Introduction

There’s an old adage that goes, “There’s only two jobs in the world. Sales and sales support.”

Marketing is the engine that drives the world forward, whether we like it or not. And at its roots, marketing is simply communication.

Why then, can be so difficult to grow a business? Why can it be so challenging to communicate effectively with your prospects and even existing customers?

It’s because marketing is one of those things that’s simple, but not easy.

A good marketing agency can come alongside a business, not to offer a magic bullet for success, but to ask the hard questions and provide the detailed roadmap for finding more customers and connecting with them in a more meaningful way.

Chapter 1: Know Your Business, Know Your Customer

One of the first things a good marketing agency will do to help a business grow is learn about the business (gasp!). Marketing agencies have built a reputation in the past for acting like an egotistical knight in shining armor, thinking they will come in and save the day just because they have a ping-pong table in their office lounge. Not surprisingly though, that’s not how success usually happens.

Understanding Your Customer

The first component of a successful marketing effort is understanding your ideal customer. While this may seem pretty straightforward, it can actually be quite difficult. You may have some idea of demographics, but your marketing agency should encourage you to dig deeper and ask questions like:

Why did they choose you over your competitors?

What emotional connection do they share with your brand?

What are they interested in outside of work?

Putting together a customer psychographic is generally much harder than putting together a demographic, but if you stay committed to this idea day-in and day-out, you’ll start to develop a sound understanding of your ideal customer over time. There are also consultants, worksheets, and other resources that can help guide you to success.

Top Takeaway: Want to learn more about your customer persona? Talk to your best customers! It’s sounds pretty obvious, but few actually take the time and effort to talk to their best customers to learn why they enjoy doing business with you, and why they hired you in the first place.

Knowing what your customer enjoys outside of working hours can actually go a long way in helping you understand how they make decisions from 9-5.

Dial in Your Business Metrics

Another key element of successful marketing is, well, knowing what success looks like in the first place. We’re always surprised at the limited granularity that many business owners and marketing managers have surrounding their business and its overall operation. While business intuition and instinct are usually very high, we find room for improvement when working to understand the “itemized” opportunities within the business.

If you’re considering hiring a marketing agency to help your business grow, make sure they ask you some of the following questions:

What is the LTV (lifetime value) of a customer?

Which products/services can you scale most effectively as more orders/leads come in?

Which products/services are your most profitable?

What is your acquisition budget for a new sale? If you spent 10% of gross revenue on advertising to acquire the sale/customer, is that worth it?

What is your conversion rate for new leads that contact your business?

Our goal is to get as specific as we can on every component of a business’ operation. We may not be able to figure everything out, but the more numbers we have, the easier it will be to construct successful campaign and understand where the lowest-hanging fruit is.

Top Takeaway: At the very least, a good marketing agency should understand the value of a customer to your business, and how much you can spend to acquire that customer for sustainable growth.

The better you understand your business’ key metrics, the easier it will be to run successful marketing campaigns.

Chapter 2: Is Your Website Working?

For 95% of businesses, a winning website is the foundation of any successful marketing campaign. Here at Midas, our most successful marketing campaigns usually follow behind websites we design. This works because we understand the importance of a website, and how it needs to be structured, designed and executed in order to avoid any friction for potential customers.

The Importance of Your Website

Sometimes businesses compartmentalize various online marketing elements, thinking that social media or search engine marketing will grow their business in isolation. However, this is like a retail business thinking that as long as it distributes catchy promotional flyers, their storefront can be messy, outdated and unorganized. Silly right? The online world works the same way. Social media, search and other marketing channels may offer your business opportunities to connect with customers and bring them to your website, but if your site isn’t built to communicate clearly, add value, and convert, your honestly wasting your time and money.

Top Takeaway: Marketing to a bad website is just as detrimental as a retail business mailing out beautiful flyers only to have a messy, unorganized storefront. Take your website seriously!

Many hear that a specific marketing strategy, such as Facebook Ads, is crucial for business success. While this may be part of the equation, a poor website will immediately turn away all your Facebook visitors – even if they are responding very well (high click-through rate) to your ad on the Facebook platform.

Benchmarking Your Website

Wondering if your website is “good enough” to put the foot on the gas with a marketing campaign? Here are a few questions you can ask:

-Has it been more than 4 years since you’ve redesigned your site?

-Is your website fully mobile-responsive, looking just as good on a phone as it does on a computer?

-Does your site clearly guide potential customers to your primary website goal, like requesting a quote?

-Is your site updated actively with new products, staff members, blog posts, and other content?

-Do you know how well your website is performing currently?

It may be tempting to want to just rush into a marketing campaign, but considering your website first and foremost is almost always a must for a successful campaign.

Top Takeaway: Download our checklist and work through it with your team to determine how you’re doing. After you’re done, contact us and we’ll be happy to take a look ourselves and offer any tips and pointers we might see!

Chapter 3: Building a Funnel

Once your website is built (or rebuilt), and you have a deep, well-defined knowledge of your customer, your ready to start filling your pipeline with leads. There’s a few different ways to do this, but almost all strategies incorporate three elements: an invitation, an offer, and the initial email sequence.

The Invitation

The invitation is how you present your offer, which will get into next. While the offer is important, its presentation goes a long way in determining how well it attracts customers. Having an opt-in box or chat window pop up on your website is an example of an invitation. However, if this is set to immediately pop up as soon as a visitor gets to your site, you’d better have a killer offer for your prospect or else they will likely be annoyed by this intrusion and bounce from your site.

A better strategy may be to offer to email a discount coupon for a specific service based on certain pages on your website. For example, a painting company may offer an exterior painting discount for new customers, and set the promotion to only pop up when a visitor is on their exterior painting services page.

In summary, the invitation is your presentation of your initial offer, whether its a PDF download, discount, case study, or a direct link to a certain landing page on your website. Be strategic about how you present your offer, giving special consideration to your ideal customer persona.

Top Takeaway: Getting in the mind of your customer is crucial to proper presentation of your offer. Do it right, and you’ll build trust and rapport before they even contact you. Be too aggressive or unfocused and you may actually leave a bad brand impression.

The Offer

Everyone loves a discount, a freebie, or other valuable resource. This is especially true for new prospects who may need a little more nudging than your existing customers. Offers are usually presented via an invitation either through a landing page, opt-in window or something similar.

The idea here is to offer something of value in exchange for an email address and permission to market to that email. Seth Godin dubbed this permission-based marketing. Here are a few examples of what business offer their customers:

-An online retailer may offer 15% off a new customer’s first order

-A painting company may offer $250 off an exterior repaint

-A SaaS company may offer a 30-day free trial of their software

-A technology company may offer an in-depth case study of its product

Be strategic about both your offer and invitation, and let your prospects know that they’ll get instant access to the offer by signing up for your email list. Once they sign up, they’ll receive their offer and your funnel is now starting to grow!

Top Takeaway: Look to other competitors in your industry if you aren’t sure what to offer your customer. Try to solve a pain point or give them something of value that doesn’t take too much away from your bottom line.

Whether you want to capture email leads as discussed in this article, or drive traffic to a specific webpage as shown here, you have to be intentional about the goals of your website in order to effectively generate leads and close more deals.

The Email Sequence

Once a potential customer opts in to your list and claims your offer, you have to deliver! The problem here, is it takes a lot of effort and attention to constantly be monitoring your website and prospect activity. What’s the answer? Email automation!

Email automation is basically setting up a sequence of emails to go out to your new prospects after their get on your email list. An example of an email sequence would be sending new contacts three emails over the course of the first week after their claim your offer. Email sequences can be as simple or complex as you make them, but one example might look like this:

Invitation: A pop-up box offers a free trial for a software company once a visitor navigates to the pricing page.

Offer: Potential customers are able to use the software for 30 days for free.

Email sequence: The first email is sent immediately after a subscriber claims the offer, giving the prospect a code to use the software for free for thirty day. A handful of other emails may go out over the duration of the trial, offering customer testimonials, case studies, and opportunities to schedule a demo to learn more about using the software. As the trial period comes to an end, a few emails may be scheduled to offer a discount for the first few months of becoming a paid customer of the software.

Top Takeaway: Email sequences, and building funnels in general, is no easy task. While it is possible to manage it on your own, usually hiring a marketing agency to help guide this process will position your company for success in the long run.

Your lead magnet delivery email should always include a soft call-to-action for the prospect to take the next step closer to becoming a customer, such as booking a consultation or scheduling a demo.

Chapter 4: Marketing Campaign Components

Once your website is ready to go and your funnel is in place, you’re ready to put together a marketing campaign to effectively grow your business. Different strategies work for different businesses, but all good digital marketing campaigns will include some, if not all, of the components below.

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of positioning your website to be seen by Google as an authority in your industry for your businesses key products and services. Doing this well is rewarded by Page 1 rankings for your top keywords. SEO is a combination of website optimization, content marketing, and linkbuilding. SEO campaigns often need a longer runway for success, but once your website starts ranking well, your business will benefit for months and sometimes years down the road.

To learn more about SEO, visit our SEO services page.

Paid Advertising

Paid advertising is directly paying for clicks to your website (or another form of immediate engagement). Google Adwords and Facebook Ads are two common forms of paid advertising in the digital marketing realm. Unlike SEO, it’s possible to see immediate success with your paid advertising campaigns. However, once you stop paying, your traffic will stop coming in as well.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is often considered part of SEO (and rightly so), but it deserves its own distinction. Content marketing, simply put, is building trust, thought leadership, and visibility in your industry by producing and sharing valuable content. While an active and strategic blogging effort drives a content marketing campaign, other elements such as social sharing tactics can reinforce your content, leading to a full-on inbound marketing program. As both search and social shift more towards “meaningful marketing,” producing interesting content is now a must for just about every business’ marketing strategy.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most preferred and profitable marketing channels for many businesses. Why is this? Because people on your email list already have some sort of relationship with your brand, meaning there are less obstacles to overcome to move your prospects down your funnel. As you already “own” the audience, your only fees for email marketing are the cost of using your email platform (usually pretty nominal), and the time it takes to manage your email marketing effort. In an age of shifting social networks and anticipating the trends of search, email remains the one constant to nurture your prospects and reinforce value with existing customers.

Social Media

Social media means a lot of different things to a lot of different business. It’s an ever-changing jungle filled with plenty of opportunities for the businesses that can keep up. From a high-level, social media is often a place to start new relationships with prospects and reinforce value with your existing “tribe.” It’s usually not smart to push your products and services too hard on social media as people are on social networks to “hang out.” However, social does provide great opportunities to build brand equity and grow your tribe when it’s managed effectively.

Print Marketing

Print marketing has taken a backseat to digital over the last decade, but as the online world gets more crowded, print is finding opportunities to make a comeback. Having winning business cards, brochures, and direct mail pieces can now be way to separate yourself from your competition and leave a lasting impression in the mind of your prospects and customers.

Top Takeaway: Developing an understanding of your customer is critical to properly know which marketing channels to pursue. If your business is sells apparel to young adults, a channel like Instagram is a must. If you are a B2B company selling specific, niche products, you would want to consider a good SEO plan to make sure your products show up in online search engines.

Once you’re confident you have a website that will inspire action from your ideal customer, only then does it make sense to fuel up your business with a marketing budget.

Chapter 5: Understanding Your Marketing Performance

You might be tracking with us so far, but at the end of the day you need to know that partnering with a marketing agency to grow your business is actually going to work. And unless you are super familiar with Facebook Ads, Google Analytics and the code to your website, evaluating digital marketing performance can feel a bit like an overwhelming mystery.

While this is certainly understandable, here are four things to review and you determine how well your marketing efforts are paying off.

ROI: Analyzing you conversion rates, customer lifetime values, and other metrics to determine your actual return on your marketing investment.

Equivalent Value: Comparing your digital marketing spending to more traditional forms of advertising as well as cross-checking against your various digital channels.

Brand Equity: Monitoring your overall reach and engagement to grow your brand value for the long run.

Overall Business Growth: How your business is doing when all the dust settles.

Let’s look at each of these a little bit closer.

Return on Investment (ROI)

This is the holy grail of most digital marketing campaigns, and can be calculated once you answer the questions above in our “business metrics” section of this article. For campaigns we run, we set up goals within your website analytics to track performance as closely as possible.

Equivalent Value (EV)

ROI can be harder for some businesses to track than others, depending on how many offline components are involved in your sales process, or how valuable brand equity (tough to measure online) is for your business. Equivalent Value (EV) is a way of comparing your marketing against other marketing channels, so you at least know if you are spending your dollars wisely. Valuing organic traffic is often used as a way of calculating EV vs. something like Google Adwords. If your website is getting 1,000 clicks per month from online search engines, and the average cost-per-click with Google Adwords if you were paying for those clicks directly is $2.00 per click, you know your organic traffic has an EV of $2,000/month. Over time you can compare that with your SEO budget to make sure you are spending in the most effective way possible.

Brand Equity

One of the harder metrics to grasp, at least for most small and mid-size businesses, are intangible concepts like audience reach and brand impressions. We all know that every single time a prospect sees your ad, you’re business is better off – even if they don’t take action right away. In fact, it may take years of this before a prospect reaches out and connects with your company. So while it’s hard to measure, it’s very important. Our goal with campaigns that we run is to always be ROI positive, knowing that the reach and impressions from the campaign is icing on the cake and will pay dividends over time for our client.

Overall Business Growth

The bottom line when running a campaign is of course, overall business growth. In many cases, this is where the added benefit with things like brand impressions and top-of-mind awareness come into play. Unless there is a significant outside factor (losing a big source of revenue unrelated to marketing, etc.), evaluating your overall business growth is a good way to see how well your marketing agency is guiding your business forward.

Top Takeaway: A victorious marketing effort starts at the very beginning. If you know your customer well and understand your business inside and out, marketing starts to turn into a plan to execute rather than a mystery to be solved.

While marketing will always have its creative, “colorful” side, good marketing is based just as much, if not more, off strong analytical understanding.

Summary: Partnering with a Marketing Agency

Congrats! You made it through an extensive but hopefully informative article on how a marketing agency can help your business grow!.

The TL;DR version goes like this:

Know your customer like you know a friend, and develop a good grasp on your business’ key metrics.

Then…

Build a great website that will serve as an effective salesperson working 24/7 on your behalf.

Then…

Create an irresistible offer to generate new top-of-funnel leads for your business.

Then…

Once you have built a profitable, lucrative offer in place, turn on the marketing jets to drive traffic to your site and watch that traffic turn into new leads!

Then…

Take time to review and evaluate your marketing performance to make sure everything is working.

There’s no magic bullet to marketing, but there are proven & timeless marketing elements that are ready to be put to work for your business’ success.

Are you considering hiring a marketing agency? We know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone….OK just kidding, it’s us. Contact us to get started!

The post How a Marketing Agency Helps Your Business Grow appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Banner marketing is the most popular form of display advertising. If you haven’t tried it yet, it’s time for a change!

Display ads appear at the top, bottom, or on the side of web pages. Despite their effectiveness, people are reluctant to add them to their marketing strategies.

Hosting the banners brings in money through ad views and clicks. Clicking the ads leads consumers to the website where they might make a purchase.

Let’s first take a look at its features:

Features of the Best Banner Ads

The best banner ads have the following features:

• Simple yet eye-catching
• Use interactive elements and designs
• Blend in well with the content on the website
• Have a Call-To-Action (CTA)
• Do not cram a lot of information

Getting banner marketing right will make a difference to your business. Read on to learn its benefits.

Benefits of Banner Marketing

It is important to take advantage of the widespread internet usage in America. Pew Research says about 73 percent of Americans are online daily. This makes it likely they will see your banners on their web pages.

Banner marketing has five surprising benefits:

1. Market at Affordable Prices

Unlike other forms of advertising, banners are cheaper to create and share. Digital publishing software is available for creating your ads. You can partner with display ad networks to publish the ads you create.

Banners are effective in drawing attention to your products or services. They can attract online users by being visually pleasing.

2. Increase Brand Awareness

Having your banner appearing on several websites strengthens your brand. Few companies use this form of marketing. Thus, it will make your brand familiar to those who’ve never heard of your business.

They also alert consumers to the great products or services you have. People can interact with this content and learn more about what your company does.

3. Target Specific Customers

Many businesses struggle because they don’t specify their ideal customer profile. As such, they end up trying to sell to everyone. This strategy doesn’t work well.

It is better to have a buyer persona and target these specific individuals. Potential customers will click on the banners and end up on your sales page. You can be sure the customers are potential leads, otherwise, they would not have clicked the ad.

This removes the uncertainty of trying to convince customers about your offerings.

4. Measure Your Effectiveness

Marketing is a results-driven practice. Thus, you should be able to measure how effective your marketing campaigns are.

Banners allow you to track how many people saw your ad and what was the click-through rate.

You will be able to check your website traffic using tools like Google Analytics. Knowing the number of site visitors helps you know the impact of your banner ads.

With the data you collect, you can analyze what’s working and change your strategy.

5. Get a Long-Term and Flexible Solution

The beauty of banners is you can maintain the campaigns for long periods. This consistent or repetitive nature reinforces your brand’s name to potential customers. Plus, every time they click the banner, they will be taken to your website.

As for flexibility, banners come in various formats and with different interactive elements. You can tailor these depending on your needs.

Learn More about Digital Marketing

From the benefits above, you can see the great impact of banner marketing.

It will build your brand, allow you to target customers, and boost your sales. It gives you a long-term, flexible, and cost-effective tool for marketing your company.

Contact us to learn more about digital marketing! We’re here to help.

The post 5 Surprising Benefits Of Banner Marketing 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.

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.

Putting together a digital marketing campaign can help your business, but to maximize its benefit it should be results driven.

By being results driven, your company maintains its focus on what works best and leverages this to improve your business.

But how can you make sure your digital marketing campaign is results driven?

Let’s take a closer look at how to do this!

Set Measurable Goals

One way is by establishing measurable goals for your campaign.

In order to set these goals, you need to give your business an honest assessment of where it is now and where you want it to go.

But how do you do this? By looking at the past and the present to help you look ahead to the future.

Look at the current trends in your industry. What is working for you and your competitors?

When you consider the past, take a look at what you or your competitors have done that worked and didn’t work.

With those things in mind, set short- and long-term goals for your business.

Ask yourself how your businesses campaign can help it achieve those goals.

Regularly Evaluate Results

Pay close attention to the results of your digital marketing campaign through a reliable metrics measurement tool.

Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that measures your website’s traffic. But it isn’t just a matter of who is visiting what area of your site.

What are your customers doing when they are on your website. Are they spending more time on certain pages over others? How are certain marketing tactics you are using helping sales of your product or service?

By an in-depth analysis of your results by your business and experienced digital marketing professionals, you can recognize patterns and other trends to help you refine your campaign.

Act on Your Analysis

But an in-depth analysis isn’t enough on its own! You need to take that information and use it to your businesses advantage.

Your data will probably show you things that are working well and others that aren’t.

Knowing what to do with this information is an important part of keeping focusing on  results

A Results Driven Digital Marketing Campaign

A results driven digital marketing campaign is an important tool for your business.

But in order to maintain your focus on being results driven, you have to do a few important things.

Set measurable goals for your business by looking at trends in your industry and what has worked (and not worked) in the past.

Utilize a reliable analytics program, among other things, to see what is working and not working.

But putting this information to use is what matters in a results driven campaign.

Be sure that you refine your message so that it resonates with consumers in the best possible way.

If you are a business owner in the Portland, Oregon area considering taking your digital marketing efforts to the next level, contact us. We want to talk about your business and how we can help you!

The post How to Make Sure Your Digital Marketing Campaign is Results Driven appeared first on Midas Marketing.

There are clearly a ton of digital marketing benefits — if there weren’t, it wouldn’t have taken over traditional marketing last year to become the most popular advertising medium.

Now appears to be the time to start investing in a digital marketing strategy. Companies are consistently spending less of their precious dollars on old advertising methods and more on building a name for themselves online.

In fact, digital marketing is projected to consume 3/4 of industry leader’s marketing budgets by 2021!

So what makes online advertising worth such a huge investment?

Let’s take a look at some of the reasons businesses are making the shift from print, radio, and television to investing in the web — and why you should too.

5 Very Convincing Digital Marketing Benefits

Smart businesses won’t start spending money on something new without making sure it has good value first.

These proven benefits of digital marketing are some of the top reasons why there has been a shift away from traditional ads to the internet.

It’s more cost effective

Simply put, marketing costs are significantly lower for digital marketing than for old school methods.

For example, a Facebook advertisement can generate 5-30 user engagements for as little as $5.00… Whereas a magazine advertisement can run anywhere between $500 and $20,000 depending on the publication.

And you won’t even be able to tell how effective that pricey print ad was, which leads me to the next point.

It gives real time data

Figuring out how effective your advertising is, has never been easier with digital marketing strategies.

Now every time someone clicks, valuable information is collected instantly.

This data can tell you the impact your marketing strategy is having on your target audience — right away.

It can target a specific audience

In the online world, it’s way easier to hone in on your target market. Once you know who they are, you can find out where they hang out on the internet and what their interests are.

This lets you place an ad that will matter to your potential clients and shows up in the right place.

That’s much more effective than mass producing a print ad and hoping the right person reads it!

It will get shared more

When you get a flyer in the mail, where does it end up?

That’s right. The garbage.

Information on the internet has way more potential to get shared and passed on than print. In a world where 68% of people trust online opinions from other consumers, you want to take advantage of word-of-mouth…

Or should I say, word-of-share?

It will convert more clients

The end goal is to turn your target audience into customers.

Some digital marketing strategies were shown to be four times more effective than traditional methods at doing just that!

Winning clients.

Now that’s worth investing in.

Final Thoughts…

After looking into digital marketing benefits, it’s clear why online advertising is the way of the future.

Shifting marketing focus to the web can:

1. Save money
2. Give better insight with real-time data
3. Target a more specific audience
4. Get shared more
5. And convert more potential clients into actual clients

Sounds great, right?

Experience the benefits for yourself. Make the switch to digital marketing today.

The post Digital Marketing Benefits: 5 Great Reasons to Invest in Online Marketing appeared first on Midas Marketing.

The new year brings in a new wave of digital marketing ideas.

We’re talking about global marketing, mobile and voice-friendly search engine optimization (SEO), and behavior-based content marketing. Plus, much more.

We’ll talk about these and then some, including why 41% of adults and 55% of teens are using voice search even though it was created in 2002.

Read to find out!

1. Content marketing comes with a twist

Yes, it’s safe to say content marketing is still at the top of digital marketing trends. 2017 is no different in that regard.

However, there is a twist…

Level of personability

With so much content on the Internet, businesses are looking to stand out.

How?

Simple.

Narrow in on the target audience. This means instead of targeting the general user. Content will be based on users who read specific blog posts.

Or, if it’s an e-commerce site, users who view certain products.

The overall goal is to create content that increases personability between the user and business.

Distribution is key

How the content is distributed is becoming more and more impactful.

It doesn’t matter if you have the highest quality of content. If not many see it, it’s close to non-existent.

Which is why getting the word out via social media becomes an even bigger deal.

Leveraging influencer status

Influencers will post on social media about their content. And, boom!, traffic to their sites.

How is this possible?

They’ve built credibility with their audience.

So much so, that businesses are using their influencer status to promote their own products.

2. Marketing’s gone global

Thanks to social media and the interconnectedness of technology, the world is a smaller place.

This means businesses’ marketing efforts will be more effective if they go global. This makes sense since most computer and cellphone users have 24-hour access to information online.

Whether you’re in Quebec, Canada. Or Seol, South Korea.

3. Technology is wearable

With the invention of fitness-based watches and the Apple watch, we’re now seeing more and more people wearing their technology.

We can only expect this trend to continue.

Who knows?

We may soon need wearable SEO.

4. Voice search SEO

As we mentioned earlier, more teens and adults are turning to voice search.

And it makes sense.

When you’re running errands or multitasking, it’s easier to just talk into your phone. Typing in your search takes too much time.

Which is why voice-friendly SEO is becoming more popular. We’re talking about long-tail keywords taking priority. That, and common sayings.

5. Mobile marketing

Google research shows that out of smartphone users who conducted a mobile search, over three-quarters visited that store within 24 hours.

And 28% of those purchased a product or service.

So, mobile marketing is here to stay. And it’s only increasing.

And, with that, mobile SEO.

Yes, Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites when it comes to mobile searches.

Want more digital marketing ideas?

Want to know how to jumpstart your digital marketing or revise it for 2017? Contact us!

And don’t forget to check out our blog to get up-to-date information about WordPress development, web design, SEO, and more digital marketing ideas.

The post 5 Awesome Digital Marketing Ideas to Grow Your Business Online 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.