When setting up a blog for business remember that your blog is not about YOU. Your blog should be about the answers you solve for all of the problems being searched by your potential clients and customers.
I could write all about my family life and what I did last night with my kids and hope that it inspires you to reach out to me to form a business relationship but is that really valuable to you if we are going to do business together?
Instead of me talking about my life throughout this blog, I am going to talk about topics that will hopefully be a guide when setting up a blog for business purposes.
There is a lot of buzz about "blogging" these days and hopefully the information you find on this page will help you sort through the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to blogging as a tool for SEO.
Some great tips for helping you market your blog for business. Tip #3 - do your research.
When companies set up a blog for business, many times one of the goals they have is to become known as a resource site for expert analysis and insight. A business blog is a great way to achieve this goal but you have to do your research.
Make sure that you keep up with all the current news and updates in the industry that you are talking about. Feel free to reference other new sources but remember what you were taught in high school English class... REFERENCE your work! If you take a snippet of a news article posted on a major news website, be sure to reference where you got that information from. The same holds true for other blogs. If you you like reading someones blog and one of their topics relates to your current blog post, mention the authors name. Link your post to his blog.
Doing your research will help your audience build that sense of trust that you really do have the expert knowledge in your industry. Build that trust but continually give good results back!
Blog Marketing Tip #3 - do your research
Some great tips on helping you market your blog for business. Tip #2 - customize your skin.
You have worked long and hard for people to recognize your branding for your business. You have a great logo, your colors are remembered, people know who your online presence is. Great! Now you have decided that you want to incorporate a blog for business on your site to help you drive leads and become known as an expert in your field. Awesome!
One problem... you have a host website that is completely branded with your logo and corporate colors which is blue. Now your blog for business is up and running and it does not have your logo and the color of or business blog is red. This is a problem.
From the viewpoint of your audience, how do I know that the blog is the same company as the host website? Can I trust this blog? Can I trust these links or this content?
Having a skin on your blog that is the same as the skin on your website will help keep your audience knowing that your business blogs are from the same company as your host website. This will help your audience keep the trust that you have already helped them establish from your corporate branding.
Blog Marketing Tip #2 - customize your skin
Some great tips on helping you market your blog for business. Tip #1 - your domain name.
Think of your domain name like the title of a book. Your title should match the content that is written in your book. When writing a business blog your domain name, or URL, should be treated the same way.
Try to stay away from hosting sites that do not let you pick your domain name. Setting up your blog as a sub domain to your host web domain name is a great way to keep your audience in uniform with what is going on. If you set up a blog for business like this, be sure to include the keyword your blog is talking about in the domain name as well.
Example:
www.mywebsitename.com is my host site
blog.mywebsitename.com/keyword is my sub domain blog talking about a keyword.
Having a good domain name will help in online search and it will also help your audience know what this story is all about!
Tip #1 - your domain name
If you ask a marketing company what they think is the best online marketing tool available is you will probably get varied results. Most might just keep their answers generic and talk about the differences between paid search and organic search or SEO. Some companies might even go out and push a certain software they use or a company they have a relationship with.
When asking Compendium Blogware what they best online marketing tool is you will get a simple answer....look at our clients and you tell us what you think is the best way to market via online search.
Our clients are being found in thousands of related keyword search terms. Our clients are growing their business. Our clients are seeing more and more relevant leads come in their door month over month because of the content that they are writing on the Compendium corporate blogging software.
So, you could ask us what we think but of coarse you will get a biased answer. Better yet, why don't you ask our clients. The overwhelming answer you will get is the best online marketing tool is utilizing a blog for business.
Give us a call today!
The last step, STEP 5 - Be Creative. After today, I will have written about five steps that will help you and your organization write better content on your blog for business.
Today's step is easy....simply put... be creative with your content. If you go back and read through my blog posts you will see that I have written about so many different topics and themes. Some of which may have not made any sense at the time (sorry about that!). The point is to be creative with your content.
Always try to relate back your creative side on the content post with your blogging goals. Remember that using your blog as a tool for SEO means that you want to be found via search through the keywords that are found in your blog content. So, as creative as you want to get, always try to relate it back to your keywords you want to win on search. Make the post relevant to your business but make it interesting so your audience does not fall asleep when reading the content.
Having a blog for business is a a great tool and being creative with your content will help you attract and retain an audience that wants to read (or hear or see) what you have to say.
Do us, your audience, a favor and Be Creative on your blog for business!
The past few days I have written about steps to help you write better blog content. Today is STEP 4 - Plan Ahead.
Ahh...the old riddle, is it better to plan ahead or procrastinate and do it all at the last minute. To be honest, there are a lot of things that I do very well when I am on a time crunch because I procrastinated and waited until the last minute to get the task done. I know I am not alone, there are a lot people like that.
I do, however, like to plan ahead with my tasks. For instance, although this post went live on my blog on June 18th, around 9am eastern time, I am writing this blog content on Monday, June 15th. I am in between meetings and I am caught up on paperwork and emails so I thought I would plan ahead and write a few blog posts to have them go live on the internet in a few days. This will help me during the week when those times come up that I know I should be writing a blog post to help my search efforts (because we at Compendium use blogging as a tool for SEO) but I am too swamped with my other work. Instead of not having new content on my blog, I am able to plan ahead and schedule my content to release out during the week.
So what if your corporate blogging software does not have this great feature like Compendium's does... don't worry... simply write down your content post in a program like Microsoft Word, save it, and then submit it to go live on your blog when you are ready to do so.
I like to write blog content when I am up at the crack of dawn before my kids or late at night after they have gone to sleep!
Planning ahead is a great way to get great blog content out on your network and it is STEP 4 on my steps to writing better blog content.
Today is
STEP 3 - Outline/Draft/Write, as we roll out some great steps on how to help your organization write better blog content for your business blog.
This step reminds me of my high school English class. I always wanted to just write my book reports one time and be done with them. In doing so, I often had errors that I could have avoided if I would have just listened to my teacher when she told me to - outline my paper, then draft it, and then write the final version for submission.
Keeping to this formula will help you when you write content on your blog for business. Remember that when you put any content on the web, it is going to be read be it good, bad, or indifferent. Why not just be sure that the content is decent before making it go live on your blog.
Maybe this means that you just spend a few extra minutes to read through your content before you submit it. Going over what you just wrote will help you catch small errors that you may not have seen in the first place. Also, be sure that you spell check your content. Although, I say that spell checking is important but remember this post I did a few weeks back:
Overall, giving your blog content a second look will help your content be clean and fresh for your audience. It will help you remember what your blogging goals are in the first place and be a reminder to keep to those goals that you set forth.
This step is just a simple step that should be considered when talking about blogging best practices. I hope this step is one that you will consider using if you are a seasoned blog writer or you are still learning how to set up a business blog for the first time.
Happy Blogging!
Today is
STEP 2 - Brainstorm/Mind Mapping, in the roll out of steps to helping you and your organization write better blog content for your blog for business.
I think that this step is one that gets overlooked far too often. I like to ask companies this question, "when you start a new marketing campaign do you just start writing your marketing pitch and whatever comes out is what you use for the campaign?" No, you and your team do some brainstorming and map out what the team feels would be the best message to get out to your audience what will give you the highest and best return on your investment.
Writing content for your business blog should be treated the same way (Most of the time. The exception to this rule is when you just have a great idea and you want to post it on your blog before the idea disappears from your head - in this case, don't brainstorm, just write the content and clean it up as needed!).
There are several articles on the web that talk about different brainstorming techniques to consider when writing blog content but I think the most important technique to remember is this:
Write about the keywords that you want to be found on search for. These keywords should be the problems and questions that people are searching online for to find the answers to. Your blog content should be the answers for the searcher!
If your blog content is all about how you love to go bird watching, you will be found by people searching for bird watching keywords. If this is not what you want to be found on, then do not write content about these keywords!
If you brainstorm in teams, you might find that other people have ideas that you can feed off of and ultimately get double the amount of great content on your blog!
Brainstorming is a key step to writing good content for your blog for business. I encourage you to make this technique a natural, and productive, part of your business blogging goals!
Over the next few days, I am going to be posting some great steps to help you post better content on your blog for business. These steps are meant to be encouraging, inspiring, and motivating for you and your organization!
I will be posting one step each day and I encourage you to take each step to heart and implement it into your current blogging for SEO strategy.
So here we go...
STEP 1: Make Time for Blogging!
I have written about this before but it is a very important step so I wanted to write about it again. Be sure that you put time in your schedule to write blog content as often as possible. I encourage people to put a slot on their calendar and call it "blog content creation time". Having this time set aside everyday will help you formulate your ideas and ultimately get you to write more content online.
Having a lot of content online will help your search marketing strategies. This is even more true when you use a corporate blogging software (like Compendium Blogware) as your business blogging software provider!
Sure, at first, it might take you a few extra minutes to get used to writing content on your blog so your "blogging time" might be a bit longer than you want but, before you know it, you will be a pro blog writer!
So, recap of STEP 1 - be sure to schedule time to write blog content. Maybe this is once a week or once everyday...whatever it is, be sure to stick to your schedule and write that content for your blog for business!
When was the last time you sat in a coffee shop? If recently, you know just how much clutter of conversation is going on in the store. In the coffee shop I am sitting in right now, there are about a dozen or so people all having private conversations with each other. There is music in the background and the coffee makers are loud. Collectively, there is just noise that is overwhelming the store. It is nearly impossible to focus on just one piece of noise in the store. I cannot just hear the music because the kids next to me are talking. I cannot just hear the two business-men's conversation because the music is still playing.
There is a lot going on here, probably all very meaningful conversations but I cannot focus on any of them individually.
Many times this is what you get with a blog for business. You want to get into a blog, but there is so much clutter of conversation on the blog that you are not able to focus on any of the topics.
With Compendium, this does not take place. Our corporate blogging software will set you up with all of the blogging best practices available so you will be able to keep your audience focused and on point with your blog content.
Getting back to coffee... reach out to Compendium to see a demo and we would be glad to send you a free $50 Starbucks Gift Card!
e-Commerce is increasing in size and demand every day. It seems like more and more individuals and corporations are shifting into a model that revolves around the majority of revenue being generated comes from their e-Commerce site.
This is great, if you are able to get your e-Commerce site found through all the clutter of other sites. With all the growth of e-Commerce, it is becoming more and more competitive to show up in search for the keywords you want to be found on. Sure, many of the larger e-Commerce sites have plenty of money to spend so they are able to utilized all of the SEO and SEM best practices but it all comes with a hefty price tag.
One of the best things about blogging as a tool for SEO (being found in search), is that you can utilize a corporate blogging software that is going to provide you with great results and it is not going to cost you an arm and a leg to do so! You will now be able to utilized all of the blogging best practices and before you know it you will be found in more places on search than you could with just website SEO strategy.
Setting up a blog for business is great for e-Commerce sites. If you don't ask me, just ask a few of our clients like:
Fairytale Brownies or
GK Elite.
These clients are very e-Commerce heavy and they will tell you that having a blog for business has been a great investment of their time, energy, and money!
When you are marketing your products and services, how do you entice your audience? Do you use a loud tone of voice? A colorful font for your writing? Maybe you use a bright picture of something that your audience wants.... if you are an alcohol distributor, maybe you use a picture of a nice cold 12-pack of beer with accessories!
Whatever it is that you use to get the attention of your audience be sure to stay focused on what your goals are.
The same holds true under business blogging best practices. As I have written about before, remember that your blog for business should be treated like an extension of your marketing efforts.
When writing your blog posts be sure to stay focused - remember your blogging goals. Also, keep your keywords focused throughout your post because when you are blogging as a tool for SEO you want to stay narrow and topically focused so your audience can relate appropriately.
OK, fine, use gimmicks as well! It is amazing what people will do for a prize!
Today is my younger brother's birthday...happy birthday Tyler!
Tyler has a college marketing degree and has worked on some great marketing projects over the past few years. He only graduated from college about a year ago and when I asked him what his college professors taught him about Internet marketing and social media, his response was - "little to nothing".
At first I was shocked...the great educators of our society are not even teaching about mainstream marketing techniques! I guess it makes sense though, marketing via the web is still a fairly new idea. Fifteen years ago, web development and SEO practices were not even really thought of by common business people.
Today - June 9, 2009 - companies big and small are concerned about getting their message out on the web. Google has become a verb! Blogging has become a term that people use regularly. Setting up a blog for business is a thought that crosses many business owners mind.
Who knows where we will be in another fifteen years! Lets just take it one day at a time and worry about the moment.
Have a great day!
The old saying goes, "don't build a house on sifting sand... build it on solid rock!"
You would not build your house like a this card house before consulting with a building contractor who knows what he is doing.
So why would you develop a start a business blog without looking at the blogging best practices?
Be sure to consult with an individual that knows what they are talking about when it comes to blogging. Ask them about their blogging goals and what type of success they are seeing on their business blog. Ask how they are measuring their results - what metrics are put in place with their business blog.
If you have questions about business blogging, Compendium is here to help. For starters, download our
Business Blogging Survival Kit.
This kit will help you figure out how to start a business blog on the right foot!
When writing content on your blog for business it is very important that you write good, relevant content. Having valuable content will help your audience relate to you, will give your blog a strong voice, and (hopefully) it will lead to a new business transaction.
I was forwarded this great depiction of how people respond to content online.
http://lateralaction.com/articles/9-responses/
According to this article, here are the 9 ways people respond:
- Spam: If your content does not provide a reasonable ROII (return-on-investment for an interaction) for the reader or is self-serving or simply useless, the reader will mark it as spam. Posting something that may be assessed, as “spam” is the fastest way to losing credibility.
- Skip: The reader makes an assessment that he or she won’t lose much by reading it. In this case, the reader has not written you off yet but if you consistently create content that is worth “skipping,” the reader might write you off.
- Scan: The reader thinks there are only a few parts that are of relevance and wants to get right to the core of the content and skip the rest.
- Stop: The reader is touched by the article and stops to think about the article, it’s relevance and what it means to him or her personally and professionally.
- Save: The content is so good that the reader might want to re-visit this multiple times.
- Shift: The article is transformational. The reader is so deeply affected (in a positive way) by the article that it shifts some of their values and beliefs. In other words, this piece of writing will transform the reader and make him or her grow.
- Send: The content is not only useful to the reader but also to one or more people in the reader’s network. The reader simply emails the article or a link to it to people that he or she cares.
- Spread: The reader finds the article fascinating enough to spread it to anyone and everyone via a blog, twitter or the social networks that he or she belongs.
- Subscribe: This is the ultimate expression of engagement and a vote of confidence that you will continue to provide great content. When the reader wants to continue listening to your thoughts, he or she will subscribe.
On June 12th, 2009, I am hosting a "Business Blogging 101" workshop in conjunction with the
Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce. This workshop is open to all Lake Norman and Charlotte Chamber members - there is a fee for non-members.
The purpose of this workshop is to be informative and educational, the following topics will be discussed:
- What is a Blog?
- Who/What is Compendium Blogware?
- What is the purpose of blogging?
- How do Blogs and Business relate?
- Blogs and Search Engine Optimization.
- Measuring ROI for Blogs.
- I want to start a Blog for Business, now what?
If you are in the Charlotte area, I encourage you to contact me and sign up for the workshop. The workshop is scheduled to begin at 10am and last until noon. If you are not in the CLT area, give a call and I would be glad to go through parts of the workshop with you (free of charge!).
Brett Fritz - bfritz@compendiumblogware.com
Happy Blogging!
In business there is a lot of emphasis put on the End of Month numbers. The sales team usually sees the biggest push because they all want to hit their numbers and be strong going into the next month.
The marketing department is the same way. The company wants to be sure that it has done all it can with its marketing efforts to be sure that the rest of the company can be successful for that same time period.
This is one (of many) reasons why using a blog for business is so great. A blog post that you put up today will help you achieve search goals for as long as that blog is online. This post I am writing today will help our company generate new leads this month, next month, and even next year!
Plus, I feel a sense of accomplishment and teamwork because my blog post today will help generate more leads for our company. Although I am in sales, I know that I am helping the marketing department - it is a great cycle of success!
There are a lot of tools available to achieve success for your company on the Internet, corporate blogging is one of them. Give Compendium Blogware a call and we would be glad to walk you through why we are so passionate about what we do!
Ok great, your decided to blog for business. You have:
- Established the value of blogging as a tool for SEO
- Set some amazing blogging goals
- Great content and an audience that you believe will be interested in what you have to offer
- Someone to administer your blog content to be sure that your messaging is right for blogging best practices -- wait -- what?
Who is going to administer your blog for business? Who is going to be sure that you check your spelling and your content makes sense? Can your blogging software even allow you to have an administrator account?
With Compendium's corporate blogging software, we understand that it helps having a few sets of eyes look over something before it goes out to the public. Our software is set up with an administrator function that approves or declines all blog content and blog comments before they ever go live on your network.
This also gives me the opportunity to thank our administrator, Meghan Peters. Thanks Meghan for keeping my blog posts in line!
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?
Sure this paragraph above is a little drastic but it proves a point... having a misspelled word will still allow your readers to understand what you are talking about.
When using a blog for business it is important to spell check before your post goes live. When any content goes live on the web someone will read it...from experience I know! One of my first blog posts had one misspelled word in it and within hours of it on the web I had a comment from someone pointing out my error to the world!
Mistakes happen but for the most part be sure to check your spelling. Having a properly spelled blog post will help you keep your expertise and authenticity to your readers.
