Morgan Murphy – Modsnap Design

Holiday Marketing on a Budget

Morgan Murphy — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 20:49:07 +0000

It’s crunch time for holiday sales and promotions whether you’re in retail, hospitality, or you’re a local service provider. With most businesses also marketing themselves for the holidays, you can expect the competition for your customer’s attention to be fierce. Companies without a plan for the holidays will fall behind. Shoppers need to know you’re available and ready to help them make this holiday a memorable one. That’s where your holiday marketing strategy comes in! If you find yourself marketing on a shoestring this holiday season, we’re here to help you with some holiday marketing tips that don’t break the bank! Whether you are offering products, services, or experiences, a marketing plan that works for your budget will work for you. Though some businesses have the funding to purchase radio or television ads, others need to pursue smaller-scale options. Creativity, planning, and some clever preparation leading up to the holidays can help you to draw a crowd and boost your sales. We’ve put together a list of ways that will allow you to boost marketing efforts through the holiday season on a budget. Show your customers appreciation and gratitude! Tis the Season of Giving and Thanks! Send out Holiday Customer Appreciation emails or cards to let your clients and customers know how much they mean to you. Stay top-of-their-mind: A sincere holiday message can keep you top of mind when they need your services after the new year. Engage with your customers. Engagement is key, everyone loves to be asked about their experiences. For Example: “What are you most excited about this holiday season?” This year especially, many will respond “Spending holidays with family, friends and loved ones.” That’s a sentiment we can all relate to, and it conjures warm feelings that bring us all a little bit closer together. Appeal to their emotions: Share inspirational messages on social media, or provide a behind-the-scenes look at images of how your company celebrates the holidays to bring them a little closer to your “family”. Holiday Specials & Promotions For many service industries, the holidays are a slower time. At this time of year, people are especially budget-conscious so it’s a good time to offer discounts. Promote discounts as Holiday Specials. Think of some ways that your service can creatively tie into holiday preparations. Service Industries such as housecleaning services, electricians, plumbers, and HVAC businesses might promote “Prepare your home for guests” specials, or “Deals for the New Year”. Build brand awareness with a How-to Holiday-Blog or a How-to-Video with tips or tricks from an expert in your industry. Be sure to promote this on your website! Create Special Offers for Post-Holiday Shopping: Build a list of emails for this sale from your holiday shoppers. Email them for the post-holiday sales and specials after the holiday. To avoid potential pre-holiday shoppers waiting for the post-holiday sale you can also create a sign-up form at your register, on your website, or create the sign-up option in a contest entry form. Customers love holiday shopping in an atmosphere evocative of the joys, memories, and experiences of the holidays. Even if you don’t have a brick-and-mortar location, you can decorate your website and your social media channels beginning right now. Decorating or branding for the holidays with visual imagery and sounds will help invite your customers into the mindset of the holidays allowing them to recall the feeling of the joys of giving, gathering, and purchasing for others. Amplify! Whatever offers, specials, sincere thanks you express, and whatever you promote, use Google My Business (now Google Business Profile) to amplify! Post events and offers directly to your Google Business Profile listing using the Posts feature. Posts encourage more action from potential customers who find your business on Google search. Can’t find the posts on your desktop GBP? Look under “Updates.” Google Event and Offer posts are particularly useful for your holiday promotions, as they let you set time frames, provide redemption codes, and include terms and conditions. Use these posts to promote special pricing (especially useful for services that help people to prepare for the holidays). Use images and designs that are eye-catching and evocative of the holiday. Here are some great resources for designing your Holiday Campaign! Our Favorite Sites for Free Images: Rawpixel Unsplash Pixabay Pexels Canva is a great site for designing cards, emails, social media posts, and more! And remember to Measure Results! Set SMART—Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound— goals for your campaigns. SMART goals can clarify why you’re engaging in content marketing for holidays in the first place. Smart goals also provide specific information about your return on investment so you know if it’s worth your time to repeat the effort next year. Here is an example: Not a SMART goal: Wish everyone a happy new year! A SMART goal: Increase our blog traffic by 500 visits in January Whatever you do for your Holiday Marketing, we wish you very Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year! Click here to download our free guide “Holiday Marketing on a Budget”. And if you need assistance getting your campaigns up and running just give us a call.

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How to Read Your Local SEO Report

Morgan Murphy — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 18:54:13 +0000

If you have a local business, there are several things you’ll want to do to make sure you’re well known in your community and staying ahead of the competition. To survive in today’s competitive market, you’ll need to ensure that your business’s online presence is optimized for local searches. But how do you know if you’re optimized for online visibility? We offer a free local SEO report that will assess how your business is currently doing online. The report provides information based on a few key factors that help you identify areas that need improvement. Based on the information provided, you can make the changes necessary to increase local visibility for your business. Our report assess your business on seven criteria: Links and Authority Rank Checker Local Listings Reputation Manager Google My Business On-Site SEO Social Channels Not sure what each of these sections refers to? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Below you’ll find brief explanations to help you understand how to read your report. When you know how to read these sections, it will be easier for you to find solutions for boosting your online presence. If you have any questions about your report, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us! Links and Authority This section focuses on search engine results and gives you an idea of how your business compares to your competitors. It is broken down into: Google Index Count, Link Count, Linking Domains, Majestic C-Flow, Domain Authority, and Website Age. While this might seem like a lot, all of these go hand in hand. The focus here is how well Google can “read” your website to determine what your business offers, and how many other sites link back to you. Here, backlinks and clear SEO keywords are essential. In this section, improving your inbound links in one area will improve your status across the board. Rank Checker Using keywords specific to your business, the rank checker will track your website’s position on Google and Bing. These are the two largest search engines, so you’ll want to rank between 1-3 as much as possible. If you don’t appear in the top 50 search results, this is a good indication that you’ll need to improve your searchability. Local Listings This is a crucial section. In order for people to find your business and get in contact with you, your information should be listed in multiple directories… and of course, you’ll want to make sure the info is consistent and correct. This search audits online directories. It provides information on where you are or aren’t listed. It also lets you know what your contact info looks like on each site. This notifies you of any mistakes that are listed, so you can correct them. The more directories your business appears in, the wider an audience you’ll reach. Increasing your directory listings can also help you boost your rank within Google. It’s a win-win. Reputation Manager We cannot stress enough the importance of online reviews, and this section is all about that. It provides your total number of reviews, average rating and score on each site, and 10 most recent reviews. Google My Business Google My Business (GMB) is an important tool for local listings. This section analyzes your website using GMB optimization and ranks it against the top 10 ranked businesses in your area. It lets you know where you stand locally based on organic search results. On-Site SEO This section contains a lot of back-end technical terms, but don’t let that intimidate you! Your On-Site SEO factors are the elements of your website that affect its search ranking. Because you have control over your site, they are actually easy to improve. If your scores aren’t ideal, you know what elements to modify in order to improve your site’s rank. There’s even page-specific results in the Appendix at the end of the report! Social Channels This section is exactly what it sounds like. It looks at your social media accounts and determines your popularity based on likes and visits. Social media is an important tool for any business. Your social profiles will help you gain reviews and new customers. Get Your Free Report Want to see how your local SEO stacks up? Get your free local SEO report here.

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A Quick Guide to Writing Great Web Content

Morgan Murphy — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 18:08:27 +0000

In today’s digital age, you have to have a strong online presence to be successful as a business. And to do this, you need to be writing great web content that drives traffic to your website. If you’re not sure what this entails, you’re not alone. But don’t worry, we’ve compiled a few basic tips and tricks to help you get started:

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3 Ways to Modify Your Retail Marketing Strategies During the Pandemic

Morgan Murphy — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 20:32:32 +0000

It's no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced business owners to dramatically reinvent the way they market to their customers. Brick and mortar retailers have experienced significant difficulty during these times, and it has become necessary to modify retail marketing strategies in order to help keep businesses stay open. Not sure where to start? Don't worry, we’ve got you covered.

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How to Start a Successful Blog and Avoid Blogger Burnout

Morgan Murphy — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 21:37:49 +0000

Most bloggers spend a lot of time worrying about how to start a successful blog. However, even the most successful blog can fail if the writer succumbs to burnout. Your worst writing enemy may be staring at you in the mirror. Fortunately, you can have it all! Keep reading to discover our guide for creating a successful blog while avoiding burnout entirely.

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What Are Website Backlinks and How Do They Work?

Morgan Murphy — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 19:31:38 +0000

Backlinks are a powerful way to improve your SEO and build your brand. Nonetheless, many businesses and individuals will read this and ask, "Wait, what are website backlinks?" Fortunately, we've put together a complete guide to this topic. Keep reading to discover what these backlinks are and how they work.

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How Citation Building Can Improve Traffic to Your Website

Morgan Murphy — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 22:18:18 +0000

With citation building, you can generate additional traffic and seriously build your brand. Unfortunately, many businesses don't understand what citation building is and how it works. Ready to increase traffic to your own site? Keep reading to learn what citation building is all about!

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Don’t Let Your Small Business SEO Campaign Skip Out on These 3 Components

Morgan Murphy — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 16:02:23 +0000

Despite the many advertising advantages that are available to all size businesses these days, small businesses in particular can have the worst time trying to compete in the marketplace.

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Does Your Small Business Need Social Media Management Services?

Morgan Murphy — Wed, 13 May 2015 20:10:00 +0000

Twitter fails: We’ve all heard of them, and they usually make us laugh. For instance, most people heard about the epic disaster that was #McDStories, which was started by McDonald’s. The fast food chain was looking for uplifting anecdotes to promote its brand, but instead the hashtag was swarmed with stories of food poisoning, fingernails in sandwiches, and other fast food horror stories. Yet for businesses that want to use social media for promotional purposes, just a single bad Tweet can severely impact a brand’s public image. That includes Tweets that inexperienced interns or disgruntled employees make that may make a business look bad. With 91% of American adults using social media platforms like Twitter on a regular basis, and at least 73% of smartphone users accessing those accounts daily, there’s a good chance that users will see those Tweets before management or business owners can intervene. So what’s a business to do? Fortunately, there are ways to avoid Twitter fails, even for those who consider themselves social media novices. Approximately 54% of business owners admit that they need some help with their social media marketing strategies, so they may need to turn to social media management services for some assistance. A social media management company does more than update Facebook or post some pretty pictures on Instagram. They find ways to connect with users and can prevent a social media faux pas from occurring. They also give business owners the chance to focus on what matters — the business — without having to spend time worrying about followers, likes, retweets, or other social media activity. How else can they help? In addition to social media management services, online marketing companies typically handle a variety of other tasks that can help boost a brand’s image online, including web design, search engine optimization, and other internet advertising methods. Website SEO services not only enhance the appearance of a website, giving it a user-friendly makeover, but they also make it far easier for users to find the information they need. Much of SEO also relies on good content marketing, and strategies like blogging and using social media can play a big role in that. Think you need social media management services or other small business SEO management strategies? Make sure to get in touch to ask about a personalized approach for your business.

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Three Reasons a Professional SEO Service Is a Must-Have for Small Businesses

Morgan Murphy — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 19:22:36 +0000

If you run a business of any size, you may have been told that you need search engine optimization to help customers find your website. Small businesses, especially, can struggle in the marketplace, and using a professional SEO service can help you achieve goals like a higher Google ranking or a better overall internet presence. This may not sound like a necessity for a business, but it turns out that SEO is one of the most important things you can do to promote your brand. So what can a professional SEO service do for your business? Here are three things you may not have considered before but likely need from a small business SEO management firm: 1. Content: You’ve probably heard the phrase “content is king” by now, and if not, it perfectly describes just how important content is. This not only includes your website itself but features like blog content, videos, images, whitepapers, and more. Social media counts as content, too, and most businesses would struggle without these platforms. Approximately 91% of American adults use social media websites and apps on a regular basis, and 73% of those who own smartphones access those accounts through mobile apps at least once per day. However, small businesses have a lot of competition on these sites: at least 93% of marketers are also using sites like Facebook and Twitter for business purposes. Social media management services are, therefore, essential for any small business, so they can attract customers and get them to check out the awesome content on their website. 2. Clear Vision: One thing that many businesses lack when they embark on an SEO campaign is a clear vision of their campaign from start to finish. Many people still view SEO as a sort of “get rich quick” scheme, and they expect significant progress and a #1 ranking within a month or two. The truth, however, is that an SEO campaign that will prove long-lasting success will take time to cultivate, but progress is measurable along the way. In order to further your goals for your marketing campaign, a professional SEO service should provide you with easy to understand metrics and tracking, so you can monitor your rankings without worrying about how you’re getting there. 3. Consistency: While consistency is important with regard to regular blog posts and social media engagement, an SEO consulting agency also needs to provide it for your business across your entire online presence. That not only includes the branding on your website and social media accounts, but in the places you might not regularly see, like business directories or review sites like Yelp. Even though being listed as “John’s Antique Store, Inc.” and “John’s Antiques” on two different sites may not seem like a big deal, it can actually have a huge impact on how customers find you. An SEO management firm can not only correct a business’s name but any outdated addresses, phone numbers, website addresses, or other information. Have more questions about these three C’s? Tell us in the comments or on social media.

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Three Expectations Small Businesses Should Have for a Search Engine Marketing Agency

Morgan Murphy — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 18:47:03 +0000

For small businesses looking to save money, inbound advertising through search engines and social media is often the most cost effective method. Inbound leads provided through SEO and other online marketing techniques cost an estimated 61% less than outbound advertising efforts. This is one of the biggest advantages of working with a search engine marketing agency to find the right ads to place on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines for relevant keywords and terms. As they develop your search engine marketing campaigns, a search engine marketing agency should be willing to find solutions that are right for you rather than a one size fits all approach. Here are just a few expectations small business should have for an SEM/SEO consulting agency: 1. Diversified Ad Campaigns Search Engine Land columnist Jared Del Prete explains that businesses can make some costly mistakes when it comes to search engine marketing. Chief among them is that businesses don’t diversify their ads enough, especially if they advertise by store rather than by product or service. In other words, instead of putting out geo-targeted ads for each franchise or location, stores should focus their ad campaigns on what goods and services they offer. Doing so allows businesses to pool their resources and better manage their campaigns. 2. Emphasis on What’s Working Another pitfall of search engine marketing campaigns, according to Del Prete, is that they can rotate so much that businesses don’t get the chance to use their more successful ads. For instance, if a company offers product A and product B, they might rotate their ads equally, despite the fact that the product A might be a more in demand service than product B. This can up the cost per click of both campaigns if the lower-performing ads are running just as much as the higher-performing ones. A search engine marketing company should monitor these ads to figure out which ones should have more focus in a campaign. 3. Simple Reporting Tools Because SEO management for ad campaigns is all about numbers, you’ll need a system that will let you monitor your progress easily. Reporting tools for SEM and SEO campaigns should allow you to check on the status of your ads. Which ones are getting the most clicks? How much are you spending if your campaign charges a cost per click? Because you should have a diversified ad campaign that focuses on the services you offer, you should be able to see which ones are more in demand than others thanks to your search engine marketing agency’s reporting tools. In addition to advertising on search engines, paid search services can also extend to social media. If you’re already using small business SEO and social media management services, then the ad techniques used in search engine marketing can easily extend to social media, too. As many as 91% of Americans use social media sites regularly, and 73% of smartphone users access those apps at least once per day. That’s a lot of impressions that marketers could lose out on if they don’t extend paid advertising beyond search engines. Have more questions about how to best optimize your search engine marketing campaigns? Leave a comment below.

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What Small Businesses Can Get out of SEO Consulting Services

Morgan Murphy — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 16:39:28 +0000

If you have been told that your small business could benefit from SEO consulting, there’s a good chance that you weren’t sure how to go about taking that advice. After all, most small business owners want to make ends meet and turn a profit, and they don’t always have the time to be concerned about search engine marketing or social media campaigns. So what exactly does it mean when someone suggests small business SEO consulting to you? For starters, SEO stands for “search engine optimization,” which is a process used to make it easier for search engines — and, by extension, internet users — to find your website. The first step of most website SEO services is for the agency to perform some keyword research to integrate both into the website’s metadata (title, description, etc.) and the content. From there, a professional SEO service will create content in the form of onsite pages and blog posts. These blog posts will focus on keywords that have to do with your business in order to drive traffic to your site. As many as 92% of marketers find content to be “very” or “somewhat” effective in their SEO campaigns, and a blog is a huge part of this process. Blogging gives your site regular content with an appropriate amount of keywords, as too many could be flagged by Google as spam. It also lets your customers know what sort of business you run and what they can expect from you. However, SEO goes beyond adding items to your website. Web design, especially design that works well on mobile devices, is an important factor in optimizing your site. Quality web design does more than simply make your business look good — it also helps solidify your brand identity, so customers become more familiar with what you have to offer. Search engines such as Google also rank websites based on their design, so good web design pays off nicely if you’re also getting SEO for your website. Finally, an SEO consulting firm might also recommend additional services, such as pay per click advertising or social media management services. The former helps get the word out about your website on search engines and other highly trafficked websites; the latter helps you keep your presence on social media active to find (and keep) customers paying attention to you. Approximately 93% of all businesses use social media in their marketing, so all of these services point nicely to your well-designed, optimized website to further encourage customers to purchase your goods and services. Want to know more about SEO services for your small business? Need more information on the benefits of these services? Leave a comment below.

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