A Compendium customer, Lizan Brand, from Greenfield Liquors, was featured in the Saturday edition of the Indianapolis Star.
One of the things that Lizan is doing that is really interesting is mixing in video--highlighting drink recipes, talking about wine and the sorts of things that contextually engage a reader.
In my personal life, I’m well in tune with wine & spirits video blogging as a wine blogger (vlogger) is ascending to national attention. In fact, wine online darling Gary Vaynerchuk from WinelibraryTV continues to grab the wine world by its shirt lapels and give a good, healthy shake.
Gary continues to not only lead the charge in creating a brand online for himself and his business by proxy, but he also continues to give advice, good advice, to folks interested in growing their business, any business.
Vaynerchuk did an audio interview with an Internet-based business coach and he provided some additional insights that are not just applicable to technology marketing, but marketing in general. You can find the audio portion of the interview here.
Find the text transcript here.
A couple of the nuggets that I gleaned are:
* Vaynerchuk on putting content out on the web: “If you put out great content, you will be found.”
* Vaynerchuk on leveraging your expertise: “So, if you are the best guy in your law firm in contracts, instead of waiting eight to ten years to become a partner, start (using technology) about what you know. Give away that content for free. It will come back to you in spades 800 times over.”
* Vaynerchuk on tapping your passion: “So you may be good at three or four things, but please site down and analyze where you feel you’re most passionate about, even if that is the most competitive genre, do it because that is where you’re going to win when you really believe it, when it goes through your blood, you’re going to win every time because even if you’re not seeing the mythical success, your heart and soul is going to be happy. That is going to push through to the point when you will start seeing success."
* The Interviewer on setting lofty goals: “you have to have high ideals. You have to have something that you’re shooting for that’s absolutely spectacular. What you have to realize is that’s the ideal, that’s not the goal. When you achieve a certain level of success, the people that are super successful don’t compare where they get to--to their ideal. The ideal is just where they’re focused towards. To be happy and to be excited about what you’re accomplishing, you have to look backwards to where you were. As long as you make that leap and you look backwards to feel good about yourself then you can keep that excitement going. If you’re always comparing where you are to the perfect (ideal) then it’s very hard to stay excited …
The frenetic interview wraps up with Vaynerchuk’ “Five Steps to Mastering Social Media.” If you replace the “social media” with “blogging” the same values hold true. They are:
1) Make sure you want to engage/learn it.
2) Now that you know you want it, spend every living second that you possibly can on it.
3) Put your toe in the pool. Get involved.
4) Humble yourself. If you’re the best basketball player in the world, you’re playing hockey now. Put on your skates.
5) Know what you want to accomplish.
Good advice for all and something Lizan, a Compendium customer, is doing successfully and so can you. Business blogging is hardly hard, it just takes a little bit of the above five items.
Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by
Eric Romer
Or traveling to Florida for vacation.Or throwing a party.
Or building a house.
OK, so my point is, you can fill in just about any analogy and it would work. The desired outcome is an award-winning garden, or arriving in Florida, or having a fun party everyone talks about, or seeing the house in its final stages. How you get there is by using the proper tools or tactics.
This is mostly inspired from reading a great post by Shel Holtz, co-author of "Blogging For Business", along with other communication-focused books. (Not to be confused with Shel Israel, co-author of "Naked Conversations", another book on corporate blogging)
Gardening Tools
I've talked about the issue of time in several posts on this blog, and you can count this as another. My biggest issue with that argument related to business blogs is that it's an excuse, not a valid reason.
If all of the sudden, there was a revolutionary new tool that could improve the way I garden, I'd probably want to know about it. I would never say "I have no time to use that tool." Take the picture above. There are a lot of different tools that a gardener can use to achieve his/her end goal - to make it the most healthy, attractive garden around. (if that's not the goal gardeners, speak up) The end game is the same, but the tools are up to each individual gardener.
It's the same thing with business. Any business has to communicate with it's shareholders, employees, existing customers, and most importantly potential customers. To drive business, you need leads. You need to introduce your business to a qualified prospect, build trust, prove value and convert them into a happy customer.
Blogging is just a tool. A simple, easy tool that scales content and allows you to communicate more effectively.
Shel writes:
Blogging is a new communication channel. Before blogs became widely available and accepted, executives made do with the channels available to them: one-on-one phone calls, conference calls, speeches, road shows, letters, email and so on. I have heard from a number of CEOs that blogs are more effective than any of these tools for a variety of communications. Therefore, they have replaced the use of such channels with blogging. In aggregate, though, they’re spending just as much time fulfilling their role as the company’s chief communicator.And he's just highlighting an executive's reason to blog. We at Compendium preach to allow employees, not just C-level exec's, to blog for your business. As the Edelman Trust Barometer shows us, an employee blog is "five times more credible than a CEO blog." Shel also has some good tips on time management, group blogs and ROI. Read the rest of his post HERE.
Posted Friday, August 8, 2008 by
Jenni Edwards
I admit, I have a slight Facebook addiction and through my self justification of this time waster --- I realized a few of the reasons I am so addicted to Facebook:- There is always something new to see, whether someone has added new pictures or updated their relationship status. I believe there is some certain interest in anything new --- most of these 'new things' I couldn't care less about in real life and would never seek out the information -- but its there right in front of my face and NEW so I look at it.
- It's real --- real people, that are also at their computers updating their status, adding pictures and adding friends. These people are LIKE ME.
- Pictures and videos -- I read all day...emails, the paper, notes...how nice is it to see engaging PICTURES and VIDEOS. The cheesy line of "a picture says a thousand words" isn't too far off when it comes to looking through someone's Facebook photos.
Posted Monday, August 4, 2008 by
Sarah Sedberry
Our latest client to graduate from Implementation and Training with Abby is Bauer 360.
Bauer 360 specializes in Consulting, Training and Research pertaining to Internet Marketing and Web Production needs of a company. They offer a wide range of services including Web Development, E-Mail Marketing, E-Newsletters, Cell Phone Marketing, Digital Video Production, Search Engine Optimization, Social Networking, Pay Per Click and Banner Ads. They will work with your business to build an E-plan, so that you are prepared and ready for success.
Compendium Blogware and Bauer 360 have similar goals in mind as we are both committed to listen to your desires, educating our clients on processes and metrics, creating and incorporate your goals in order for the customers to see increased productivity, drive down costs, and see improved results on ROI.
I look forward to working with Ross and the gang at Bauer 360. Check them out here, as they are already on the ball and are up and posting!
Bauer 360 specializes in Consulting, Training and Research pertaining to Internet Marketing and Web Production needs of a company. They offer a wide range of services including Web Development, E-Mail Marketing, E-Newsletters, Cell Phone Marketing, Digital Video Production, Search Engine Optimization, Social Networking, Pay Per Click and Banner Ads. They will work with your business to build an E-plan, so that you are prepared and ready for success.
Compendium Blogware and Bauer 360 have similar goals in mind as we are both committed to listen to your desires, educating our clients on processes and metrics, creating and incorporate your goals in order for the customers to see increased productivity, drive down costs, and see improved results on ROI.
I look forward to working with Ross and the gang at Bauer 360. Check them out here, as they are already on the ball and are up and posting!
Posted Monday, July 28, 2008 by
Chris Baggott
I'm sure a lot of good stories will come out of this weekend's Compendium Blogware's First Annual White Water Rafting Trip to Ohiopyle PA. The Story is best told in pictures, so please feel free to browse Kaila Woodsides's Flickr Compendium of the trip.If one of the goals of Corporate Blogging is to humanize your organization, sharing your events and activities probably go a long way. I'm guessing anyone who sees these blog photos and reads the posts from the Employees that post to their Compendium Blogs will get a pretty good idea of the personality of our organization.
At the end of the day, advanced business blogging is about showing that you have smart, fun, passionate people...who all share a common goal of doing everything they can to make you a successful business blogger.
Posted Friday, July 25, 2008 by
Ali Sales
Blogging for SEO isn't wrong, but it can't be your only goal. Why? Because it's the tip of the iceberg. Of course you want your business to get found through search as many ways as possible, but your goal can't stop there.
You want a prospect to find your business blogs through search, and then what?
There is a next step. What is it? You want them to find one of your corporate blogs and then read sixteen posts before leaving the page? You want them to find one of your blogs and then subscribe to an RSS feed in order to come back over and over again and do nothing but read?
You see what I'm getting at here of course.
Your corporate blogging strategy can't focus on only the search engine optimization aspect. SEO is a means to the end, and your end is to make money by creating new relationships. That's it. If someone clicks to your blog from search and finds a webpage that's impersonal, unprofessional, and full of pointless information, then your blogging program is completely falling flat.
Today Compendium's very own Chris Baggott, will be hosting a webinar that goes into more detail on these topics. The webinar will also cover blogging tips, blogging best practices, and more. This is a great opportunity to ask any burning blogging questions. Get details and sign up for the webinar here.
You want a prospect to find your business blogs through search, and then what?
There is a next step. What is it? You want them to find one of your corporate blogs and then read sixteen posts before leaving the page? You want them to find one of your blogs and then subscribe to an RSS feed in order to come back over and over again and do nothing but read?
You see what I'm getting at here of course.
Your corporate blogging strategy can't focus on only the search engine optimization aspect. SEO is a means to the end, and your end is to make money by creating new relationships. That's it. If someone clicks to your blog from search and finds a webpage that's impersonal, unprofessional, and full of pointless information, then your blogging program is completely falling flat.
Today Compendium's very own Chris Baggott, will be hosting a webinar that goes into more detail on these topics. The webinar will also cover blogging tips, blogging best practices, and more. This is a great opportunity to ask any burning blogging questions. Get details and sign up for the webinar here.
Posted Tuesday, July 15, 2008 by
Ali Sales
Okay, I'm back to my comments about the Forrester report saying that B2B blogging is on the decline. In my last post, I tackled one of my primary concerns about the report: The audience surveyed.
Now let's get to the heart of the matter: The message.
As a person with a marketing background, let me say that I think Forrester is a great resource and historically has turned out some pretty great whitepapers, studies, and analysis. But boy, I think they really missed the mark on this one.
My biggest problem with this whitepaper is the core message, which is that marketers should view business blogging as a way to build a community. Whether you are currently thinking about corporate blogging or have already started down the path, just promise me that you will not make this same mistake.
Why do I think that it's a mistake to consider the major goal of blogging to be community? Because it's impossible, intangible, and quite frankly, it's not going to generate business for your organization.
What markets have to understand is that the goals of a blogging program are really no different than the goals of every other marketing effort that we put money into: generate new business opportunities, and make money.
I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to quote Jerry Maguire here: "Show me the money."
Back tomorrow with more thoughts.
Posted Tuesday, July 15, 2008 by
Chris Baggott
I'm generally a fan of Forrester and their research, and they have done some terrific work on blogging in general. But in the newest paper which is mis-named: Derive Value From B2B Blogging comes off as really negative generally with regard to the state of B2B Blogging Solutions & implementations.
There are some terrific points in this paper for B2B marketers as it relates to Corporate Blogging and Blogging Best Practices. For example:
...many B2B marketers are failing to realize that good blogging style should resemble a coffee shop conversation, not a whitepaper.
But the sentence below really describes the overall tone of the paper:
What is broken in the Forrester study is the overall "goal". They keep talking about conversation, community, comments, and repeat visitors as the main objective of corporate blogging. These are metrics that are doomed to fail.
Successful business blogs have two characteristics.
First, rather than top down from the "C" level, they open up by having widespread employee participation. Prospects and Customers are not the ones to write frequently about your business....but you hire smart, passionate people who like their jobs, like the customer, are proud of your products....let them blog about it.
Secondly, ROI need to be measured based on search & conversion. Blogging is a content and engagement strategy. Widespread employee blogging generates lots of great topic specific, keyword, frequently updated and authentic content. The more content you generate like this, the more traffic you generate. Most successful Corporate Blogging programs in our system drive three times or more traffic than their traditional sites.
When the searcher lands on a page with a post that specifically matches their search intent...written by a real human being and addressing a similar situation...they convert. They take the next step in the relationship.
The business blog is basically a one shot encounter. They search, they find the blog, they convert to either email, phone or a sales relationship (if we are talking about B2B)
Blogging for search is legitmate, valued by the searcher and highly effective if executed properly.
There are some terrific points in this paper for B2B marketers as it relates to Corporate Blogging and Blogging Best Practices. For example:
...many B2B marketers are failing to realize that good blogging style should resemble a coffee shop conversation, not a whitepaper.
But the sentence below really describes the overall tone of the paper:
Corporate bloggers are apparently struggling to sustain a conversation...
What is broken in the Forrester study is the overall "goal". They keep talking about conversation, community, comments, and repeat visitors as the main objective of corporate blogging. These are metrics that are doomed to fail.
Successful business blogs have two characteristics.
First, rather than top down from the "C" level, they open up by having widespread employee participation. Prospects and Customers are not the ones to write frequently about your business....but you hire smart, passionate people who like their jobs, like the customer, are proud of your products....let them blog about it.
Secondly, ROI need to be measured based on search & conversion. Blogging is a content and engagement strategy. Widespread employee blogging generates lots of great topic specific, keyword, frequently updated and authentic content. The more content you generate like this, the more traffic you generate. Most successful Corporate Blogging programs in our system drive three times or more traffic than their traditional sites.
When the searcher lands on a page with a post that specifically matches their search intent...written by a real human being and addressing a similar situation...they convert. They take the next step in the relationship.
The business blog is basically a one shot encounter. They search, they find the blog, they convert to either email, phone or a sales relationship (if we are talking about B2B)
Blogging for search is legitmate, valued by the searcher and highly effective if executed properly.
Posted Monday, July 14, 2008 by
Jenni Edwards
I like Chris Brogan, I generally just think he seems like a nice guy and has a good blog; so I read it pretty regularly. This is a side note, but I think one thing that might be left off of this post that I was inspired by today was just that "be a nice guy". Compliment others, let others know when you find something cool or neat, share your knowledge, admit your faults in your blog...all just simply part of being nice. You may not get a lot of people reading your corporate blog regularly like Chris does, but when people do find your blog through search they will like you, stick around, read more and ultimately 'convert' --- all based on them 'liking you'.
Anyways, what Chris did share is a comprehensive list of blog tips. Below are a few favorites that apply to many of us business bloggers from the various compiled articles:
Anyways, what Chris did share is a comprehensive list of blog tips. Below are a few favorites that apply to many of us business bloggers from the various compiled articles:
- Don't over think it. (It's a blog not a dissertation.)
- Comment on other great blogs.
- Mix it up.
- Above all else, be human.
Posted Monday, July 14, 2008 by
Abby Rivera
I preach to my clients in Implementation the importance of content. I quickly realized that I was not listening to my own advice. I told myself this weekend, that I must establish this habit for myself as well. We all know that posting a blog is not hard work and that it is actually a lot of fun.
So, as a part of my own goal to get blogging, I have decided that I am going send out quick posts about my clients as the wrap-up the implementation process. This will give you the ability to go and check out who all our new blogging clients are!
Below are a few links to clients who have completed their Implementation and have moved into the Client Success team! All of these companies have been such a joy to work with!
Posted Wednesday, July 9, 2008 by
Chris Baggott
There has been a lot of talk about the changes in search results brought on by Universal Search & Blended Search.
Basically, what this means is that Google and the other search engines are considering a lot more than just your website SEO when deciding what results to deliver.
Specifically, It's becoming really important to have frequently updated Corporate blogs, pictures and even video to greatly increase your chances of ranking on a wide range of keywords.
Blended Search is actually great for the marketers that are really trying to build trust and engagement with prospects and customers (although in this case we are mostly talking about prospects since your customers typically shouldn't be searching for you). This is where people really need to rethink everything they have been taught about the Goals for Corporate or Business Blogging. Business blog strategy has to take into account and focus on the goals of Search Engine Optimization and Conversion.
When I read about Blended Search I tend to hear a lot of panic that these new strategies are both hard and expensive. BALONEY.
Let me introduce you to my friends & client of Compendium Blogware, Greenfield Liquors. This is a tiny small town liquor store in Greenfield Indiana and they totally take advantage of Web 2.0 marketing strategies and business blogging with very little effort and lots of great results. Take a look at this Video that appeared in their blog. The winery featured is Paige 23.
Now, Type Paige 23 wines, Greenfield into your google search box and see what happens.
Home run! Another great example of a Blogging Best Practice. Blog management software for business is affordable and easy. Try it!
www.compendiumblogware.com
Basically, what this means is that Google and the other search engines are considering a lot more than just your website SEO when deciding what results to deliver.
Specifically, It's becoming really important to have frequently updated Corporate blogs, pictures and even video to greatly increase your chances of ranking on a wide range of keywords.
Blended Search is actually great for the marketers that are really trying to build trust and engagement with prospects and customers (although in this case we are mostly talking about prospects since your customers typically shouldn't be searching for you). This is where people really need to rethink everything they have been taught about the Goals for Corporate or Business Blogging. Business blog strategy has to take into account and focus on the goals of Search Engine Optimization and Conversion.
When I read about Blended Search I tend to hear a lot of panic that these new strategies are both hard and expensive. BALONEY.
Let me introduce you to my friends & client of Compendium Blogware, Greenfield Liquors. This is a tiny small town liquor store in Greenfield Indiana and they totally take advantage of Web 2.0 marketing strategies and business blogging with very little effort and lots of great results. Take a look at this Video that appeared in their blog. The winery featured is Paige 23.
Now, Type Paige 23 wines, Greenfield into your google search box and see what happens.
Home run! Another great example of a Blogging Best Practice. Blog management software for business is affordable and easy. Try it!
www.compendiumblogware.com
Posted Tuesday, July 1, 2008 by
Daren Tomey
I read a great post this morning from Mitch Radcliffe at ZDNet titled, "What is a company blogger good for?. Mitch does a great job of outlining 5 goals or objectives that companies may consider prior to launching a corporate blog. As a result of his post, I posted the following comment.
"Seems obvious but often overlooked
This and other blogging best practices can be found on our website at www.compendiumblogware.com.
"Seems obvious but often overlooked
-
Mitch,
Thanks for the post on developing a clearly defined set of goals and objectives prior to launching a company blog. As a provider of corporate blogging software (www.compendiumblogware.com), we all to often encounter this challenge and attempt to take a more consultative approach with our prospects and clients. Sometimes this backfires as some of them simply want to subscribe and blog, however those that are either already focused on their goals or are willing to allow us to help them define what their goals and objectives are going to be related to blogging for a purpose, experience the greatest benefits and quantifiable results."
This and other blogging best practices can be found on our website at www.compendiumblogware.com.
Posted Friday, June 27, 2008 by
Jim Hyslop
I recently have been on a vacation with my family to beautiful Destin FL. Sun, sand, and surf were the main intention but even still I couldn't stop thinking about blogging. I figured it made sense to talk about it in relation to our recent road trip. When looking for things that you aren't familiar with the first thing you need to do is get directions. I know they helped us find our destination successfully and they can do the same for you and your business when navigating the internet.
Jefferson Graham with USA today recently sat down with Matt Cutts, engineer with Google and active blogger, and discussed achieving visibility in Google's organic search rankings and surprise, surprise his advice was to start a business blog for your company.
He outlined 5 easy tips on how to optimize your site:
1. Spotlight your search term on the page
2. Fill in your tags
3.Get other sites to link back to you
4. Register for free tools
5.CREATE A BLOG AND POST OFTEN
Or, if time is limited for you and those in your company like most of our clients, you can skip 1-4 by letting Compendium do this lifting for you on the back end. We have created our blogging software with organizations in mind for the goal of SEO and customer acquisition while at the same time cutting your 5 tips for optimization down to one, create a blog and post often. Easy as that!
If you have been exploring blog tools to allow your company to be found I suggest letting us provide the road map for your customers. It will free up your time to allow you to do what you do best...tell people about your business.
Posted Thursday, June 19, 2008 by
Ali Sales
As a follow up to my last post, I'm going to put together a response for each of the questions I heard during the Blog Potomac conference last month.
I'll start with this question because it's the one I get most excited about:
How can I track the impact of corporate blogging?
Easy. Are you currently tracking the impact of your website? Are you tracking the impact of your Pay Per Click campaigns, email marketing, and any other online activities?
Good, I thought so. Then you can most definitely track the impact of blogging. There are a few key things:
1. You must have a goal when you start your blogging program. If you have no goal, then how will you measure against it?
2. You must have a call-to-action or conversion point accessible from your blogs. Take a look at the sidebar of my blog. Notice those conversion points? It's no secret that I want to build a relationship with you. So of course I need to provide ways for you to express more interest in my business.
3. From that conversion point, drive the visitor to a landing page that a) is specific to the blogging program or b) includes a tracking string so you can trace conversions back to that URL
4. Use your CRM system. To use Compendium as an example, we use a hidden field named "blogging program" as a source for prospects that come from our blogs. We also use Campaigns in salesforce.com so that we can track how a prospect from our blogging program progresses into a client opportunity for us. Campaigns in salesforce are great because they will automatically calculate your ROI!
I'll end my response with a pretty powerful snapshot of how blogs will change your business.
Compendium's blogging program generated $15K in new business over the last two months, is our second best online activity from an ROI standpoint (we assume that we would pay for our own software when we calculate ROI), and has a new client close rate of 35%.
The beauty of blogging is that it's online, trackable, and...it works.
I'll start with this question because it's the one I get most excited about:
How can I track the impact of corporate blogging?
Easy. Are you currently tracking the impact of your website? Are you tracking the impact of your Pay Per Click campaigns, email marketing, and any other online activities?
Good, I thought so. Then you can most definitely track the impact of blogging. There are a few key things:
1. You must have a goal when you start your blogging program. If you have no goal, then how will you measure against it?
2. You must have a call-to-action or conversion point accessible from your blogs. Take a look at the sidebar of my blog. Notice those conversion points? It's no secret that I want to build a relationship with you. So of course I need to provide ways for you to express more interest in my business.
3. From that conversion point, drive the visitor to a landing page that a) is specific to the blogging program or b) includes a tracking string so you can trace conversions back to that URL
4. Use your CRM system. To use Compendium as an example, we use a hidden field named "blogging program" as a source for prospects that come from our blogs. We also use Campaigns in salesforce.com so that we can track how a prospect from our blogging program progresses into a client opportunity for us. Campaigns in salesforce are great because they will automatically calculate your ROI!
I'll end my response with a pretty powerful snapshot of how blogs will change your business.
Compendium's blogging program generated $15K in new business over the last two months, is our second best online activity from an ROI standpoint (we assume that we would pay for our own software when we calculate ROI), and has a new client close rate of 35%.
The beauty of blogging is that it's online, trackable, and...it works.
Posted Wednesday, June 18, 2008 by
PJ Hinton
Businesses adopting corporate blogging are often motivated by the
promise of better placement in organic search results. To help realize
that goal, Compendium Blogware harnesses the power of Data Driven
Blogging, where employee posts are presented in topic-oriented blogs as
well as individual blogs. These topics are selected based on keywords that the customer wishes to target for better results.
For some time, our user interface for creating posts has included a tag cloud that lists these topics. Titles of keyword blogs having more posts are displayed at a larger font size. At a glance, the blogging employee can see what topics have been written about most frequently on the organization's blogs. While this information might be helpful in choosing a post topic, it doesn't give much guidance on the quality of a post as it is being written.
As of today, our blog editing software incorporates a new and very handy feature, a Keyword Strength score that serves as a rough measure of the quality of keyword usage. You can see a screenshot of the feature in action below. It's a status bar that changes from red to green as the score moves from a baseline of 0 to a maximum of 100.
The scoring system takes a balanced approach, encouraging keyword usage and variety, while discouraging excessive usage that might make a post look spammy.
Does a high score guarantee a good post? Not necessarily. It's important to remember that when you're writing content, keep the customer in mind. Relevance is what keeps them reading. While this new feature can't save you from writing bad content for your corporate blog, the meter can help you improve the search engine friendliness of already great material.
For some time, our user interface for creating posts has included a tag cloud that lists these topics. Titles of keyword blogs having more posts are displayed at a larger font size. At a glance, the blogging employee can see what topics have been written about most frequently on the organization's blogs. While this information might be helpful in choosing a post topic, it doesn't give much guidance on the quality of a post as it is being written.
As of today, our blog editing software incorporates a new and very handy feature, a Keyword Strength score that serves as a rough measure of the quality of keyword usage. You can see a screenshot of the feature in action below. It's a status bar that changes from red to green as the score moves from a baseline of 0 to a maximum of 100.
The scoring system takes a balanced approach, encouraging keyword usage and variety, while discouraging excessive usage that might make a post look spammy.
Does a high score guarantee a good post? Not necessarily. It's important to remember that when you're writing content, keep the customer in mind. Relevance is what keeps them reading. While this new feature can't save you from writing bad content for your corporate blog, the meter can help you improve the search engine friendliness of already great material.
Posted Wednesday, June 11, 2008 by
Eric Romer
Ok, so I'm guilty too. And I spend 40+ hours a week talking to people about the importance of consistent blog posts on a business blog. But, we're all human. We all have busy days, to-do lists and sometimes overwhelming responsibility.
A successful business blog requires slight discipline, but just like anything else, with organization it becomes second nature.
I remember reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and it suggested setting appointments with yourself. This is a powerful exercise, and can be applied to all facets of life.
I have a goal to post 2-3 times per week, and am setting appointments in my Outlook calendar. When I see three 15-minute appointments throughout my week, all of the sudden my blog is no longer a burden. I know it's a quick process, and the benefits far outweigh the 45 minutes I dedicate per week.
Posted Tuesday, June 10, 2008 by
jennifer buscher
Last week there was an interesting article from targetmarketingmag.com about best practices to profit from blogs. Basically, the problem is that many companies try blogging hoping to see better organic search results and have failed for several reasons. If you simply want to use blogging as a form of citizen journalism or to add a human voice to a company then any individual platform will suffice. However, if your goal is to win organic search and boost lead generation then any old blogging platform will not do the trick and you will be disappointed with results. The right blogging techniques and corporate blogging platform have to be in place to see ROI results.
Posted Tuesday, June 10, 2008 by
Lindsey Young
We've all heard that old adage, "there's no such thing as a free cat". Well the same can most definitely be said for blogging. You get what you pay for, plain and simple. And trust me, free isn’t always free. A lot of objections have come up lately here at Compendium. People interested in our software asking why they can't use a "free" platform and get the same results. I can sit here and list the differences between the other platforms and the numerous features our software offers in comparison, but I'd rather focus on our target audience at hand; marketers. In a recent post by our CEO Chris Baggott, he referenced a technology focused blog that stated:
"I complained to
him that one of my annoyances in life is how complex Wordpress actually is.
Why? Because you don’t just have to configure Wordpress to get anywhere. To get
it to perform acceptably you can either throw powerful hardware at the problem
(which is how Club Troppo has done it since our donation drive last year) or
you can implement a whole rogue’s gallery of tweaks and adaptations."
While it might be the goal of the IT department to tinker in applications,
it is not the goal of the marketing departments of the world. Marketing
departments strive to drive in new leads, and progress forms of customer acquisition. Our blogs do that through engaging content,
traffic through SEO, and increased search engine rankings. That is not the goal nor the outcome of free
blogging platforms built for individuals.
With Compendiums corporate blogging platform, blogging for a purpose is
what our clients are doing. Marketers
aren’t wasting valuable time managing the platform; they’re using our Software
as a Service, and realizing their ROI. Let
us do the heavy lifting; we are a solution for marketers, not another stray cat
draining valuable time and resources.
Posted Tuesday, June 10, 2008 by
Ali Sales
Here we go again...5 points down, 4 to go. To view points 1-3 on evaluating your online traffic, go here. For points 4-5, go here.
9 Ways to Evaluate Your Online Traffic (cont)
6. Be aware of navigation paths
Nearly all of us have an ideal way that we'd like visitors to navigate through our business blogs or website. The question is: do your visitors follow that path, or do they create your own? Go ahead and take a hard look at "where" you're driving your traffic to -- where do you want them to go after they show up? Are you hoping that a click or two will lead them to take the next step? Will a download that you want to put them over the edge actually take them away from the path you've mapped out? Ideally you are getting your visitor to take the next step with as few of clicks as possible. That comes down to usability, which is an entire issue in itself!
7. Tie in conversion
This comes back to point 3, which encourages you to pay close attention to traffic quality versus traffic quantity. Tying in conversion numbers should not be an after-thought. Anytime you're evaluating your online traffic, you should be pulling conversion into the equation. Traffic numbers alone can be misleading...there's an end goal you're driving to, and traffic alone won't get you there.
When I first sat down to put these thoughts together, I didn't think that 9 key points would be a stretch. Here I am at point 7, wondering what I've left off the list so far. I could really use a little help.
Is everyone else applying these things to their evaluation of their blogging program or website? What else comes to mind? 2 points to go!
9 Ways to Evaluate Your Online Traffic (cont)
6. Be aware of navigation paths
Nearly all of us have an ideal way that we'd like visitors to navigate through our business blogs or website. The question is: do your visitors follow that path, or do they create your own? Go ahead and take a hard look at "where" you're driving your traffic to -- where do you want them to go after they show up? Are you hoping that a click or two will lead them to take the next step? Will a download that you want to put them over the edge actually take them away from the path you've mapped out? Ideally you are getting your visitor to take the next step with as few of clicks as possible. That comes down to usability, which is an entire issue in itself!
7. Tie in conversion
This comes back to point 3, which encourages you to pay close attention to traffic quality versus traffic quantity. Tying in conversion numbers should not be an after-thought. Anytime you're evaluating your online traffic, you should be pulling conversion into the equation. Traffic numbers alone can be misleading...there's an end goal you're driving to, and traffic alone won't get you there.
When I first sat down to put these thoughts together, I didn't think that 9 key points would be a stretch. Here I am at point 7, wondering what I've left off the list so far. I could really use a little help.
Is everyone else applying these things to their evaluation of their blogging program or website? What else comes to mind? 2 points to go!
Posted Friday, June 6, 2008 by
Ali Sales
Welcome back to my top 9 list for ways to evaluate your online traffic. (Find the top 3 on my last blog post). I'll let this shake out into a few more posts, with points 4 and 5 included here.
9 Ways to Evaluate Your Online Traffic (continued)
4. Pay attention to new vs. returning visitors
I've heard a lot of marketers rejoice when they see their "returning traffic" % go up. "Yes, they liked what they found before and they came back!" Well, not so fast. I encourage you to really think about your business blogging goals before you draw this conclusion. In my business (and maybe in yours) someone who comes back to my website over and over again is not necessarily a good thing. They're lingering. They're not moving onto the next step that will help us develop a relationship.
That why, to me, new visits are a more important metric to me. I don't plan on my website or my corporate blogs serving as a long-term nurturing site; I want it to engage people right off the bat so they can quickly move on. Obviously this may be different for membership-based businesses, etc.
5. Keep an eye on bounce rates and time on site
This is a basic one, but a lot of us ignore it. Would I rather have 50 people show up to my blogs and do nothing, or 10 show up, learn a bit more, and convert? Some of the classic issues that come back to high bounce rate are lack of relevancy, lack of fresh content, and bad design. If you have a professional blog or website with fresh, relevant content, you should see good results here.
To be continued again soon...what metrics are you using to evaluate your online traffic?
9 Ways to Evaluate Your Online Traffic (continued)
4. Pay attention to new vs. returning visitors
I've heard a lot of marketers rejoice when they see their "returning traffic" % go up. "Yes, they liked what they found before and they came back!" Well, not so fast. I encourage you to really think about your business blogging goals before you draw this conclusion. In my business (and maybe in yours) someone who comes back to my website over and over again is not necessarily a good thing. They're lingering. They're not moving onto the next step that will help us develop a relationship.
That why, to me, new visits are a more important metric to me. I don't plan on my website or my corporate blogs serving as a long-term nurturing site; I want it to engage people right off the bat so they can quickly move on. Obviously this may be different for membership-based businesses, etc.
5. Keep an eye on bounce rates and time on site
This is a basic one, but a lot of us ignore it. Would I rather have 50 people show up to my blogs and do nothing, or 10 show up, learn a bit more, and convert? Some of the classic issues that come back to high bounce rate are lack of relevancy, lack of fresh content, and bad design. If you have a professional blog or website with fresh, relevant content, you should see good results here.
To be continued again soon...what metrics are you using to evaluate your online traffic?
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