Best Practice Blogging

Blogging Best Practices - Call-to-Action Checklist

Monday, March 15, 2010 by Sarah Sedberry

With all the hype around social media, twitter this, and Facebook that, the end goal sometimes gets lost. The motivation behind all of this social strategy for a business is to gain more leads, build a brand, generate more sales and revenue.

So how is the best way to accomplish that on your company's business blog? When individuals are searching the web they know exactly what they want and what they are looking for. It is no accident when a visitor arrives at your site, as something they were searching for brought them there. Utilizing the right words will drive those visitors to take action.

With Compendium, you can direct that traffic to take the next step via Calls to Action (CTA's for short). Here is a quick check list to make sure your CTA is following best practices:

Does your CTA have a purpose?
Does your CTA have a benefit for the visitor?
Are you directing your traffic via a command?
Is there an obvious place for a reader to click?
Do you have a unique landing page available for this CTA?
Have you put the proper tracking measurements in place?

For prime examples, look to the right of this post to see Compendium's sidebar and our calls to action. We try to use images that draw your attention, and make it obvious that its a button. You'll also see that our landing pages are specific to our CTA's and are very simple. That's because we don't want to distract a visitor to do anything else than focus on that landing page (fill out a form, download a whitepaper, view a demo, etc).

Think about the end goal for your blogging program and set up your CTA's accordingly. Remember to capture the visitors that come to your site, and direct them to the next appropriate step.

To Blog or not to blog, that is the question......

Thursday, March 4, 2010 by Scott Bleczinski

As an old-school salesperson in the software as a service & search marketing world, I am always on the hunt for enterprise clients and prospects. The enduring challenge, as a salesperson, is what tactic can I use to drive more interested parties to me and my company? How can I drive leads??

Traditional means have been direct mail, email, referrals and networking. The frustration with these mediums has been the time investment and the lack of being able to measure 'my impact' or 'my results'. If there was a way that I could create and track the results of my efforts - now that would be lead generation heaven!

With my new role at Compendium, I've realized that by blogging - I actually DO have the power to create new leads & prospects, while tracking the results of my efforts. By using our corporate blogging software and our web analytics integrations, and by following blogging best practices - one can definitely drive enterprise leads and prospects.....so the answer is - yes, blog!

Blogging Best Practices - Content, Content, Content

Friday, February 19, 2010 by Sarah Sedberry

One of the most critical things a blogging program can do to get off the ground is to generate content on a frequent and consistent basis. Without content a blog program will not see results. Here are some ideas to help make sure your team is creating content as they should be:

Set up a routine posting schedule
- Rotate the responsibility of content generation
Assign specific topics to certain writers
- Help fill all blog pages at the same time
- Don't let pages sit blank
Provide motivation for your bloggers
- Prizes
- Celebrations
- Recognition
Ensure your team is filing all of your keyword blogs
- Utilize all keywords on your network

Remember that content is king and to have fun with it. A blog post should NOT be laborious or time consuming. A post can be about anything, as long as you can relate it back to the keywords that your particular program is targeting.

For example take this post that you're reading - it include blogging best practices, but also allows me the chance to show this wonderful video that an employee here at Compendium stars in.......(yes, he'll be murdering me as soon as this goes live....). I was able to create a post that is relevant to our business, our blog keywords, and our end marketing goals, but still able to have fun.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Why Blogging Works for SEO: Part 4 - Links

Friday, February 19, 2010 by Heather Benfield

In case you’re just joining in (which is highly likely since 80% of blog readers are first-time visitors)…I’m on the home stretch of a 6 series blog post (inspired by a Compendium Blogware Whitepaper I’m currently editing) about why blogging works as a great SEO tool.

Read Parts 1-3 to learn about titles, keywords and recency/frequency.

So, what’s so important about links when increasing page rankings in search engine results?

Well, a traditional SEO strategy is very dependent upon links. Google explains it this way:

"The best way to ensure Google finds your site, is for your pages to be linked from lots of pages on other sites. Google's robots jump from page to page on the Web via hyperlinks, so the more sites that link to you, the more likely it is that we'll find you quickly."

Here at Compendium, we believe that highly targeted keyword content is one of the most important tactics in driving good, credible links. In other words, the more relevant content you create for the searcher, the more people searching for the same information are going to run across it and the more opportunity you have for others to share and link your content on their websites, blogs or social media pages to share with even more people with similar interests. This builds credibility and authority letting Google know you're legit and know your stuff.

So by posting content everyday in my blog with similar topics regarding blogging solutions and blogging best practices, I’m hoping to not only provide answers to your questions, but to also create useful content that readers share with others by posting my link on their blogs or other sites to cast an even wider net in search.

I think that by keeping this in mind, it also helps bloggers to really think about and focus on the purpose of their blog posts. It’s not just to build community or communicate with those you’ve already met or formed a relationship with, you can do that on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Blogging is about getting found in search by NEW prospects and forming NEW relationships and providing useful content that a NEW visitor will forward on to even more first-time readers.

Read this great post by Compendium CEO, Chris Baggott for more information about links.
(Notice how his helpful content just earned him a new link?)

Stay tuned for Parts 5 and 6: Volume and Relevance.

Should Blogging be the Hub of your Social Media Strategy?

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 by Amber Mohling

Have you asked yourself this question lately but can't quite figure out the answer? Join Compedium on March 4th at 2pm EST for a free webinar with Jay Baer.

This webinar will help your business:

Learn where to best spend social media time & resources
Determine what social media is best for your specific business
Leverage social media to drive tangible demand for your business
Learn the social media myths and busts

Simply sign up for the upcoming webinar to learn about the above components and other blogging best practices.

Be - Consistent! B - E - Consistent!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 by Lee Jorgenson

Is your blog program consistent? Does every ounce of effort you put towards your blogging solution nudge it towards measureable success?

If your answer to the above questions is "yes", then congratulations! If not (and I find that most cannot), then it's time to re-focus your efforts. There are a couple important steps to ensuring that your program is consistent. They are as follows:

- Draw traffic from quality, relevant keywords. Being found for "fly fishing accessories" does not help if your business is selling lumber.
- Write content that meets the needs of those searching your keywords. Don't write about the history of dance if people are finding you via the keyword "dance shoes". Be salesy. Talk about how quickly you can deliver shoes to those who order and what kind of discount I am going to receive by mentioning an exclusive code listed on your blog. That's tracking and relevant content!
- Know your desirable outcomes and have a clear path for your qualified traffic to take. If your end goal is getting your qualified visitors to sign up for a webinar, make sure that your calls-to-action incentivize them to sign up based on what they deem valuable or appealing. Don't have a giant "learn more" button that takes your visitors to another informative page that requires two more clicks to sign up for the ultimate goal - the webinar.

Being consistent is a core blogging best practice. What common areas have you seen inconsistencies that need to be addressed in your program?

Increase Lead Generation On Your Business Blog

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 by Jess Wehner

I am currently working with a client that has seen great traffic from the blog, but is struggling to get those visitors to take a next step. After a bit of digging I discovered that they are actually experiencing the same trouble on their website, which made me realize we are going to be starting from scratch to start showing leads/sales from the blog. Fortunately, we are here to help! And the client has a willingness to try our recommendations, so I look forward to seeing the results we can bring in and help conversions not only on his blog, but also his website. My recommendations to him:

Add a banner CTA to the top of the blog content (some clients who are currently doing this: Dyknow, Cvent, Fuseworks)
Continue testing - since your website doesn’t have a clear “winning” CTA/landing page, it is important that we keep trying different tactics to see what works with the online audience

I also recommended he work on his content creation and go back to the basics with blog best practices. Keep in mind that getting people to take the next step on your business blog starts with engaging them from their first place.

Content should be short and to the point - it’s ok to have lengthy posts every once in awhile, but for the most part keeping it short and simple is the way to go. Think of your post as baiting the client and then you will reel them in with the whitepaper/case study/demo/etc. You can check out our blog as an example, you will see most posts are pretty short. Keep in mind, when people are online they are scanning content to find something that stands out to them.

I'll update my blog once we've been able to turn things around for this program! Hopefully we'll have some good findings to share.

Universal Forest Products new Blog Designs!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 by Kaila Woodside

I wanted to take a minute to talk about Universal Forest

Products (UFPI). UFPI has been a client of ours for a little less than a year. Within the first 6 months and following our blog best practices they were seeing phenomenal results!

Because UFPI is using their blog as a customer acquisition strategy AND has a rather diverse group of product offerings and target markets – they wanted (and needed) to give the searcher a unique experience based on their search criteria.

Via Java Script, they have created a few different templates to render various headers, Call To Action images and color combinations for the searcher. Take a look:

Composite Decking Area

Eco-Friendly Products

For construction workers

Blog Best Practices - Making Adjustments

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 by Lee Jorgenson

I have a tendency to crawl into the weeds of analytics and frustrating details, so I often have to take a step back and look at the big picture. This is one of those moments.

Would you like to have a successful blog program for your business? Here's a tip: always measure and adjust. Don't assume that a simple blog software is going to manage itself. Blogging solutions are tools in your belt, tool that need a good mind to run them.

Starting off with a solid foundation is essential, but every good strategy requires adjustment. What if you aren't trending towards success after being a couple months into your program? Are you going to throw away your time and money and move on to something else? That's an expensive strategy and one that will keep you bouncing from initiative to initiative for the rest of your life.

Measure your blog success like you do your other marketing programs and be ready to make adjustments for maximum success. Sound like effort? I assure you, it is.

Why Blogging Works for SEO: Part 2 - Keywords

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 by Heather Benfield

In case this is the first time you've ran across my blog, yesterday I started a 6 series blog post about why blogging works for SEO (content provided from a current Whitepaper I'm editing). You can read Part 1 here.

To review, search engines focus on 6 main factors when looking at a webpage to determine its rank in organic search results:

1.    Titles
2.    Keywords
3.    Recency/Frequency
4.    Links
5.    Volume
6.    Relevance

Let's take a closer look at Keywords:

Just like titles, the best way to write a blog post centered on relevant keywords is to think about the exact words your target market uses when typing their search query in the search box and use those keywords in the content of your blog post.

Consider the advice of Ian Lurie from Conversation Marketing:

“Burn the thesaurus. Think about the words that people use to find you. Then, as a revolutionary new internet marketing strategy, actually write those words in your copy. You’ll get more traffic. You’ll get more sales/leads/whatever.”

I couldn't have said it better myself! And I use this rule of thumb every time I sit down to write any piece of marketing collateral. A great free tool to help you determine which keywords your target prospects are using is Google AdWords: Keyword Tool.

However, when you start including keywords in your blog posts, make sure you avoid “keyword stuffing.” Keyword stuffing is intentionally populating your copy with excessive keywords to enhance your search results. Although it may sound like a cool idea, it doesn’t work that way. Actually, using a ton of keywords in your post has the complete opposite effect. Google uses an algorithm to determine the right keyword balance (experts generally agree that any copy containing keywords in excess of 7-10% of the total copy length is considered too much) and overusing key search terms can cause your result rankings to decrease dramatically.

Remember: the more content you create, the deeper and richer your search results become. Blog data never goes away, it simply gets compounded and enhanced with new content.

Stay tuned for part 3 - recency/frequency

To learn more about blogging best practices, download this free Whitepaper.

I wish I was Jake Greenbaum!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 by Chris Baggott

So...what does this have to do with Blogging Best Practices? Well not a whole lot.

Let me take that back. A big part of using Compendium as a content management system is the idea of humanization. What makes blogging and other social media such great tools for business is the ability to act like human beings instead of faceless Brands or Institutions.

So here is the human Chris Baggott green with envy because young Jake Greenbaum gets to spend this winter in Chile paddling his a-- off and running amazing waterfalls!

So now you know something more about me :-) I am one jealous Corporate Blogger!

IR Update in Chile from stephen forster on Vimeo.

Tips from Training

Thursday, January 28, 2010 by Allison Bowen

As the resident training webinar host here at Compendium, I've picked up a few tips that might be helpful to you as you begin you blogging program. Not only should you follow the blogging best practices that your client success manager shares with you, but you should also know about a few tedious little details...

#1 - You're all excited to start blogging for search, you've gotten your new username and password and you go to our login screen. And...your password doesn't work. What in the world? Here's often the solution - type the temporary password directly into the login screen! I know it's a weird password, but trust me. Copying/pasting this password often inserts weird spacing that will cause the temporary password not to work. Be sure to type it into the login screen.

#2 - We told you we have an easy to use blog software program and you discover we really do. You're all proud of yourself for uploading the perfect picture, but now it seems to be too large. You go back into the picture and try to modify the sizing from within the image properties box. Still too big. Instead of going back and forth and getting frustrated, try this trick. Click on the picture and drag the edges! Just like many text editing programs, with Compendium's system, you have the ability to change the picture size simply by dragging the edges.

#3 - You've written the best post of your life, submit it, it's been approved and suddenly you notice that the font looks different than the rest of the posts. Why? Well, did you copy and paste from Microsoft Word? Word and other text editing programs actually contain hidden formatting that interferes with all web formatting. Copy/pasting from anything other than Notepad can cause your posts to appear with different text, your images to disappear and many other problems!

What Compendium Is...

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by Ali Sales Roach

Yesterday I had a great conversation here at Compendium HQ with Jay Baer, a social media strategist who runs the very popular blog, Convince and Convert.

Jay came all the way from AZ to hang out with us and not only brought some very cool (but heavy! They're made of metal) business cards with him but also a few hundred good ideas about blogging best practices, social media tools, SEO, and general messaging.

One of his best ideas around messaging was to think about your business in terms of what you are and what you aren't and to make this crystal clear to your prospects and customers .

There's nothing like a blank white sheet of paper to facilitate this exercise. Here's what I came up with in respect to Compendium.

What Compendium Is:

Very powerful blogging software that makes it easy for marketers to focus on producing content that leads to conversion and $'s. Instead of focusing on how to make the software work, our clients get to focus on results and even have a dedicated success manager helping them every step of the way!
A search marketing tool that "does the heavy lifting" when it comes to content categorization and distribution (i.e. there's no tagging or manual categorization that needs to happen to optimize content)
A perfect way for organizations to engage with their prospects on a personal level, while at the same time keeping control and compliance in check (hence our admin layer).

What Compendium Is NOT:

A software gadget that requires code tweaking, a computer science degree, or voodoo magic in order to get it up and running.
A total "Sink or Swim, Do It Yourself" approach to blogging and search optimization. Unlike other blogging platforms, our client support is not a black hole. We have real people (Amber, Allison, Abby, and Krystal to name a few!) helping real organizations every day.
A consumer tool for your personal diary, family photos, and gossip. We're focused on organizations...there are other tools for that stuff!

There are probably a bunch of other things I could add to these lists, but I'll leave it for now. Thanks to Jay for all his awesome tips and a great conversation. You can learn more about Compendium's easy to use blog software here.

Secrets to Business Blogging Success

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 by Heather Benfield

Everyone loves a great success story, right? When educating and inspiring others about blogging best practices, I feel there is no greater way than to provide real-life examples of companies who’ve experienced great success in what you’re looking to do.

With that being said, I’m excited to pass along this story about one of our clients who has hit their corporate blogging program out of the park!

Widen Enterprises, a leader in graphic communications, launched their corporate blogging program in December 2007 to target organic keywords in search and increase online lead generation.

After developing a list of industry specific keywords their target audience was using in search, Widen used Compendium's blogging software to create different blogs containing content related to each keyword. In just three short months, 75% of their target keyword blogs were ranking on the first page of Google search results. This wide-spread exposure generated up to 50% conversion rates for Widen’s blogging program. Due to the great success, Widen increased their keyword blog amount (via Compendium) to cast an even larger net in organic search.

What is Widen’s secret to success? By implementing blogging best practices, they are able to track, measure and adjust their blogging strategy. This allows them to economically and efficiently utilize their resources in order to over-achieve goals and objectives.

Best practices include:

•    Implementation of necessary analytics to track blog traffic from visit to sales pipeline.
•    Consistent testing of Blog Call-To-Action’s (CTA’s).
•    Pulse on keywords driving organic traffic and additions when necessary
•    Consistent content creation among 8 employee contributors

Currently, Widen’s company blogs consistently perform as one of their top lead generation sources, accounting for over 60% of web referral leads by driving traffic to their website from blog CTA’s. By establishing goals, targeting keywords and following best practices, any company large or small is able to deliver the same results through corporate blogging.

Hats off to Widen Enterprises for implementing a successful corporate blogging strategy!

If you have a business blogging success story you’d like me to share, email me at hbenfield@compendium.com.

Want more SEO answers from Stephan Spencer?

Monday, January 25, 2010 by Meghan Manning

Last week we had our Webinar: Ask an SEO Expert: Stephan Spencer. This webinar was a huge success and we enjoyed everyone's participation!

We had so many questions submitted regarding SEO best practices, blogging for search and social media and SEO that we didn't have time to cover everyting.

To good news is, we're hoping to be hosting another session in the near future with Stephan Spencer, VP of SEO Strategies at Covario.

One of the many takeaways from the Webinar was that blogging with Compendium is a great SEO tool to have for your online marketing strategy. With that said, if you are considering adding a powerful blogging software to your strategy, check out our popular Whitepaper: Considering Blogging.

After reviewing our Whitepaper, if you have any questions feel free to contact one of our blogging experts today - we'll even send you a $50 Starbucks gift card just for doing a demo!

EasyLobby Understands Business Blogging ROI!

Monday, January 25, 2010 by Compendium Client Marketing

One of my favorite things about working at Compendium is hearing the success stories from clients who are using our business blogging software.

Last week, one of our client success managers, Lee Jorgenson, shared some great blogging stats with us about one of our client's EasyLobby.

EasyLobby is a software provider for visitor management solutions and they have been blogging with Compendium since June of 2009. In that short amount of time, EasyLobby has been busy blogging for search and seeing results! They have achieved a 665% ROI with 115 blog posts! This just proves how powerful Compendium's blogging software is when used effectively. To learn more about EasyLobby check out their blog here.

Want to see results like EasyLobby? Login to your Compendium account now, refer to some of our blogging best practices and start blogging for search today!

The Client Newsletter is Coming!

Monday, January 25, 2010 by Compendium Client Marketing

If you haven't already heard, Compendium is launching our new and improved client newsletter this week!

The client newsletter is designed to keep our clients up to date on the latest happenings at Compendium. Along with upcoming information, the newsletter will contain tons of information involving how to stay on track to meet your business blogging and search marketing goals. We also understand how important it is to stay up to date on important blogging best practices, so we're here to make that as easy as possible for you with our monthly newsletter.

Be sure to keep your eyes on your inbox - we'll be sending out the newsletter this week. And, after you have a chance to read it over, we would love to hear your feedback and improvement ideas. Email clientmarketing@compendium.com with your opinions!

Don't Break The Chain

Friday, January 22, 2010 by Heather Benfield

I recently read an inspiring blog post by one of my fellow marketing team members, Isaac Pellerin, titled “Seinfield Chain Calendar Blogging.” This particular blog post first caught my attention because I am a huge fan of the show Seinfield! I mean who couldn’t be with the all-too-familiar awkward social situations each episode portrays? (The Subway, The Hamptons and The Pothole are personal favorites of mine)

But the real reason I enjoyed this post enough to pass it along is the fun goal tracking method it includes called “Don’t Break the Chain.” See details here.

My goal is to blog every single day in order to get found in search results by people who are specifically looking for the information included in my blog posts. Since my blog is titled, “How to Write a Blog and Why,” I hope to include useful blogging best practices, trends and resources for all you passionate (and first time) bloggers out there!

By using the Compendium blog software, all I have to do in order for you to find me (and to meet my personal goal), is to write keyword-rich content. Sounds easy, huh? That’s because the automated blogging software does all the hard work– automatically multiplying my blog content for broad search engine visibility.

This means that if I’m not getting found in search results, it’s my own fault for not blogging! Therefore, I’ve printed out Isaac’s 2010 Blog Chain Calendar and am joining him in the “Don’t Break the Chain” challenge!

WISH ME LUCK!

Use your email to solicit blog content from your customers

Thursday, January 21, 2010 by Chris Baggott

This is one of the most overlooked opportunities in the entire Corporate Blogging / Search Marketing / Social Media Space. (These worlds are rapidly colliding if you haven't noticed)

Good old fashioned email.....

To be successful in leveraging your corporate blogging solution for maximum benefit to both you and your audience, you need to blog with search engine optimization in mind.   For most businesses, your goal is attracting new customers as well as engaging with people who already know you.

Backcountry.com is a fantastic example of what is among the most important of blogging best practices......asking your customers for stories.

The early generation of social media was based on "hope".   "I hope people will leave a comment" "I hope people will become a fan on Facebook" "I hope people will follow me on Twitter"

Now great marketers like Backcountry.com are recognizing that if you want people to be engaged, you need to ask them. That means including triggered emails as a key part of your Social Media efforts.

This is so simple and easy.   I bought a Cross Country Ski Package from them. They triggered an email about a month later asking me to review the bindings.    This is actually the second email I received from them asking for a review and frankly I ignored the first one.   So what? Am I offended that they sent this?

Of course not, I'm flattered! They care what I think!

Now think about your blog readers?   What do they want?   They want to see if you are a credible source to solve their problem....in this case a X-country ski binding problem. You do a search, you land on a page that's got terrific content generated by users telling you exactly what they think.   Other than perhaps employee content, this is the best kind of content you can possibly have.

My point is that if you "hope" to get this kind of content you will probably be disappointed. If you spent $ .003 on a triggered email you will drive the kind of engagement that adds real value to your customers and your prospects....and that's the best kind of search marketing there is.

Let me also say that I have no relationship with BC.com other than as a happy customer.   Do I think they would gain huge benefit using Compendium? You bet I do!

Blogging for Business

Thursday, January 21, 2010 by Kelly Simon

A successful blog means different things to different

marketers. Maybe your ultimate goal is to increase traffic to your site through your blog or give a voice to the people in your company. Maybe you measure success on ROI and the number of clients who download your webinars or whitepapers.

Whatever your metrics of success, make sure your calls to action help your search marketing efforts and generate business (or awareness).

Here are some things to consider when blogging for your business:

1. Establish Goals: It's simple, the goals you establish will set the tone for the life of your blog. Meet with your marketing team to determine your most important business drivers. Once your goals have been established, create a home for them on your blog in the form of calls to action. (Make sure you're tracking your goals so you know where you're seeing success...see below.)

2. Track Your Goals: Once you've pinpointed your blog's goals make sure you track them. Tracking goals will allow you to see what people are interested in and where you can convert interest to sales.

3. Blog!: An often overlooked blogging best practice...blog! No matter how you swing it, content creating is key. Set team expectations up front so your blog sees immediate success AND your team understands their commitment. Inspire your team to blog by providing incentives and/or creating contests centered around your company's blog program. Like putting on pants in the morning, blogging should become a part of your marketers' daily routine.

Blogging is one of the best ways to be found through search. Keep your content fresh, establish your expectations and make sure you track your goals! Until next time...