Compendium Blogware

A Little Blogging Goes a Long Way

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

I would like a lot of people to read Heather Benfield's blog today. Not only is she a great desk buddy, she is also the top content writer for Compendium Blogware. In her most recent post, she highlights the success of one of our local hotel clients, The Hilton Garden Inn in Downtown Indianapolis. The hotel with only minimal blogging his climbed up the Google search ranks to be the #1 Spot for their search criteria!

There are a lot of interesting facts in her post which you can find here! If you would like to hear more stories about how Compendium's affordable blogging software has helped companies ROI, check out our ROI toolkit that provides more case studies and helpful tips on how to get started with business blogging. You can find the toolkit here! It even provides you a checklist on all the steps to get started which always helps when you are starting up something new!

2 ways to improve your blog conversion rates

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 by mikey mioduski

CTAs and Landing Pages.

The goal in business blogging, at least our goal and the goal we think many organizations could benefit from-- is to cast a wide net in search by blogging about keyword phrases that are directly related to your business. This content will eventually build up, and help you get found by people who are searching for you.

So once they get to your blog, you want them to do something. You want to turn your visitor into a customer, or a lead. Our marketing and design team is continually focused on ways to boost the number of conversions coming in from our blog.

In my humble opinion, the two most important metrics in measuring your blog conversion are Click Through Rates and Landing Page Conversion Rates.

Click Through Rates are the number of visitors who actually click on your CTA divided by the total number of visitors to your blog. Click through rates essentially tell you if your CTA (Call to Action) buttons are doing their job. We recently had a case where one of our CTAs was registering an all time high click through rate. Pretty awesome right? It meant the graphic/button was really drawing attention, its message was speaking to our visitors. The only problem was the landing page that the button was directing traffic to was seeing a drop in conversion. Allow me to explain...

This is a CALL TO ACTION (CTA). It directs visitors to our conversion page.

The CTA will direct the visitor to a landing page. But that's only half the battle. From there, you need an awesome landing page to seal the deal. Landing Page Conversion rate is the number of visitors who get to your landing page AND actually fill out the form, or do whatever action you consider an official conversion. In our case, a conversion is only counted when a blog visitor clicks on a CTA and fills out the form.

This was our original landing page that was seeing a dip in conversion.

Unfortunately, in our recent situtation, the landing page wasn't convincing them to finish the job. In other words, the button took the visitor to the landing page; however, the number of people who actually filled out the form to receive the Considering Blogging Whitepaper (one of our most popular resources for learning about the basics of business bloggin), was not what we wanted.

Here's the new landing page after redesign.

If we can match a winning CTA with a winning landing page, then we're really improving our blog's ROI. So we've redesigned the landing page to make a simpler and more straight forward experience for the visitor. It is also a whole lot more consistent with the CTA whereas there may have been a disconnect with the prior arrangement. The form is brought out front and center because it is the single thing we want visitors to do-- yet we still provide the same copy to the right of the form for those who want to read about the whitepaper before downloading. I can't promise that it's going to work, but it's worth testing. And if it doesn't, we try try again.

For more tips on landing page conversion, check out this great post from the masterminds at Carsonified. And gracias por su atencion.

Acquisition vs Amplification

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 by Brian Millis

Often times I find myself in conversations about the benefits of social media marketing versus the search marketing benefits of corporate blogging. I do my best to keep up with the opinions of social media experts who are far more knowledgeable than I am. And today, I thought it would be helpful to highlight the insights of Doug Karr.

My favorite part is the quote he makes at the end:

"I’ve said before that social media is an amplifier for businesses online. Facebook is a big amplifier!"

That is a much more eloquent way of echoing my beliefs about the benefits of a business blogging versus the benefits of social medias like Facebook and Twitter. The corporate blog can be the content platform where an organization pushes out information, insights, and invitation to do business. Therefore, this content becomes an acquisition tool by driving greater organic visibility on the search engine. As Doug mentions in his post, he uses search engines far more than social networks when he has an intent to buy. Humanizing an organization through corporate blogging and leveraging that content as a search acquisition method is the true value of corporate blogging.

However, that does not discount the statistics that Doug highlights and the power of social networking. Those spaces can dramatically amplify online business. I think it is especially powerful when a company connects their quality blog content to these social spaces. This method allows organizations to amplify the message they find to be most important. If and when that content gets re-tweeted or shared among networks, it has viral potential and can dramatically impact the overall online marketing.

My opinion is that corporate blogging is an acquisition tool, while social media marketing is amplification tool (thanks Doug!). Compendium can help businesses connect and exploit these two benefits with our easy to use blog software. Call me at 317-777-6254 if you'd like to see a demo of the platform in action.

Even robots need people!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 by Isaac Pellerin

"Google forced to use humans to support Nexus One" was the headline that caught my eye over my morning bowl of oatmeal.

Google has worked really hard to provide a strong communication link between people. They're the place we all go to find the answers to our questions. They really honed in on this feature in their commercial that played in the Superbowl:

As they strive to enter the Smart Phone market, they've been hit with a harsh reality. People like to talk to people. I think it's funny that we can work so hard to make our communication so efficient, that we never have to talk to anyone.

Google has placed a lot of resources that educate people on the phone. But at the end of the day I want to talk to someone who can relate to me, that has had a similar experience, and can offer sound advice.

At Compendium, we place a lot of attention on "humanizing our market". By having a blogging platform that allows our employees to share their knowledge with the world, we ensure that when people find us the connection is not limited to 0's and 1's.

Local Indianapolis Hotel Wins #1 Spot in Google Search Results

Monday, February 8, 2010 by Heather Benfield

Check out this new success story from one of our local Indy Clients! Indianapolis Companies Rock! (As well as our football team, despite the outcome of last night's Superbowl!)

Hilton Garden Inn – Indianapolis Downtown, prides itself on its convenient location just minutes from Indianapolis sports arenas, shopping malls and convention centers. However, the hotel knew they were competing with hundreds of other downtown hospitality locations and was looking for a way to increase online reservations through organic search.

The company looked to Business Blogging Software Provider, Compendium Blogware, for a solution to help boost SEO by creating a continual stream of keyword-rich content. In May 2009, they developed a business blogging strategy that targeted the top 25 keywords Indianapolis travelers are searching for.

After only 47 blog posts (an avg. of 5 posts/month), Hilton was winning the #1 spot in Google Search Results for 3 of 25 keyword blogs while an impressive 84% were ranking in the top 50.

The hotel used Call-to-Action buttons (CTA’s) on their blogs to convert traffic into guests by driving them to their online reservation site. By using Google Analytics, Hilton was able to determine that the CTA’s were a top referral for online reservations and that 95% of search traffic was comprised of brand new prospects!

If you found this success story helpful, check out more here: http://www.compendium.com/resources.html

Humanizing your Marketing

Monday, February 8, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

I found another article to support my previous post about the importance of creating a

connection with your potential customers and people on the internet. The article is from iMediaConnection about tips for better corporate blogging. You can find the original article here. The purpose of the article is that a corporate blog is not a traditional news publication and you are not a journalist. It's about creating the blogging connection with the potential customer world by making a human connection.

The way to help your humanized blog get found is to use important keywords that people are looking for and by linking yourself to other places of interest. Corporate bloggers need to realize that their blog can't be a newsletter or just inside information that outsiders can't understand. Compendium Blogware helps you blog for business by utilizing important keywords into a blog that connects to your potential clients by making your marketing efforts more humanized. Who would have ever thought online marketing could do that?!

Make a Personal Connection

Monday, February 8, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

In one of my classes last semester, we spent an extensive time talking about creating marketing plans that created a personal relationship with a potential customer. A recent statistic I saw in a Socialnomics.net video was that 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations compared to 14% trusting advertisements. So my question is...are you getting the ROI you wanted out of your advertisements?

Business blogging is the best thing that works to make a personal connection to your potential clients and it is not interpreted as an advertisement. They are your daily words sharing your daily life about your business. If a customer feels like they're on the inside of your company's thoughts and plans, I can almost assume it will be more effective than any advertisement any company has created.

If you want more information on business blogging and whether or not you should blog, read the Whitepaper Consider Business blogging here. It will answer questions for companies who are in search of finding a better way to reach potential customers. Compendium Blogware can help.

Congratulations to Debbie Weil

Monday, February 8, 2010 by Chris Baggott

I wanted to point out with pride that Lee Oden named my friend and collegue Debbie Weil one of the top 25 women that rock social media.

Debbie Weil @debbieweil – Debbie “wrote the book” on corporate blogging (The Corporate Blogging Book) when most online marketing and communications professionals were still trying to figure out what a blog was. She runs a successful corporate blogging and social media consulting practice, works as a strategic advisor for Compendium software and continues to share her insights via blog and public speaking.

Debbie is a strategic advisor to us here at Compendium and I'm thrilled for her to be recognized in this great company.

Blogging Tip Guru Alert!

Monday, February 8, 2010 by Jason Harvoth

As I scour the web this weekend looking for a things to keep my children occupied or to find the latest line on the Colts v. Saints game, I noticed many websites that include corporate blogging. Many of these companies look to be blogging just to blog; without a true purpose. As a sales professional I'm always looking for ways to make companies money & I have a suggestion. Many companies need to incorporate a deep and wide strategy with their blogging strategy. The free software that is available only allows the content to go deep with their blog content. Compendium allows the content to be delivered deep and wide across the web; attracting more visitors (shoppers) to your site to be found.

Google's ad below shows you just how complex and logical a searcher's mind can be. Use Compendium to take advantage of these organic results today.

Chris Baggott and Stephan Spencer will conduct a webinar on February 9th, 2010. You do not want to miss the blogging tips and search marketing content covered in this session.

Be sure to sign up for the FREE webinar.

Terrible Customer Service from Time Warner

Sunday, February 7, 2010 by Chris Baggott

If you are going to be online and offer online services or help, it's really important that you fulfill the implied promise. Web users are loyal but are also passionate when confronted with experiences both good and bad.

Check out this chat session I had two days after I signed up for Time Warner cable and internet service online and never heard anything back. I went to their site and found this great Chat feature....cool. Some kind of mixup surely....they will make it right for me......

We are experiencing higher than usual service times. Please wait and an analyst will be with you shortly.

analyst Francisco has entered room

Chris>

thanks

Francisco>

Thank you for contacting Time Warner Cable. We are currently testing our live chat function and appreciate your patience. At the end of our chat you will be given the option of taking a brief survey. My name is Francisco. Please give me a moment while I access your account.

Francisco>

Hello. Iunderstand that you want to receive our services. Is that correct?

Chris>

yes please?  I signed up last week on line and have not heard from anyonne

Chris>

it's kind of time sensitive to us

Francisco>

I apologize for this inconvenience.

Chris>

thanks

Chris>

can you help?

Francisco>

I will be more than happy to assist you in this matter.

Chris>

great

Chris>

when can you come?

Francisco>

Please give a moment while Is search your installation order in the system.

Chris>

thank you

Francisco>

Can you provide me with your address please?

Chris>

the service address is 124 Whiterock Ave,  Crested Butte CO 81224

Chris>

I have a confirmation number: 59468

Francisco>

Thank you for the information. Please a moment while I search this address.

Chris>

thanks

Francisco>

Mr. Baggott, I did not find you address in the system. I will transfer you to our sales department, this department handle the online requests.

Francisco>

Please give a moment while I transfer you.

Chris>

Francisco>

Please wait while the problem is escalated to another analyst

analyst Alex has entered room

Alex>

Thank you for contacting Time Warner Cable Online Customer Service, my name is Alex. May I have your complete name please?

analyst Francisco has left room

Chris>

hello?

Chris>

My name is Chris Baggott

Alex>

Hello. Thank you for providing your name. How may I assist you with today?

Chris>

seriously?

Chris>

sorry

Chris>

don't want to be rude but I just spent 10 minutes giving data to another person

Chris>

that doesn't transfer to you?

Chris>

I'm trying to become a customer

Chris>

I have a confirmation number:  59468

Chris>

I signed up online and no one has ever contacted me

Alex>

I do apologies for your bad experience.

Chris>

can you help me?

Alex>

Sure, You would like to know about the information on installation, correct?

Chris>

yes please

Chris>

I have a bunch of stuff to coordinate this week and Have to have service before Friday

Chris>

but now one has contacted me?

Alex>

Thank you for the confirmation.

Alex>

I would like to inform you that you will need to contact the Time Warner Cable online customer service center for installation related infromation.

Alex>

Would you like me to provide the number?

Chris>

number for what?

Chris>

no I want them to contact me?

Chris>

who are you?

Alex>

You will need to contact the Time Warner Cable online customer service center for installation related infromation.

Chris>

are you not Time Warner?

Chris>

come on?

Alex>

I would like to inform you that this chat support center specializes in online offers. I will be more than happy to assist with questions about these offers.

Chris>

why did I just spend all this time online when you can't do anything but give me a phone number?

Alex>

Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience caused.

Alex>

This chat support center specializes in online offers. I will be more than happy to assist with questions about these offers.

Alex>

The Time Warner Cable online customer service center number is 1-866-410-4446.

Chris>

I know this isn't your fault but you have to appreciate how this is terrible customer service right?

Chris>

I see why everyone told me to go with Direct TV

Alex(Sun Feb 07 2010 17:06:37 GMT-0500 (EST))>If you have just another moment, I would like to ask a question or two about your situation to see whether we can make your service even more enjoyable for your family. Will that be all right?
Alex(Sun Feb 07 2010 17:08:11 GMT-0500 (EST))>May I please confirm if you are still connected with this chat session?
Chris(Sun Feb 07 2010 17:14:22 GMT-0500 (EST))>i'm here
Chris(Sun Feb 07 2010 17:14:49 GMT-0500 (EST))>I'm blogging about this right now...so I'll be around for awhile
Chris(Sun Feb 07 2010 17:15:50 GMT-0500 (EST))>but you understand I'm sure that it is impossible for me to enjoy your service if I can't even buy your service.  You see the irony in that right?

Blogging is for SEO, Not Old People

Saturday, February 6, 2010 by Frank Dale

I read an article today in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled “Blogging is for old people, Pew report finds.” The title references the author’s conclusion after looking at Pew’s study of the millennial generation’s internet usage patterns. If I ran a consumer-to-consumer blogging service, I might be concerned. If we are talking about B-to-B or B-to-C blogging, the Pew study data does not apply.

Blogging is still very much about communication. It is just not primarily focused on C-to-C communication anymore. Blogging is now in its third generation. We have moved past blogs dedicated to cats and into an era of blogging for customer acquisition.

Business blogging works, because it is an easy way to provide relevant content that search engines love. Search engine providers like Google and Microsoft need to provide relevant results to keep searchers happy and loyal. Blogs are particularly good at providing relevant content, because blog content is topical and easy to update. It’s a great match, because the incentives are aligned for the search engine provider and the blogger. Bloggers provide topical content that search engines use to keep searchers happy. Search engines provide bloggers with prospective customers already interested in the product or service the blogger provides. We know this because the searcher specifically entered keywords corresponding to the topic that interested them. You don’t type “business blogging software” into a search box for fun. At least I don’t. You search based on your interests or needs.

Millennials may not blog, but they will certainly read blogs. We trust search engines because they help us solve problems. When you use a search engine to solve a problem, you are looking for a relevant, credible answer. If the best solution to your problem is found on a blog, you are going to visit that blog not a random twitter page. At Compendium we know this is true, because we use our own corporate blogging software to acquire customers. If you would like to learn more about blogging for search engine optimization, you can download our free whitepaper on Third Generation Blogging.

Business Blogs Are Highly Targeted Landing Pages

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Frank Dale

When I meet people they often ask me where I work. I could say “I work at a high-growth, SaaS start-up that serves online marketers and social media experts.” If they are still interested, I could tell them more about our corporate blogging platform for search engine optimization and social media. Generally unless the person is a marketer or a tech entrepreneur that shares my passion for both topics…we are going to end up talking about something else.

Those interactions got me to think about the way we position Compendium. This is a fantastic company with an innovative product. We turn the marketers that use our product into stars. How can someone not be interested in what we do? As an operations person that is interested in efficiency (and a former business development guy), I had to find a better message. After much thought and reflection…actually probably only two minutes. I came up with something that I think this is a good start:

• Compendium clients use our software to create lots and lots of highly targeted, search optimized web pages

At a high-level that is what we do. We help our clients get found in organic search and communicate to potential customers that are already interested in what our clients do. That last piece is the important part. We connect our clients with people that are already interested in what they do. That makes Compendium one of the best acquisition marketing solutions on the planet. For now, that is going to be my answer to the usual “so what do you do” question. If you want to learn how Compendium can help you, we are happy to answer questions and provide some initial coaching. This whitepaper on the value of Third Generation Business Blogging is a great start.

Design - more than meets the eye

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Isaac Pellerin

" I honestly think it's going to totally change the way I think about CSS!" exclaimed Randy.

Today I had a great resource emailed to me by Randy, our Senior User Interface Engineer (he makes our product usable and pretty).

It's Object Oriented CSS. It's a revolutionary way to think about style sheets as impacting objects in your website. The result is and efficient use of clean style across your website.

If you're responsible for your organizations website I highly recommend you set aside an hour to watch this presentation by Nicole Sullivan. My favorite part is when she relates the way we typically use CSS to the old woman who swallowed a fly (hooray for grade school analogies).

http://www.agileproductdesign.com/blog/2009/images/old_lady_who_swallowed_a_fly.jpg

This is where we overwrite CSS with new style sheets or (gasp!) "in-line" style definitions. We're just chasing the previous "bug" and making our websites bulky and overweight which translates into slow load times.

Mikey and I have a goal of doing one thing a month to improve the performance of our website. As we explore all of the practices and methodologies, I'm excited to discover how our tweaks will make a difference in the user experience.

2010 New Years Resolutions..It's Not Too Late!

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

Wow...I blink and January is already over. I have

already completed four weeks at Compendium Blogware and I am still learning every day. So today, I am watching a huge snow storm come towards Indianapolis and I found a very interesting article on Geek O Pedia about your 2010 Social Media New Years Resolutions. Did you make any plans/resolutions for your business?

Congratulations if you did but as I can expect, many of us didn't. And it's not too late to make those resolutions. For some easy tips, check out the same article I read here. However, if you want some guidance on what you should do to fix your social media woes, get some information on our affordable blog software or you can check out a demostration of our easy to use blog software with some smart bloggers. They can help you with some of those resolutions.

For fun, check out Brian Millis's blog from Compendium's website. He has an surprising video about the importance of social media into the future.

Everything you Need to Know about Business Blogging

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Heather Benfield

In most of my blog posts, I share stories about clients who are rocking out their blog program because to me, the easiest way to make sense of something is by seeing a relevant problem/solution example that is similar to what I'm looking to accomplish. That's why I like to read case studies and success stories when making decisions about business tools and resources.

However, I realize that people learn and comprehend product benefits in different ways. That's why I'd like to share the Compendium Business Blogging Resources link with you:

Business Blogging Resources

These resources cover everything you need to know about business blogging. So, if you're a statistics and research person, you can read our whitepapers that offer key takeaways to get you started and finely tuned in your business blogging needs.

If your a visual learner, you can watch our webinars addressing a range of relevant topics in the blogging world. And, if you're an interactive learner (and a coffee drinker), I'd highly recommend scheduling time with one of our Business Development Managers for a one-on-one product demo, Q&A and $50 Starbucks Giftcard.

Also, feel free to leave a comment on my blog post to get any question you may have answered or to request additional resources that may help you further understand the importance of blogging for business and getting found in organic search results.

Happy Learning!

Blogging ROI In Just 7 Months

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Compendium Client Marketing

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about one of our clients - EasyLobby, a visitor management solutions provider. They have already seen a staggering 665% ROI from their Compendium blog after just 7 months of implementation!

I'm happy to announce that the EasyLobby success story is now a featured case study on our website. To give you a little background on EasyLobby, they decided to start blogging with Compendium to grow their business through organic search and increase their online presence. Long story short...after just 7 months of blogging they have exceeded these goals and then some.

To learn more about EasyLobby and their incredible search marketing strategy, click here to read their new case study.

Business to Business People Can Blog Too!

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Ford McAlexander

I know so far in my blog I've only written about business to consumer case studies that Compendium Blogware offers as evidence of the reason why our software works. Compendium Blogware also serves business to business clients as well and they have used the best blogging software to drive organic search results which equate to more conversions.

One of Compendium's clients is Widen Enterprises, who sells premedia/prepress software, has seen huge results from their blogging efforts. They have purchased 15 more blogs from Compendium since the beginning of their blog in December of 2007 and now they rank in Google's top searches. If you're a business to business type, then you really should check out this case study here.

I Love Everyday Experts

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Brittan Bright

I love to try new things, but I have been burned by my own susceptibility to hype more times than I care to admit. Thus I ask an obnoxious amount of questions before I buy, or buy into anything new.

For answers, I look to my people. This includes my social networks, and awesomely knowledgeable strangers.

The Compendium office is conveniently located over a Starbucks. Although I love coffee, I also value sleep, friends & family, and my job, all of which I put at risk if I go into caffeine overload. I allow myself ONE single solitary A.M. caffeinated beverage per day. However, I've been looking for ways to cheat the system and an awesomely knowledgeable Starbucks employee helped me tremendously. She knew EXACTLY how many milligrams of caffeine were in every single beverage and walked me through my options with patience and understanding.

I have no idea what Starbucks considers their average customer acquisition cost to be, but they just increased my spend by simply having a knowledgeable employee willing to share that knowledge with me. A person who is darn good at her job, a person who I now consider one of my people.

So, even if it's tough to define business blogging for some, the simple fact is, it lets the everyday experts of your organization shine. Shiny things get a lot of attention.
People want to pay attention to your organization, they just need to find you. Let your experts lead the way.

Greater Exposure Through Strategic Blogging

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Jason Harvoth

Is your company looking to take its sales to the next level in 2010? Perhaps bring sales back to pre-recession levels? The budget that was put in place for customer acquisition in 2007 may not work in 2010. So, you'll spend the remainder of the year reactively trying to "Fix It."

Compendium's business blog software focuses your search marketing dollars on driving more relavent traffic to your drive. This traffic is then converted through your Calls to Action. Empower your employees to create blog content through Compendium's simple blogging software, and lower your cost of customer acquisition immediately.

Or, you can take Sammy Stevens' approach below and craft a catchy video? Good luck with that.

Clean code = better SEO

Thursday, February 4, 2010 by Isaac Pellerin

Parthenon image - http://ancient-greece.org/images/ancient-sites/acropolis/images/110_1033c.jpg

I've been involved in a few longterm branding projects and I must admit that it's exciting to watch that evolution.

A logo matures.
Messaging gets clearer.
Design stays cutting edge.

As a designer, so much of the evolution has to do with the outer shell that people see. It can be easy to think, "if it looks right, it must be". It can be easy to impress an audience with unneccesary, flashy spectacles. However, if you desire to truly engage your audience then discipline and attention to detail cannot be overlooked.

The latest evolution to consider is under the hood. Looking at the code. Keeping style separate from content is key to optimizing load time. When it comes to SEO, this makes your code cleaner for search engines to understand what is going on, giving you a higher ranking in search.

Much like the Greeks who sculpted every element in the Parthenon Piedmont in the round (even if the back of the sculpure would never be seen), we must put forth the effort to create clean websites.

Herein lies another benefit of blogging software hosted in the cloud. With a weekly release, our engineers are continually sculpting and optimizing our product in places that we may never see, but each tweak further benefits our clients when it comes to SEO.