Hi! I'm Jess Wehner, a Client Success Manager at Compendium Blogware. As a Client Success Manager, my priority is to consult, coach and lead my clients trough blogging best practices. The purpose of this blog is to inform readers about the importance of blogging frequently and provide updates on the results that will follow.
Personally, I am married and live on the northeast side of Indianapolis. I enjoy running, biking, doing just about anything outdoors and of course... blogging!
In order to make sure your investment with Compendium is worth the dollars you put into the program, it is important to track and measure the ROI of your business blog. While not all marketing teams have the resources to do this, ideally you should have an exact or specific way to measure how much revenue you can attribute back to the blog. This can be done by setting up unique landing pages for your CTAs or putting in tracking codes on all of your blog links. One new customer that has done this from the beginning is Memolink. Memolink is an online rewards program that allows you to earn points for completing surveys and shopping online. Once you've earned enough points, you can redeem those points for gift cards, cash, or make a donation to a charitable organization.
Check out the Memolink Blog and you will see that every call to action and link on their site leads you to a page that has a unique URL. The Memolink team can then see how many members they are getting signed up directly from the blog, so they won't have to question at the end of the year if the blog was or was not a succesful investment. It will all be in the numbers.
If you'd like to set up a business blog program like Memolink, contact our business development team today and learn how to start generating leads and making sales from your corporate blog.
We have a webinar coming up this month that is sure to be interesting for clients and prospective clients alike.
If you are a current client, this will be a great time to learn about what some of Compendium's most successful customers are doing on their business blog, how they incorporate blogging best practices, and what success really means to them. Come see how you can make improvements to your current blog program.
If you are new to Compendium, come learn about how blogging for search can lead to an increase in traffic to your site, generate leads, and increase sales from people that have actually experienced these results.
As a snapshot, you'll hear from the following types of companies who blog for business:
eCommerce Gymnastics Apparel Company:
Over $100,000 closed business within a year, directly from blog traffic.
$10,000 in sales within the first two months of blogging with cheer uniform network.
SaaS Event Management and Web Survey Company:
500% increase in keyword reach, compared to the number of paid keywords targeted.
Many clients wonder how much content it will take to start receiving traffic on their keywords - and the answer we most often tell them is you can never write enough! But the truth is, depending on the keywords you are targeting - it could take writing content to each of those keyword phrases as much as one time a day. When you decide to go after words organically, it takes a bit more work than targeting them via a pay per click campaign.
Using Compendium as your business blog software is only the first step in a great SEO strategy. Writing frequent, relevant content is the next step. I found a great post that gives one person's opinion on how much content you can actually expect to write: SEO Copywriting Frequency. Ian Lurie says to look at the competitiveness of the term, and then gives this scale for how much content you should be producing based on the number of competing pages showing up when you search for that term in Google:
<10,000 competing pages: Write once a week.
10,001-100,000 competing pages: Write twice a week.
100,001-200,000 competing pages: Write three times a week.
200,001-2,000,000 competing pages: Write every day.
Keep in mind, these theory applies to each keyword - so if you are targeting 100 keywords, you need to write a lot of content! (You can see why we just tell people to write as much as possible).
Fortunately, Compendium gives each of your posts the biggest bang for your buck, pulling each post out to several different pages based on the number of keywords you use. So instead of having to write 100 posts a day for 100 keywords, our software will take 1 post and put it towards 2-5 keywords (or however many you target). For more information on exactly how our software works, view a demo with one of our business development managers.
One of my clients asked how to add a survey to their blog. We don't get this request a lot, because most of our client's business blogs are focused on lead generation or increasing sales. While a survey might not be a good fit for all blogs, a survey might be something you would be interested in adding to your blog if you are wanting to engage with your readers, get feedback on something, or just get your readers' thoughts on a subject. They may even give you content ideas to write a blog post!
If you would like to add a survey, there are a lot of free, easy to use sites out there - glowday.com, polldaddy.com, surveymonkey.com - just to name a few! For the most part, I found these sites are simple to use - set up an account, specify what you would like your survey to look like, then copy and paste the code into your blog.
Like any call to action you put on your blog though, make sure you have a reason for adding a survey and a tangible way to track and use the results.
Did you miss the Call To Action Webinar today? Don't worry, you can still catch a replay of the webinar.
I would strongly encourage every administrator to attend this webinar and really assess if your calls to action include these important elements:
A purpose
A benefit
A command
A place to click
Getting traffic to your business blog is only the first step, and what the Compendium platform can help with the most. Converting that traffic is your job as a marketer.
This webinar will help you understand what makes a good call to action, how to test and measure that call to action, and what makes a good landing page. You'll also get a look at some of our top performing client's calls to actions and see how they made improvements to increase their click through rate.
As we continue to grow, we are continually adjusting our processes to make them better for you - our client! One process that has been evolving over the past couple months is the getting started process. This is the initial period of getting a client up and running using the Compendium software and is important for starting to build a good relationship with our client. One change we made this past week was moving our training options from online videos to live sessions twice a week:
Tuesday: User – 2:00pm Admin – 2:30pm
Thursday: User – 10:00am Admin – 10:30am
Even though Compenium is an extremely simple blogging software to use, these trainings will help customers get familiar with our system, learn how to publish a post, and learn some best praciteces for business blogging. For more information on how to attend one of our training sessions, contact your client success manager today.
Not a Compendium customer, learn more about our system by viewing a demo today (and oh yeah, get some free Starbucks while you're at it).
One of our client's who just joined compendium is North American Bancard. North American Bancard is a payment solutions provider that has hit the ground running with blogging! They have been up for just a couple weeks now, and already have 30 plus posts on their blog! Many clients are constantly asking what else they can be doing to make their blog more successful, but the answer is simple - write more content and you will get more traffic. North American Bancard is proof of this, as they were indexed and started receiving search engine traffic within the first few weeks of writing content.
They are also doing a great job of incorporating blogging best practices by posting consistently, incorporating their keywords, and using white space to engage and entice readers. If you want to see an example of a client that does a good job writing frequent, relevant content, check out the North American Bancard Blog.
As I watched the below video, I couldn't help but think of all of my clients who can't seem to find the time to blog, or just can't remember to write a post. I couldn't help but wonder, if we made blogging fun, maybe it wouldn't be such a burden to do?
Do you believe in the Fun Theory? Test it out on your bloggers this week. Try "making it fun" for them to blog, and see what happens. You never know, you just might change their attitude towards blogging.
Doug has a post on adding your blog to facebook, but I realized it doesn't go in to detail on the step by step process, so I thought I'd create a post outlining the steps. Publishing your blog to your facebook page is an easy way to promote your business blog. While posting is important, it's also important to get inbound links to your blog and getting the word out about your new website is a great way to do this. By following the below steps, your facebook page will automatically be updated every time you write a new blog post.
Step 3: Verify you are the author of the blog - you can do this by supplying us HTML code to put on your blog, or by getting 9 friends to approve that you are the author of the blog.
Step 4: If you choose to use the widget to verify ownership, send Compendium the below HTML code, and once we have placed the widget in your sidebar, you can hit the "verify widget" button. The widget can be removed once you have verified your blog.
I feel like I post about this a lot, but the truth is, content creation is probably the top thing I spend time coaching customers on through out my day. I recently sent an email to a customer who is struggling to get content up on their blog - they don't have the resources to currently to create enough content themselves, nor do they have the budget to pay for a ghost writer to contribute content to their blog. Here are my suggestions for them (note - they are a b to c company):
Can you (or someone on your team) put every piece of marketing material that has already been created up on the blog? i.e. email marketing newsletters, mailers that are sent out, flyers, etc. As long as it is not on the web anywhere else, it can be put on the blog
Could we solicit stories from customers/potential customers (about their experience with your company) in exchange for a gift card of some sort (i.e. submit your story and be entered to win a $50 giftcard) – these stories could be turned directly into blog posts
Can we get sales reps or customer services reps to submit customer stories and provide a gift card to the person that submits the most stories?
Content creation is the most important thing for your business blog program, so if your team is not naturally producing enough content, make sure you think outside of the box for easy ways to find content. Most of the above ideas take little extra work and put the burden of content creation on the customer!
I always like to feature some of my clients on our blog to show all of the various industries that use Compendium to increase their search engine visibility. One client I just spoke with last week is KI Thought Bridge, a consultative company that assists other businesses with leadership development, change management, conflict resolution and negotiations.
One interesting thing they are doing on their blog is changing out their CTA on a monthly basis. Each month they have a new webinar, so each month we update the CTA on the blog with new details for that month's webinar. While updating the detail, we have also tried different wording and images to see what will encourage visitors to click through the most.
This is something we recommend all clients do and we are happy to help with. The easiest way to measure the ROI on your business blog is to measure the number of people who click through on your call to action. If that number is low, try changing out the CTA monthly, to see what works with your customer base and what doesn't.
Just got an email from a client looking for some content ideas and thought others might be interested in them as well. If your team is struggling with what to write about, try one of the below:
Customer conversations: every question you answer, every explanation you give to a customer can be a blog post. Take your emails and put them into blog posts (this takes no time at all!)
Customer stories: just get an email from a customer who was really happy, or maybe a phone call? Put that in to a blog post.
Current events: take news articles or other blogs and re-use parts of them on your blog, just make sure you include 2-3 sentences of your own thoughts on how the article relates back to your company (and only use a paragraph or two from the article – no need to copy/paste the whole thing in).
Start simple: talk about the basics – what’s your organization chart, how can people contact you, who are some of your clients, where are you guys located, what are you guys working on currently, etc. Each of these could be blog posts!
By the way - this was an email I had sent to the client that I just copy and pasted into a blog post (after putting it in notepad first of course). It took me 5 extra minutes to re-purpose this content! Now who doesn't have an extra 5 minutes in their day?
Got an email from a client wanting to optimize their blog marketing efforts today. They asked if we have any recommended strategies for ensuring content is efficiently and effectively created. Of course, having done this for over a year, I had lots to say!
Effective Content Creation: Every organization is different, and I’ve found the same strategy does not work across the board. Here are some various methods our clients have used:
Incentives/contests (this seems to work the best, but requires the admin to be creative and put the effort in): bloggers do not just blog on their own, they usually need an incentive (i.e. food, gift cards, vacation days, etc.) . We do tons of contests here – so if you ever want help brainstorming, let me know. You can also check out my other post on motivating your bloggers.
Scheduling: Set a goal for how many posts you want up per week (more is always better) and then divide and conquer. For example, if you want 5 posts up a week, and have 5 bloggers, schedule one to write Monday, one to write Tuesday, etc.
Send reminder/motivational emails: remember, while the blog may be on your mind all the time, it is not on your bloggers, send them an email every Monday with a reminder to blog, and what to blog about. It’s ok if every single person in your company wrote about the same thing because they are all giving their unique perspective, so share ideas.
Enforce it: Make it a part of someone’s job, i.e. they will be reviewed based on how many posts they are able to get up (this usually works if someone is in a communications/marketing dept and it fits with their job function)
In terms of making sure the content is efficient, here are some things you should try to do in your blog posts to make sure they are doing the most for your search traffic:
Use your exact keywords phrases as much as possible
Use keywords in your post titles
Use videos/pictures to engage visitors
If you copy and paste from another location, put it in Notepad first – this will strip the text of any outside formatting and make sure everything looks consistent
Use bolding and lists to organize your content in a way that is engaging to readers
Hope this helps! If you'd like more information, contact a client success manager to learn how to optimize your blog marketing efforts, or if you're new to Compendium contact our sales team by clicking on the view demo link in teh sidebar.
I heard some great feedback from a client recently who uses our blog software. Techneos, a company that sells survey software for your mobile device, not only was pleased with all of the great service they receive from Compendium:
Customer service has always been superior. I'm always helped immediately when I have a question, and problems are always solved quickly. I really appreciate this as I can truly focus on the important things--writing quality posts to improve my company's SEO.
They also had great feedback on the importance of content:
On the weeks when we manage to get up more than one post, we seem to see a dramatic increase in visitors viewing the articles...I'm trying to use this information to convince other employees to write more posts!
Techneos is exactly right! More content does equal more search results. If your business blog program is suffering, the first thing to look at is content. If your team is not getting a new post up on your blog almost every day, you are not maximizing the amount of traffic you could be receiving. If you need help with content creation, reach out to a client success manager and we can help you with ideas/motivation!
Business Bloggers need motivation from their admins! Here are a couple tips to keep your bloggers motivated:
Send out a weekly reminder email with tips on what to blog about
Have a contest: give the person who gets the most posts up in one month or one week a prize (could be as little as a $10 gift card, or bring in bagels for everyone who blogs one week, etc.)
If you don't have money for prizes, try another type of incentive, like getting a half day off work, or getting to leave an hour early. If you wear business casual to work, motivate the bloggers by giving them a "jeans" day for whoever blogs
Blog yourself! If you aren't blogging on a weekly basis - your bloggers are not going to be motivated to blog
Show them results - Check out the below graph that shows the direct correlation between posts and traffic. As posts go up, the traffic goes up - as posts go down, traffic goes down:
And if none of the above works - ask your bloggers themselves! Have a meeting with your bloggers and find out what they need from you in order to become motivated to write a blog post. If you need additional ideas on how to motivate bloggers, contact your client success manager or check out these other posts on motivation:
Lots of clients have been asking about their bounce rates and how to lower them lately. Here are a couple things I have been recommending and you could try on your business blog. For more details, also take a look at Doug Karr's post on lowering your bounce rate.
Add a recent posts widget to your sidebar - this encourages people to stay on the blog and navigate through to other posts (ask your Client Success Manager to add this for you)
Link to other related, relevant posts within your blog post (like I did above) - this also encourages people to stay on your blog
Make sure your post titles and post content are on topic and focused on your keywords - people came to you looking for a specific thing, so talk about that!
Add Onclick to your naviation links - this code helps Google Analytics sort out people who are bounces and people who are just wanting more information on your webiste (ask your Client Success Manager to add this for you)
If you are still concerned about the bounce rate on your business blog, and feel like it is affecting your conversion rate, contact your Client Success Manager and we can provide coaching to help you increase conversions on your blog.
We have a new opportunity for our customers that allows you access and control of your blog template. This designer role was created for people who:
1. Are designers themselves and have a good understanding of HTML/CSS 2. Are creating CSS for their blog 3. Want frequent changes made to their blog
If you have a good understanding of web design and web development, the designer role at Compendium may be a good fit for your business blog program. If you are interested in getting more information on this function, contact your Client Success Manager today! To get access you will need to attend a scheduled 45 minute training with a Product Support Manager.
We have a great opportunity coming up for clients and prospects - a virtual marketing workshop! Our marketing team is putting on a workshop titled: Breaking Down Successful Blog Content. This workshop will be an opportunity for you to learn how to overcome one of the biggest barriers of business blogging, actually writing content. Specifically you will learn:
How to write varied and compelling content.
How to motivate your team to write content.
Why content is the motivating factor for success.
As a client success manager, I understand that content is a challenge for many companies, whether big or small. If you or your team struggles with content creation, make sure you sign up for the workshop. There is limited seating for this workshop - only 50 spots available, so sign up today! Click on the webinar sign up at the top of the blog.
If you are looking for a way to take your blog to the next level try adding a ShareThis Widget. ShareThis is a great way to promote your blog and allow readers to share your content.
By putting the ShareThis button on your business blog pages, you’re enabling your viewers to pass along your content to their friends via Email, AIM, and Text Messaging, as well as post it to a large number of social web sites, including Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. By doing this, you’re allowing your band of readers to spread your content all over the web (which Google really likes!)
If you want more information on adding ShareThis, you can email you client success manager at Compendium or check out the ShareThis website. The best way to get word out about your blogs is to allow your biggest fans to do it for you!
Hosted by Richard Cunningham, VP Marketing of Right On Interactive and Chris Baggott Co-founder, CEO of Compendium Blogware. Thursday, December 3rd 2009. Sign up here »
Hi! I'm Jess Wehner, a Client Success Manager at Compendium Blogware. As a Client Success Manager, my priority is to consult, coach and lead my clients trough blogging best practices. The purpose of this blog is to inform readers about the importance of blogging frequently and provide updates on the results that will follow. 
One of my clients asked how to add a survey to their blog. We don't get this request a lot, because most of our client's business blogs are focused on lead generation or increasing sales. While a survey might not be a good fit for all blogs, a survey might be something you would be interested in adding to your blog if you are wanting to engage with your readers, get feedback on something, or just get your readers' thoughts on a subject. They may even give you content ideas to write a blog post!
One of our client's who just joined compendium is North American Bancard. North American Bancard is a payment solutions provider that has hit the ground running with blogging! They have been up for just a couple weeks now, and already have 30 plus posts on their blog! Many clients are constantly asking what else they can be doing to make their blog more successful, but the answer is simple - write more content and you will get more traffic. North American Bancard is proof of this, as they were indexed and started receiving search engine traffic within the first few weeks of writing content. 
asked if we have any recommended strategies for ensuring content is efficiently and effectively created. Of course, having done this for over a year, I had lots to say!
That's an RSS feed. Just click on it to receive content updates.
