Hi! My name is Sarah Sedberry, a Client Success Manager at Compendium Blogware. My responsibilities include keeping our clients motivated, posting current/frequent content, and getting the ROI results they want to see out of their blogging efforts.
This blog will primarily talk about tips and tricks for a great blog post and blogging best practices in order to inform readers about the importance of blogging.
Personally, I graduated from Rollins College (Winter Park, Florida) in 2004, where
I played collegiate softball. I returned to my roots here in
Indianapolis after graduation and enjoy sports, healthy competition,
and of course the Colts!
(4th in a series of 5)Common Mistake #4:
The reason blogs are successful SEO tools is because they allow you to update them as frequently as you want. This is what the Search Engines love! They will send their web crawlers to your site looking for new content, and if they continue to find new content every time, they will come back more often and more frequently.
On the same hand, if the web crawler does not find new content, it will be trained to not come back as often or as frequently. Allowing your competition to surpass you.
Your business blog will not be very successful if the web crawlers aren't able to find new content. Make it discoverable and both the web crawlers and your readers/potential new customers will be able to find you.
Answer:There are a few ways to make a blog more easily discovered by web crawlers, but
the #1 way is to always be creating new content, and posting it frequently (on average a blog network should be generating at least 25 posts per month).Other ways include:
- Adding a link on your company home page to the blog.
- Publicize the blog in newsletters, email signatures, and marketing collateral.
- Integrate the blog with other social media, such as Facebook and Twitter.
- Optimize content for search engines by always using at least one exact keyword phrase in your blog post and post title. (do not keyword stuff though - its spam!)
Common Mistake #1Common Mistake #2Common Mistake #3
(3rd in a series of 5)Common Mistake #3:Not allowing or enabling conversation. A blog is a great way to allow potential customers to see the human side of the company. Don't let the blog just become another masterfully skilled piece of marketing that has to go through 8 layers of approval before going live to the web. Readers expect to see a human element when they land on a blog, so make sure they receive that.
Statistics show that the majority of visitors that read a blog, are new visitors. So how would you approach a new potential customer in person? You would engage with them and earn their trust before trying to sell them a product.
Same concept with a business blog - this is the first time they have seen your company, so if all they read are marketing and PR posts, that are super "sales"y - you're going to scare them away instead of engaging them.
Answer:Allow visitors and readers the ability to interact with your writers. Let comments show on the blog - both the good and the bad - it allows you as the company to respond and show that you are willing to be transparent with your customers.
It is also good practice to engage with other bloggers in your industry. Comment on their blog posts, highlight an article in the industry and what your opinion is on it.
Let personality show, engage and encourage conversation with others out there.
Common Mistake #1Common Mistake #2
Recently I started writing about common mistakes we see when a company begins a blog marketing program. To continue with the series, I wanted to discuss the expectations regarding the amount and frequency of content generation.
(2nd in a series of 5)Common Mistake #2:
This is one of the most common misconceptions we see with new clients, is the understanding of how a search marketing effort becomes effective. When looking at our most successful clients, it is when they continue to fuel their content machine, and frequently put out new blog posts.
Think about blogs that you read on a regular basis - how often do they publish content? Typically it is multiple times per week, and is on a scheduled basis. So that you as the reader begin to count on when you'll see new information. Same story with the web crawlers - the frequency that your network creates content will train the crawlers to come back and crawl your site more frequently and see you as an authoritative answer.
Answer:Blogging on a regular basis is a hard habit to get into, but similar to going to the gym, once you get in the routine you'll find that it is an enjoyable experience, and the results will encourage you along the way. Get other individuals at your company to help write content, so that not one person is shouldering the load.
Also, with our easy to use blog software and post scheduling feature, you'll be able to schedule when a blog post shows live to the web, so that if you aren't able to put content out everyday, you'll at least look like you are! ;)
Remember that anything can be good blog fodder so talk about that great conversation you had with a client, or a new product that's coming out, or a recent article in your industry and how your company plays a role.
(
Common Mistake #1)
There are several things that are used to determine whether a blog marketing program is successful, but one of the things that we stress here at
Compendium, is that rankings is not the main thing to focus on. We instead focus on overall traffic, search traffic, conversions, etc. These are much better ways of tracking the success of a search marketing effort, than simple rankings.
Recently
Matt Cutts, a Google Software Engineer, posted a video about why even the Google kings advise to not pay as much attention to rankings. I wanted to share this video as additional information that
a successful blog program does not hinge on a ranking report.
In the Client Success department we are always monitoring how our clients are doing, and measuring their success. Every network that is set up with Compendium's powerful blogging software is set up with analytics that we are able to share with our customers in order to keep the ultimate goal in mind - return on investment/driving lead generation and sales.
We work hard to help show our clients the success of their blog program, but we are able to see even more results when our clients understand the marathon type success with a blog program.
When looking at our most successful clients we see a few characteristics that are involved with each program - does your blog program have the following?
- Dedicated Program Owner- someone who is tied to the success of a program and will work with their bloggers to stay motivated
- Tracking - the company has tracking in place in order to see the a visitor from the blog through to conversion
For more information on how to add our powerful blogging software to your marketing's SEO tools,
schedule a demo today!
At Compendium we are consistently striving to make our corporate blogging software more efficient and user friendly as we can. Therefore making it easy to use blog software that allows any size company, in any vertical to incorporate into their online marketing strategy.
As part of this mission, our development team has on average a new release every week, with enhancements to our platform. This week's release is an enhancement to a a previous release we had that allowed admins on a blog network to manage their keywords and select which ones they wanted their users to focus on.
This feature in our platform allows the network as a whole to keep focused on keywords that are relative to their business and as they continue to generate content, will drive search traffic that will convert into new leads for their business.
Compendium is excited about this new feature and looks forward to the enhancements to come. If you have an idea, request, or enhancement that you'd like to submit - contact your Client Success Manager and we'll get it to our Dev Team!
Part of the fun of having a corporate blog is that it allows the personality of the employees to shine, and allow potential and existing customers to engage with your staff.
So along that note, I wanted to share a bit of Compendium's personality during this festive weekend! Ladies and Gentleman....feast your eyes on one of our Business Development Managers - Brian Graham:
(Kudos to Brian for creating and sewing this Two-Face outfit together on his own - I'm sorry I missed the leopard print boot though...) The best part about this picture is that Brian was on a demo with a client while allowing me to take advantage and publish his picture web-wide (Brian - any publicity deals you land from this, I get 15%).
Some might think this is a crazy office, but that's whats fantastic about working here. We are all passionate about what we do, and we have fun with it! That personality allows our customers to have fun too. The other thing that happens now, is that you probably feel a little closer to Brian, right? Feel like you might know him, would enjoy talking with him, etc - you've engaged with him!!
Obviously, a blog for search engine optimization is key, but don't forget to allow your human side to show too!
Here's hoping everyone has a safe and spooky Halloween!
1st in a series of 5
Common Mistake #1:
One of the common trends we see in a client that is new to blogging, (some older ones too) is that they forget to let the human side of their business show. Visitors that are coming to a blog, are looking for the truth behind the message, they want to engage with the employees of the company, they want to see the human side - not the sales pitch.
A blog is not the avenue to show off your new marketing materials and recent press releases. Sure these are great add in's for content, but it is important to remember that
blogging is about conversation. The blog offers a way for potential customers to connect with your business.
If you are only using the blog to republish press releases and marketing materials those visitors will likely not trust your content, and therefore not continue to read, and worse yet - not take the next step to converting into a sale.
Answer:The best way to avoid this is to use original content, and write it from your own individual voice. Its OK to talk about news in your company, but do it from one friend to another. Keep it casual, like you are discussing the topic with your best friend over a cup of coffee.
Other options are to share knowledge on your industry, or the day-to-day environment of the office and processes at your company, or provide tips and best practices on how to best utilize your products. Remember to answer the question to what your visitors are looking for - not just to toot you're own horn.
When a client first comes on board here at Compendium we have some that are familiar with blogging and those that are just entering the blogosphere for the first time. In order to help warm up these new waters, we have begun offering user and administrator training 2x per week.
In addition to learning the basics of our
simple blog platform, there is a learning curve to the actual content to be written. Many have the misconception that blog posts should be similar to white papers - not the case at all. Most visitors that come to a blog are scanning the content, not reading it. Think to your own experiences - what do you do when you land on a webpage thats full of text?
In reality most blog posts should be:
- Pithy and to the point - similar to writing an email to a friend
- Keyword Rich - your content should be focused around the keyword phrases your company is targeting.
- Engaging - make it easy for readers to skim your content to get the point. effective use of white-space can go a long way.
- Directive - tell the readers what to do next (take that next step and convert into a lead).
- Remember that most online readers will make a decision in less than 10 seconds after landing on your page as to whether they want to stay or not - make sure you capture them quickly!
In order to help those new to this blog craze, I'll be posting over the next few days the top mistakes new bloggers make. In hopes your business blogging program will be able to avoid them and get the most success from your efforts.
Stay Tuned!
We are excited to announce that
Compendium Blogware now offers blogger and administrator training for our clients! So if you're a new blogger or just need to brush up on some blog best practices, sign up to attend one of our weekly training sessions.
There are separate times depending on which access you have to the company's blog network, so be sure to contact your Client Success Manager to let them know which one you'll be attending, and they'll be able to send you the log in information (note - all times are Eastern).
- Tuesdays:
- User Training - 2:00 pm
- Admin Training - 2:30 pm
- Thursdays:
- User Training - 10:00 am
- Admin Training - 10:30 am
Happy blogging!
ITS A BLOG OFF!
I have had the pleasure of working with two very enthusiastic and engaged clients, Indianapolis Visitors and Convention Association and Tampa Bay's Visitor Association. They have both had successful blog programs over the years, and have been connected through Compendium. They now have a bond between them, sharing ideas about both blog content, as well as, other business programs.
In order to spice things up and keep their bloggers motivated, as their Client Success Manager I have set up a blog off competition between the two companies. Jeremy Fairly will be leading his team at Tampa Bay, while Breena Fain and Jeff Robinson will be the driving force behind ICVA.
Here are the details of their competition:
Start Date - October 15th 12:00 am
End Date - November 15th 11:59 pm
Winner - blog program with most posts wins (post scheduling feature is allowed)
What's at stake??
The losing blog team will have to where t-shirts saying "I'd rather be in "winning city"". Jeremy vowed that he would never where a shirt that said he'd rather be in Indianapolis, so we know he's going to be pushing his team hard to win.
To keep an eye on the action, check out their business blogs at:
Visit Indy and
Visit Tampa Bay
As we like to consider ourselves partners rather than vendors of our clients, we frequently touch base with blog program owners to touch base, address questions, and provide guidance and feedback on their blog marketing strategy.
This past week I had the pleasure of speaking with Julie Urlaub from Taiga Company, who consults on
business sustainability. Julie has seen not only great success from search traffic and click through rates, but also due to the blog, has been establishing herself as a thought leader in her industry.
During the recent meeting with Julie, she shared that a reporter from a well published news corporation had found her blog and is now interested in an interview. The interview will be re-purposed across LOTS of mediums and will drive "ungodly amounts of traffic and eyes to her company/blog"
This interview would set them up for the entire year of 2010 by establishing them as credible and an authority in their field - which is a huge opportunity for for this small business!
This success story goes to show that no matter the size of your company, as any type of business it is always important to keep an eye on the return on your investments, whether they be monetary or other. Utilizing a simple blogging software such as Compendium, helps take the stress off of the you, and allow you to focus on the bigger picture - growing your company and bringing in leads.
If your interested in finding out more about our clients and their success stories, check out one of our
case studies.
Of course since I work at Compendium I am a tad biased towards the advantages of marketing through SEO, but let me give you a real life example and why any business out there should have a business blog program.
I have been on the look out for a puppy for quite a while. Not just any kind of puppy, a Shiba Inu - specifically a black/tan male. As most of you are already wondering what a Shiba Inu is, you can understand that its not a highly popular breed, and finding a reputable breeder was pretty difficult. However I was steadfast in my search and continued to scour the internet looking for breeders with litters coming up this year, etc.
*Marketers - notice the last sentence* I knew exactly what I was looking for, I am a qualified buyer, all it takes is me (potential customer) to find you in order to buy.
Since I am not a Shiba Inu breeder insider, I utilized search engines to find the breeder I eventually connected with, and had the perfect little pup that I had been looking for. After handling the details, as of Saturday, I am a proud Shiba Inu owner and a customer that got exactly what I was looking for.
How are you reaching the potential customers that don't know you're out there, but know what they want and are ready to purchase? For more information on using a
simple blogging platform like Compendium, schedule a demo today!
oh yeah - here's a picture of my little stud muffin!
(I'm a proud mama)
When contemplating a simple blogging platform for your business, there are several points to consider. One of the major differences that Compendium Blogware provides (besides being built for SEO, driving traffic, and providing proven ROI) is our Client Success Team.
From the moment a business becomes a client with Compendium, we work with your team step by step to implement your blog network, provide training, and on going support through out the life of your contract.
This afternoon I had a meeting with a client to touch base and see how things were going with their blog strategy and provide recommendations.
At the end of our discussion she complimented Compendium for being a true partner and taking responsibility for providing support for our service. It is so useful for them to have someone there encouraging them to use the service versus just falling off once they sign the check. It helps them so much and she thanked us for our continued interest in their program.
This is may be one of the more valuable aspects of working with Compendium,
that you truly have a partner in your blogging strategy versus having to navigate the waters of search engine optimization by yourself.
For more information to see if our business blogging platform is right for you,
schedule a demo today.
This week has been an exciting one for our client Indy Partnership and their blog program.
Indy Partnership is an organization here in Indianapolis that helps provide answers for businesses and bring new economic opportunities to the Indianapolis region and surrounding 10 county's. They also help provide knowledge and guidance to local companies in industries such as life sciences, advanced manufacturing, logistics, technology, motor sports, and more! Indy Partnership is the voice of the Indianapolis region when it comes to a trusted advisor for businesses looking for a great location to complete.
After recently working with their Director of Marketing, Joshua Hall, their business blog has started to see some great success with their program. Below is a recent email from Joshua regarding their blog program:
"Blog is working BIG TIME!
If there was every any doubt about the value of our new Indy Partnership Compendium blog, this should help put it into perspective.
967 people visited the blog in the last 30 days!!!
Compared to overall website traffic, that is equal to more than one-third of our total unique visitor count. Looking at our overall visitors including both blog and website, we topped 3,500 for the month. Just wanted to make sure you know that people are reading what we put out there and it brought nearly 1,000 people to us who may not have visited us otherwise."
On top of that, their website recently won 3 Excellence in Economic Development Awards for Best Website, Best Newsletter, and honorable mention for Best Magazine in the country. The blog serves as a central point of their website home page, as well as, fills their news feed with recent blog posts. They have done a fantastic job of integrating the blog and the website to aid in their online marketing strategy and are starting to see huge pay offs.
Great job to Joshua and his team! We look forward to continued success!
When recently reading an article around search trends, I came across some interesting facts:
- 3% of searches involve some level of geographic intent
- 50% of searches involving geographic intent don't actually use a location
- 84% of queries that include locations do so on a city level
- Google is now matching location-specific searches to local results based on your IP address
So what does this mean for your blogging program? It means, that if you aren't geo-targeting your keywords you are missing out on some serious real-estate here! Think back to your own experience when using a search engine. If you are looking for a sushi restaurant to eat at tonight are you more likely to type in A or B?
A: "Sushi Restaurant"
B: "Sushi Restaurant in (insert your city here)"
The overwhelming majority is going to go with option B, right?! So if that's how you are searching, why do you think that you're potential customers would be any different then you?
If you have the ability to use location in your targeted keyword phrases do so - as that is going to drive even more convertible traffic to your blog, and more potential sales leads to your nurturing campaigns (meaning more $$ for your business)!
For more information on how to get your business blog program getting more results, download our
ROI toolkit.
One of the many great things about working on the Client Success Team is being able to form relationships with our clients and provide a real partnership when it comes to their blogging strategy. We become fully invested in our clients, and form relationships with them that continue beyond just "getting them up and blogging".
One such relationship is with our contact Taulbee Jackson, who originally started with one client of Compendium's and now has branched off to start his own company. We have continued our partnership to his new company, Raidious, and now have extended to utilize our working relationship to help out other Compendium clientele see the value of our business blogging platform.
Recently, Taulbee and Raidious were recently
featured in the Indianapolis Star (a local newspaper here in town), that highlights their services and how they are a comprehensive digital content strategy for business to utilize when executing an online strategy.
We wanted to congratulate them on their early success and we look forward to continuing our partnership! Check out their blogs featuring their
digital content services.
Sure there are several types of blog platforms available for use out there, but choosing which one is right for your business doesn't have to be difficult. Compendium's unique blog software allows your business to more efficiently manage your online marketing strategy by taking all the hard work out of it for you. The only thing your team has to focus on, is writing blogs!
Our powerful blogging software will manage your posts by sorting them into "keyword blogs" that allow your content to be focused and deliver a more relevant result to the searchers that are your potential customers. This allows your company to show that you are an authority in your vertical and can constantly be providing answers, because you are consistently creating new content!
On top of having a simple blog platform to use, we also have a team of individuals that are dedicated to assisting with your blog marketing strategy. The Client Success Manager's are here to help with coaching and strategic planning with your program so that you can focus on whats important to your business - bringing in more leads!
For more information on our easy to use blog software,
schedule a demo today.
During a conversation with a potential client today here at Compendium, it became quickly clear to this individual that our platform offered more than just a place to write content, but there is an entire team of individuals that come along with your network. Not only are you purchasing a
business blogging software for your online marketing strategy, you are gaining a partner and teammate along with it, to help coach and strategize with you to achieve your particular programs goals.
Another instance of this happened earlier this week when I took a call from a current client. The first sentence of the phone call (literally, I didn't know who it was that called until a few sentences into the conversation) was that "The fact that I can call directly to the person that she was trying to reach - and that person actually answered the phone - made the partnership with Compendium one that they valued based on that fact alone." Not to mention the results that they are getting!
The members of the
Client Success Team, as well as everyone else at Compendium, is fully invested in our clients blog programs. We want to be a partner with our clients, not just another vendor. For more information on how the
Compendium Team can begin to help your business win search,
schedule a blog demo today!
