Search Marketing can be a difficult game to play. Figuring out how to generate organic traffic in a cost-effective way can be even more challenging. Luckily, for the marketing team here at
Compendium, we get to employ our very own blogging platform.
The success we have seen from our internal use is proof of the power Compedium offers as a search marketing tool. The blogging platform is built from the ground up with a focus on generating traffic through search.
To see the blogging platform in action, see where Compendium ranks with a popular keyword - affordable blogging software...
Click Here to see the resultIf this doesn't have you convinced, download our
Whitepaper: Are you Considering Corporate Blogging? Get it here.
After you read it, be sure to
contact us so you can view our demo with a blogging expert to see how Compendium can work the same for you.
Would you like to learn how marketers are producing blogging ROI in just 10 minutes a day?
If so, then our
upcoming Webinar will be perfect for you.
Now more than ever it’s important that marketers chat with their peers and share success stories to help businesses grow and generate demand during these hard economic times.
During this Webinar, you'll not only learn how we run a successful blogging strategy in just 10 minutes a day, but we'll also cover:
1. How our marketing team allocates time and resources to blogging.
2. How we’re able to generate over 185 posts each month.
3. How we consistently maintain a 9% click-through rate.
4. How we acquire new business through our blogs.
Make sure to
register for this Webinar soon - there's a limited number of spots available!
Our client,
GK Elite, is the most recognized manufacturer of Gymnastics apparel around the world. They realized that they needed a world class blogging program to go with their world class business.
They turned to
Compendium because GK Elite was searching for an affordable way to increase their web presence and leverage their impeccable reputation to earn more business.
Check out our brand new case study to learn how GK Elite's blogging program has driven over 14,000 unique visitors and increased revenues 40% within the first 6 months of blogging.
Get the full study here.
So we've heard it all before - blogging is out-dated and on the decline. That the rise of social networking and media have given to the demise of the more labor-intensive blogging. The critics claim that quick and short content found on Facebook and Twitter are more appealing to marketers. However, smart companies know that blogging can be an effective bridge from social networking to customer.
This recent, daring, article by CopyBlogger titled
Blogging is Dead (Again) articulates this attack on blogging and stands up for all blogging-kind. Corporate blogging, specifically, still provides emense momentum for a company's web presence.
The ultimate test of blogging's staying power is not the trendiness of blogging, but the return on investment (Blogging ROI) that it produces.
Corporate blogging initiatives, especially built with
Compendium Blogware, can easily measure their ROI; and here at Compendium we let that speak for itself.
Do you currently have a blogging strategy or are you looking to start one?
This is the perfect opportunity for you to learn how
Compendium's marketing team manages, tracks and supports our blogging strategy - which has seen
97% growth in leads generated and
100% ROI year to date.
If you attend our very first Marketing Webinar, you'll also learn:1. Simple design elements that will lift conversion rates.
2. Content generate tips and strategies.
3. How to measure, track and adjust your strategy with helpful worksheets.
As you know, in this economy, it's imperative that every dollar you spend is focused on returning your investment. So what are you waiting for??
Sign up now, there's only a limited number of spots available.
Every month Compendium hosts a new Webinar, so you can imagine that during our Webinar's we receive a lot of questions and concerns about implementing a business blogging strategy for large organizations that require a lot of cutting through the red tape.
So, when I came across this article titled "Fortune 500 Corporate Blog Adoption Slow and Steady" on Business Wire, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to dispel any pre-conceived notions about business blogging.
Read the entire article
here.
The most informative part of the article includes some of their key findings...here are a few examples:
- Five of the top ten companies have public blogs: Wal-Mart, Chevron, General Motors, Ford, and Bank of America.
- 90% of the Fortune 500’s blogs have the comments feature enabled.
- 81 of the Fortune 500 or 16% currently have public-facing blogs.
- 10% of the Fortune 500’s blogs link to podcasts; 21% incorporate video
If this article doesn't help change your mind about this topic, attend our upcoming
Webinar: Why Business Blogs Win Search. Register now - there's only 150 spots available for this Webinar.
Many people have this concern quite frequently, so here are some quick questions to ask yourself to help determine if you should be starting a business blog:
1. Are you aware that blogging is one of the most effective tools for SEO?
2. Do you have employees that are willing to talk about their jobs and company?
3. Do you want to start relationships with prospective customers?
4. Would you like to acquire more customers?
5. How about driving more demand for your product or service?
If you answered
YES to these questions, than look no further, you're definitely ready to start a business blog. And with Compendium Blogware's web-based blogging platform built for businesses and organizations, you can be up and running in no time!
Check us out today by
viewing a demo with one of our blogging experts or attend our upcoming
Webinar: Top 5 Myths of Business Blogging - seats are limited so
register now!
To continue my series on blogging best practices I thought an important best practice to tackle would be properly linking in your blog posts.
This might sound like a simple practice to implement in your posts, but it actually carries a lot of weight and should be used strategically. There are a few critical things to remeber:
1. Make sure to link to relevant words or phrases in your posts. When deciding to provide a link in your blog post, regardless of what it is, you should always place the link on words or phrases that tells the reader a little bit about what they are going to get by clicking in that particular place. This will help eliminate any confusion for your blog readers! Sarah does a great job of this in her
recent blog post.
2. When providing a link to your resources - make sure to capture lots of information. This strategy is perhaps the most important. When you decide to offer your Whitepaper or Case Study in your blog post, be sure to link to your landing page first. This will help you capture information that is valuable for proper follow up and measuring your blog's success! Check out Megan's
recent post for a good example of this blogging best practice.
3. If you link to an article or fellow blogger - give credit where credit is due. Everyone wants to receive credit when they do something good - so when you link to someone's blog post or article make sure you reference that in your blog. This is a blogging best practice that can't be ignored. Take a look at Doug's
blog post for a helpful example.
Make sure to check back often for more blogging best practices and examples!
There are a lot of blogging best practices to remember to follow when writing your blog posts, but make sure not to get overwhelmed with trying to incorporate every single best practice.
Over the next several weeks, I'll outline some of the most impactful best practices to help you maximize your blogging power.
To start, lets focus on how often you should be blogging to sustain a successful business blog. After all, if you don't write enough, you'll never realize the benefit - but you also don't want to burn yourself out with a gun-ho approach. Here at
Compendium we tell our clients to aim for two blog posts per week.
Two posts each week is manageable for most people and allows for you to get all of your thoughts out. Along with these benefits, it will keep your content fresh and relevant to what your searchers are looking for.
Check out one of our client's blogs
GK Elite. They do a great job at posting frequently with fresh relevant content.
Make sure to check back often for more blogging best practices and examples to apply to your business blogging program.
The truth about business blogging that is...
It's no secret that there are a lot of preconceived notions that come along with the idea of business blogging. As a blogging software company we're definietly aware of that, and that's why we want to make sure you're armed with all the correct information.
Check out Chris Baggott's brand new
Whitepaper: Simple Truths about Business Blogging and Search Marketing. Get it here. If you're not seeing the ROI that you expect from your demand generation efforts, than this is the Whitepaper for you.
Along with our brand new Whitepaper, we've also decided to design an entire Webinar around this topic. Join us on May 29th for our free
Webinar: Top 5 Myths of Business Blogging. Make sure to
register early, there are only 150 spots available and seats are filling up fast!
Maybe you're in the process of researching the best blogging solution for your company or maybe you're in the final stages of deciding to implement a blogging strategy.
Wherever you are in the process... here at
Compendium we find it incredibly important for you to
hear from our clients, clients just like you, who are utilizing our blogging software to drive business to their company everyday.
To help give you the most useful examples possible, we have created a new series titled "In Their Own Words". This portion of our website will be updated regurarly with new testimonials from our clients.
Check out our first client, Ryan Hinricher, CMO with Investor Nation.
We'd love to hear your feedback on this new feature, leave your comments below!
Today I was reading a great article in
AbileneBiz titled "Blogs help businesses build their brand and reach key audiences".
Read the entire article
here.
This article does a great job of capturing the real feelings that many business owners have previously felt about implementing a
corporate blogging strategy, and how those feelings have changed due to the emense success they have seen after implementing their company blog.
My favorite example from the article talks about
Whole Foods Market and how they utilize a number of different employees for their blogging program.
This is the very thing that Compendium preaches about daily. You don't need to hire or train someone to be your blogger, your best bloggers are right under your nose! You have employess who are dying to talk about their jobs and how it impacts the company they work for, make sure to use these resources to your advantage.
If you haven't already, now is the time to participate in our
Starbucks promotion before it's too late!
In case you weren't aware, we had decided to try a few different demo promotions over the past few months, but we've found that nothing compares to our Starbucks promotion.
So if your curious about business blogging with Compendium, here are a few questions to ask yourself:
1. Do you want to generate more leads?
2. Humanize your Marketing?
3. Would you like to acquire more customers?
If you answered
YES to all of these questions, you're definitely ready to view a demo with one of our blogging experts here at
Compendium.
And the best part is - you'll receive a $50 Starbucks Gift Card.
What are you waiting for?
View a demo today!
This is the key question that you should be asking yourself if your currently researching all the benefits that business blogging provides to businesses.
A very popular question that is almost always submitted during our monthly Webinar's is: How do I sell this idea to my boss? There are obviously a lot of different ways to approach this topic, so
Compendium wants to make it easy on you by providing plenty of real world examples right at your fingertips.
We have put together 4 Case Studies from some of our most successful clients. They're packed full with real world examples and actual stats from their current blogging programs. Make sure to
download all 4 so you can start building the case for business blogging today!
Often times I have a hard time trying to find new and interesting topics to blog about. I've heard a lot of advice on where you can find relevant, fresh content right under your nose - so I wanted to share some of those great ideas in case you fall into the same category as me.
1
. Your Own Email Inbox - a great way to come up with blog content is to go through things you have already written - your emails! Emails are full of great stories, strategies and new innovative ideas. Try going through your Sent folder and I'm sure you'll instantly have a few great ideas to work with.
2.
Articles/Whitepapers/Case Studies - do a little searching on Google before deciding on a topic to blog about. Often times you can find a great new article or case study featuring something that's going on in your field of work. These are great resources that you can also offer to your readers by linking to them in your blog post - everyone appreciates a free educational resource whenever possible!
3.
Your Clients - this may sound like an easy idea, but a lot of people don't think about the resources right at their fingertips. Your clients are great to blog about - you can also try using a client as a feature blogger. When I am reading a company blog, I love running across posts that outline a current client and how they are using your product or service. This helps readers visualize how others are using your company and if I can see myself doing the same.
4.
Everyday Conversations - everyday conversations you have with prospects, clients or colleagues are a great way to inform your readers about your company. Blogging about the everyday simple conversations helps to incorporate the human element into your blog. Readers want to know about the challenges you face and the opinions of your clients or prospects - otherwise why not just read the copy on your website? They came to a blog for a reason, to see the human side of your company - give the readers what they want!
A few weeks ago we launched our new demo campaign: View a Demo; Get a $25 iTunes Gift Card. Unfortunately, we didn't see the type of participation that we were expecting, so we decided to double it!
How about a $50 iTunes gift card? Just think of all the music you could buy with $50! Now is your chance to get 50 songs on
Compendium - make sure to take advantage NOW before it's too late!
Also, in case you're on the fence about viewing a demo with one of our blogging experts, check out our
Whitepaper: Are you Considering Corporate Blogging? Get it
here. I'm confident it'll answer any questions you may have about integrating a corporate blogging straegy in your company's marketing plans.
I love it when people tell me their success stories with blogs/blogging. And when the story is about
Compendium or one of our clients, thats even better!
I was out to dinner with a friend of mine the other night, and she was telling me that recently her company had to take a few clients out to lunch on the north side of Indianapolis. Her office isn't located in the same area where they would be meeting, so she did a little research in Google about 96th Street Restuarants. Low and behold, Compendium's
Indy Restaurant Blog popped up reviewing
96th Street SteakBurgers. She told me that she was convinced to try it after reading the post, and the restuarant turned out to be delicious!
This story is the exact reason why businesses should be blogging! Not only are you getting the word out about your business, products and services but your acquiring new customers everyday. Check out Compendium Blogware today and start learning about all the
benefits that business blogging can bring to your company.
As you may know, I often blog about the need for corporations to take up the practice of business blogging, but I have to admit that I rarely think about the impact of business blogging on a global scale.
I recently found an interesting article talking about business blogging beginning to spread through Africa as more fiber optic infrastructure is laid. It is reported by
Business Daily Africa, that as consumers look for the human element to big corporations they are starting to seek this through business blogging.
The article also states that as Kenya gets more internet capabilities, the first thing they're deciding to do is put a face to their company by business blogging!
Regardless of where you are or what language you speak, the benefits of blogging are universal and brings value and an impact for businesses. So I would urge all companies to join this new global trend and see the benefits yourself.
A common question that we always seem to get asked is; how long should my blog post be?
As a best practice the most appropiate and effective length for a blog post would be a couple of paragraphs. Most people will read this and think they can't get their entire thought out in that length. But you have to ask yourself, what kind of blog post would I want to read? Your answer is probably a short, to the point, couple of paragraphs.
When people are searching for quick informatoin on a topic, they don't want to take 15 minutes to read a blog post. This is a fast paced world where not everyone has the time to sit and read lengthy copy - they want to skim.
A great advantage you have when writing shorter posts is the ability to break up your ideas in different posts. If you want to write about a complex subject that could turn out to be lengthy, think about presenting the idea in two or three posts. This will not only help with providing fresh content but more people are likely to read your entire post when it's shorter.
Next time you write your blog post, think of the simplest and easiest way to present the information to your readers, they will thank you for it!
