Blogging and Email Whitepaper


Online Marketing in a Lackluster Economy
Posted Wednesday, October 29, 2008 by jennifer buscher

It seems more and more people are saying, “you know the economy is down, budgets are tight”.  I realize this is an issue whether you are a small company or a large enterprise.  However, there are plenty of businesses that succeed and grow in tough times.

I’ve talked to many different companies since I started with Compendium and overall it seems the larger companies that I’ve talked to are stuck in the Stone Age when it comes to internet marketing compared to smaller companies that tend to be much more innovative and smart about their marketing dollars.  I realize this is a blanket statement, but I’ve been shocked by some of the immeasurable tactics and tools companies use to drive business.  It seems that as budgets get tighter, it’s a knee jerk reaction to want consistency and use old partners, vendors, and systems.  I think this is business suicide!  Successful companies find ways to win and thrive despite the economy.  Now, is the perfect time to try new, trackable lead generation initiatives.  Hmmm.... business blogging comes to mind! 

I realize that blogging as an online acquisition and lead generation tool may seem like an “unconventional” SEO strategy to many people, but results are transparent.  If 80-90% of people use search engines in their buying decisions then it is really important to be found on keywords related to your products and services.  There are many inherent qualities about blogs that the search engines like, but our easy to use blog software actually organizes blog content in such a way that makes them more searchable.  

I believe it was Einstein who said “the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”   While every company is doing the same thing, what’s going to set you apart? 

 




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What I Know About Marketing
Posted Wednesday, October 29, 2008 by Jason Gergely
Most people think they know what marketing is... but it is really more in depth than market segments and the "4 P's", which is what we all learn in school. After working at Compendium for two months, I have realized that marketing can be that and much more. I feel that it is the personal contact portion of the business world. If you think about it... Marketers can work in sales, advertising, public relations, promotions, etc. which all deal with the common person. By adding blogs to your employees' mix of daily tasks, a company can increase their Search Engine Optimization as well as humanize their marketing.

As I was taught in school, marketing is a huge part of a business, and without it companies would struggle (this coming from a marketing professor.... it may seem a little bias, but I personally agree with her). Marketing is similar for every company, large or small. However it differs on the level of marketing for each. For instance, larger companies have larger budgets for more elaborate marketing strategies and can reach different market segments, while smaller companies have to make due with an ad in the local newspaper once a month and have to settle with an undifferentiated market strategy, reaching as many people as they can.



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Average Customer for Business Blogging
Posted Wednesday, October 29, 2008 by Brian Millis
One thing that I've learned since working for Compendium is that the average customer for a business blogging strategy can come from any sector of business.  I first heard about Compendium Blogware during my time as a college recruiter.  I wanted to give students at my University the ability to tell there individual stories, yet still blog for a purpose.  As a recruiter, my overall goal was to use blogging as way to humanize the college search process.  Prospective students don't want to hear all about facts and figures, stats and rankings. They want to know what life on campus is really like.  
Just as high school juniors and seniors are turing to Google to find answers to their college questions, people are searching every kind of business imaginable. Not for profits, huge corporations, agencies, small businesses, consultants, retailers, service industries and more can benefit from a business blogging strategy. Therefore, there is no "average customer" seeking out Compendium Blogware.  That's what makes my job exciting each day.  I get to learn all about different businesses, understand their marketing objectives, and help them harness a successful organizational blogging program.  



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Successful Blogging as a Business
Posted Tuesday, October 28, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery
On the Client Success Team we often talk with administrators about motivating their bloggers. I wanted to share a great example of how the compendium administrators have motivated our team. This week’s motivator (or bribery depends how you look at it) is to have everyone create a post today so that we get breakfast as a company tomorrow. We have about 30 bloggers on our platform and already today we have 13 posts up for the day. This is a fun (and relatively inexpensive) way to motivate your bloggers and really work as a united front to blog as a business.

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

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



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Where are searchers clicking?
Posted Friday, October 24, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry
Take a look at the picture below.....Recognize what you see?  It is a heat map  that reveals where searchers are clicking when results are returned to them in a search query.   You can probably relate to this image, as it is highly likely that it mimics your own behavior.... 





Now ask yourself the following questions -

  • Where would you want your company's site to show?
  • If you were ranking in the first 5 spots, would you erase your PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign and save your marketing budget hundreds or even thousands of dollars?
  • How about in the top 10 spots?
  • Now what if you were ranking in the top 10 on mulitple keywords?


These are all questions we at Compendium Blogware answer on a daily basis, because it's what we do.  We provide a solution to companies marketing strategy via a Corporate Blog.  Our platform utilizies the way search engines work in order to maximize your efforts and provide huge return on both ROI and conversions.

The secret sauce behind it all?  Actually, it's no secret at all - Content Development.  Remember that frequent and relevant content on a regular basis is what drives traffic and therefore results to your site. 





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What Are Your Bloggin Plans?
Posted Thursday, October 23, 2008 by Jim Hyslop
Well, I would imagine that most of you reading this post are currently in the middle of figuring out how a corporate blog is going to help your company in 2009 with all of your new social media initiatives. Search no further, as the answers are all around you.

I daily talk to Marketing Directors who are researching corporate blogging software to gather more information on how the blog can help them create community to drive business. If you take anything from this post remember this. People can only JOIN your community if they can GET to your community. As a company you should let your blog work for both. You must be found for people to participate in interacting with you. So, your first order of priority with your blog is making sure to blog for search engine optimization. If you can leverage a blog to allow you to live at the top of the organic search rankings the community aspect will follow.

The benefits of blogging can trump many other types of on-line strategies because of their ability to aid a company with all of their main initiatives at once. We need to win search...done. We need to relate to customers on a personal level....done. We need to create community....done. We need to grow our search traffic.....done. We need to drive our bottom line...done. We need an affordable on-line marketing solution...DONE. All can be accomplished if the blogging architecture is correct.

Don't fear the blog, embrace it. Stop researching, stop worrying, stop thinking about "I hope this works". Embrace a blogging strategy and the desired results will follow. It is time to get to work on your business, it is time to concentrate on return..it is time to blog.




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Business Blogging Made Simple
Posted Thursday, October 23, 2008 by Doug Karr
Compendium has not simply designed our user administration interface with simplicity, we've extended that simplicity out to our standard template.  During the sales and implementation cycles, we're often asked to mimic a complex web design, or customize the interface with lots of 'stuff' per other Blog CMS platforms.

We push back... hard.

The templating system we utilize is open and 100% CSS driven so that anything is possible.  The problem is that anything is not the thing that will drive results to your business.

The value of blogging is simple from an SEO standpoint:
  1. People search.
  2. Search engines provide the relevant answer.
  3. People read the answer.
  4. Some people engage further.
There are quite a few articles and a couple of books on maximizing conversion rates and landing page optimization.  All of them agree:
  • Show the relevant content that people were looking for.
  • Provide a compelling call to action for the person to engage your business future.
Sidebar widgets and gadgets and other information are diversions from the task at hand.  They clog the interface, divert attention from the answer, and confuse the person's next step.

Here's an example from fellow blogger, John Chow:
John Chow
John's page has no less than 50 calls to action (text and image ads) on it.  Why?  John's page is not a corporate blog, it's a blog to make money off of corporate sponsorships and advertising revenue.  Other than to buy ad space, the purpose of the site is to make money from folks hitting ads. 

The way to ensure this happens is to place ads everywhere you can find real estate.  It's a great blog and it works at driving advertising revenue to John.  John also does NOT rely on search engine traffic for acquisition.  In fact, I believe Google dropped him from the index a while ago.

Here's an example from Compendium Blogware's Business Blog:
Compendium Blogware Call to Action
Our focus is not that of a content management system nor of the off the shelf blogging software.  We designed our system + our standard template + our call to action strategy to drive business results from search back to your company.  It’s a proven force already in the industry.  Extraneous features are a diversion and will significantly reduce the conversion rates of those people who land on your blog.

We absolutely want to cross-promote your site – where you can have all of the gadgets and widgets you'd like (and hopefully information in a neatly organized, easy to find, and attractive interface).  However, on your blog, it’s going to hurt your investment. 

A minimalist approach is the best approach – with distinctive call to action(s) that leave nothing to the imagination for organic searchers who land there.  I would add that we’ve proven this methodology by drinking our own Kool Aid!

Additional Resources on Optimized Landing Pages and Maximizing Conversions:
Books on the Topic:



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MTV loses customers to the Internet
Posted Thursday, October 23, 2008 by Brian McKay
Fast Company is my favorite magazine, and in the November 2008 issue there is a great article on MTV's Digital Makeover.  How does this relate to earning customers through blogging?  I'm getting there.  Here is the excerpt that I want to discuss:

"Unfortunately for Toffler, a substantial portion of MTV fans watched Rogen and Franco's stunt online -- and many not at MTV.com. As he would discover the next day, this year's Movie Awards reached about 3 million viewers, an 18% decline from the previous year and about half the audience from a few years ago. Parent company Viacom's Media Networks Division -- which includes Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and BET as well as the MTV channels -- increased its revenue by 12% in 2007. But MTV has been under pressure, as the attention of its 12- to 24-year-old demographic wanders to online media and video games. The channel's overall ratings fell to an average of 920,000 prime-time viewers in the first half of this year, a 15% drop from 2004."

Believe it or not, MTV was not forwarding thinking enough to realize the power of the Internet to their brand.  You are researching Blogging for SEO right now, and you are on the verge of being part of a smarter more direct way to position your brand online.  Winning search is within your grasp with Compendium, and by using our affordable Blogging software you take control and reclaim control of your marketing budget.

MTV has traditionally been the forwarding thinking rebel of the TV world, now we read about how they missed the mark when it came to online strategy.  That fact that you are reading this Blog proves that you are that close to making the smart decision to move forward.




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Blogging won't work for my business
Posted Wednesday, October 22, 2008 by Brian McKay
This statement is simply NOT true.  Blogging is an essential piece to a well prepared internet marketing strategy.  Blogging allows your business to earn customers by having a consistent voice on a topic relevant to your industry.  Most importantly, Blogging is a proven way to be found on the search engines when properly implemented.

textual content still thrives on the Internet due to the fact that it is easily indexed by the search engines.  When you Blog for SEO your presence becomes textual content that can be indexed.  Successful Internet marketing is about being found by highly qualified people and then engaging those people in a conversation that leads to a relationship that leads to your bottom line.

Earning customers through Blogging will work for your business because you'll be leveraging the same stories that keep your current customers happy.  You will also be delivering the type of specific solutions that potential customers are searching for right now on Google.

If you're questioning whether Blogging will work for your business, give us a shout at Compendium and we'll get the conversation started. 






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Free Your Bloggers
Posted Tuesday, October 21, 2008 by Ellie Cummins
Today on the Profit From Business Blogging webinar Chris Baggott and Debbie Weil spent some time talking about who should and could blog for your company.  Should all employees participate in your company blog platform?  Should C-level people blog?  Are marketers the onlyl ones doing this?  Well, I think it depends.  It depends on your company blogging strategy, your goals (to blog for search engine optimization, show voice in various levels of the company, build your brand, etc...).  However based on both contributors comments today really any strategy can work.  Whether you have two or twenty bloggers, you can find employees to post, some of whom may already be blogging and are excited to share why they love their workplace.  It was also discussed that employee bloggers can be up to five time more likeable and engaging than a C-level (perhaps a ghostwriter) is.  Not onlyl does freeing your employees to blog  increase your chances of engaging your searchers it will also make your company look good in the eyes of the public and help your employees warm and fuzzy about their jobs.  Who doesn't want that warm fuzzy feeling!? Compendium has freed me to blog and I the warm fuzziness is certainly coming my way.  



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Too Scared To Buy?
Posted Tuesday, October 21, 2008 by Jenni Edwards

The economy is bad, we are ALL aware of this; but this article just had me almost laughing today from CNN.com; my favorite quote is "It's scary how many Americans admit they are scared..."

Some guy is scared because Americans are scared?  Hmm...nothing like perpetuating the fear factor.

So recently --- it seems as if we have had more prospects saying that they are going to wait and see what happens with the economy before moving forward with a blogging solution.  It is definitely a legitimate concern, we all wish we had a little more liquidity and more savings at this time in the economy. 

However, one of the best thoughts around this came out in a meeting that Chris and I were in late last week --- you can't grow a business by cutting costs (or something along those lines..).  So while we are always about using your budgets as effectively as possible -- it's time to market smarter, not time to stop marketing and stop growing.  Someone always gets rich on the downturns; why not let it be you?  Now is the time to gain market sure, increase customer bases and grow your business!  A corporate blogging strategy focused on winning organic search is one cost effective way for you to do just that.




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Kudos to MediaTile
Posted Tuesday, October 21, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry
One of the best aspects of my job is the interactions and relationships I have the opportunity to build with Compendium clients.  It makes the moments that much sweeter when we get to celebrate successes together, as well as, "Makes Momma Proud!"

Recently, during a conversation with Chuck Gose at MediaTile, I had the chance to praise his ongoing efforts with the MediaTile blog and what a FANTASTIC job he as done utilizing social media to promote and drive traffic to his blog.


Here are some of the ways he accomplishes this:

  • Utilizing the ShareThis application on his blog network.  This allows his readers to "digg", "tweet", post, email, etc his blog posts.  Thus the readers are able to virally spread the word about his blog.  In essence doing his marketing for him!
  • Chuck has an account on Facebook, that he reguarly posts his post to for his social network on this site to be aware.  As well as, he frequently comments in his status about his latest blog post. 
  • Chuck has also put a link on to his blog in his LinkedIn profile.

These are just a few ways that Chuck has been able to increase visiblity to his blog, drive traffic, therefore increasing his number of visitors and ultimately increasing his odds of converting readers to customers.  Social media is a great marketing tool, and blogs are just one peice of the puzzle, when you add them all together you have a knock out marketing strategy.

For more information on how to make your corporate blog work to your advantage, contact your Client Success Manager and I'm sure they would be more than willing to talk to you about all the options out there!!






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200 Blog Post Ideas for your Company Blog!
Posted Saturday, October 18, 2008 by Doug Karr
Our client success managers do a fantastic job coaching our clients to successful business blogging with our platform.  One common question for our sales and client staff is, "Where do we get the content?".

Content is all around you for your business blog.  In an age where so many of us work in front of a laptop all day, we're creating or reading content all day!  Learn to discipline yourself to have the next blog post in the back of your mind as you work throughout the day.  You'll find the content, and if you don't -

Here are 200 ideas to inspire your next Corporate Blogging post:
  1. What is your company?
  2. How large is your company?
  3. What are you selling?
  4. How are your products or services priced?
  5. What is your ideal client?
  6. How do people contact you?
  7. What are you giving away?
  8. How is the economy impacting your business?
  9. How is recent news impacting your business?
  10. How does the law impact your business?
  11. How do taxes impact your business?
  12. Who is your latest client?
  13. Who was your first client?
  14. Who is your most loyal client?
  15. Who is your favorite vendor?
  16. Where are you located?
  17. What is your office space or building like?
  18. Where do your employees live?
  19. How does your company help the local economy?
  20. Is your company green?
  21. What is your company doing to conserve energy?
  22. Who was the last employee you hired?
  23. What was the latest unexpected thing your company did?
  24. What was the last company outing you had?
  25. What email did you send today that you should share?
  26. What phone call did you get today that you should share?
  27. How does your company help local universities?
  28. How does your company impact your region?
  29. What are your employees favorite eateries around town?
  30. What are your employees favorite eateries around work?
  31. What do your employees do in their spare time?
  32. What are your employees hobbies?
  33. What's the last business book you read?
  34. What's your favorite book?
  35. What are your employees' favorite books?
  36. What's your favorite movie?
  37. What's the last movie you saw?
  38. What's the last play you saw?
  39. What's the last concert you went to?
  40. What are your employees' favorite movies?
  41. What's the last article you read?
  42. What blogs do you follow?
  43. What bloggers do you know?
  44. What bloggers would you like to meet?
  45. What's the last blog post you read that you liked?
  46. What's the last blog post you read that you disagreed with?
  47. What's the last blog post you commented on?
  48. Where do you get your industry news?
  49. What's the latest breakthrough in your industry?
  50. What's the hottest thing in your industry right now?
  51. What's the next big thing in your industry?
  52. What's the last event you went to?
  53. What's the last party you went to?
  54. Who would you like to meet?
  55. How long have you been in business?
  56. What's your latest client success?
  57. What's your largest client success?
  58. What's your favorite client success?
  59. What's the last dumb thing you did? What did you learn?
  60. What's the latest mistake your company made? How did you recover?
  61. What's the next upcoming event?
  62. What's the last prospect you lost and why should it have been avoided?
  63. What do you hate doing every day?
  64. What do you love doing every day?
  65. How do you de-stress from work?
  66. What's your life/work balance?
  67. What charities does your company support?
  68. What charities do your employees support?
  69. What's happening in your company's neighborhood?
  70. How many miles do you put on your car to see clients?
  71. How many flights have you taken this year?
  72. What's the biggest misconception about your company?
  73. What's the biggest misconception about your product?
  74. What are the common misconceptions about your product?
  75. What differentiates you from your competition?
  76. Where was your last vacation?
  77. Which employees just got married?
  78. Which employees just had children?
  79. What beer do your employees like?
  80. What wine do your employees like?
  81. What food do your employees like?
  82. What music do your employees like?
  83. What recipes can your employees share?
  84. How are you celebrating the holidays?
  85. Which employee stood out this week?
  86. What's the coolest gadget you love?
  87. What's the gadget you can't live without?
  88. What's the latest gadget you bought?
  89. What's your favorite free tool that others can get?
  90. What rules do you follow on how to treat customers?
  91. What's the latest tip you can share with your customers?
  92. What humorous website can you share?
  93. What's the latest YouTube video you'd like to share?
  94. What's the latest YouTube video about your company?
  95. What are your pet peeves in working with vendors?
  96. How do you provide customers return on investment?
  97. What does your company invest in?
  98. Where do you see your company in a year?
  99. Where do you see your company in 5 years?
  100. Where do you see your company in 10 years?
  101. How is the industry evolving?
  102. What's your largest concern with your industry?
  103. What's your least concern with your industry?
  104. How does technology impact your business?
  105. What's the latest news and how does it impact your business?
  106. Introduce your customer of the week.
  107. Introduce your employee of the week or month.
  108. Who does your company partner with strategically?
  109. How has your business grown in the last year?
  110. What budgets are you increasing or reducing and why?
  111. List of the biggest benefits of your product or service to share?
  112. List of the tips you'd like to share about your product to share?
  113. What's the latest tip you heard that you'd like to share?
  114. What's the last press release that went out?
  115. What's in the latest newsletter?
  116. When's the last time you made the news?
  117. What's the last chart you saw that surprised you?
  118. What's the last whitepaper you released?
  119. What's the last case study you released?
  120. What other publications haven't you shared in your blog?
  121. What's the latest customer testimonial you received?
  122. What are the latest customer survey results?
  123. What's the most unique customer you have?
  124. How are you working with local education?
  125. What universities did your employees attend?
  126. What's the next big event to happen in your company?
  127. What are the events you want to attend in the next 12 months?
  128. Who would you want to meet if given the opportunity?
  129. What's the last major investment your company made?
  130. What's your largest expense as a company?
  131. If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be?
  132. What mistakes do you see made over and over in your industry?
  133. What are the legalities of your business or industry?
  134. Have any of your employees had a moment of fame?
  135. How can someone get in touch with you or your company?
  136. What's your disaster recovery plan?
  137. Who's invested in your business?
  138. How has your business evolved over the last year?
  139. How has your business evolved over the last 5 years?
  140. How has your business evolved over the last decade?
  141. What did you learn in high school that still matters?
  142. What did you learn in college that still matters?
  143. Which of your employees served in the military?
  144. What are your employees' pets?
  145. Where did you attend college?
  146. What sports do your employees play?
  147. What's the last presentation you gave?
  148. What's the last speech you gave?
  149. What business associations do you belong to?
  150. What certifications do your employees hold?
  151. What certifications does your company hold?
  152. Is your company compliant?
  153. What training does your company offer?
  154. What training are your employees attending?
  155. Who got promoted last in your company?
  156. What's the funniest business story you have?
  157. Who had the biggest impact on you as a person?
  158. Who had the biggest impact on you as a leader?
  159. What company would you want to be like and why?
  160. What do you do to treat your employees over and above?
  161. What do you do to treat your customers over and above?
  162. What's a typical day like in your office?
  163. What's a typical day like for you?
  164. Who are the employees that keep your business moving that people don't know?
  165. How do you acquire your customers?
  166. How do you acquire your employees?
  167. What's the last employee anniversary?
  168. What's great about the city your business is located in?
  169. What was the last award an employee of yours received?
  170. Have any employees that have had a 'moment of fame'?
  171. Any rumors with respect to your industry?
  172. What clients recently made the news that you can share?
  173. How is the Internet changing your business?
  174. How is social media changinge your business?
  175. What social networks do you belong to?
  176. Where can folks find you online?
  177. Where can folks find you after work?
  178. Where can folks find your employees after work?
  179. Who did your logo and how does it represent you?
  180. Who named your company and how does the name represent you?
  181. Does your company have a slogan?
  182. Does your company have a jingle?
  183. What's your next customer giveaway?
  184. What's your next promotion?
  185. How can a customer leverage your product or service for best results?
  186. What kind of referral or affiliate programs do you offer?
  187. What third party applications do you utilize?
  188. What tools does your company utilize?
  189. What is the best advice you've ever received?
  190. What's the lastest advice you've received that was good?
  191. How is your company changing the world?
  192. Who wrote about your blog last?
  193. How do you listen to your customers?
  194. What do your customers expect from you that you deliver?
  195. What's in your product roadmap?
  196. Who do you want to thank today?
  197. How do you get ideas?
  198. What inspires you?
  199. What did you learn today?
  200. How has Compendium Blogware improved your business results?
Compendium is powerful blogging software and writing a post is easier than writing an email. Along with our professional services, you won't find a better solution anywhere.  We don't just build software, we help companies to develop and execute a comprehensive business blogging strategy for social media domination!



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Brand for Consideration....search for help
Posted Friday, October 17, 2008 by Chris Baggott
Branding as it relates to Search and Corporate Blogging
I'm frequently accused of being anti-brand.   I want to set the record straight that branding is important, not critical to online marketing success.   In the old days, branding alone could make the sale.  Not true anymore.  Today at best, branding earns you consideration...if you are in the right place at the right time.  Which is where a great search strategy comes in.  Gerry Randall cornered me on Monday and told me that he's seen search results lift conversions 3x after a concentrated branding effort....I'll dig in to that and report later.

Meantime, I saw a great post by Gord Hotchkiss yesterday.  Gord tells us that most search has nothing to do with Brand and in fact people search hoping for an alternative.  If the Brand doesn't show up in the top results, it's probably a lost opportunity:

"When I use a search engine for consumer research, I'm thinking in terms of the specific thing I'm looking for, not a specific brand. Generally, when I start, I will not use a branded search term. I am building a consideration set. Yes, I likely have brands I have an affinity for, but I won't explicitly include them in my query. I'm looking for the search engine to provide me some alternatives to consider. Typically, searchers will look at four to five results before making their selection. These are usually the top sponsored, and the top two or three organic, results. This represents the prime and very limited "shelf space" of the search results page. If a brand appears that the consumer has an existing affinity for, the chances are good that the site will capture a click-through. If the brand doesn't appear, the company has likely lost the opportunity to connect with a consumer that will soon be ready to buy."

Well said Gord, and a great arguement for a widespread corporate blogging strategy focused on search.  Blog Companies; meaning organizations that are focused on empowering many if not all of their employees to participate in a passionate, informed dialog about the company, it's products and soultuions will find great success in organic search accross a wide range of topics.   The main point is to be human without being too commercial.  Another quote from Gords post:

"....the act of searching is done with the left brain. It is a rational, logical interaction, not an emotional one. That's why text-based advertising does well, and graphic or rich media doesn't. We're intellectually engaged in a task, and we're looking for information that will help us succeed in accomplishing that task. We're not looking to be influenced by an emotionally charged message. In fact, we block anything that smacks of overt commercialism or looks like advertising out of our consideration."

This is why business blogging is so powerful.   Well organized blog content will not only help you rank highly on the wide range of targeted terms, but blogging win's the engagement (called conversion in the business world) with not-too-commercial human content that talks about the thing I searched on.  Learn more about Corporate Blogging Best Practices at Compendium Blogware.



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Blog First, Revamp Second
Posted Tuesday, October 14, 2008 by Jim Hyslop
So, over the past couple of weeks I have had the opportunity to talk to so many people who are beginning their strategic planning for 2009 and are considering blogging in that strategy AFTER they revamp their existing website. If you are thinking about starting a blog for your business it is important to really understand why and how, and to incorporate the strategy in at the proper time.

So many marketers consider a company blog to be an extension of what exists but the truth is your blog can actually function as a support system or an SEO cushion for the constant revamp that your website will be in a majority of the time. We have all been there. If you are a marketer I am sure these words or a version of these words have come out of your mouth at some time "Check back with the site in a week or two we are getting ready to launch some new stuff on Wednesday".

Where "new stuff" is great it doesn't really adhere to the rules of relevancy that the search engines set in place for us from an SEO perspective. They like recency, frequecy.....and AGE. Longevity helps determine validity so every time you pay someone to pull content down and put new content up you are actually taking steps backward from an SEO perspective. Allow your blogs to support this.

By using the proper blogging software to help you manage your organizations blog content you can be reassured that your company blog will carry your SEO effort through any type of revamp your organization may go through. By maintaining position in the organic rankings you can be sure you will continue to acquire new customers and drive bottom line.

So remember Blog for SEO first....revamp your site second!



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What about the Goals of Blogging?
Posted Monday, October 13, 2008 by Doug Karr
I'm a big fan of Darren Rowse but his latest post on How to Get Search Engine Traffic to Your Blog missed the boat.  My issue with his post is that there's no conversation about why a person would blog for search optimization. Darren went on to comment about the traffic sources (with a very good graphic with the break-down) but again, he did not differentiate the why.

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

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

That may require you to write your content very differently than how you would go about writing content to keep existing readers.  Problogger states:
Search Engine Optimization, participating in social media, building community and producing content are four important elements of building a site that gets (and keeps) high levels of traffic. When a blogger becomes obsessed by any one of them (to the detriment of others) the site can suffer (or at least not realize its potential). When the four elements come together a blog can grow quite rapidly.
The conversation you have with existing readers can be very different with social networking tools and other mediums such as email, but let's be honest... blogging for SEO is an acquisition strategy more than a retention strategy for business blogging.  You should adapt accordingly and review your analytics to ensure your messaging and goals are properly set.

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

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

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



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Drinking Age Verified: Humanize Your Marketing
Posted Sunday, October 12, 2008 by Brian McKay
Mixed messaging.  How do you know what you mean, is what you’re actually saying?  It’s a great business question and one that Business Blogging, and Blogging to earn customers can answer for us.  A lot of messaging that I see out there can be likened to a Stepford Wife, over refined with the last spec of human touch bleached out.  When we project our businesses online, how do we look and feel to the reader?  Business Blogging, Blogging for SEO, and Blogging to earn customers are strategies that will fuel the answers we’re looking for.  Here’s a quick mixed messaging story from this past weekend:

Had the opportunity to take the family to an Octoberfest Festival.  My kids, ages 3, 2, and 6 months, were all excited.  There were the inflatable games, trampoline rooms, obstacle courses, bungee runs, the whole 9.  We had the choice of buying tickets or paying $5 per kid for an all access pass to the games for the event.  I opted for the all access option.  They then provided two wrist bands so that the volunteers running each activity could tell if you had paid or not.  The wrist bands upon closer inspection were hilarious.  They were pink and said:

Drinking Age Verified

We had an Octoberfest with lots of 21 year olds that looked an awful lot like kindergarteners.  Since I didn’t get a wristband my 2 year old son had to buy the beers. 

Is this story relevant to business blogging, blogging for SEO, or Blogging to earn customers?  I think so.  Now you know a little bit more about me, my sense of humor, and my drinking age verified toddlers.  At the end of the day I became more real than the next guy working to earn your business. 

Drinking Age Verified: Blogging for SEO

If you have a mixed messaging story to share please post the link as a comment below, or post a comment with your story.  Sharing is caring!



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Is Blogging in your 2009 Marketing Budget?
Posted Friday, October 10, 2008 by Megan Glover
I've been talking to a lot of Compendium Blogware prospects who are starting to itemize marketing budgets for 2009. It's probably no surprise that budgets are getting pinched. I recently attended a Marketing Sherpa conference in Boston. Their reporting suggests:
  • Marketing budgets are moving offline i.e. print, radio and tv to online to include SEO and blogging strategies.
  • Website is the #1 thing people are looking at - pay attention!
  • Every marketing initiative needs to be tracked by contribution to revenue
OK these three bullets are far from earth shattering... and I'm sure come as no surprise, if anything justify our gut feelings in the marketplace. What the bullets to have in common is this... online marketing.

Blogging software absolutely falls into online marketing as a measurable tool to put in your online toolkit. Like any initiative, our clients measure blogging success via contribution to revenue i.e. how many dollars did my blog contribute to our business.

With out an end metric in mind why even waste the dollars in this economy.Need further convincing to add blogging to your 2009 budget... check out our webinar recap: Track Measure and Adjust Corporate Blogs. Click here for the slides.



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Surveys for Blogs
Posted Friday, October 10, 2008 by Kristen Raves
I have had quite a few inquiries about what free surveying tools are available to contribute to an organizations blogging success.  After doing some research into these programs, I have found that some are good and others, are not so good.  Most of them do offer a free version of their survey tool with upgrades that you can purchase. 

Why are organizations looking to add surveys to their blogs?  Seth Godin has a great post centered around this idea.  To read his post click here.  They can do several things:
  1. Help you learn from your customers.
  2. Help your customers learn from you.
  3. Organize your marketing strategy from what you learn through these surveys.

The three tools that I have found the easiest to use are all free.  Again, they do have upgrades that you can purchase.  However, if you are looking to add a simple survey form into your blogging platform the following three programs can be of assistance to you:

     1.  http://www.surveygizmo.com
     2.  http://www.vizu.com
     3.  http://www.surveymonkey.com




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In tough times, you better be easy to find
Posted Thursday, October 9, 2008 by Chris Baggott
SEO Is the key recession marketing strategy

In tough times, marketers need to turn to strategies that are easy, measurable and show a tangable ROI.    It's obvious that in an environment like today you can't stop marketing, but evey penny has to count.

One key strategy is Search Marketing.   In our case it's specifically investing in organic search strategies.

In a recent travel summit:
"In survey findings presented by JupiterResearch at Google's TravelThink event in New York, 94% of travel executives said online advertising would provide the strongest return on investment compared to other media in the next 12 months."
Prospects in both B2B and B2C are still out there...but they are fewer and farther between.  You can be sure that they will be doing a lot more research.  How are you going to stand out and be found?

Blog creation software should be at the top of your list.   Nothing can help and organization target search terms more effectivly than data driven business blogging.  It's easy, it's measurable and is engaging.   Corporate blogs will make you stand out in a crowd.  To learn more about how to do this, contact Compendium Blogware.








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