Companies Blogs

Don't Be Intimidated by Blogging

Friday, March 19, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

I am very impressed with blogs. Before working at Compendium Blogware, I never read any blog on any website at all. Actually, I was kind of intimidated by them. I thought they were only for niche topic gurus who wanted to share other ridiculously smart thoughts with people of shared interests. What I have found is that blogs are not intimidating at all! They are very informative and I feel like I make a personal connection with the blog. Unfortunately, some businesses are being robotic with their marketing campaigns.

Blogging provides a humanized feel to a companies social marketing strategy. It easily can provide results in a very short time period which proves its worthy of an investment. So my suggestion is to view some blogs and get familiar with their format. Check out Compendium's for example. It will only take a little glimpse to realize the effectiveness of business blogging!

Some really great support for the Compendium philosophy

Friday, March 19, 2010 by Brian Millis

Often times I think it is important to educate around the power of blogs in search engine ranking. It all comes back to 3 of the most important pillars of any search algorithm (google, bing, yahoo, etc.) which are:

1.    Relevancy (how well does the content address the search query)
2.    Frequency of content update (what is more frequently and easily updated than a blog)
3.    Recent update of new content (recency, again blogs dominate)

Blogs are THE BEST vehicle on the web to address these, which is why no search engine that wants to keep market share would stop valuing and ranking blogs. Google knows this more than anyone, which is why they own the majority of the search market because of their “Blended Search” algorithm. Here is collateral to support this Compendium philosophy:

Google’s Own Press Release from this week: 3/16/10:
“Google's vision for universal search is to ultimately search across all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that offers users precisely what they are looking for. Beginning today, the company will incorporate information from a variety of previously separate sources – including videos, images, news, maps, books, and websites – into a single set of results. At first, universal search results may be subtle. Over time users will recognize additional types of content integrated into their search results as the company advances toward delivering a truly comprehensive search experience.” Doesn’t sound like they are moving towards removing blogs, but rather increasing importance of other mediums (including blogs) http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/universalsearch_20070516.html

From PracticalEcommerce.com just this week:
Gone are the days when a search is performed and only a list of pertinent websites appears in the search engine results page. Instead, what can be found now is a blend of websites, videos, images, social media profiles, blogs, news stories, press releases, podcasts and maps. With blended search, all findings— official company websites and YouTube videos alike— are joined together on the search engine results page. By integrating this blend of media into your company’s site and marketing plan you can obtain search success and improve customer satisfaction, ultimately boosting your company’s overall sales. Below are four ways that your company can get started to ensure successful search marketing results.   SEE WAY #1 at this link: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1104-Blended-Search-Four-Ways-to-Optimize-Content-for-Better-Search-Rankings

From the most recent issue of Wired Magazine: Pages 97 – 116 (Cover Article): “Inside the Box: Inside Google Search”
See Key Advances, #6: Universal (or blended) Search: This is the way the algorithm is moving. To include more video, new mediums, pictures, etc. which is all much more prolific and easy to find and organize on blogs.

Fortune Magazine: March issue; page 64 about the changes in the entire publishing world:
Quote: “The only new media life form that has managed to live off those junk-ad rates (PPC) is the blog, a medium that tends to favor breadth over depth and cheap opinion over expensive original reporting.” Further proof that more satisfied searchers come from blog results, which is why search engines are only moving toward better blog ranking, not removing blog ranking.

Our CEO, Chris Baggott (Co-Founder of Exacttarget.com and 21st 2009 Most Influential Marketer) addressing this very question:
Google isn't ranking us because we are a blog.   It's ranking us because our pages are designed specifically for the algorithm.

Google likes specific titles, right? Google is moving towards more specific pages and content frequency and recency.

Google makes about 12 changes to it's algorithm every month.   Who better to stay on top of them than a large SaaS. We have a strategic sprint every week and a team dedicated to nothing but keeping our software up with the best practices as Google dictates. Recent changes include the canonical tag, the 301 redirect, (all changes we were able to respond to immediately) Google doesn't try to hide it's changes. it's pretty transparent about what it wants you to do. The biggest recent changes include real time search and personalization.   Both things that make us even more attractive right?    Google is responding to Twitter and Bing and realizing that fresh content is a very serious consideration in search.

Personalization is even more important.   Retailers are now REQUIRED to have a ton more content.   You have the challenge of building content that is relevant to everyone.   What used to be a mass marketing business. (homepage and massive linking) is now a highly fragmented targeted marketing game.

I hope this helps understand why companies are turning to services and platforms like Compendium to see more ROI on their search marketing strategies.

"Networking" and Lead Generation at Tradeshows

Friday, March 19, 2010 by jennifer buscher

Megan Glover and Jennifer Buscher "networking" with Fido

Megan Glover (Compendium Director of Marketing) and I recently attended Etail in Palm Springs. One company, Fetchback, had a conference mascot (Fido, pictured in the middle) who walked around and mingled with the exhibitors and attendees. This seemed like an interesting way to draw attention to your BtoB software company, let alone generate leads. But, it seemed to have worked! When I got back in the office... the Fetchback Sales Manager sent me a picture of us with their mascot and here I am blogging about it.

I would like to think that Compendium is at the forefront of innovative lead generation strategies as we help businesses strategically use blogging as a way to drive new business, but hats off to Fetchback and their creative marketing efforts. To each their own!

Blogging for Visibility

Friday, March 19, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

I cannot believe it is already slightly past the middle of March and I have learned so much during my internship here at Compendium Blogware. The company is growing fast and it seems like I have already been here for awhile because I am no longer one of the super new people here. Everybody has had a hand in teaching me about the corporate blogging solutions and how our software is one of the best ways to build a social media strategy around business blogging.

With that said, I know there is much more for me to learn about. Blogging is one of the simplest ways to build your online search visiblity which can be more valuable than taking a risk with paying to optimize your website. Check out a demonstration today of our software to view the best blogging software available!

March Madness

Friday, March 19, 2010 by Jason Harvoth

As the clock gets closer to midnight, Cinderella has to turn into a pumpkin. There are still some very capable teams playing for glory in this year's NCAA tournament. Ohio University, who is coached by John Groce, gave it to Georgetown last night to move into to 32 status. Many games went into overtime, and many more first round games have yet to be played so stay tuned for more exciting drama during the 2010 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

While the story unfolds during the tournament, Compendium Blogware is having a tournament of our own. Our EQB (Executive Queen of Blogging) and Gas City native, Heather Benfield, has tasked us with writing posts to maximize the tool we sell. Each and every week during the month of March the divisions of the company battle for blogging supremacy. We're down to the final 3, and next week will pit the final two teams against one another.

The drama is building, and the Sales Department is poised to be crowned blogging champion.

Client Testimonial on Compendium

Thursday, March 18, 2010 by Sarah Sedberry

Of course every employee believes in their company and the product or service they carry, but it is always nice to get confirmation from clients and outside sources who love your company as much as you do.

Recently we had a client, Ray Rosewell of DaVinci Roofscapes, mention his success with his blogging program in an interview that was featured on Business Blog Writers. In the interview Ray mentions his goals and how Compendium is helping his company achieve them:

"From a business standpoint, what I am looking for is a way to make a blog effective as an information tool, but at the same time, use it as a tool that will allow search engines to find us so they can help people who are looking for information that relates to our products.. By using the Compendium blog platform to do the work on keyword selection we are able to accomplish both goals.”

For more on how Compendium's powerful blogging software can help your business achieve your online marketing goals, contact us to schedule a demo and get free Starbucks!

Green is my Favorite Color

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

If you are a member of the business community, you love
St. Patrick's Day because of the

color green! Green is the color of money which business people do love. And if you are looking out for the future of your business, you should want to ensure that there are ways to provide more sales and lead generation for your company. There are many strategies that can help your company, but are any of them as effective as corporate business blogging?

Compendium offers blogging solutions that helps do at least these three things that can make your company green this year:

1) Humanize your Marketing - People believe more in campaigns that feel like they are being treated as an individual.

2) Lead Generation - Using Compendium's software helps increase people's first time visits to your company's website

3) Tracking of Campaigns - The software also tracks how successful your blogging is with the help of Google Analytics.

There are so many benefits that Compendium's software provides but those three are just some highlights. If you have any questions, view this Whitepaper about Considering Blogging. It will give you the basics of making your social media strategy a green one!

Happy St. Patty's Day from Compendium - Come join our team!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 by Heather Benfield

It's March 17th and the Compendium Blogware team is all decked out in their finest green attire to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Although I'm not of Irish decent, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for this holiday (maybe because green is my favorite color) and enjoy celebrating with family and friends every year.

I think it's important to work in an office environment where others are excited to dress up and celebrate holidays too. Work is definitely about helping your clients and your company succeed in business, but I think it should also be fun so it doesn't feel like "work" but more of a place you love to go everyday to learn, share ideas, be creative and not to sound too cheesy but.....change the world!

Here at Compendium, we have a ton of fun! To help motivate each other to work hard and reach our goals we like to offer fun rewards. Last week our product support team went rock climbing for reaching their goals, our client success team was treated to breakfast and lunch for all their hard work and our sales team enjoyed bowling and dinner at Jillies downtown after a week long training session.

We're a fast growing company and always looking for fun, energetic and hard working people to join our team. If you're looking to advance your career in the internet marketing software industry I encourage you to check out our open positions and send us your resume. We'd love to meet you!

To learn more about Compendium Blogware, check out our website.

Drive Local Traffic for Your Business's Success

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

If one of your problems is local search, Compendium has a Whitepaper for you to deal directly with this issue of local search. For any company, people are looking more often online than in print media or at least that is what is shown in recent search trends. I can completely understand that your company has been around the area before the internet was even created, but that does not account for the lost business you are having by not being found online.

I can also understand how online marketing strategies can scare a company if they are unfamiliar with social media. However, there are solutions for you that can provide tangible returns on your investment like business blogging. All you have to do is write about what is going on in your day along with some specific keywords that drive traffic to your website. Before you know it, people will be coming through your doors in no time! Check out the Local Search White paper here.

The Value of Blogging

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

If you are confused about blogging's value to your company, I urge you to check out our ROI Toolkit. It is one of the many resources that Compendium Blogware provides for its clients and for people who are curious about corporate blogging. This toolkit can help your company create the social media strategy that will drive lead generation and increase online visibility.

Since return on investment is one of the key deciding factors of whether a marketing plan gets implemented, Compendium has created this toolkit to show how blogging is one of the most cost effective ways to market your company.

The toolkit includes:

- 2 Case Studies
- 1 White paper
- 1 article about the 10 Ways to Boost the Value of Your Corporate Blog
- A Checklist to Get your Blog Started

It's just a start, but the ROI Toolkit can really help your business blog. Check out a demonstration today if you want more information.

WSJ - Is there Value in Social Media?

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 by Kyle McGrath

I read a great article in the Wall Street Journal this morning entitled Entrepreneurs Question Value of Social Media that disccussed the frustration small companies have in measuring the ROI of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. There is no arguement that in the past few years these social media sites have become powerful marketing tools for small firms due to their low cost and ease-of-use, but the disconnect comes when the number of followers doesn't correlate to the number of sales at the end of the day.

The article quotes Chris Lindland, owner of Cordarounds.com, an online clothing retailer in San Francisco, who says that "he spends up to 90 minutes a day managing Cordaround's accounts on Twitter and Facebook, but his million visits hasn't led to millions in sales." This 1.5 hours/day equals 7.5 hours/week which equals 30 hours/month and 360 hours/year. WOW! All of this time spent for a return that is difficult to measure.

This is why utilizing an enterprise corporate blogging platform is so important for any size business. Compendium's platform not only improves a company's organic search result, but can easily measure ROI which is important to any company's bottom line.

Click here to learn more.

Using website analytics to measure blogging program success

Monday, March 15, 2010 by Heather Benfield

Often times when trying to explain Compendium Blogware and our software-as-a-service to others, I get a reaction that tells me I've completely lost the person I'm talking to...yep, you guess it...the smile and nod. I know you've seen it a million times and have probably done it yourself a few times here and there.

I've discoverd the easiest (and most effective) way to educate others about Compendium Blogware and the benefits we provide companies is to tell a story about one of our client's that has seen great success with our enterprise level blogging platform. This helps people relate to the client's situation and visualize how their company would use blogging for search.

With that being said, I'd love to share this latest success story about one of our newer clients, Raxco Software:

For over 30 years, B2B Company Raxco Software has developed award-winning defragmentation solutions and performance utilities that improve hard drive and server performance. But in 2009, the company was looking to improve some of their own levels of performance regarding their freeware blogging program.

Raxco noticed they were able to win a few keyword search phrases throughout the two years of their free blogging program, but were unable to maintain their ranking for long periods of time. They were looking for a solution that not only helps them win more keyword searches, but also provides automatic content distribution and blog scalability. Raxco found these features in Compendium Blogware’s enterprise level software, along with its ability to provide real-time knowledge of key phrase density.

After only four short months with Compendium, Raxco’s primary goal – to generate enough business from the blogs to cover the product’s expense – was well on its way.

By producing an avg. 4 posts/week distributed to 100 targeted keyword blogs, 36% rank in the top 10 Google search results and 70% in the top 50 – driving a total 23,555 visits from blogs to website.

With website analytics, Raxco is able to report a 10% conversion rate on blog Calls-to-Action (CTA’s). Although the company chooses not to disclose profit numbers, they are just getting started with their program and the blogs are already their 3rd highest lead source.

For more information about Compendium Blogware and how we can help your company, schedule a free, live demo today!

Tracking Results

Monday, March 15, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

One of the aspects that makes blogging a winning online marketing strategy is that there are easy ways to track your return on investment. You can use tools like Google Analytics to track things like the percentage of 1st time visitors to your site. You can also track how many people click on links that lead to future orders. Those are just the basics of how you can track an investment in blogging.

One company that tracked their blogging efforts was one of our clients, Fairtytale Brownies. Within the first six months of blogging with Compendium's affordable blogging software, the company had 110 orders for their premium brownies. That was just a small percentage of the 10,000 plus visits the website received. Since Fairytale tracked their blogs, they can create more refined blog posts that can segment more customers and gain more business! For some fun reading, check out their case study here. Again, there are many more benefits of business blogging, but having the ability to track your ROI is very important!

Get your Questions Answered!

Monday, March 15, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

I received a project today to update records in our database of
people who attended a

webcast that our CEO and Co-Founder, Chris Baggott, spoke at recently. He covered many things about the importance of business blogging and strategies to help your business, like which platforms to use and how to optimize your companies performance in search.

One of things I had to update was what questions people asked and there was a common trend. People realized that blogging was the solution, but they did not know what type of software to use. The answer is easy, Compendium Blogware! Our affordable corporate blogging software can help businesses large and small. It also only takes roughly 10 business days to complete the Getting Started process so you can begin to maximize your web presence. If you would like to get some questions answered, view a demo today!

Blogging Best Practices - Call-to-Action Checklist

Monday, March 15, 2010 by Sarah Sedberry

With all the hype around social media, twitter this, and Facebook that, the end goal sometimes gets lost. The motivation behind all of this social strategy for a business is to gain more leads, build a brand, generate more sales and revenue.

So how is the best way to accomplish that on your company's business blog? When individuals are searching the web they know exactly what they want and what they are looking for. It is no accident when a visitor arrives at your site, as something they were searching for brought them there. Utilizing the right words will drive those visitors to take action.

With Compendium, you can direct that traffic to take the next step via Calls to Action (CTA's for short). Here is a quick check list to make sure your CTA is following best practices:

Does your CTA have a purpose?
Does your CTA have a benefit for the visitor?
Are you directing your traffic via a command?
Is there an obvious place for a reader to click?
Do you have a unique landing page available for this CTA?
Have you put the proper tracking measurements in place?

For prime examples, look to the right of this post to see Compendium's sidebar and our calls to action. We try to use images that draw your attention, and make it obvious that its a button. You'll also see that our landing pages are specific to our CTA's and are very simple. That's because we don't want to distract a visitor to do anything else than focus on that landing page (fill out a form, download a whitepaper, view a demo, etc).

Think about the end goal for your blogging program and set up your CTA's accordingly. Remember to capture the visitors that come to your site, and direct them to the next appropriate step.

What is Return on Investment?

Friday, March 12, 2010 by David Burks

You need a Simple Blogging Software at your company that will give you a great ROI. What is ROI you ask?

ROI = Return On Investment

What Does Return On Investment (ROI) mean?
A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment; the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.

Return on investment is a very popular metric because of its versatility and simplicity. That is, if an investment does not have a positive ROI, or if there are other opportunities with a higher ROI, then the investment should not be undertaken.

See you at my next blog.....

First Compendium Baby On the Way!

Friday, March 12, 2010 by Jess Wehner

Just thought I'd do one last post on my blog before becoming a mom! Today is my last day in the Compendium Blogware office for a couple months, I'll be taking 3 months off to welcome and spend time with my first daughter.

Today is my official due day, but as anyone who has been pregnant can testify, the due date is merely a guideline for when the baby will come - only she will know the official timing! I've enjoyed spending the last 40 weeks of my pregnancy at the Compendium office. Everyone at our company has been extremely supportive and has helped me feel normal despite my growing stomach, ankles and feet.

I have also enjoyed sharing the news with all of my clients! I've gotten some great advise and even had the opportunity to use one of our client's products, the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System. Check out their Compendium blog to not only see a great business blog, but also if you're interested in learning more about the monitor they offer that pregnant women can use to help develop their baby in the womb.

I'll try to get a picture of our daughter up on the blog after she is born!

Study Shows 80% of Blog Traffic Comes from First-Time Visitors

Friday, March 12, 2010 by Heather Benfield

Since working at Compendium (a total of 2 months now), I'm beginning to see several common themes, questions, debates, misconceptions and conversations between the social media world and the seo world. One of the most common discussions I've heard between the two sides is the notion of "the repeat visitor".

What I mean by this is social media lovers often believe that the majority of business blog readers are loyal fans who keep coming back for more - a repeat visitor. However, here at Compendium Blogware we track metrics for over 400 client blogs and notice that the majority of traffic to a blog is from new, unique visitors.

In order to clear up the myth, Compendium partnered with a few social media and SEO gurus, Jason Falls, Debbie Weil and Jay Baer and conducted a survey with 266 companies addressing various questions about their social media usage and visitors.

The results?

Two-thirds of respondents reported over 80% of blog traffic comes from first-time visitors.

So what does this mean? Well, from a writer's perspective it definitely means that you can't assume your readers know who you are, what your business provides, or will understand any references you make from earlier posts or previous topics you've written about. You need to make sure you are writing your content in a way that would answer the questions a searcher was looking for when running across your blog in the search engine results. This also means you can re-use content! If you had a great post last year about the benefits of your product that you were able to see great traffic from, don't be afraid to re-use it since most of your readers will be seeing it for the first time.

This is a great best practice to use when writing a post. After a post is complete, ask yourself the following four questions:

1. Did I use relevant keywords or phrases that my target audience would type in a search querry if they had a question about my product or service
2. Did I establish who I am, what company I worked for or the product or solution I provide?
3. Based on the keywords I chose to focus on in my post, did I provide answers to the questions my reader was searching for?
4. Did I provide next steps for the reader to take action in order to learn more or even purchase the product or service I provide that solves their problems?

By asking these questions, you'll be able to cover your bases when making sure you are not assuming that the people reading your blog are long-time followers. You will in fact, be providing the needed information a new visitor would need in order to make a decision as to weather or not they would like to become a loyal customer.

Read the full Compendium Survey Results.

How Does Advertising Affect Search?

Thursday, March 11, 2010 by Jim Hyslop

I come form a background in traditional media, radio broadcast. My wife is a top notch sales executive for a large media company in television broadcast in the local Indianapolis market. As you have probably guessed we have a lot of conversations around the longevity of traditional media marketing in today's ever advancing world of on-line marketing. The truth of the matter is traditional media, especially television, isn't going anywhere although format is changing. Interestingly enough new media and traditional media can work in tandem as long as you understand the needs and processes of the consumer. What I am getting at here is traditional advertising will always be needed to create demand, but search will always intercept that demand. Let me explain....

Scenario:

It is Tuesday night and I am at home watching "Lost". A TV commercial for the new LED 55" Samsung comes on maybe as a bookend spot in a commercial break paid for by a large electronics retailer in the local market. I am currently in the market for a TV. I have been "reached" twice. Demand has been generated.

Immediately I reach over and grab my laptop as it sits beside me on the end table by my sofa and I do 6-10 different searches to find out more about the TV, the specs, the dimensions, the resolution, the type of wall mount I need.......and the best place to buy it at the best price. Demand has been intercepted. Unfortunately the company that paid my wife so much money to put that TV spot on her station has now driven my business on to the company on-line that did their job and simply showed up for me, the person who is looking to buy a new TV at the most affordable price. I find my discount coupon, I print it off, and I walk into the competing retailer to buy my new TV.

Get the gist!

The catch here is my 6-10 searches, are completely different than my wife's, which are completely different than her brother's. You must understand and manage content around the needs, intent, and language of the searcher. You have to think about all of the ways your customers want to be communicated to, and the way they look for information, and talk about that over and over again.

So how does a company manage all of those search derivatives and the large amount of content they need to generate to correlate their search marketing with their traditional marketing and show up for everybody they reach?

You need a content management system that will allow automated effective and efficient content organization on a mass scale with a built in level of control. You need an enterprise search platform.

What is that? Welcome to Compendium!!!!

Black Magic, Blogging, and SEO...

Monday, February 22, 2010 by Ali Sales Roach

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at my alma mater, DePauw, to a group of Management Fellows students. Most of my presentation focused on how to suck up to your boss, get a promotion, and not get fired (I'm kidding...well, sort of).

After the presentation, I went to lunch with a smaller group of students, and they all were prepared with great questions and all sorts of insightful opinions.

My favorite question came from a student named Mischa who said that he was pretty well versed with SEO and didn't understand why a company would use our blogging software instead of hiring a professional SEO firm.

Here's what I told Mischa: A good amount of negative attention has surrounded the professional services SEO space for a long time. That's because to most people it seems like wizardry and magic, a moving target of sorts that a lot of companies have paid a lot of money to try to master, only to turn up with lackluster results.

The great thing about blogging for search using software instead of human beings is that instead of hoping and praying that a wizard can help them unlock the potential of getting found online, the company itself gets to control what keywords they want to get found for and their content strategy to support these keywords.

Now, I want to make it clear that I'm not saying that all SEO firms rely on black magic and produce undesirable results, I'm saying that the space has unfortunately gotten very cluttered with irresponsible folks who are tainting the picture as a whole.

Take for example this quote from Entrepreneur: "The SEO business is 80 percent scam," says Peter Kent, an Internet marketing strategist and author of Search Engine Optimization for Dummies. "It's very, very difficult to find a good firm."

Aha! This is why companies large and small are turning to software like Compendium. Less guesswork, more control, and more insight into what makes a great search strategy.

So thanks to Mischa for the great question, and to Entrepreneur for backing me up....