Blog Technology

Why Blogging is Your #1 Search Marketing Tool

Thursday, March 18, 2010 by Heather Benfield

The Pew Internet and American Life Project

The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that as much as 80% of all web activity begins with online search.Also, compared to Audio/video instant messaging, text messaging and social networking, email and search continue to dominate online web interactions.

So what does this mean for business marketers?

Basically, in order to get in front of those prospects using email and search, you need to find the most effective, reliable and ROI producing tool out there. In today's world that tool is corporate blogging!

In order to educate marketers about the importance of blogging for search, Compendium Blogware has recently created a new Whitepaper titled: Why Blogging is Your #1 Search Marketing Tool.

In this Whitepaper you'll learn:

> Commong blogging myths that hinder marketers from valuable search engine results.
> Why blogging works for SEO
> How an enterprise level platform helps organizations acquire new business

To read this new Whitepaper, download it for free now: Why Blogging is your #1 Search Marketing Tool.

Client Testimonial on Compendium

Thursday, March 18, 2010 by Sarah Sedberry

Of course every employee believes in their company and the product or service they carry, but it is always nice to get confirmation from clients and outside sources who love your company as much as you do.

Recently we had a client, Ray Rosewell of DaVinci Roofscapes, mention his success with his blogging program in an interview that was featured on Business Blog Writers. In the interview Ray mentions his goals and how Compendium is helping his company achieve them:

"From a business standpoint, what I am looking for is a way to make a blog effective as an information tool, but at the same time, use it as a tool that will allow search engines to find us so they can help people who are looking for information that relates to our products.. By using the Compendium blog platform to do the work on keyword selection we are able to accomplish both goals.”

For more on how Compendium's powerful blogging software can help your business achieve your online marketing goals, contact us to schedule a demo and get free Starbucks!

Compendium March Blogging Contest

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 by Kelly Simon

This is the time of year when every internal office contest is based around basketball and the NCAA Tournament. Things are no different here at Compendium!

At the beginning of the month we launched a blogging contest amongst all of our clients and I'm happy to say that 4 of the clients in our top 10 are clients I work with! Congratulations to EasyCare, First Tax Solution, Harrison College and Marshall Wolf Automation. I can't wait for you to dominate the next round of competition!

Valuable Lessons about Social Media

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

There are many lessons to be learned about social media and I still am learning as I go, but there are some tips you can find online that can help you with your social media strategy. I was reading an article on problogger.net called 30 Valuable Lessons Learned Using Social Media for Small Business which revealed two points that stuck with me.

1) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important but Search Engine Visiblity (SEV) is MORE important for small businesses.

2) The most consistent return for your small business is by business blogging.

The article is a great one because it shows a man's mistakes in the last few years and what works and doesn't work in his small business. Every business is different and that is a beauty of a blog. It is your unique way to share your business to the world. Check out a demonstration today of how blogging can help your business.

Green is my Favorite Color

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

If you are a member of the business community, you love
St. Patrick's Day because of the

color green! Green is the color of money which business people do love. And if you are looking out for the future of your business, you should want to ensure that there are ways to provide more sales and lead generation for your company. There are many strategies that can help your company, but are any of them as effective as corporate business blogging?

Compendium offers blogging solutions that helps do at least these three things that can make your company green this year:

1) Humanize your Marketing - People believe more in campaigns that feel like they are being treated as an individual.

2) Lead Generation - Using Compendium's software helps increase people's first time visits to your company's website

3) Tracking of Campaigns - The software also tracks how successful your blogging is with the help of Google Analytics.

There are so many benefits that Compendium's software provides but those three are just some highlights. If you have any questions, view this Whitepaper about Considering Blogging. It will give you the basics of making your social media strategy a green one!

Measuring the Success of your Blogging Efforts

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 by Isaac Pellerin

There's no better way to measure success than having a tool designed to deliver up-to-date success metrics. I must congratulate our Engineering team that released an update to Compendium (a corporate blogging software built for search). The update integrates with Google analytics so that our clients can measure how much traffic is being generated through their blogging program.

Not only does this demonstrate the power of our software but it also builds a foundation where future updates will expand on our analytics capabilities.

True Customer Service: Part 1

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 by Jason Harvoth

User generated content is a very powerful tool that will assist in driving more qualified leads to your web site. Below you will find an example of user generated comments that could drive potential business to an Indianapolis based Chevrolet dealership.

"I have driven several vehicles over my driving lifetime, and I recently had a wonderful experience with Penske Chevrolet in Indianapolis.

My wife and I recently purchased a Chevrolet Traverse, and are completely satisfied thus far with the vehicle. Moreover, the customer service and professionalism of your associates need to be mentioned. I never felt pressured to purchase the vehicle and was able to make the best decision for my family's needs.

Chong Neal – Internet Sales Associate

Chris Hutton – General Manager

Scott Haynes – Business Development Manager

Bruce Heath – Vice President

This professional sales team was instrumental in acquiring our business & getting us out of our other vehicle. The vehicle that we purchased is fantastic, but superior sales team won our business. Thank you to the Penske Chevy team."

Corporate blogging has never been so simple. Especially when your customers can add your relevant content for you. Win, Win.

Searching is the Cornerstone of internet activity

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 by Isaac Pellerin

Here's an interactive chart provided by BBC's new series Superpower: Exploring the Power of the Internet

The data represents unique visits to websites in January 2010.

It becomes clear that people visit search engines more than they do anything else. Of course we may be able to assume that we also spend more time on sites that have less visits (i.e. social networks, blogs, e-commerce sites).

Search engines are working hard to imitate the human thought process. Because of this, search engines like frequency and recency.

Which means one of the best places to invest time and effort is in the "Blogging" segment of this chart. It's in this segment that you have the most control over the content. If you bring people to your blog, you can then use a Call-to-Action to convert them to a customer/client.

Because of this, corporate blogging is on the rise as part of a search marketing strategy. It's being realized as a powerful SEO Tool because of it's application in driving organic results. It could serve your organization well to consider a blogging platform that best supports your strategy of getting found in search.

Drive Local Traffic for Your Business's Success

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

If one of your problems is local search, Compendium has a Whitepaper for you to deal directly with this issue of local search. For any company, people are looking more often online than in print media or at least that is what is shown in recent search trends. I can completely understand that your company has been around the area before the internet was even created, but that does not account for the lost business you are having by not being found online.

I can also understand how online marketing strategies can scare a company if they are unfamiliar with social media. However, there are solutions for you that can provide tangible returns on your investment like business blogging. All you have to do is write about what is going on in your day along with some specific keywords that drive traffic to your website. Before you know it, people will be coming through your doors in no time! Check out the Local Search White paper here.

The Value of Blogging

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

If you are confused about blogging's value to your company, I urge you to check out our ROI Toolkit. It is one of the many resources that Compendium Blogware provides for its clients and for people who are curious about corporate blogging. This toolkit can help your company create the social media strategy that will drive lead generation and increase online visibility.

Since return on investment is one of the key deciding factors of whether a marketing plan gets implemented, Compendium has created this toolkit to show how blogging is one of the most cost effective ways to market your company.

The toolkit includes:

- 2 Case Studies
- 1 White paper
- 1 article about the 10 Ways to Boost the Value of Your Corporate Blog
- A Checklist to Get your Blog Started

It's just a start, but the ROI Toolkit can really help your business blog. Check out a demonstration today if you want more information.

New Corporate Blog Launched

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 by Isaac Pellerin

Congratulations to Dun & Bradstreet! Today they launched their new Corporate Blog complete with clear calls to action (A great way to capitalize on using blogging as part of a search marketing strategy).

I wish them future success.

Universities should all be blogging

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 by Brian Millis

Below you will find a recent email I sent following a great conversation with a private university in New York. As a former Admissions Officer, I have a certain soft spot for helping schools realize the power of strategic blogging to better establish a school brand, culture, and communication with prospective students. Hopefully others will find this helpful as well.

Email:

Hi Current Prospect,

Thank you so much for your time yesterday as I certainly enjoyed the conversation. I wanted to provide you a few take-aways and example links for your internal conversations.

Here are a few examples of current higher education clients who are doing a great job!:

http://blog.granite.edu/blog/granite-state-college

http://blog.uindy.edu/blog/university-of-indianapolis

http://blogging.depauw.edu/blog/top-50-liberal-arts-colleges

Key Take-Aways Regarding Compendium:

Who we are: Compendium is an on demand, enterprise level search and social media platform. We provide a secure and scalable solution that leverages blogging for SEO, human engagement, and online customer acquisition.

Automation: We automate the organization of blog content to deliver the highest search engine ranking/traffic results possible.
Security: We use NO open source plug-ins developed by third parties, which require maintenance and update.
Scalable: Can have unlimited bloggers and can scale the number of strategically targeted online marketing search phrases.
Administration/Control: Admissions can easily manage the messages going out in blog posts and incoming comments from searchers.

Please let me know how I can continue to be a resource for you as you make decisions on the future of your blog program.

Best,

Brian Millis 317-777-6254

"ROI, ROI, ROI" for Engineering!!!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 by Maureen McNamara

Today is an exciting day here at Compendium for me. We meet with the Engineering Team who is responsible for making Compendium's powerful blogging software --- simple blogging software.

The Compendium Engineering Team, led by P.J. Hinton is responsible for the development, testing, deployment, and operation of Compendium Blogware. The group uses SCRUM (not an acronym - think rugby), an agile software development methodology to manage the planning, development and deployment life cycle. Emphasis is place on short development cycles and frequent releases. Progress on commitments are measured on a daily basis to ensure any obstacles are resolved asap.

I am a Business Development Manager. I sell the best blogging software on the planet and I am certainly not a techie --- but I love attending these meetings. The Engineering Team's vernacular includes exciting stuff like "sprint planning," "strategic sprint," "burndown chart," "agile,"disciplined transparency,"and of course the "scrum" and the powerful "scrum master".

Today, we learn how easy to use blogging software becomes even more robust when it comes to my favorite bottom line --- ROI analytics --- so I'll be sharing more in the days to come. Thanks engineering. Okay, okay, RAH, RAH, RAH!!!

WSJ - Is there Value in Social Media?

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 by Kyle McGrath

I read a great article in the Wall Street Journal this morning entitled Entrepreneurs Question Value of Social Media that disccussed the frustration small companies have in measuring the ROI of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. There is no arguement that in the past few years these social media sites have become powerful marketing tools for small firms due to their low cost and ease-of-use, but the disconnect comes when the number of followers doesn't correlate to the number of sales at the end of the day.

The article quotes Chris Lindland, owner of Cordarounds.com, an online clothing retailer in San Francisco, who says that "he spends up to 90 minutes a day managing Cordaround's accounts on Twitter and Facebook, but his million visits hasn't led to millions in sales." This 1.5 hours/day equals 7.5 hours/week which equals 30 hours/month and 360 hours/year. WOW! All of this time spent for a return that is difficult to measure.

This is why utilizing an enterprise corporate blogging platform is so important for any size business. Compendium's platform not only improves a company's organic search result, but can easily measure ROI which is important to any company's bottom line.

Click here to learn more.

Just Do it

Monday, March 15, 2010 by David Burks

Blog for Business- Just Do It

Social marketing is the evolved state of word-of-mouth marketing, using new, Internet-based social media. Social media includes a plethora of social sites people can use to spread the word about their business or Website. Social marketing offers the advantage of being inexpensive, but at the same time, it provides a highly targeted audience. In the correct and experienced hands, social marketing can multiply the profits of any business by increasing the number of customers.

Social marketing is best done through various social media channels such as blogs, social networking websites, picture and video sharing sites, and targeting social bookmarking sites.

Compendium specializes in blogging software, providing a hub for all social media efforts. To learn more about Compendium Blogware and our software, visit www.compendium.com.

Using website analytics to measure blogging program success

Monday, March 15, 2010 by Heather Benfield

Often times when trying to explain Compendium Blogware and our software-as-a-service to others, I get a reaction that tells me I've completely lost the person I'm talking to...yep, you guess it...the smile and nod. I know you've seen it a million times and have probably done it yourself a few times here and there.

I've discoverd the easiest (and most effective) way to educate others about Compendium Blogware and the benefits we provide companies is to tell a story about one of our client's that has seen great success with our enterprise level blogging platform. This helps people relate to the client's situation and visualize how their company would use blogging for search.

With that being said, I'd love to share this latest success story about one of our newer clients, Raxco Software:

For over 30 years, B2B Company Raxco Software has developed award-winning defragmentation solutions and performance utilities that improve hard drive and server performance. But in 2009, the company was looking to improve some of their own levels of performance regarding their freeware blogging program.

Raxco noticed they were able to win a few keyword search phrases throughout the two years of their free blogging program, but were unable to maintain their ranking for long periods of time. They were looking for a solution that not only helps them win more keyword searches, but also provides automatic content distribution and blog scalability. Raxco found these features in Compendium Blogware’s enterprise level software, along with its ability to provide real-time knowledge of key phrase density.

After only four short months with Compendium, Raxco’s primary goal – to generate enough business from the blogs to cover the product’s expense – was well on its way.

By producing an avg. 4 posts/week distributed to 100 targeted keyword blogs, 36% rank in the top 10 Google search results and 70% in the top 50 – driving a total 23,555 visits from blogs to website.

With website analytics, Raxco is able to report a 10% conversion rate on blog Calls-to-Action (CTA’s). Although the company chooses not to disclose profit numbers, they are just getting started with their program and the blogs are already their 3rd highest lead source.

For more information about Compendium Blogware and how we can help your company, schedule a free, live demo today!

Tracking Results

Monday, March 15, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

One of the aspects that makes blogging a winning online marketing strategy is that there are easy ways to track your return on investment. You can use tools like Google Analytics to track things like the percentage of 1st time visitors to your site. You can also track how many people click on links that lead to future orders. Those are just the basics of how you can track an investment in blogging.

One company that tracked their blogging efforts was one of our clients, Fairtytale Brownies. Within the first six months of blogging with Compendium's affordable blogging software, the company had 110 orders for their premium brownies. That was just a small percentage of the 10,000 plus visits the website received. Since Fairytale tracked their blogs, they can create more refined blog posts that can segment more customers and gain more business! For some fun reading, check out their case study here. Again, there are many more benefits of business blogging, but having the ability to track your ROI is very important!

Get your Questions Answered!

Monday, March 15, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

I received a project today to update records in our database of
people who attended a

webcast that our CEO and Co-Founder, Chris Baggott, spoke at recently. He covered many things about the importance of business blogging and strategies to help your business, like which platforms to use and how to optimize your companies performance in search.

One of things I had to update was what questions people asked and there was a common trend. People realized that blogging was the solution, but they did not know what type of software to use. The answer is easy, Compendium Blogware! Our affordable corporate blogging software can help businesses large and small. It also only takes roughly 10 business days to complete the Getting Started process so you can begin to maximize your web presence. If you would like to get some questions answered, view a demo today!

Blogging Best Practices - Call-to-Action Checklist

Monday, March 15, 2010 by Sarah Sedberry

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

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

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

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

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

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

SEO is a matter of opinion

Thursday, March 11, 2010 by Julie Murphy

Who do you listen to when it comes to leveraging SEO tools? In today's world everyone is speaking about blogging for search. Blog for business with the most effective easy to use blog software that allows you to concentrate on a content management system built to populate landing pages that in turn create keyword rich pages.

Leverage the very words that searchers are using to find you, get found and get results. Everyone wins! You are served a top result and the searcher finds what they are looking for.

Blogs are fantastic SEO tools, just make certain you are using the best blogging solution!