A recent article by Advertising Age titled, Digital Marketing: The State of Search Marketing: 2009, has reported that search marketing is continuing to grow. In addition, about 9 out of 10 marketers are practicing organic search optimization. That's a large percentage of marketers that are going organic to get found in search!
The benefits of leveraging your online marketing strategy by organic search are limitless. Since many people are clicking on organic search results, they are attracting viewers to their blog, which can, in turn, draw potential customers into their website.
If you want to acquire new customers and then convert those customers - corporate blogging might be your answer because blogging humanizes your marketing strategy.
Compendium's corporate blogging software is designed to help leverage your blog in organic search - with a humanized approach. Nine out of 10 marketers are trying to position themselves in organic search - which mean YOU (as the customer) are likely to come into contact with one of these marketer's organic search strategies.
For more information on blogging for organic search and how it pertains to you - click here to speak with a blogging expert. They will explain the benefits of using Compendium's blog software to you!
Are you considering starting a blog program at your company? Or are you looking for ways to improve your current blog's ROI?
If you answered Yes to either of these questions then you'll want to tune into Compendium's upcoming free webinar:
Finding Business Blogging Success: Real-Life Stories Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 from 2-3pm EST Hosted by award winning marketer, Chris Baggott
During the webinar, Chris will discuss the best practices for ROI driven business blogging, real-life examples of successful blogging strategies, and how to set up a blogging strategy built for success.
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.
No matter what stage you're at with researching Compendium and deciding if we're the best solution for your search marketing strategy - client success stories are always a great way to get the inside story on a company! That's why our November Webinar is focused on just that...
We want you to hear about our clients and learn how Compendium has helped them to successfully achieve their blogging goals. During this informative Webinar, you'll learn:
Best Practices for ROI driven business blogging.
Real-life examples of successful blogging strategies.
How to set up a blogging strategy built for success.
Don't hesitate to register for this Webinar - there are only 250 spots available and they are filling up very quickly! Also, after you register, email Chris Baggott at chrisb@compendium.com to send him your questions for the Webinar.
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.
Happy Halloween from Compendium! That cutie over there is my sweet little cousin Carter dressed up in his astronaut costume. He is my motivation for my Halloween post of the day. 5 spooky ideas for your next 5 blog posts that follow blogging best practices:
1. Tell a spooky story. Testimonials are a great way to allow your prospects to hear from your current clients.
2. Creepy Statistics - Your prospects want numbers. Numbers showing clear ROI from your product are great ideas for blog posts.
3. Show a Scary Video! Videos embedded right into your blog post will give your readers a different way to connect with your product.
4. Report on an evil story. Sharing a story where your company is highlighted is a great way to talk about your company's success from another angle.
5. Happy Halloween - blogging about timely holidays and events are great for search. Show your personal side and share how your company celebrates holidays and events.
New clients coming on board with Compendium are always wondering if they can see some of our best-looking templates . Obviously, "best" is a relative term - and when I say best I mean a template that has great calls-to-action, high conversion rates and high read times. Here are some of the templates that I send new clients to:
Each of these blogs has a great design that follows blogging best practice and makes it easy for the searcher to take the next step with the company. A blog for business should highlight the company's' brand and give the searcher in each stage of the buying process a possible next step. If you'd like to learn more about how to update your blog software template, email us at help@compendium.com!
If there is one thing that makes a powerful blogging software even more powerful its a great blogging administrator. The main job of a blogging administrator is to approve and decline the blog content submitted by the company bloggers. But a great blogging administrator does much more. A great blogging administrator typically does the following as well:
1.) motivates the team of bloggers daily with new ideas 2.) develops incentive programs for the bloggers 3.) understands exactly how to track the success of the blog program back to a clear ROI 4.) is also a blogger and contributes daily to the blog 5.) is personally excited and motivated by the blog program 6.) understands blogging best practices and enforces those with the bloggers.
A great blogging administrator can be the difference between a good and a great blog for search engine optimization.
As the main manager of our help@compendium.com e-mail, I often see many different cases come in to our queue. Sometimes clients are requesting blogging best practice tips. Other times clients are looking to have a call-to-action changed or have a question about how to best blog for search results. No two cases are ever the same; it keeps my life exciting!
I've had the opportunity to learn so much about our simple blogging software and every day I'm more and more amazed at how complex it is. Only our amazing engineering team can figure out how to make everything work together! Maybe they should take a break from our software and try their hand at an invention like the one in the video below!
Jay-Z called for the Death of Autotune, I'm calling for the death of Stock Imagery.
Yeah right. Stock images are ok I guess because you can find a visual that represents what you're writing about in your blog kind of. Like if you're writing about "social media" you can find a stock image of some little icon people in a circle... you know, to really drive the idea home.
Stock images are easy. But the most memorable blogs and websites in my mind are the ones that create everything from scratch. Obviously I don't practice what I preach... But I just want to give props to these very cool sites that really deliver one of a kind content, because content is really what separates a succesful business blog from an okay one.
IDEO and alistapart.com are two examples that I know of who create custom graphics and illustrations to represent their content. Not an easy task! But it pays off brilliantly. The old design saying goes something like this: you're supposed to design around the content. Chances are a stock image can't express exactly what you wanted to say and also maintain the graphic standards of your brand. Granted not all of us have the budget for such customization, but maybe it's as easy as asking a local art student to pump out some drawings for you. Or asking your buddy the aspiring photographer to get some shots. Whatever it is, wouldn't it make for a much more beautiful internet if each site we visited had it's own unique look and feel, even in the content.
Here's what the heck i'm talking about in case I've lost you.
Exhibit A. Ideo.com's patterns... Awesome illustrations (please don't tell me these are stock or my whole theory is kabosh.)
Exhibit B. Also from Ideo. Notice they have their own style, yet they still speak to the content with the imagery. Even the layout is super unique.
Exhibit C. Alistapart has a darn good illustrator pumping out top notch watercolorings (?) makign each article that much more compelling and interesting.
It's definitely more time consuming, but again, this customization is another way to make for a more engaging, more memorable experience for visitors to your business blog, which is not an easy task online.
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.
Webinars are a great way to get information about a particular topic. At Compendium, our webinars are focused on blogging - corporate blogging in particular.
There are numerous benefits of blogging for your business. Chris Baggott, Compendium's Co-founder and CEO, has spoke about many issues around corporate blogging. But now has come the time for YOU to let us know what you'd like to hear about. What type of blogging best practices would you like to hear about? We want your opinion and suggestions because webinars are designed for YOUR benefit!
Some informative Webinar topics previously discussed include:
Calling all Compendium Clients! Last Chance! Last Chance!
This afternoon at 2:00 PM EST the Client Success team will be talking about Calls-to-Actions on your Compendium blog. Call-to-Action, or CTAs, are the lead generation gateway to your business. A blog with great search rankings, great content and no CTAs would be useless as you aren't giving your prospect any reason to continue the conversation with you. CTAs are a trackable way to ensure that the folks who are finding your blog are engaged enough to take the next step.
This afternoon, Chantelle Flannery will be discussing blogging best practices for what makes a good call to action. She will go through Compendium's guidelines for CTAs and even highlight several client CTAs that are working well.
To join the webinar just register HERE (or click on the Call to Action in this blog post).
Every time I meet with a client who is having a hard time keeping their bloggers motivated, I always refer to one of the best strategies I have heard thus far: Smiley Faces.
ExactTarget, a long time user of Compendium, had a tough time motivating the 300+ plus employees to blog. They tried contests, games, prizes, etc - and it would produce a bit more content, but they needed more. A constant reminder for the bloggers. A few months back they came up with a brilliant idea that has worked really well for their company. Each week the marketing team counts up the posts written during the previous week and throughout the month for each of the bloggers. Then, leveraging their email marketing program they send a personalized email to each and every blogger letting them know where they stand. Included on this email is the Team goal, blogging best practices, tips and tricks as well as a few blog posts ideas for the coming week. However, the big motivation on this blog comes from a simple "smiley face" in the top right hand corner. If a blogger created enough content they receive a "smiley face". If they have a couple posts but didn't reach their goal - a "neutral/straight face". And if you didn't blog at all.... a "frowny face". This simply weekly reminder that you either helped the company drive results or that you let them down has kept the bloggers pumping out content each and every week.
Compendium's Client Success Team is here to help your company leverage powerful blogging software. We will work with your company to find out what motivates your bloggers, what drives results and how can your company win search through a blogging strategy.
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.
You may know that Compendium hosts a new Webinar featuring our CEO/CoFounder Chris Baggott once a month - if you didn't know that, check out some of our Webinar replays so you can catch up on what you've missed. They're jam packed with knowledge on search marketing strategies and blogging best practices that you won't find anywhere else!
For the month of November, we're trying something different - instead of us deciding what topic we're centering our next Webinar around - we want to hear from you! Tell us what topics you would like to have Chris cover next month.
Making sure that you recieve the information that you want is most important to us. So leave your ideas in the comment section below, you never know, it may be the next Webinar topic!
Chances of becoming a professional basketball player - 1 in 400,000
Chances of becoming an all-pro blogger - 1 in 1
If you want to be one of the 400+ NBA players suiting up every week, you can bet you have to be one of the best of the best to become successful. It takes years of practice, strength conditioning and pure athleticism to have a strong presence in the NBA.
But what about blogging? The odds couldn’t be more different. While you need to be a Kobe Bryant or a Lebron James to have the most “success” in the NBA, you don’t have to be a Pulitzer Prize winning writer to write “successful” blog posts.
Success in business blogging is for anyone who can talk about the things they know best: their business. As long as you use relevant keywords in describing your business and products, your blog will find success. Don't let the blogosphere intimidate you. When you're posting relevant content frequently, you will find success in blog software.
Looking for more tips on blogging? Check out some of our other company blogs and see what other Compendium bloggers have to say about the world of business blogging.
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).
Make the most of your sidebar real estate by incorporating quality Calls To Action.
Remember that something your visitors were searching for brought them to your blog content. It is your goal to engage the readers and get them to take the next step with you. Writing keyword rich content and providing quality Calls To Action will help you reach this goal.
AirFlow Technology saw a 987.5% increase in conversions by following Compendium's CTA best practices.
Learn how you too can maximize your traffic's engagement using quality Calls To Action by attending this month's client only webinar.
Do you have Calls To Action that are performing well? Go here to tell us about your CTAs and we'll highlight your organization's success during next week's webinar!
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 »
The benefits of leveraging your online marketing strategy by organic search are limitless. Since many people are clicking on organic search results, they are attracting viewers to their blog, which can, in turn, draw potential customers into their website. 
Happy Halloween from Compendium! That cutie over there is my sweet little cousin Carter dressed up in his astronaut costume. He is my motivation for my Halloween post of the day. 5 spooky ideas for your next 5 blog posts that follow blogging best practices: 
New clients coming on board with Compendium are always wondering if they can see some of our best-looking templates . Obviously, "best" is a relative term - and when I say best I mean a template that has great calls-to-action, high conversion rates and high read times. Here are some of the templates that I send new clients to: 
blogging administrator. The main job of a blogging administrator is to approve and decline the blog content submitted by the company bloggers. But a great blogging administrator does much more. A great blogging administrator typically does the following as well:
er to one of the best strategies I have heard thus far: Smiley Faces. 
now where they stand. Included on this email is the Team goal, blogging best practices, tips and tricks as well as a few blog posts ideas for the coming week. However, the big motivation on this blog comes from a simple "smiley face" in the top right hand corner. If a blogger created enough content they receive a "smiley face". If they have a couple posts but didn't reach their goal - a "neutral/straight face". And if you didn't blog at all.... a "frowny face". This simply weekly reminder that you either helped the company drive results or that you let them down has kept the bloggers pumping out content each and every week. 
One of our client's who just joined compendium is 
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).
