Blog for Organizations

More marketers are practicing organic search optimization

Friday, November 6, 2009 by Stephanie West

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!

http://2medschool.blogspot.com/2007/10/organic-chemistry-alkyl-halides-part-ii.html

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!

Google Software Engineer Discusses Rankings

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 by Amber Mohling

What's the main focus of your company's blog marketing program and search marketing program?

Recently Matt Cutts, a Google Sofware Engineer, posted a youtube video disucssing ranking, and he challenged companies that they should be more focused on converting better instead of getting obsessed with ranking.

In the Client Success department at Compendium, we do focus a lot of time on helping our clients receive great search results on numerous keywords related to their business. However, we believe that the success of a blog program is looking at tangible ROI results, i.e. online leads developed and then ultimately conversion.

To learn more about the success of our clients' blog programs, check out some of their case studies by clicking here.

It's true... YOU can be an all-pro blogger!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by Michael Burton

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.

Blog Training Available!

Monday, October 26, 2009 by Sarah Sedberry

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!

The future of business blogging... As told by Chris Baggott

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 by mikey mioduski

Don't look at me, look at our CEO and Co-Founder, Chris Baggott. His upcoming webinar, "What every marketer should know about the future of Business Blogging" is this Thursday, October 22, 2009, from 2-3 est.

I've been working here for well over a year now, I've heard Chris talk about business blogging week after week, and it never gets old! If you've never tuned in to one of his webinars, I can honestly say it is well worth your time. Not only will he educate you, he will probably make you a believer. From the many case studies of real companies blogging successfully, to first hand encounters, Chris' stories and ideas are both entertaining and enlightening.

If you have a chance and are available Thursday, you should check it out!

Sign up here.

Blogging for Business - Success Story from Taiga Company

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Sarah Sedberry

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.

Blogging Best Practices - Writing a Quick & Great Post

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 by Michael Burton

Re-purposing is awesome for writing a quick post. I recently compiled a high level list of blogging best practices related to writing a great post. Here were my thoughts:

Tips and tricks to writing a great blog post:

1.    Use your keywords in the post title and in the first sentence of your post

2.    Make sure you are covering timely and relevant topics in your post

3.    Keep to a single, central theme that utilizes a few keywords that are relevant to the content

4.    Use white space; people scan, they don't read. Write short paragraphs and bold important words Make sure you leave space around your images

5.    Dress it up: pictures, data, and video all work great to differentiate your content

6.    Numbered and ordered lists stand out and are simple to digest, use them often

7.    Utilizing keywords effectively in your image descriptions will drive search results

8.    Talk about new products and services

9.    Keep your post engaging and creative; start with a great title

10.    While we are not writing novels, keep your posts grammatically correct; blogs are casual, but they still need to be professional

11.    Keep your posts to a couple of paragraphs in length

Where to get additional content ideas:

•    50 content ideas
•    200 blog post ideas for your company blog

Additional location for best practice information:

•    Compendium help page

Five minutes later...I have another post ready to go.

Building a foundation to blog

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 by Stephanie West

Corporate blogging isn't something that your company should just blindly start doing. It requires thought and clearly defined goals in order to receive the maximum benefits of blogging for business.

Before you begin blogging, set goals. What do you want to achieve? The only way to successfully blog is if you know exactly which aspects of your company you want to focus on.

http://www.philosophicalquestions.org/GalleryRollingTwo.html

Once you have outlined your blogging goals, you can build your foundation. Building a foundation on clearly defined goals is like building your foundation of stone. It is substantial. Your search marketing strategy can be best executed when you know exactly what you are trying to get accomplished.

In contrast, blogging for business before outlining your company's blog goals is like building your blogging foundation on sand. Your blog content may never be maximized in search engine optimization. And your blog may be a little skewed. A skewed blog will lead to having sporadic content throughout the internet - and what good is that?

Compendium's corporate blogging software is designed for your blog to be optimized in organic search. With relevant keywords, you are building a solid foundation. To keep building on that foundation, you have to continue generating content containing those keywords.

Schedule a demo with a Compendium blog expert today. They will determine if your goals are compatible with Compendium's corporate blog strategy!

Stop playing hide and seek with customers...

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 by Michael Burton

In my opinion, one of the best games when I was younger was hide and seek. It had everything a 11 year old boy wanted in a game: fast running, creative hiding places, and plenty of guarding the "base" when no one was looking...

However, as much fun as it is when I was younger, I see it as the problem that most people in the business world are still having today- it's like they are caught in a never ending game of hide and seek. Potential customers hop onto Google with one goal: Find the product or service they're looking for.

It's not a difficult concept- if there are thousands of consumers searching for exactly what you provide, stop hiding! A customer can't buy from you if they never find you!

Search marketing is the perfect way to address this problem. When companies blog for business, it makes the process of customers finding your website so much easier. Check out this recent post about why you should be blogging.

Compendium Blogware is ready and willing to help you address this issue. We have developed a powerful software solution that makes it easy to maximize your power through search engines.

As much fun as it was to never be found when you were younger, it is not nearly as enjoyable now that customers are looking for you each day and finding competitors instead. If you're still searching for the best blogging system, you'll find just what you need in Compendium!

Blogs Drive Organic Search

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 by Stephanie West

What drives you to blog for business?

Most people blog to be found in search - especially organic search.

http://blogging.compendiumblog.com/blog/blogging-for-money

This picture depicts where most "clicks" occur in search. This is just one reason why you should consider corporate blogging. The corporate blogging software that Compendium offers is structured so that if your company to generate relevant blog content - which should lead to organic search results.

Internet searchers are your prospects - and they are searching for the information you are generating. So in addition to generating good blog content, your blog should have links to other pages of information for your prospects to utilize. This element leads to lead generation.

Lead generation is your way (as a company) to connect to these prospective clients.

So let me recap:

Prospective leads search.
Most of them click on organic search results in their search.
These leads then read your blog.
They want more information on what you wrote about (your content)
So they click on a link to another page.
And their interest in your company drives them to contact you with more information.
Or the information they fill out allows your company to contact that prospective lead.

All of this leads me to one point: People read blogs. Blogs humanize your company and are great resources for curious customers. So consider Compendium's corporate blogging software in order to connect to these perspective customers. Click here for our free Whitepaper: Consider Blogging for more information on the benefits of blogging!

Compending with Compendium

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 by Stephanie West

I'm a fan of this phrase: Compending with Compendium.

Sounds catchy, right? But what exactly does it mean?

http://www.sbi-secureit.com/search-engine-marketing-steps.htm

Your company compends on blog content. Compendium's blogging platform takes your blog content and automatically structures it for maximum search engine optimization. Everyone wants to be found in search, right? Compendium's platform is structured with that in mind - so the only thing you are left to do is generate blog content.

This is what is so unique about Compendium's blog software. This is also why Compendium is so useful for businesses. It serves as a great business-to-business marketing tool.

Using Compendium as your company's blog marketing tool will result in many benefits.

For more information on the benefits that your company can see from corporate blogging, click here to receive our free Webinar: Profit from Business Blogging. It will help outline the profits from blogging and the benefits you'll receive from blogging with Compendium.

Blogger Keys to Success #3 (of 3)

Monday, September 14, 2009 by Compendium Client Marketing

Your blog will become a direct reflection of how your company is found on search engines. It's imperative that you write relevant content that centers around the keyword strategies we've developed for you.

Many company blogs fail because they don't answer the questions of the search engine visitor and; as a result, don't attract business. Utilize our 50 content strategies to develop your content that is relevant to the search engine traffic that will drive your business!

Blogs are not as formal as a marketing brochure site, so you do have opportunities to share insight on your company and your employees... just be sure to do it in such a way that it remains relevant to your audience. When you're thinking of a topic, think about whether or not you're going to leave the reader with additional insight to your company, products or services that will engage them.

Post Idea: Select a keyword that you've never written about before and write about it! Utilize the 50 content strategy post if you get stuck on what kind of approach to take.

Related Posts:

Put a Spark in Your Blogging Program

Monday, September 14, 2009 by Krystal Featherston

So every month our Marketing Department has great blogging incentives for Compendium Staff. The past couple of months we've blogged for drinks/candy, Indians Tickets, gift cards, and free PTO days.

However, this month it is the "Blogging Bucket and Content Cooler,"which is filled with yummy snacks and drinks for the week. Each department in this contest and the first to reach their goal of blogs for the week receives the bucket and cooler exclusively in their department for their blogging efforts. Last week my department won, and we got lots of yummy snack - below is just part of what we got ....

Compendium's Blogging Contest Winners Gift

... so that's why I'm blogging today! I want to keep those snacks coming! Everyday around 3pm I need a candy pick-me-up!!!

I think that our Marketing Department does a great job at helping to keep everyone here at Compendium motivated. Also, by providing your employees with incentives is a great way to get your company blogging about your business. It also allows for your customers to see the "inside" of your company and it can allow them to connect with your company on a deeper level.

So create a blogging incentive program today and see if you can get your bloggers blogging!

Not a typical business? You can still blog!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009 by Allison Bowen

Many people today still think that blogging is simply a way to write down thoughts and share them with others in the blogosphere. Mothers blog to share cute things their children do. Executives blog to discuss ideas they have for their companies. But hopefully, if you're reading this, you know that blogging is about so much more.

At Compendium, we often talk about "blogging for business." But what if your organization isn't a typical business? Can you still benefit from having a Compendium blog? Of course!

Not only do I have the title of Client Success Specialist at work, I'm also a 2009 Orr Fellow. This is a pretty cool title in itself! Orr Fellows serve a two-year commitment with their host companies (mine being Compendium) and engage in innovative projects. They also get to work with top company executives in various roles and recruit top talent from around the state of Indiana to be future Fellows. To learn more about the Fellowship, check out our website.

As we begin to recruit 2010 Fellows, we came to the realization that we need to have more of an online presence in order to get our name out there. My solution? A blog through Compendium! Although we're not trying to specifically sell anything, we still want people to know our name. We'd like to collect as many resumes as possible in order to choose the most qualified candidates we can. So why not start a Fellowship blog? Not only does blogging provide an excellent opportunity for us to talk about what we do on a daily basis, through Compendium, it can also increase our search engine optimization. How great would it be if a college senior Googled "Indianapolis Job Opportunities" and an Orr Fellow's blog appeared first in the list? Obviously this would go a long way in getting our name out to students.

So despite the fact that your organization may be not be the traditional business to business or business to consumer company, you can still benefit from having a blog! What organization would not want to draw attention to their site?

Why not give it a try today? We're beginning our Orr Fellowship blog here shortly and you can bet that I'll let you know how our results turn out!

Blogging Incentives....

Tuesday, September 8, 2009 by Chandra Chaves

I am the Business Manager here at Compendium and every month our Marketing Deparment has great blogging incentives for our employees in our company. We have had blogging for your favorite drink/candy, Indians Tickets, gift cards, and free PTO days. This month it is the "Blogging Bucket and Content Cooler" that is making me blog today. The Blogging Bucket and Content Cooler is filled with wonderful snacks and drinks for the week. We have several departments in this contest and the first to reach their goal of blogs for the week receives the bucket and cooler exclusively in their department for their blogging efforts.
Providing your employees with incentives is a great way to get your company blogging about your business. Which allows your customers to see the "inside personality" of your company and who doesn't want to see that?

Business blogging: Answering a searcher's problems with your solutions.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009 by mikey mioduski

business blogging is matching the searcher's problems with your solutions

Blog marketing is not much more than a case of problems and solutions. Your potential costumers have problems. They need those problems fixed. Where do they go? They search online for the solution. We all do this.

The reason so many companies blog is because blogging is a great venue to tell stories (the solutions) that customers are looking for. If you have a solution to a common problem, talk about it through a business blog. Even though it seems obvious, unless you're getting out there and intercepting these searchers, they aren't going to find you. Sure you might have a great product or service at a great price, but if you're not getting found you're walking dangerously close to little place called irrelevancy.

So just like Dunkin D's points out to its early morning caffeine junkies, tell your customers what solutions you have for their problems. As so many of our clients can attest, it works to help get you found.

Do you have a specific design behind your company blog?

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 by Brian Millis

"Is your internet strategy engineered by design, or has it just evolved over time by default?"

This is a great question posed by CEO Coach, Mike Myatt on a recent post in his blog. I thought it was ironic that I read this the day after my post on having a strategy behind corporate blogging. His question is great for VP's of Marketing, CEO's, and Business Owners to ask themselves.

Often times I talk to businesses who have started a blog because they heard they should. At first it seems like a good way to communicate to existing customers who show up to the web site. Posting is sporadic at best and content is rarely focussed or organized around revenue driving search terms.

Then, they hear all the buzz around Twitter and start up an account there as well. Usually a person in marketing is responsible for updating the Twitter feed, the Facebook Wall, the MySpace page, Linked In, and the company blog. All of these social mediums are powerful tools and can have impacting results when properly leveraged. However, the problem is that the decision to begin marketing in these channels evolved over time with no strategy in place. They don't all work together to support the overall company goal. Increased online visibility exists in the background but is not actively sought and measured. Why is this?

One of my favorite things to do in my role at Compendium is to discuss how our business blog software can be a cornerstone to an overall search and social media marketing strategy. Bridging the gap between qualified prospects who search for information online millions of times per day and the humanized content a business puts out on a strategic blog can have tremedous results.

Driving search engine traffic

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 by Stephanie West

Are you measuring the amount of search traffic that your company blog is generating?

Search marketing is a great tool for your company to capitalize on. BUT (note the capitalized emphasis) if you aren't measuring the amount of traffic your blog receives, then your search marketing strategies aren't as effective as they could be.

Here are 2 ways to drive search engine traffic:

Start by measuring the amount of traffic that your blog receives
Look at the content within your blog & increase your amount of blog posts

To measure the amount of traffic that your blog receives, consider the conversion rates. This number is how many people are going from your blog to your company website. Also consider the bounce rate of your blog. This is the amount of people leaving the sight. A good bounce rate is a low number (i.e. 30%).

Measuring the content within your blog is also important. Having a good title is indicative of what can be found on the page. Searchers are looking for answers to their problems, so the title of your blog gives them an idea if their answer can be found in your blog.

There is a direct correlation between the amount of blog posts and the traffic you are able to generate. Have good content written by the experts of the product. This is the credible information that internet searchers are looking for.

For more information on how to drive the search traffic of your blog, click here to listen to a previous Webinar hosted by Chris Baggott at Compendium.

Get structure and strategy behind your company blog

Monday, August 17, 2009 by Brian Millis

I had a great second call today with a company that had a blog strategy in mind. The only problem was the strategy part. Then, I read this great quote from an article about video blogging and what one company is doing to better train their clients for this keeping search engines in mind when using this medium.

"By informing their viewers of how to reach a wider range of consumers, The Creare Group want to be sure people understand the technical side of writing online content. Without a format of any sort, writing for the web can become futile. As with any sort of online marketing, there needs to be a structure and purpose."
~ Full Article Here

This same approach is so true when it comes to business blogging. Part of a successful blog marketing strategy hinges on people finding the content in the search engines. Compendium's platform takes the technology out of the writing and makes it simple. We have a simple structure for creating a key phrase rich blog post that is engaging and easily found by the search engine. With Compendium, there is truly a purpose behind each post.

Are you looking to add value and strategy to your business blog and social media marketing? Yes, then give us a call and I'd be happy to show you a how simple we can make it.

Go ORGANIC, with business blogging, man.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009 by mikey mioduski

As a business blog software company, we are big advocates of utilizing blogs to grow your organic search presence. By organic, we mean the search results that show up in the non-paid section of any search engine results page. The reason organic is cool is because, well, it's free. It also happens to be the section that gets over 90% of all search engine clicks... So it's really the most bang you can get from your search marketing budget.

Search marketing today is all about establishing and growing your organization's presence in the search engines, so that if Richard Q. Public has a problem, and you have a solution, he will find your solution when he searches for answers to his problem. It's really common sense, and that's why so many smart marketers today are focusing more of their budgets to getting found in organic search.

Compendium helps you "go organic" in a different way. While business blogging enables companies to tell their stories online, unless those stories are organized and indexed carefully, they could be lost in the growing pool of online content. Search engines like pages with fresh, frequent and densely focused content. So unless your story is surrounded by lots of stories like it, then it could lose its keyword strength.

Compendium Blogware answers this problem by organizing blog content around pre-determined keywords targeted by our clients. Our software's unique algorithm does this dirty work for you, so all you and your employees have to do is keep the content coming. Because we also have administrative layers, you can control the content that goes out representing your company. While there are more than one blogging platforms out there today, there is only one built strictly to help businesses get found in search.

So go organic. Blog on Compendium, man.