience appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Facebook Ads Lead Generation Tips: Introduction

Let’s be honest. Setting up Facebook ads can be confusing. Sure, all the options make Facebook an efficient platform for advertising, but they also increase its complexity. Pixels, for instance, are one of the features that get business owners frustrated with Facebook advertising.

Facebook used to have two types of pixels, each with a different function. There was a custom audience pixel for remarketing to website visitors and a conversion pixel for tracking conversions. Wanting to improve their advertising platform, Facebook simplified the process in 2015, by creating a singular pixel that can be used for retargeting, optimization, and tracking.

The new Facebook Pixel allows you to:

• Create custom audiences from your website for retargeting;
• Optimize Facebook ads for conversions
• Monitor ads and track conversions

Not only does the new pixel simplify the Facebook advertising process, but it also helps you to supercharge your lead generation machine. Here’s how:

• Create Custom Audiences

Facebook uses Website Custom Audiences to help you remarket to website visitors. The pixel will drop a cookie that will track your visitors on your website. It will tell you what pages your prospects visit and when and what pages they ignore. This information can help you create highly targeted Facebook ads based on your visitors’ behavior.

However, you need to understand that you can’t pick a specific visitor and target him or her directly. Instead, what the Facebook pixel allows you is to target group of users based on their behavior. For instance, you can advertise to people who have visited a distinct product page or who have visited your website in the last 24 hours.

• Set Up Custom Conversions

One of the most interesting features of the Facebook Pixel is Custom Conversions. They are what you will use to track what’s happening on specific pages.

Imagine you are a consultant in Portland, and you create a Custom Conversion that monitors visitors to a service page. You can also include the cost of your service. That way, you can see if your Facebook ads are profitable. If you are charging $100 for your consultations, but spending $150 for every customer that comes from Facebook, then you’ll definitely need to rethink your strategy. That’s just one example, but we believe just about every business can benefit from Facebook ads if they are creative and persistent.

If you run an online sporting goods store, knowing your average order size is a key metric to develop a successful Facebook advertising strategy.

Needless to say, knowing how your Facebooks ads perform and how your audience reacts to them is a great advantage. You can optimize your ads based on your results and improve your chances at getting more leads.

• Track the Sales Process

A prospect gets on your landing page via a Facebook ad; he likes what he sees, so he clicks through your sales page. He’s convinced enough, so he makes a purchase and ends up on your success page.

Tracking the entire customer buying process is extremely important for any marketer since it can help you understand why prospects don’t convert and what you need to change. The Facebook Pixel can help you track your landing, sales, and success pages, giving you an accurate idea of how well your pages are performing.

There’s a lot more when it comes to Facebook ads and the Facebook Pixel. Hopefully, this post helped you realize how this powerful tool can help you boost your lead generation machine.

Want to explore how Facebook ads can make your business more profitable? Contact us for a free discovery call!

The post Facebook Ads Lead Generation Tips: Using the Facebook Pixel appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Do you feel like your Facebook ads should be converting at a higher rate?

It’s easy to throw a picture and a few punch lines and call it an ad. It’s much harder to create advertising that draws your audience and converts them into prospects.

There are so many boxes to be checked before hitting the launch button. Are you targeting the right audience? Are you running the right type of campaign? Which one of the 1,300 targeting options should you choose from?  It can get a little overwhelming.

Types of Facebook Ads

To help you, we’ve put together a list with five types of Facebook ads.

1. Traffic Generation Ads

Creating quality content and sharing it on social media is great, but unless you are driving traffic to your website, this strategy won’t be very effective. It’s always a good idea to use Facebook ads to expand your reach and get more people to visit your website. Make sure you choose “Clicks for Website” as your advertising objective when setting the campaign.

2. Lead Generation Ads

Facebook lead generation ads make the process of collecting email addresses fairly easy. When prospects see your ad on Facebook, they have the option to sign up with just as little effort as it takes them to like a page. The great part about these types of Facebook ads is that they’re designed for the least amount of effort possible. The form the prospects see when clicking on the ad is already filled with information like their name, email address, etc.

3. Dynamic Product Ads

Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) is one of the newest and most efficient additions to Facebook’s advertising platform. DPA allows you to display ads to your prospects featuring the exact products that they want to see. DPA uses behavioral information collected with Facebook Pixel to determine which products you should feature in your Facebook ads. Powerful brands, such as Booking.com, have been using Dynamic Product Ads with great success, reporting ROI comparable to search at a fraction of the cost.

Dynamic Product Ads can make advertising feel more like a science than a gamble, as you are showing specific ads based on interest the user has already shown.

4. Video Ads

Video content has become a vital part of any respectable brand’s social media strategy. According to one study, video content will account for 69% of all consumer traffic by 2017. So, it’s no wonder that video ads are a great way to promote your business on Facebook and gain more long-term customers.

Not only that video ads can boost the number a video is viewed, but they can also encourage viewers to take a specific action.

5. Page Like Ads

Like Ads are simple ads that show your audience that one of their friends has liked a certain page. They work because they provide people with a great social proof – they are more likely to like a page if they see their friends have done the same. Also, they are a great way to get instant exposure if you are just starting out.

You don’t need to spend a lot of money to get more customers. You just have to think strategically. Use these five types of Facebook ads then analyze the result and see which one works best for you.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, maybe it’s best to give experts at Midas Marketing a chance to help you.

The post 5 Types of Facebook Ads That Will Win You Long-Term Customers appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Internet marketing is crucial in today’s business world. Every homebuilder wants to compete effectively and stay ahead of the game in the industry, so embracing these new marketing techniques is non-negotiable. Generating leads online and starting discussions with potential buyers through digital mediums is increasing every year, and ROI off marketing spends is becoming better and better along with it.

This process starts because someone who wants to build a house or construct a new commercial building will probably search for local construction companies online in the initial discovery phase of their journey. That’s where search engine optimization comes into play. Search engine optimization or SEO for homebuilders is crucial because most people turn to the internet to find solutions to their needs, even building a home.

You may see the importance of online marketing, but why exactly do you need it as a home builder?

Home Builder Marketing: Digital Marketing to Reach More Buyers

Helps you know exactly what you want

Having a marketing system in place will help you understand that you need to have an SEO strategy to rank well in online search, a strong social media presence to start conversations, and a strong, lead-generating website to measure ROI. Having a blog and making videos are crucial too and support all of the aforementioned activities. The main thing that a building company must do is to create a website that will clearly focus on the services that they provide. This will serve as the conversion piece of your marketing efforts, turning your browsers into leads.

To give you direction and focus

A marketing system will give you direction and focus once you understand that people need to see the type of work that was completed by your company. Finished structures should be showcased in pictures or videos. A homebuilding company should use real-life examples of houses that they built or neighborhoods that they have designed. This way potential clients can get a good idea about the kind of home they will get if they decide to go with your particular company. It also gives you a chance to show off your best work, or the kind of work you are looking to secure.

To stand out from the crowd

Since the era of the digital marketing is in full effect, many businesses already have a digital presence in place. Any homebuilder with an online presence should make sure that they brand themselves with a great logo, slogan, and catchphrase. Having a personable brand will make you stand out from the competition and build relational equity right form the start.

Whenever you consider online marketing as a homebuilder, be sure to keep your company relevant. You should make sure that you’re using the latest internet strategies and marketing techniques for younger buyers, who are entering the market and use the internet as an integral part of all major purchasing decisions.

Conclusion

Homebuilding companies that want to stay relevant in the market should have a marketing system in place to help them attract new clients. It’s undoubted that those looking to build a house will certainly search online for reputable companies that can assist them with the building. Digital marketing for homebuilders is something that every construction company should be doing, plain and simple.

If you are a homebuilder and need help with your digital marketing, we have experience in this specific industry and can help your business grow. For further reading, download our free homebuilder marketing guide below:

The post Home Builder Marketing: Building a Digital Marketing Strategy appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Inbound Marketing Costs: What You Need to Know

It can be really difficult for companies to know what to pay for an inbound marketing campaign. There are many different strategies to pursue an inbound marketing strategy, with various levels of intensity. Determining a budget depends on your customer demographic, business size, and metrics like lifetime customer values or average order size.

The Basics of Inbound Marketing Pricing Structures:

Start with Content

The core of inbound marketing is build around providing valuable content to your potential customers, and drawing them in through that value rather than interrupting their lives with your outbound marketing messages. The cost of producing this content depends on how frequently you want to share new content, how much of the content you are able to produce in-house, and what kind of content you need to produce. A monthly plan can run anywhere from a few hundred dollars for the writing and management of a monthly blog, to several thousand for high volume or extensive content development. Determining the right amount depends on your customer’s needs and your businesses’ goals.

• Summary: $200 to $3,000+ per month depending type and volume of content needed

Become Discoverable

Once the content is created, the rest of the inbound marketing campaign will make that content discoverable. Search engine optimization, email marketing, social media and more are usually leveraged for the distribution of content. This pricing for these services ranges again on the approach and strategy of your business. A monthly newsletter might just cost an hour or two of work, but sending daily emails is a different story. Same with social media posting. SEO usually starts around $500 per month for a basic, localized project and can run into the thousands for national campaigns or highly competitive keywords.

• Summary: $750 to $5,000+ per month depending on frequency and intensity of campaign

Inbound marketing is driven by how discoverable you want your content to be — meaning this piece determines a good portion of your inbound marketing costs.

Generate Leads

Often a lead generation tool, such as a whitepaper or other PDF download, is created and offered to potential customers in exchange for their contact info. This formally captures them as a lead. It can take between 5-20 hours to create this content and usually 2-10 hours to create a landing page depending on how detailed you want to get.

• Summary: 10 – 30 hours of work per campaign & target market; one-time expense

Automate Your Efforts

Lastly, marketing automation software is pretty essential to the inbound process. We are Hubspot partners and have enjoyed using their software end-to-end. The keyword research tool enables us to find organic search opportunities, the blog and landing page platform makes it easy for us to generate leads, and email automation means we can engage with prospects in our sleep. With the analytics integration, everything is kept at high level so we simply know what’s working and what needs improvement. An automation software like Hubspot isn’t essential to an inbound marketing campaign for smaller businesses, but is a big cost and headache-saver for businesses that want to inbound marketing right over the long run. The software as a standalone cost can be a bit pricy ($400+ per month), but if well-integrated into the rest of the campaign, is easily worth it.

• $400 to $1,000+ per month depending on traffic, lead and customer volumes

Is It Working?

The key with inbound marketing pricing is to understand it’s all about value-based pricing. Because the whole system is built to attract and nurture leads, you will have a good idea after just a few months at the direction and ROI your strategy is delivering. Inbound works best for B2B businesses with high customer values or B2C businesses with a strong following and e-commerce setup. However, basic inbound marketing principles and strategies apply to every single business. It’s easier to evaluate than other marketing tactics, and saves your business time on the front end dealing with unqualified leads.

Tying It All Together:

At the end of the day, the philosophy of inbound marketing is simple. Produce great content so customers come to you when they need you (meaning they are pre-qualified) rather than trying to always drive your message or product into their busy lives. This is done by creating great content, but also making that content discoverable through organic search, social media, and other forms of digital marketing. With an inbound campaign, most of the cost comes in creating the content, so each service you choose to support that effort comes at a nice discount. For example, we lower the cost of SEO, social media, e-newsletters and more when there is a content strategy in place, because we don’t have to create additional content for each of those services.

Overall, a good inbound campaign will usually start at a $1500 monthly retainer on the low end, and can approach $10,000+ on the high end. If you know your customer acquisition costs and conversion rates, you will be able to build a good strategy and set the right the budget for your business. Looking to get started? Contact us and we’ll discuss your options.

The post Inbound Marketing Costs: An Overview appeared first on Midas Marketing.