Blogging goals

Posted Tuesday, October 28, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

The conversion of a blog visitor to a prospect is possible through a clear Call-to-Action (CTA). A CTA is asking your visitor to do something that is actionable to/with the blog site owner. For example, a CTA that invites a reader to download a white paper, after giving their contact information, is an action that a reader takes. Once the reader has converted based on a CTA, the responsibility for the nurturing of that reader, who is now a prospect, falls on the shoulders of the blog owner.

Cardinal Rule(s) of Conversion

Offer a Call-to-Action (CTA)
Set a goal
Track results&measure success
Adjust and test

Increase your conversions with an effective Call-to-Action

Techniques for an effective Call-to-Action:

Give a deadline for ordering
Advise of a price increase
Establish a trial/introductory period
Free gift
Demo
Offer an upgrade
Online offer only

Example Call-to-Action:

Join newsletter list
Obtain a white paper
Request contact by a representation

Increase engagement by:

Use action language to incite momentum
Always tell the reader exactly what you want them to do
Use more than just a simple hyperlink to bring attention to the conversion point
Use a pleasing design and images when possible
A maximum of two Calls-to-Action should be used at one time on the blog
Rotate the CTA, experiment with messaging and offerings to find the right fit for the blog readers

A CTA is step #1 of the conversion process. Step #2 is to track conversions

Tracking your conversions:

Create a unique landing page for the call to action
Ingrate tracking tools such as analytic programs and CRM tools
Ask clients how they found about you and if they have visited the blog

Information Flow

Decision Path for Reader:

Find Blog
Click Call-to-Action
Taken to landing page
Fill in form - submit
Sent to a thank you page
Receive follow up email/call

Information flow for Blog Owner:

Find blog
Click CTA
Taken to landing page
Filled in content on landing page submitted
Form information received via email or CRM
Follow up steps taken based on lead qualification process

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Successful Blogging as a Business

Posted Tuesday, October 28, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

On the Client Success Team we often talk with administrators about motivating their bloggers. I wanted to share a great example of how the compendium administrators have motivated our team. This week’s motivator (or bribery depends how you look at it) is to have everyone create a post today so that we get breakfast as a company tomorrow. We have about 30 bloggers on our platform and already today we have 13 posts up for the day. This is a fun (and relatively inexpensive) way to motivate your bloggers and really work as a united front to blog as a business.

In the end we must remember that we are blogging as a business to increase our customer acquisitions and lead generation by being found more easily in search results. My job as a member of the Client Success Team is to work with clients to develop a customer acquisition strategy for their blogging program. We start the processes off by talking about overarching goals and program expectations. Once we have established our goals every step we take is towards accomplishing these goals weather we are defining keywords or discussing content creation strategies.

A great deal of time is also spent discussing Calls To Action - after all this is what actually delivers the leads. Stay tuned for my next post where I will discuss CTAs in more detail.

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Getting Straight To Your Answers!

Posted Tuesday, October 28, 2008 by Jim Hyslop

As I was on my way into work this morning I happened across a new radio spot promoting Yahoo Search....the final tag at the end of the spot stated "Switch to Yahoo! Search and get straight to your ANSWERS".....Finally, that is what I am talking about....get them to the answers not to your website!

On a daily basis I discuss the goals of the search engines and how they strive to deliver the most relevant information to the searcher. This is the platform of thought on which Compendium was built. If you are a business that can deliver relevant information to those who are looking for you then the engines WANT to put you at the top of the organic search rankings. It isn't magic, it is relevance. As the engines crawl the internet they are asking one question to every page they come across and that question is "does this page contain relevant information to the searchers inquiry?" If the answer is yes you get ranked. So as an organization how can you continually provide this relevant information? Blog about it!!!

By using business blogging software you can allow your organization to provide answers and solutions without spending a lot of business time to do so. The search engines love blogs because they are so easy to update and they can contain lots of relevant information on many specific topics. The thing is, to use a blog effectively, you need to make sure the solutions you are providing can be found through search by topic NOT by author. Organize your content correctly and you will have very happy searchers who now understand exactly how your company can help them.

Anybody can blog but the key for an organization is to leverage the proper blog tools to blog effectively.

Get your customers straight to the answers they are looking for...put them in a blog!

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Are your Business Blogs Invisible?

Posted Tuesday, October 28, 2008 by Chris Baggott

Invisibility is a dream of many....BUT NOT A GOAL OF MARKETERS!

A content management system or Blog Building Software is useless if it makes you invisible to the people searching for your business.

Basic Blog Software is usually pretty good at helping a business target one or even a few keywords. The problem of course is that most business bloggers (or marketers) want to target hundreds or thousands of keywords, not one or two...or even 10.

By definition, that means organizations need to have multi user blog software and blogging technologies that scale beyond what one can get out of software designed for citizen journalism and focused on the ROI associated with SEO and lowering the cost of customer acquisition.

I know this sounds self serving but I started Compendium Blogware because there was no other solution of business blogging on the market that would help me accomplish my goals. I don't want to be invisible.....and neither do you!

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Firefox - Why Use It?

Posted Tuesday, October 28, 2008 by Krystal Featherston

Typically I tend to focus my posts on blogging best practices, but lately I’ve been getting questions from clients who are having some issues viewing blogs or some of Compendium’s training videos. The most common problem that I’ve found is not with out software, but that they are using Internet Explorer.

In general most people do not pay attention to what browser they are using until there’s a problem … wouldn’t you agree?

Well my goal with this post is to catch the problem before it starts. Here are 10 reasons why to use Firefox.

1. Tabbed Browsing - Makes surfing the web faster
2. Pop-up Blocking
3. Find Stuff Easier
4. Simplified Privacy / Annoyance Eliminator
5. Better Bookmarks and History
6. Accessible, Intelligent, Responsive
7. Customizable and Extendable
8. Modern Download Manager
9. Built for standards
10. KISS (Keep It Simple and Straight-Forward)

View the complete article here.

Also, Firefox it is the most desired browser for our blogging platform.

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Blog Champ

Posted Tuesday, October 28, 2008 by Jess Wehner

Thanks to our marketing department and their commitment to our blog’s success, I recently won a “nifty gift” for getting the most posts up in one month (along with Kristen Raves and Sarah Sedberry). What’s most exciting about this award is that I’m not really a writer. I’ve always been more of a “math person” and usually take most opportunities in life that don’t involve writing. I say all that to prove that I didn’t win the award because of all of the enlightening things I said, or how poetic my words came out. (Trust me! Read my blog and you’ll see I’m not the greatest writer in the world.) No, I won the award purely on the number of posts that I put up. It was that simple! Number of posts is all that really counts and all that we ask of our clients to be accountable for.

Sure, being an awesome writer might help you get a nice fan base and people who keep coming back to read your blog. But, that’s not what blogging for business is all about. Increased sales aren’t driven by people who enjoy your writing style. Increased sales are driven by sending new customers to your website. If your ultimate goal is to make more sales (which I haven’t found a marketing manager who doesn’t have that goal) then don’t stress about having the most well-written post. If your company is blogging two times per week, per user, you will see your keyword rankings improve, your traffic increase, and consequently your sales go up! Seems like a pretty simple three step process to me!

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Blog: A Next Generation Website

Posted Thursday, October 23, 2008 by Eric Romer

After listening in to Debbie Weil and Chris Baggott's Webcast on Tuesday, I learned some new things, re-enforced some old things, and overall felt really good about Compendium's solution for business blogs.

Debbie reveiwed her recommendation for the first steps a company needs to start a blog.

First Steps to Blogging Success:

Have a goal
Focus on a topic or issue
Get contributors (plural)
Choose a platform
Be committed

It's a simple list, yet very accurate. Both Chris and Debbie went into more detail about each item, agreeing on about 95% of each others opinions. I'll summarize some of that in a later post, but I really want to focus on one statement Debbie made early in the Webcast.

One of the opening questions posed was simple: "How do you define a blog?"

Debbie's answer struck a chord with me because I'm a huge proponent of banning the "b-word". Talking with so many SMB's, or companies that are a few years behind on new technologies, it's clear that the "b-word" creates some fear. It makes sense. People fear things they don't understand. People fear change. But as Debbie answered, "a blog is just a next generation website." It's easy to update, more engaging for the end-user and incredibly friendly with search engines.

I predict that in 5-7 years, blogs and websites will be a hybrid of sorts. We will

experience fresh, engaging content that can be easily updated by employees across the board.

I've never actually seen Star Trek: Next Generation, but I did some Googling, and found the intro before every episode. Oddly enough, it was quite fitting for companies that are new to any type of non-traditional marketing.

"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before."

Blogs: The Next Generation of Websites... to seek out new customers and new relationships, to boldly go where no company has gone before.

Yes, I went there. Hopefully my cheesy analogy resonates with you. Otherwise, I've just sacrificed being called a nerd around the office.

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Free Your Bloggers

Posted Tuesday, October 21, 2008 by Ellie Cummins

Today on the Profit From Business Blogging webinar Chris Baggott and Debbie Weil spent some time talking about who should and could blog for your company. Should all employees participate in your company blog platform? Should C-level people blog? Are marketers the onlyl ones doing this? Well, I think it depends. It depends on your company blogging strategy, your goals (to blog for search engine optimization, show voice in various levels of the company, build your brand, etc...). However based on both contributors comments today really any strategy can work. Whether you have two or twenty bloggers, you can find employees to post, some of whom may already be blogging and are excited to share why they love their workplace. It was also discussed that employee bloggers can be up to five time more likeable and engaging than a C-level (perhaps a ghostwriter) is. Not onlyl does freeing your employees to blog increase your chances of engaging your searchers it will also make your company look good in the eyes of the public and help your employees warm and fuzzy about their jobs. Who doesn't want that warm fuzzy feeling!? Compendium has freed me to blog and I the warm fuzziness is certainly coming my way.

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How to cure a slacking blogger

Posted Friday, October 17, 2008 by Jim Hyslop

Well....it happened.....I was one of low men on the totem pole of content contribution last month to our corporate blog. So, instead of making a sour face I am going to take the lemons that were handed to me and make lemonade.

In all seriousness, I don't mind making a blogging example of myself. To use a Blog for SEO one of the most important factors is recency and frequency of updated content. To do that it is no blogging secret that you need to contribute content often. Last month I was a "blogging slacker" and everybody knew it.

One of the biggest problems associated with blogging for many companies is finding the resources. Luckily for me everybody at Compendium has a blog account so last month my teammates carried me.

The real issue for me last month wasn't resource. I had everything I needed to blog. I had top notch blogging creation software, tons of content, and the guidance I needed to make it all work together for search. I just didn't realize how my lack of contribution would result in a lot of blogging mockery when it was announced that I was the low man in front of the entire company. Therefore I personally was really only missing one thing...motivation to blog.

This month I know what my blogging motivation is.

Blogging as a business is fun. Not just because of the ability to share stories like this but also the atmosphere that it creates in the office. It is a good way to create some friendly competition but at the same time leverage a tool that can really drive your business.

Set blogging goals for your business, make it known when people hit those goals,.....AND WHEN THEY DON'T. Most importantly have fun with it!

Cheers to your future Blogging Success!!!

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Blogging and Your Business

Posted Tuesday, October 14, 2008 by Krystal Featherston

Today was a day of learning for me … I attended the Masters of Business Online Conference, walking away with a world of knowledge! Based on conversations and questions being asked the attendee knowledge level was all over, some were experts and others are beginners!

One question that stuck with me was …"Why corporate blogging and where do I begin?” This stuck with me mainly because I know at some point everyone has thought or felt this before. With that in mind here are some key suggestions that were presented today that will help with your blogging success.

Do your homework. Know your audience and who you are trying to target. It’s much easier for you blog for SEO if you have a target audience.

Be transparent. You are trying to build a relationship and engage your audience. You have the opportunity to build awareness and gain that trust on a personal level. Let your audience know your goals and agenda ahead of time.

Be passionate. Give it your all, now that you’ve committed to having a business blog – make sure you have people who are passionate about what they saying writing content. If your bloggers care about what they are saying it will be apparent in their writing.

I learned so much information about online marketing, email marketing, SEO, social media, blogging, and much more - I think I could write for days … but I won’t I'll save it for another day.

So I guess we’ll leave it as …. to be continued!

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And the Winner is...

Posted Tuesday, October 14, 2008 by meghan peters

In one of my past blog posts I shared information about our on-going employee contest here at Compendium called the Nifty Gift Blogging Challenge.

In case you missed the post, here is the gist of how it works:
All of us here at Compendium have a challenge to generate the most relevant content over a 30 day period. The winner will be announced on a monthly basis and will also receive a Nifty Gift from the marketing department.

The main goal of our Challenge is to show that it's not difficult to post a relevant blog on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis. Along with achieving this, we are fostering some healthy competition between the employees of Compendium.

During our company meeting last week the winner(s) of the Nifty Gift Blogging Challenge from September were announced.

And the Winner(s) are...

Kristen Raves (Client Success Manager)
Jess Wehner (Client Success Manager)
Sarah Sedberry (Client Success Manager)

All three girls tied with 9 blog posts for the month of September!

We're excited to announce the winner for October, we know there's some fierce competition for the title!

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What's the Biggest Problem with Blogging?

Posted Tuesday, October 14, 2008 by Ali Sales

Most of the time, it's too hard.

This weekend I was reminded how much we just expect technology to work for us, and how irritating it is when it doesn't.

I have a wireless card that usually connects me to one of three different wireless networks at home and in the office. I undock, I connect. Simple as that.

This weekend it stopped working all of a sudden-- and I was crippled. I tried to fiddle around with my computer myself (I hope our IT Manager isn't reading this) and finally gave up.

You are probably no stranger to general IT problems, and blogging problems are no different. Most blogging tools are too hard to use -- you have to configure this and that and there's a plugin over here and something that needs to be tweaked over there.

Yes, there are people like my mechanical engineer of a fiancee who like to fiddle with technology, but for most of us, it's a means to an end.

Compendium Blogware is different from other blogging software tools because we're built for people who "just want it to work."

I've been listening in on some sales calls lately and have heard our reps say that if you can write in a word doc, you can use Compendium's blogging platform. And content control is as easy as hitting a few buttons.

Our goal is to make things as easy as possible for organizations of all kinds who want to start a corporate blogging program.

Along those lines, if you want to learn more about how we can help you achieve blogging success, here's a quick and easy way to do so: Take our 60 second blogging challenge with a live employee who's ready to help!

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Why Use Firefox?

Posted Monday, October 13, 2008 by Kristen Raves

Don't get me wrong, when I was in college I used Internet Explorer. Then I learned about Firefox and it changed the way I performed actions on the web. I advise most of my clients that the browser they should be using is Firefox. I am fixated on this topic for many reasons.

Firefox is the most desirable browser to use not only with our blogging platform, but with everyday pages that you are going to. It offers everything from anti-virus software to parental controls to pop-up blockers. My favorite feature, however, is the add-ons that are available with Firefox. Some of the plugins I use the most are Firebug and Quicktime.

An article by Flexbeta, "13 Reasons to Use Firefox" gives some more examples of why my love for Firefox grows. Most of my articles center around blogging best practices, but this week I wanted to share with you some browser best practices. My goal is to have everyone I know using Firefox by the end of the year!

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You don't need to learn as you go!

Posted Monday, October 13, 2008 by Douglas Karr

7 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers - Blog World Expo

I was just reading a post over at Marketing Sherpa on this presentation, the 7 habits of Highly Effective Bloggers. The 6th habit is daunting, I'm sure, to most companies and marketers:

Learn as you go: On short notice, I threw out a question to the panel on the biggest lesson learned during their stewardship of their respective company blogs. Of course, they were all able to effortlessly answer the questions with many of their answers highlighting the improvisational nature of the job.

Why would a the panel respond this way and say that? Perhaps because they don't know of a resource in the industry that actually does provide the tools and consultation that a company requires to be successfully blogging for business results.

I commented on the post and hope that it sees some sunlight and folks don't simply dismiss it as comment spam. The fact is, with Compendium Blogware, you don't have to learn as you go! This is a proven application and software as a service that provides the coaching and guidance necessary to ensure that you are successfully blogging.

If you were to do a blogging software comparison, is there a single application out on the market that provides its clients with the success that we do? We monitor keywords and keyphrases, search engine placement, have regular meetings with our clients to coach them for success, and continue to develop an enterprise application that can withstand an onslaught of traffic and still perform to provide the maximum impact on search engine placement possible.

Don't learn as you go! That was something I had to do personally as a blogger and so did these panelists. You don't have to do that anymore! The industry has advanced, and we're here to help you understand and achieve your blogging goals.

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What about the Goals of Blogging?

Posted Monday, October 13, 2008 by Douglas Karr

I'm a big fan of Darren Rowse but his latest post on How to Get Search Engine Traffic to Your Blog missed the boat. My issue with his post is that there's no conversation about why a person would blog for search optimization. Darren went on to comment about the traffic sources (with a very good graphic with the break-down) but again, he did not differentiate the why.

You should not be initiating a strategy of how without first asking why.

The majority of search engine traffic to your blog is coming there to seek information that you've provided relevant results for in the search engines. In other words, these are primarily people that may not recognize your brand, your products or services, but they happened upon you because you wrote content that indexed well.

That may require you to write your content very differently than how you would go about writing content to keep existing readers. Problogger states:

Search Engine Optimization, participating in social media, building community and producing content are four important elements of building a site that gets (and keeps) high levels of traffic. When a blogger becomes obsessed by any one of them (to the detriment of others) the site can suffer (or at least not realize its potential). When the four elements come together a blog can grow quite rapidly.

The conversation you have with existing readers can be very different with social networking tools and other mediums such as email, but let's be honest... blogging for SEO is an acquisition strategy more than a retention strategy for business blogging. You should adapt accordingly and review your analytics to ensure your messaging and goals are properly set.

Once you transition from acquisition to retention, you can put to full use your other tools - email, micro-blogging, social media messaging, etc. So, to answer How to Get Search Engine Traffic to Your Blog, Brian's response should have been to:

Write relevant content that search engine users are looking for that will drive business results to your company and increase your search engine traffic. When they get to your site, transition their attention into the benefits of using your products or services and provide them with a conversion opportunity to engage further (newsletter opt-in, demo sign-up, contact a salesperson, etc.).

Manage the ongoing relationship accordingly but leverage the benefits of blogging for what they are best suited... getting people to you from Search Engines. I do not believe you should be balanced in your blog - but in your overall communication strategy.

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Should I control content?

Posted Thursday, October 9, 2008 by meghan peters

The concern a lot of companies have when starting their blogging initiative is content control. This is a very legitimate concern and unfortunately sometimes keeps companies from embarking on blogging.

So what should I consider when controlling content?

There are a few questions to ask yourself when controlling content and blogging for a business, the first of these should be; is our company gaining a positive image from our blog?

Blogs are meant to be another (more human) way for people to connect with you and your employees, it should not be a way for your employees to get issues of their chest or talk about their crazy Saturday night. The goal is to talk about your products, services, incentives or clients and if you're putting your personality into those types of topics there should be no reason for controlling that type of content.

Secondly, ask yourself; is my content relative to my business?

Along with generating content, humanizing your marketing and boosting SEO, the content you generate needs to be centered around something. Straying from your original idea won't help bring more readers to your blog. You have to remember that they are reading my post for a reason, to learn more about me and my products or service. If you don't talk about company related issues, people aren't going to hang in there for your next post. They want to get information immediately, thats why they landed on your blog in the first place.

Finally, always consider; am I being descriptive enough?

The easiest way to have your blog found in search is to be descriptive. When people search for something in Google they use adjectives to describe what they're looking for. This is like winning the lottery for anyone writing content on a blog. When you're talking about your new product, use plenty of adjectives and remember to describe it as something you would search for in Google yourself. Never over think what you are trying to say, the more human you are in your writing, the more readers will relate to you.

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Blog for SEO: Don't be Scared!

Posted Thursday, October 9, 2008 by Brian McKay

If you are hesitant about Blogging please don't be. Don't be scared of Blogging for SEO either. When you choose the right platform, there really isn't anything to fear.

We are all operating in a scary economy where a wrong move, or risky investment of time and resources, can mean your job. Blogging for companies should not fall into this category.

At Compendium, we have built an easy to manage platform that is secure, safe, and allows for an administrative layer that prevent any scary shenanigans. If you are even researching how Blogging for SEO can help your company grow, know that there is little to no risk in this investment. At least with the platform at Compendium.

Let's talk about what scares us about sharing our stories and the human side that gives our company a personality. What is really scary is that each day all of your employees head to their networks outside of the office and share stories. How many of those stories they tell are positive and "on brand" about your company?

This Blog is about earning customers through Blogging, and if your employees from the C-suite to the maintenance staff are each telling a very different story it makes for a scary situation. When Blogging becomes a part of your company culture it can serve as a brand ambassador program that connects all members of your organization to a central goal.

If you'd like to reach out to me to discuss how this can practically be applied to your business please click to the right and ask for BJ McKay. Remember as Halloween approaches, that Blogging to earn customers and Blogging for SEO is not scary at all. So come up with another costume idea!

Booo!

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Business Blogging is Database Marketing

Posted Tuesday, October 7, 2008 by Chris Baggott

Business Blogging is Database Marketing

The goal of a database marketer is to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time....and search falls directly into that bucket. Search is database marketing.

The idea is that just like any data driven marketing, I can target a message (page or blog) at a specific keyword phrase right? Just like delivering an email based on data, I can deliver a search result based on data..... Anyone can legitimately deliver pages to keyword searches. The only problem the marketer faces is quantity.

If you think of data driven SEO as you would an email delivery this starts to make a lot of sense. A marketer knows the terms that a prospect is going to use, she knows the volume of people who use those terms every day. Basically, a marketer knows everything about her recipients (the searcher) except their exact identity and their timing.

Our job as marketers is to deliver an engaging message directly to those search terms and wait for the prospects to tell us when they are ready to receive our message.

Think in terms of email marketing. If I want to send one email that’s perfectly crafted for an individual recipient Outlook is a really good option, but how do I send thousands...and make them all specific to the recipient based on known data?   We have to use an Email Service Provider.

If a marketer wants to target one to so keywords, they can do that quite well with Wordpress.   For the most part, any blog can be optimized to rank highly on any given search term. But if the marketer wants to target hundreds of keywords they have to use a data driven SEO tool like Compendium Blogware.

Making any sense? The goal of corporate blogging is engagement. That engagement happens through Search Engine Optimization.   The ROI of business blogging starts with search.

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Business Blogging IS Database Marketing

Posted Tuesday, September 30, 2008 by Chris Baggott

If the goal of a database marketer is deliver the right message to the right person at the right time....well search falls directly into that bucket. Search is just another form of database marketing.

The idea here is that just like any data driven marketing, I can target a message (page) at a specific keyword phrase right? Just like delivering an email based on data, I can deliver a page based on data..... I can legitimately deliver pages to keyword searches...anyone can. The only problem the marketer faces is quantity.

If you think of data driven SEO as you would an email delivery this starts to make a lot of sense. A marketer knows the terms that a prospect is going to use, she knows the volume of people who use those terms every day. Basically, a marketer knows everything about the recipient (the searcher) except their exact identity and their timing.

Our job as marketers is to deliver an engaging message directly to that search and wait for the prospect to come in. Basically you need a unique message (blog) for every keyword you are targeting.

Think in terms of email marketing. If I want to send one email that’s perfectly crafted for an individual recipient, Outlook is a really good option, but how do I send thousands...and make them all specific to the recipient based on known data?   We have to use an Email Service Provider.

If a marketer wants to target one to 5 keywords, they can do that quite well with Wordpress.   For the most part, any blog can be optimized to rank highly on any single search term. But if the marketer wants to target hundreds of keywords they have to use a data driven SEO tool like Compendium Blogware.

Making any sense? The goal of corporate blogging is engagement. That engagement happens through Search Engine Optimization.   The ROI of business blogging starts with search.

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Marketing Blog Strategy Starts with Search

Posted Tuesday, September 30, 2008 by Chris Baggott

I want you to study this graph. A simple google analytics pie chart showing traffic by origin for a typical Corporate Blog. Blogging best practices tell us that we need to study our web analytics to be successful. How does your corporate blog compare to this?

Typically that MAJORITY of blog traffic comes from search...I doubt yours is much different. Embrace this, don't fight it. Typical Business blogger doctrine says that your blogging goal should be engagement as measured through repete business and commenting.

The reality is that successful engagement should be measured in organic search traffic and conversion. Win the search, win with great human content, and win with a terrific and compelling cal to action.

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