I admit it, I have been bad about reading my colleagues blogs lately, but was browsing around at lunch and found some good ideas for your own content.
1. Old webinar questions and comments. Webinars are a great marketing tool - check out what Chris Baggott did to turn our webinar questions into blog posts.
2. What did you do today? Well, recently - Doug Karr spoke at a local conference -then he wrote about it, how ingenious is that?!
3. Megan Glover on the other hand turned a simple, everyday coffee meeting into a great post here...
Some great ideas...right here at Compendium - so get to it, write about your day, your customers, your questions...sooner than later your own business blogging will pay off as a great customer acquisition strategy.
Here's the thing --- it's not scalable to do a 1:1 communication to prospects, customers, employees --- really, anyone in your business. How does this intersect with blogging?
Blogging allows for you to do a personal, but "one to many "approach. I am still being personal --- it's ME, dorky Jenni Edwards, nice to meet you!
Somehow this topic reminds me of the song "Son Of A Gun (I betcha think this song is about you)". The premise of this catchy song is everyone that listens to this song is "so vain...they think the song is about them". Blogs aren't that different from this trickery of words --- if the blogs are well targeted and on point with what the person was searching for -- the blog is "for you" (maybe not about you...that would be even a little creepy for me).
So - are you looking for simple blogging software? Well, guess what"I betcha think this blog is for you!" when you go searching...
WHAT? Wow, this fact is amazing and shakes my world a bit. (I am saying fact as it is from Forrester who we have a huge amount of respect for here.)
Although I don't have access to the full study, there does appear to be a few pieces missing and some methodology questions as laid out in Reel SEO but I think the main takeaway is beset stated from the study itself:
“Best of all, so few interactive marketers focus on video optimization that most of the videos in Google’s index aren’t very well optimized — so if you optimize your videos well, your chances of success will increase even further.”
After getting a bit fired up about all of this (come on, textual results are a prime value proposition of blogging for search), I did take a step back and realize that the importance of video and the importance of blogging are not mutually exclusive for a business and that places all of your videos on YouTube and Google Video (if longer) and tagging your videos properly are always best practices. Compendium is all about casting a wide net not just with a blogging strategy, but on a broader scale of search as well.
Thanks Brennan over at Cantaloupe for pointing me in the direction of this study (via Twitter).
So...it looks like this is getting even clearer now --- and is a great argument for the long tail as the importance of ranking 1, 2 and 3 are more obvious.
Enjoy!
Basically, this article outlines the recent rise of some big corporate brands on some top searches (i.e. - "watches", "auto insurance") and Google recognize their brand strength and reflecting this in search results. Can this be? What happened to the most relevant article based on the search? Although, part of me tends to think that big brands oftentimes should win these; I am not sure if they deserve to based on brand recognition...and how is that measured anyway? Pagerank?
Sorry for the rant...it could all just be speculation and there is also the point that big brands might just now be getting on the organic search and brushing up on some SEO techniques. Although we preach the power of the people in business blogging, it obviously becomes much more powerful with a company of 40,000 versus 4; however, that's not to say that if a group of 4 doesn't work hard and use the best blog software that they aren't able to make a substantial increase in their online traffic and conversions.
So what have I been doing during this hiatus?
- Working with some great agencies on on boarding new clients, it's amazing when an agency "gets it" how all of the sudden every one of their clients is a great fit for Compendium.
- Bringing on board a variety of clients --- I actually signed a large navigation and logistics company and a liquor company...every industry is really a fit!
- Trying to get organized --- this is a "forever" on my to do list, but really trying to do this right. One thing that I have been working on is a new demo deck (what we show prospective clients). One great piece of data we have added is this graph below that shows the importance of MORE BLOGS = MORE TRAFFIC!
What are the lessons here?
1. Don't reinvent the wheel. If there is a software as a service solution out there that serves your needs, why take up your IT/developers time? Unless it is your core business, I am willing to bet someone else can do it better.
2. Looks aren't everything and don't try to be everything to everyone. It's important to have a focus; at the end this "stop sign" looks like a mess of information. Be focused on achieving the end goal. Compendium does this with business blogs by having a clear call to action.
3. Stop getting hung up on looks. Didn't your mom tell you it's what is on the inside that counts anyways? While we definitely get that look and feel is important, it's not the end game. A pretty website that no one comes to is still a waste.
Traffic is even more important than these things (websites, videos, billboards) that can be seen, felt and touched. Who cares if you have a great campaign if no one sees it? I couldn't find any evidence that the highest award in the advertising industry, the Addy's, even cares if anyone ever saw the ads...interesting.
Winning search through a business blogging strategy is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic and there are some "visual elements" to comfort the creative type (a template, call to action, landing pages, etc.); but the value of blogging cannot be stifled into just these things, because the real ROI of business blogging is around traffic and gaining new customers.
For example, the article discusses Stone Creek Coffee who seems to have really gotten the idea of opening up a blogging strategy to all of its employees, creating a more authentic voice as well as increase SEO benefits with this additional content. Their VP of Operations feels that their blogging efforts have increased awareness and return visitors - a great success story of local business blogging. I would have to argue with the last point by Ramon Ray of Smallbiztechnology.com that you have to have a decent website to get started and everything else all figured out; a true business blogging strategy does not have to be a side dish of a marketing campaign - it truly can serve as an integral and measurable part.
- Curation: Editing and filtration will become more important. I couldn't agree more, but think that Steve misses the fact that search engines are the number one filtration system out there today. Choosing the best content is important if you are looking to become a destination site; but even more important than that for small business marketing is being found on the search engines.
- Intent Driving Commerce: I love this idea! It's all about how people are going out to search their need or desire rather than advertisers telling them what they need.
That being said...I am such a sucker for "green marketing" if someone says its green, I am there! I even started bringing my own bags to the grocery store for the simple reason that I got a cute free Macy's ReUsable bag for just that reason. Wow, it's easy to get me! I know a lot of small business marketers are always looking to trends in marketing and this is definitely one of them; but beyond a seal of "greenness" how do you market yourself as green?
Well, the answer is to tell YOUR story of becoming green on your corporate blog. It's amazing how many people this would resonate with; including me! :)
So hats off to our marketing team for all of the recent blogging incentives and reminders.
Oftentimes we are fighting to not be lumped into a broad, general term such as "social media". It's not that social media is bad, we all use it a LOT; but it is oftentimes hard to measure. However, in this case B2B does a great job of briefly introducing and outlining some of the social media outlets and some great tips that apply to not only "social media" but also business blogging.
- Invest in quality of content, don't get too hung up on production. Tell a great story and use your customers.
- And I quote..."Blogs are not only the most authentic voice of your business, they are also cheap to write and publish."
- Virtual Meetings/Tradeshows
- SEM - Search Engine Marketing - This is really where Compendium takes blogging to the next level, it combines the cheapness and ease of blogging along with real tangible results that can go head to head with PPC.
Yes, a trite start to any post; but let's admit -- there are days when you are just uninspired...Monday mornings are a specific weakness of mine. One thing that I always say is that if you talked to a client today; then you have a blog post, so I am taking my own advice and am inspired to create my own VLOG from this prospective client too!
I talked with a prospective client today that is looking to create a video blog and is inspired by Rocketboom which is a well known video blog (vlog?) that focuses on news stories and is distributed by Sony. Now not all of us are going to pick up a deal with Sony right off the top; so how do you get quick notoriety and viewership from another route? The answer is pretty simple, win search in your area of expertise. Video blogging on its own is great, but lacks the necessary on page search engine optimization only gained through content (words) that blogging can provide. So vlog away, but don't forget the content for Google to read...because as much as you might tag a video and distribute it online, 90+% of online users our there search and YOU need to be there!
Brr. It's freezing.
I don't know about the others in the Midwest, but I bet a lot of people are hibernating this weekend...probably looking towards spring, shopping around for spring break vacation trips, home repair information and of course, many people are likely looking for ways to be successful in their weight loss resolutions. So what does this have to do with business blogging? Everyday our clients starting their new business blogs with Compendium and guess what - several of these Compendium clients will be winning the Google search this weekend on some of these exact topics (search: weight loss surgery indianapolis or plumber detroit). So while you are hibernating this weekend, think about the types of searches your business wants to win and considering an internet business blog as one efficient way to get to the top of the Google page!
I wish I could have snapped a picture of the actually billboard this, but when I was driving last night I saw a billboard for a small, local attorney that said "See The Front Cover of the Whitepages". What type of advertisement is that? What information is provided within that front cover that is going to compel a potential client to change their mind. Shouldn't your call to action be "Call Us Today?" - why the extra step? And, what if I don't have the whitepages handy? Small business marketing is a great place for innovation to take place; but also is very
I guess my point here is that you can't control where people are going to go for additional information, but data tells us that a heck of a lot of people are going to search and Google specifically to do their research. Why push people through your marketing efforts, why not take advantage of what your prospects are already doing?
I have always love learning and reading about web usability - it's amazing how certain ecommerce sites have increased their sales dramatically by adding a button or changing the number of screens to check out; so I am naturally stoked to be using a brand spanking new UI for Compendium today...and not to mention, it motivated me to post! :)
Why does the User Interface matter you ask? Well, first back to the ecommerce example, the easier we can make things on our business blogging clients - the more they will blog. So what changes did we make? Mainly, basics - aligned icons more with Microsoft Word standards and some HTML clean up, to even further search engine optimize the blogs. It's one of the beautiful parts of a Saas solution, like Compendium -- always improving our product!
Had a great conversation (and lunch) with Chris and one of our local agency partners today - Brainstorm. Bart is a great guy and has valuable insight into some verticals that might be some of the biggest potential business bloggers in the near future -- both ecommerce, education, manufacturing and non-profits are a few of the verticals that they have mastered.
One of the things we talked about today was how your customers describe your problem and how much this mattered. I guess being back into an Indianapolis start-up where there are "no rules" I forget all of the legal tape of large companies and forgot how you sometimes have legalities that prevent you from referring to your product in a certain way. Think: cotton swabs, tissues, flexible bandage strips. Bart's example was a bit different as it wasn't so much about trademark infringement as potentially tarnishing a national brand with using a slang term; but equally as interesting. Not that QTips are really flying off the online shelves (although, www.drugstore.com might argue with me?) I bet that QTip is searched much more often than the generic term, cotton swab...so stick with me on this example.
The point is -- just because you don't want to be known under a certain term, you will be. It's like being called your older siblings' name all your life (not that I speak from personal experience...). Anyways -- remember your customer and your searcher...forget your brand and how you describe yourself. As long as you can solve their problem or adequately substitute what they are searching for (Ted's Cotton Swabs for QTips) then you need to be there in the organic search results for EVERY single term that is relevant to your business. Business blogging is one of the most effective ways to do just this --- win hundreds of search terms and cast a wide net to have the most chances to convert online searchers into your next paying customer.
Regardless --- how could business blogging help? There is a story to tell; a compelling one at that! Who doesn't know someone that has retired from one of the "Big Three"? How can a company that automatically has thousands more dollars in cost per car due to their retirees ever become profitable when competing in a global economy? Did you know that most other governments already subsidize their local auto industries?
Instead Americans are getting informed through the press rather than directly from these companies; and although GM has taken a step and does comment on the crisis on their FastLane Blog; there is much more to be told here --- and by people lower on the food chain.
I hate to call it a battle because few of us around Compendium would say NEVER do pay-per-click, it's a great tool and provides a ton of good data for business and is a quick way to show up on page one (not to mention, it keeps Google in business). However, these statistics from SEOmoz (via Enquisite) are shocking and really prove the ROI of organic search.
- 8.5x's the return. Yes, for every 1 click on paid ads, there are 8.5 clicks in the organic section. This is ridiculous; somehow this reminds me of a grocery store shelving and layouts (I did some merchandising research for a project on this a long time ago); basically, there was some statistic of getting a 20% lift in sales if you were at eye level on a shelf. We are talking 90% lift here --- where do you want to be? It would be like putting a black sheet over the other ketchup brands at the super market (work with me here on this example).
- Paid Search Converts at 1.5x's the rate of organic search. This initially sounds negative to an organic search proponents, but this also shows a huge opportunity. First, if you are buying something that second then yes PPC is appealing and you might as well click through there and get the free shipping or what not; however, from a marketers perspective chances are you are paying for this lead twice --- they had already chosen your product and PPC was just convenient. Second, oftentimes the organic results aren't targeted, the overall site is optimized so when a searcher does land there it may not be 'speaking' to their needs or potentially your site may cause them to self disqualify themselves because the site is trying to talk to many people. By implementing an organic landing page strategy there can be the same targeted information for the searcher as PPC can provide. Business blogs are one easy way to implement a multi page targeted strategy.
