When you’re a business owner, or you’re an individual who’s thinking of creating an app, it can be tough to know where to start. You may have some general concepts in your mind, but how do you tell other people what your vision is?’

Or, maybe you know what you want the core functionality of the app to be, but you don’t have anything beyond that, like what you want to look or feel to be.

Regardless, a mood board can be a good starting place in the app development process. A mood board might sound a little artsy for some businesses, but it’s a really good way to make vague concepts and ideas more cohesive.

The following are some tips to help you get started with an app development mood board.

What Should You Use a Mood Board For?

First, developers who recommend the use of a mood board do clarify that it’s not a way to replace prototyping. Instead, it should be used as a complement to traditional prototype development. For example, it can be the first stage of creating a prototype.

Mood boards can also be useful for overall brainstorming, or to bring a sense of cohesion and clarity to the concepts that are going to be used.

If you have an abstract idea in your mind, it can be tough to convey this to other people, so mood boards can be helpful there as well.

A mood board is a good way to help save money on the prototyping process as well, and it can save time in the overall development process because it can ensure everyone is on the same page.

How Should You Present a Mood Board?

When we think about a traditional mood board, we often think about a physical board. However, a digital mood board can be good for app development.

With an app, you don’t necessarily need the textural elements you would if you were let’s say using a mood board for an interior design project.

With a digital mood board, it’s easier to share, and you can show investors, developers, and all key stakeholders easily.

Carefully Curate

When you first start a mood board, you’re going to be doing a ton of research and brainstorming. It can be a challenge to limit what you want to include, but you will need to curate your inspiration.

Once you feel like you’re at a point to curate, eliminate everything that doesn’t speak to the core concept and functionality you want to get across.

While a mood board can reduce the development time for a new app project, if you don’t properly curate it, it can take longer. You don’t want conflicting or unclear concepts or images that muddy the process.

To make your development process as streamlined as possible, you want to cut out anything that could seem ambiguous or like it clashes with something else on the mood board.

Finally, you can always follow a set format for your mood board. There are excellent tools online that give you a defined framework from which to work.

The post Creating a Mood Board for Your New App appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Things are far from what they used to be in the 90s. The clothes, hair, makeup and even lifestyles have evolved in unforeseen ways. But some things were predictable, like in technology advancing.

We knew this would continue to grow in various ways, and it has. The web has become our go-to resource for just about everything – shopping, dating, home buying and organizing our lives.

The mobile scene has really transformed the way modern Americans live their lives. There’s an app for just about everything – you can manage your fitness, count calories, read books and watch TV shows all from your smartphone or tablet.

As these trends continue to change, it’s important for businesses to keep an eye on them. In doing so, you can ensure your web properties remain in line with the happenings of the world.

For example, updating your website so that it is easily found and used by your target audience. And on that note, we bring you a list of the top web development trends expected in 2018 and beyond.

Mobile-First Is the Way to Go

You can thank Google for this concept.

They were the first to adopt the mobile-first agenda, penalizing any websites that weren’t mobile-friendly. So with that, it’s highly essential to design your site with mobile users in mind.

Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t continue making sites that are accessible by desktop users. Your site should have a responsive design so that it can be accessed on any device, but we’ll delve into that later.

The mobile-first trend began a few years ago and is expected to continue in 2018 and beyond.

After all, who’s going to detach themselves from their beloved smartphones? A lot of people today are carrying around phablets (large screen smartphones). So they’re getting an even better experience.

To sum this trend up, make sure your site can be easily used on a smaller screen than your typical laptop or desktop monitor.

The Use of Responsive Designs

You’ve likely heard the term responsive design kicked around all over the media. It’s a buzzword in the online marketing community and for good reason. It’s the key to appeasing the Google gods and your mobile-using visitors.

And it’s expected for this trend to only grow as people jump from one device to another. For example, searches for a home or new shoes may begin at work using a smartphone or tablet. Then once the user gets home, they complete the purchase using their desktop or laptop.

For this reason, it’s important to have a website that is designed responsively. If you’re unsure of what this entails, here’s a quick breakdown.

A responsive design consists of CSS media queries and grids and layouts that are flexible. This develops a single, dynamic website that can adjust the content based on the size of the screen, offering the best experience and look.

The benefit for your business is that you only have to pay for one website design instead of a mobile site and a desktop site.

And let’s not forget – having a responsive design will help your website rank in search engines.

AI: One of the Most Interesting Web Development Trends

Yes, artificial intelligence is finally here, but not like it will be in the future.

While there aren’t any robots and cyborgs walking around, there is an AI presence inside various web development trends.

As you would imagine, some of the biggest minds in technology are all-in on this trend: Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. It’s a race to see who will come out with the best programs.

For example, AlphaGo is one program developed by Google DeepMind. This was the first program to outwit the professional Go player.

However, you can find various AI technology being released to the public. Some are designed to improve search engines and content, such as the one used by Wikipedia. This helps the site to find inaccuracies and damaged articles.

If you want an example of a site already using an AI, you have The Grid. This has Molly, an AI web designer that asks you questions to help build your site. For instance, you’re asked about your branding, layout, colors, and content.

Then everything is automatically created for you. You can update the design as much as you like. Of course, this won’t have the finesse and pure genius a live web developer could offer, but an interesting trend nonetheless.

Virtual Reality Is Here

This is another technological concept that we’ve been waiting around for many years. Since the 80s even, if not before! We now have the equipment and software to create VR experiences.

This is being done for video games, as well as advertising. A VR system can be used by consumers to get a realistic tour of a home far away or experience the use of a new product before even touching one.

So there are many clever ways brands can go about implementing virtual reality into their own marketing campaigns. And even for their website design.

Just imagine, a user enters your site using VR goggles and experiences your product or service firsthand. That could help get people to convert easier without the need of an in-person salesperson.

We’re expecting to see virtual reality continue being used in all sorts of applications, such as news apps, real estate tours and more.

Turn Your Business to Gold

What do all of these web development trends have to do for your own site?

Not all web development trends are worthy of being used, depending on the business you’re in and your goals. So rather than trying to keep up with the Joneses, you need to figure out what will work best for your brand.

You can do this with the help of Midas. Here, we have a team of experts who can assist you with your web design, search engine optimization, digital marketing, logos and general branding.

So contact our office today to get consulting for your business website!

The post We’re Not in The 90’s Anymore Toto: Web Development Trends for 2019 and Beyond 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.

Maximizing server uptime can have a big impact on your SEO efforts.

If your website’s server goes down unexpectedly, and for long periods of time, you may need to make some changes. Uptime is one of the most important aspects of your overall site performance.

If your website doesn’t stay up consistently, Google will take notice.

Interested in learning more? This post will tell you everything you need to know about the benefits of maximizing server uptime.

What Is Server Uptime?

Server uptime refers to availability and accessibility of your website online.

When your website suffers from downtime, your website is inaccessible any visitors who come to your domain. When people visit your site, they won’t be able to see your content or pages. This can be a real problem.

Downtime occurs occasionally during system maintenance. However, unreliable web hosts may suffer from extended downtime. If your website is constantly down, you may not be using a reliable web host.

Maximizing your uptime is important. Plus, it can help you to avoid penalties from to search engines who try (and fail) to crawl your site.

Ways That Uptime Effects SEO

So, what are the ways that uptime and downtime effect SEO?

Here are some of the negative things that may happen if your site is consistently unreachable.

Web Crawlers Will Have Problems

Web crawlers from Google and other search engines send bots across the web to scout for new content. If you have a lot of website downtime? Well, when a crawler visits your site, they will be unable to take notice of any fresh content you’ve added.

Occasional downtime isn’t usually a problem. But if downtown happens too often, it may lead to Google penalizing your site.

Changes in Your Bounce Rate

Bounce rate refers to how much time a visitor spends on your site.

If visitors stay on your site for an extended amount of time or visit many pages after arriving, your site will have a low bounce rate. If visitors leave your site immediately after arriving, however, your bounce rate will be high.

Google judges your site by its bounce rate. Having a low bounce rate is ideal. It can help you appear to be more valuable in the eyes of search engines.

When your server is experiencing downtime, users will not be able to access our website content. As a result, your bounce rate will become higher. This will negatively impact your SEO.

Frustrated Visitors

While the bounce rate itself is an important metric for SEO, consistent downtime will also frustrate your visitors and customers. Over time, this can also lead to a negative impact on SEO.

Frustrated visitors will be less likely to engage with your business in the future. This is true both on your website and on your social media channels.

Over time, leaving many potential visitors frustrated will mean your business will have less engagement online. Less engagement usually leads to lower search engine rankings.

Problems With Speed

While not exactly caused by downtime, speed is another factor that can be diminished by using an unreliable host.

Constant downtime and a slow loading time for a website often go hand in hand. Speed has a definite effect on SEO. A website that is slow can be rated poorly by search engines.

Speed also has an effect on the factors mentioned above. A slow, sluggish site with plenty of downtime is a recipe for creating frustrated visitors. It also increases your website’s bounce rate.

Tips For Maximizing Uptime and Minimizing Damage

So, how can you maximize uptime?

There are several ways to improve your site while eliminating downtime. Below are a few of the main ways you can overcome these obstacles and maximize your website’s uptime.

Use a Reliable Host

Not all hosts are created equally. Some hosts will have faster, more reliable servers. Make sure to get an excellent hosting service for your site.

Some hosts promise 99.9% uptime, but often can’t deliver the goods. Cheaper hosts can’t always be trusted to give you the uptime you need.

Check out some online reviews to get the experiences of other users and find out which hosts are falling short.

You may also consider shopping around a while. Try different hosts for a certain period of time. Then, stick with the one that turns out to be the most reliable.

Monitor Your Site

Certain site monitoring services can help you keep track of any downtime that occurs. Using one of these services is an excellent idea.

A monitoring service can help you know exactly what is happening with your site at all times. A service can notify you when your site is down. Same goes if it isn’t performing as it should.

Once you know how your site is doing, you can then switch hosts as necessary. It may just be time to change web hosts to help maximize your uptime or improve your site speed.

Use Proper Header Codes For Downtime

When your site does happen to be down, using the right header codes can help to prevent Google and other search engines from giving you a penalty.

If your site is down for over a day, you should have the right heater installed to communicate with search engines. Google doesn’t want to send their users to a site that isn’t available.

You can lower damage caused by a long amount of downtime with a 503 header. A 503 header will let Google know that your site is simply experiencing some temporary downtime. It will also serve well to let customers know what is going on.

Final Thoughts

If you want to get the most out of your website, maximizing uptime is a must.

It’s important that visitors are able to access your website and have a great experience when interacting with your business online.

It’s crucial that you maximize your server uptime so that you can avoid Google penalties.

It takes some effort to pick the right host and keep track of your site’s performance. However, a little bit of homework and monitoring can go a long way.

Looking to learn more about how Midas Marketing can help you build your brand? Contact us today.

The post Can Maximizing Server Uptime Help Your SEO? appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Your website is one of the first impressions your business will make on a potential customer. So it better be a good one!

With 73% of Americans going online daily and 21% saying they’re online “almost constantly,” periodic reviews of your website effectiveness are essential.

So let’s make sure your website is doing its job by looking at what makes a website effective overall.

Clear Communication

First and foremost, your website communication needs to be clear and optimized for your target audience. That means using simple language to convey the following:

• What your company does: Try to explain your services in a brief, Twitter-friendly description of 140 characters or less. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it’s a great exercise to keep your communication clear and succinct.
• The purpose of the website: Is it to provide menu details for your restaurant or tech support for a product? Make your objective clear from the get-go.
• A simple call-to-action: Whether you want people to subscribe to your newsletter or call for custom pricing options, make sure they know what to do after viewing your site.

It’s tough to strike the perfect balance between including too much information and too little on your website. But your best bet is to focus on using concise language with quick, catchy descriptions that get your main points across.

Also be sure to check for silly spelling and grammatical errors that can undermine your website’s trustworthiness. Every detail counts when it comes to keeping users engaged.

User-Friendliness & Functionality

The modern attention span is shorter than that of a goldfish. That means your website needs to be quick and easy to use, or your customers may just swim away.

Check that all important sections are clearly labeled and easy to navigate to. Ideally, nothing should be more than three clicks away from your homepage. Also, spend time clicking through your links to make sure they all actually work.

That includes ensuring that your web design functions as well on mobile as it does on desktop. Keep in mind that if a page takes longer than three seconds to load, you could lose up to 40% of your visitors!

So make sure your pages are responsive and your web experience is fluid by trying it out yourself.

Smooth Transactions & Analytics

The best way to measure your website effectiveness is analytics. Page view data, where your visitors navigated from, and where they spent the most time can offer clues about what’s working and what’s not.

If a certain page has far more bounces–people visiting and quickly clicking away–than other pages, that’s a flag that something’s not quite right about the page.

Likewise, e-commerce vendors should focus on keeping their shopping experience as seamless as possible. Visitors should be able to edit their carts, apply promotional codes, and make secure purchases all without having to contact support.

Website Effectiveness Made Simple

If you make your website more effective, you’ll boost your web traffic, up your mobile views, and increase the amount of time spent on your page. All things that factor into that all-important SEO ranking!

But ensuring your website effectiveness is an ongoing process. If you have any questions on how to increase your site views, give us a shout or request a free quote today.

The post How to Check Your Website Effectiveness appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Content marketing is the hottest industry in SEO at the moment.

A lot of SEO companies already jump started their own blogger services to boost SERPs.

And loads of companies do their own content marketing. In fact, a full 94% of small businesses are doing it and 93% of B2Bs.

But the question that’s on everyone’s mind is “Is Content Marketing and Blog Writing Effective?”

This is the question we aim to answer today. And we hope you’ll come away inspired.

Why Are You Asking About Content Marketing And Blog Writing?

One of the first questions we learn in life is “why?” And it’s a great question.

But have you asked yourself, why you’re asking about the effectiveness of content marketing?

If you’re asking, it’s probably because it’s not been as effective for you as you thought. Did we nail it?

But the evidence we see right now is that businesses still agree: content marketing is still effective.

So why then are you not seeing results?

There are a few reasons. And there may be a few places you might shore up in your approach.

Promotion Is Queen

You can’t do nothing with your content once you create and post it. Once it’s up on the web, it has to actually connect to the rest of the web. And that happens through promotion.

This is the difference between mere blog writing and content marketing. The former is just great words with a few links. The latter is a content promotion strategy.

It’s a two-step process: create content, promote content.

You have to balance the two.

If you’re not seeing results, it’s probably because you’re focusing too much on one or the other. And you’ve probably let the promotion slip because that’s the hardest part sometimes.

Where do you promote your blog writing?

Social media is a great place to start. Places like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest. And email newsletters, LinkedIn profiles, and guest posts and mentions on other websites.

If you aren’t promoting, get promoting.

Your Content Is Rotten

You may have the absolute opposite problem. You might spend all your time and money on promotion and nothing on creating great content.

If your content is horrible, you’re wasting all your money on the promotion side.

The point of quality usable content is organic promotion. People will only share information they enjoy and find useful.

If they find thin or boring or useless content, they move on.

So, what can you do to make blog writing more effective for content marketing? Hire a better writer. And then make sure they understand your niche or industry well.

Remember, the content has to be useful as well as quality.

Hire A Digital Marketing Team

If you haven’t already, hire a team to help fine-tune your content marketing strategy.

Sometimes all you need to make your content marketing strategy take off is an extra set of eyes. The expertise of a company who’s primary work is content marketing will increase your ROI ten-fold or more.

So, check out our portfolio and see how we can turn your business into gold.

The post Does Content Marketing and Blog Writing Still Work? appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Nowadays on the internet, memes reign supreme.

New memes are created every day from celebrities’ quotes, politicians’ mistakes, or even idiotic catchphrases from viral videos.

Facebook averages roughly 1.2 billion active users per day, and Twitter has over 300 million active users per month. With the constant usage of these social media sites, new memes spread like wildfire, reaching more people than ever.

The popularity of memes has led many businesses to contemplate whether or not they should partake in meme marketing.

There are both pros and cons to meme marketing. Read on to learn more about them and to see if this type of marketing strategy could be the right fit for you.

What Exactly Is Meme Marketing?

Before we get into the marketing side of things, let’s first clearly define what a “meme” is.

The term “meme” was first coined in 1976 by the famous evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his book, The Selfish Gene. Its origin is Greek, and it most simply means “to imitate.”

Since that time, though, the word “meme” has taken on a much larger, more expansive meaning. It essentially describes any type of idea, phrase, image, or other type of media that is shared online between people.

In a way, memes have become the common, universal language of the Internet. That is why so many businesses are interested in using memes to market their products: there is essentially a built-in audience that will recognize the marketing of your brand.

With meme marketing, relatively new businesses can use existing memes to advertise their products and gain customers.

Meanwhile, more well-known and well-established companies can create their own memes and try to make them go viral.

The Pros

There are a lot of clear positives when it comes to using memes in your marketing strategy.

First and foremost, discovering and utilizing the right type of meme makes your brand become more identifiable. Potential customers will notice and appreciate the familiarity of the meme you are using. It’s a way to instantly relate to them.

Using memes can also help businesses connect with a younger audience if they’re struggling with reaching out to them. Memes project a fun, lighthearted image that’s appealing to young adults. Plus, they are instantly shareable on all social media platforms.

While social media has become more widely adopted by people of all ages, young consumers still use it the most out of any age group. Plus, they have used social media for a longer and more consistent period of time than older adults have.

The Cons

With all of those positives, though, come some potential negatives when businesses try implementing memes into their marketing.

The first and most important thing that all businesses can do is know and understand the meme they want to post before they actually post it. Using a meme incorrectly can backfire and damage your brand’s reputation.

Another possible issue could be the timing of your posts.

Some memes have very long life spans that last for years. Other ones burn out in just a couple of weeks or even a few days.

With each meme you use, you are taking a risk.

Some posts could become evergreen marketing if the meme lasts long enough. But others could be huge misfires if you mistime the posting of the meme.

Lastly, be sure that the meme you are using is appropriate.

In the past, other organizations have faced harsh criticism from people who were offended by the meme they chose to use.

Whatever publicity you get from using an inappropriate meme won’t be worth the cost of destroying your reputation with loyal customers.

Do your research. Consult other professionals.

Make sure the meme is the right fit for your business and your customers before you use it.

The Verdict

So what’s the verdict? Should you include memes in your future marketing plan?

Honestly, it could be a different answer for each business.

But, overall, memes have proven to be an effective form of marketing when used responsibly. Plus, memes open your business up to the widest consumer base possible.

Keep yourself informed and updated on the newest trends. Understand that there are major benefits to utilizing memes correctly in your online marketing plan.

But also remember that you are taking a risk each time you jump on the meme bandwagon. Discretion is key. Pick the right ones.

Have you tried this type of marketing before? If so, what was your experience with it like?

Interested in exploring meme marketing or other types of marketing strategies? Contact us so we can help!

The post Should You Use a Meme Marketing Strategy? appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Things have changed for businesses. Word of mouth is now (mostly) obsolete in favor of online reviews.

Getting those positive reviews is actually majorly important to marketing your business well. Read on to learn why online reviews are so important and why you should give your customers incentive to post their opinions on the internet.

The Benefits Of Positive Online Reviews

Good online reviews can really make or break your business’ reputation. Here are the major reasons why online reviews are just as important as SEO and other marketing methods.

Reviews will boost your local search ranking

This is definitely a big one. Customer reviews play a huge role in organic search rankings. The more reviews you have, the better your rankings will get.

By increasing your website content in combination with growing reviews on your website and outside review aggregates like Google and Yelp, you’ll be able to climb the ladder of visibility with ease.

Reviews will increase your sales

Think of it this way– Say you have a friend who recommends a restaurant. You look that restaurant up and discover that it has a 1-star rating from over 100 people.

In most cases, we’ll trust the judgment of many over the judgment of one. In this way, people trust online reviews more than they trust friends or just one individual when it comes to investing their money in a business or product. With over 88% of people claiming to use online reviews regularly, this is a make-or-break situation for your business.

If you get the positive reviews and get a lot of them, it is very likely that you will see an increase in sales as well.

Reviews help you improve

Both negative and positive reviews are great ways to figure out your customers.

You can deduct a lot from online reviews– what your customer want, where you’re doing well, where you need work, who your customers are and their demographics, etc.

Reviews can offer advertising opportunities

Online reviews are absolutely worth trying to get for the marketing alone. And you don’t really have to do much!

If you’re a new business that’s having trouble getting customers to review your services or products online, try offering an incentive.

On your website, offer free coupons, codes, or other small benefits in exchange for an honest online review. If you are an online business, include a note before your customers check out so they can get that discount code before checking out.

It’s a small price to pay for an amazing marketing opportunity.

Customers will spend more money on a business with good reviews

It’s true! New customers are much more likely (31% to be exact) to spend more money on a business with extremely good reviews.

So while you’re waiting for your SEO project to finish up, invest in this alternative marketing opportunity by providing excellent service, offering an incentive for reviews, thanking your customers, and sharing their reviews on social media. What do you have to lose?

How was our guide to getting good online reviews and why they matter? Tell us what you think about getting good online reviews in the comments below.

The post The Importance of Getting Good Online Reviews for Your Business appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Do you want to take your business to the next level and see it grow considerably and consistently? A high quality, strategic SEO campaign can do just that and more.

Did you know that 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results and 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine?

What’s more, a study by Outbrain found that search is the #1 driver of traffic to content sites, beating social media by more than 300%.

You can spend as much or as little as you want on SEO, but what would happen if you went all out? Here’s what actually happens in a $1500/month SEO campaign.

What is an SEO Campaign?

SEO involves the optimization of a website, blog or web platform to encourage genuine traffic to be directed towards the site more often. SEO is pivotal in determining the rank of websites. If done right, it will attract more people to your site and therefore increase long-term growth.

What Kind of Businesses Should Aim for the $1500 per Month Budget?

Small and mid-size business, often with local emphasis should look at this kind of price range.

For regional businesses with a niche audience, $2000-6000 is more reasonable and for international businesses, expect to pay more than $10000 a month for optimal results.

What Do you Get for $1500 per Month?

An SEO campaign budget of this level will usually provide extensive link building, which is a very important part of generating online authority. It will also include:

• Keyword analysis
• Competitor analysis
• Onsite SEO
• Content strategy and development
• Google Analytics
• Monthly reporting

When Will You See Results?

In the SEO world, you won’t see results overnight and this is really important to keep in mind.

In the first few months of A $1500/month SEO campaign (or any for that matter), there will be a gradual increase in traffic to your website. But by the 5th or 6th month, rankings will go up significantly.

Don’t panic if you don’t see immediate results, it takes time for SEO to affect rankings, traffic, sales and leads.

The Benefits of Using a Monthly SEO Service

If you’re looking to form a long-term partnership with an SEO service, a monthly campaign will enable you to develop a working relationship and strategy that grows with time. Monthly services are also fantastic if you need to outsource SEO work since it’s one less thing for you to have to worry about regarding your business.

You’ll have someone managing your campaign from start to finish, leaving you time to focus on everything else.

Final Thoughts

A well-rounded marketing plan is imperative for both new and established companies. Regardless of how many years your business has been up and running, it is essential to think long-term when addressing budgetary considerations for any SEO campaign.

The Internet is constantly changing. There are trends and methods that will come and go, but SEO is here to stay, which means you and your business need to jump on board.

Want to learn more about how Midas can help with your business’s SEO needs? Contact us today to talk to one of our experts.

Curious about our past work? Check out our impressive portfolio.

The post What is Involved in a $1500/Month SEO Campaign? 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.