Natural Search Software

Another Data Point In Why Search Leads Online Marketing

Friday, November 6, 2009 by Chris Baggott

People don't click on online display ads

Seth's Blog pointed me to some great data out this week from Jack Loechner of MediaPost. Read the story, but here is the punchline in the very first paragraph:

"The results of an update to the comScore highly publicized "Natural Born Clickers" research, conducted two years ago with Starcom USA and Tacoda, indicate that the number of people who click on display ads in a month has fallen from 32% of Internet users in July 2007 to only 16% in March 2009, with an even smaller core of people (representing 8% of the Internet user base) accounting for 85% of all clicks."

What does this have to do with blogging for search? Everything really. Online display ads are not that much different than offline display ads. Most of their value comes from branding, not from direct action. Search marketing on the other hand is almost entirely about intent. Searchers want to solve problems. You are in business to solve those problems. When you show up, everyone wins.

Blog software allows you to go directly to your audience. Display advertising online or off depends on some intermediary to deliver your message right? Typically that adds a cost and layer of friction that doesn't exist when you can simply get in front people who are expressing a need for your products or services.

Be smarter about how you market online

Thursday, November 5, 2009 by Brian Millis

Here is a great post from Seth Godin about online ad clicks. My favorite quote is:

"It's okay to make an ad that isn't easy to measure. If it works, that's enough."

Essentially, this is what every business blog post can be. What other form or online marketing allows you to tell your story from a very human level? As Seth says, the 84% of non-clickers online are looking to make a connection. So use the corporate blog as a way to build familiarity and attention.

This is why we have clients who enjoy over a 10% conversion rate on their Call to Action off of their blog page! People like to buy from people and a blog marketing strategy allows you to take advantage of this MAJORITY of searchers. The stats that Seth discusses in his post also point to why winning organic traffic is so much more valuable (in the majority of cases) than paid search.

Of course, we feel your blog SHOULD be optimized for clicks, but the human nature of a blog works much better for those 84% of non-clickers. Our corporate blogging software makes content creation easy and maximizes its visibility online. With Compendium, you can get in front of that majority of search and use good content to increase conversion.

How to use your Corporate Blog for inbound links

Thursday, November 5, 2009 by Chris Baggott

Corporate Blogging is all about credibility and search marketing. By organizing relevant content that is frequently updated you are essentially building targeted organic landing pages. Content drives this strategy, but don't forget ever that inbound links are really valuable too. Generally I fall into the camp that if your company bloggers create great content and that content targeting search, then you will dramatically increase the reach of your blogs and links will come naturally.

Sometimes however you might need to 'Prime the Pump' and engage in some strategies to legitimately go out and get some links.

This particular tactic is not my original idea but one I've been working on after a post by Rand Fishkin. The idea is sort of back to the Zig Ziglar quote that has been around forever:

"You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want."

There is really nothing new conceptually with Social Media. The ideas are the same as they were before brand corruption, now we just have the tools to actually execute.

Rand's idea is to target people you know and write a testimonial about them. The key is not to put this testimonial on your blog, but offer it up for them to put on their own blog.

Another spin on this is the offer to be a guest blogger. I use Google alerts to keep track of who's blogging in my industry, that gives me a steady stream of fellow advocates to reach out to.

Empathy In Blogging & Search Is Natural

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 by Jenni Edwards

Empathy doesn't come to natural to most of us. Potentially it is a lacking quality across my seemingly selfish generation, but I have to make a conscious effort towards empathy in any given situation.

Our friend, Seth Godin, recently wrote about empathy in marketing noting that marketers and the fact that as marketers we can try as we might to be empathetic and we may think we understand the hopes and dreams along with the woes of any given demographic, but we really don't. And when we think we do, we are likely making broad, incorrect generalizations.

What can we do about this? And how does empathy really work? I consider empathy to be very close to the idea of a "similar situation" sales approach (i.e. - I'm just like you; let me solve your problem like I did for someone just like you, etc.). The truest form of empathy is truly being in the same situation...not faking it or making assumptions. How do you create this feeling of empathy through blogging? You enable multiple individuals throughout your organization to create content. It's amazing even within a small company the socioeconomic, life stage and other diversity that exists and opening this up can be a powerful marketing tool.

Another way in which empathy is natural from a search perspective is through known data. Although I can agree as Seth warns that mixing empathy in marketing is rather dangerous --- the fact that through search and tracking tools we are able to tie back the search terms that an eventual buyer or "conversion" came to our website or blog from, therefore, as we learn more about the individual we can begin to make these somewhat dangerous assumptions such as "Stay at home moms generally search with terms such as XYZ where as working mothers usually search on terms such as ABC" and using these data backed assumptions to create better custom landing pages, blog templates, calls to action within a blog and so forth.

It might be a stretch and empathy may never be a natural quality in many of our everyday lives, but I believe that some of the benefits of empathy in marketing can be found through blogging and search.

Content Creation Ideas for Your Business Blog

Monday, October 26, 2009 by Jess Wehner

I feel like I post about this a lot, but the truth is, content creation is probably the top thing I spend time coaching customers on through out my day. I recently sent an email to a customer who is struggling to get content up on their blog - they don't have the resources to currently to create enough content themselves, nor do they have the budget to pay for a ghost writer to contribute content to their blog. Here are my suggestions for them (note - they are a b to c company):

Can you (or someone on your team) put every piece of marketing material that has already been created up on the blog? i.e. email marketing newsletters, mailers that are sent out, flyers, etc. As long as it is not on the web anywhere else, it can be put on the blog
Could we solicit stories from customers/potential customers (about their experience with your company) in exchange for a gift card of some sort (i.e. submit your story and be entered to win a $50 giftcard) – these stories could be turned directly into blog posts
Can we get sales reps or customer services reps to submit customer stories and provide a gift card to the person that submits the most stories?

Content creation is the most important thing for your business blog program, so if your team is not naturally producing enough content, make sure you think outside of the box for easy ways to find content. Most of the above ideas take little extra work and put the burden of content creation on the customer!

You Don't Peak In High School

Monday, October 19, 2009 by Chris Baggott

Seth had a great post the other day talking about the goal of High School being basically to draw as much attention to yourself as possible.

The point being that most of the time this attention getting is short lived and without any real long term goal. As my wife says to our kids all the time: "You don't want to peak in High School!"

We see this a lot with the business people we talk to who are enamored with social networks without having any real goals. Like high school, the goal is to be popular with no other objective. This was perfectly manifested in the eMarketer story we talked about the other day. Their survey said that marketers had a goal of being Thought Leaders?

Seth's brilliance is that we have all seen this in our own lives. Popularity for the sake of popularity..."If I'm popular lots of good things will happen". Now some people are naturally going to be popular while most are going find themselves doing lots of compromising activity in a desperate attempt to be popular.....as you remember I'm sure, that popularity didn't last long and the memory is probably pretty bitter for all associated.

Then you have your ten or twenty year reunion and you find out who is really successful in life. Almost always, it's not the people who peaked in high school. The successful people are the ones who focused on the fundamentals and had a vision of the future.

How does this tie to Corporate Blogging? Widespread employee blogging is an investment in the future. The goal isn't popularity, followers or fans. The goal is to lay a foundation of stories about the problems you solve. That content will target search traffic. SEO is better for everyone...it's scalable, sustainable and puts you in front of people (prospects) who have problems you can solve. Corporate Blogging is real life, not high school.

Blogs for Customer Service

Thursday, October 8, 2009 by Clayton Stobbs

I know I've written about them before but I thought I would throw out a compliment for the Redbox customer service department. I believe my previous post revolved around their corporate blog for movie reviews and customer feedback and although their business blog has value, their service department is also doing well in my book.

The other night I wanted to reserve a movie online and while checking out, I encountered an error three times in a row with their booking system. It said that the movie had only been reserved once but upon my arrival at the actual Redbox (and getting the delayed confirmation emails), I was granted three copies of the same movie. Naturally I did not want to pay for the same movie three times so I sent over a quick email that night and to my surprise, the charges were reversed the next morning and I was given a free movie coupon.

Nice to see that automated systems are being backed by real service!

Only my mom cares about MY blog

Thursday, September 17, 2009 by Jim Hyslop

My mom is probably my number one fan. She LOVES to stay up to date with my life and how things are going for me but I am going to guess she is probably one of a handful of people in this world who really care about me, Jim Hyslop, and what I have to say.

So why should I use my blog for search marketing if only a few people in this world actually care about what I have to say? The simple answer here is I shouldn't use a personal blog if the PURPOSE of my blog is to drive business through search acquisition.

People search for answers to their problems on-line with topically focused search terms. If I am a company that can solve those problems it is my job to show up with answers to those questions based on the way my potential customers are searching. If you are reading this post today I have a feeling you probably don't know me but you found me because you searched a term like "business blog software" or "best blogging software" or something of this nature. If this is the case, then good for you. We should talk soon because I can help you. And good for me as well, because as an on-line marketer for my company I have done my job. We both win.

And Mom, if you are reading this, I will probably be calling you tonight because I think we are going to need a babysitter this weekend. Tell Dad I said "Hey". Love you guys!

Make the Most of Your Blogging Efforts

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 by Meghan Manning

Did you know that along with working at Compendium in the marketing department I'm also a part time food critic? Well not really, but close! In the marketing department we also manage a blog called Indianapolis Restaurant Reviews.

As a department we go out every Friday to a new location somewhere in downtown Indianapolis. Then we come back to the office and critique the restaurant and the lunch we had on our restaurant blog.

This might sound like a lot of work, but actually it's quite fun and we understand the benefit of blogging with Compendium (we drink the Kool-Aid) so naturally we want to use our software to promote our thoughts on area restaurants so we can insure that we're getting the most out of our blogging efforts.

Check out our blog here and tell us where we should go to lunch next!

And for more information on how Compendium can help you make the most of your blogging efforts - click here to schedule a demo today!

Blogging - 100% Organic

Monday, September 14, 2009 by Stephanie West

http://www.theenergygrid.com/grid/articles/seo/index.htm

I love the idea of 100% organic.

Have you ever stopped to think about how many things are "organic"??

Organic doesn't just involve food - it also involves MANY other products and ideas...

One of these "organic" ideas includes search marketing, and particularly...

Organic Search

Terms found in organic search are found because of their relevance to search terms. This is different from 'pay per click' advertising, which is not a form of organic search.

Items found in organic search are found naturally because of their relevance. Research has found that organic search receives more traffic than 'pay per click' traffic.

So consider the organic search software that Compendium has to offer for your search marketing strategy. For more information on how to get found with organic search, click here to receive our Whitepaper: Blogging's Role in Search Marketing and Social Media.

Being Found in Search...

Thursday, September 10, 2009 by Stephanie West

... is nothing short of AWESOME.

Let me tell you a little story of why I think it's so awesome...

As you may (or may not) know, Compendium's co-founder and CEO, Chris Baggott, is hosting a Webinar on Third Generation Business Blogging. So, like any intern would, I wanted to getting a better grasp on the "third generation" concept of business blogging.

http://writeontheright.blogspot.com/2008/04/commanding-generals-readiness.html

Here's where the story gets good...! I typed "third generation business blogging" into my search engine. The first organic result that appeared was naturally a blog that Chris wrote on third generation business blogging. But the second organic result that appeared was a blog that I wrote! As it turns out, third generation business blogging is a term that means "business blogging is here to stay"...which is what my blog post was about. So start your business blog today!

For more information on this topic, check out the Webinar: Third Generation Business Blogging on Thursday, Septemer 17th from 2-3PM. In the Webinar, Chris Baggott will also talk about:

The hype behind business blogs.
Why are business readily adopting blogging?
The tangible benefit of business blogging.

These ideas are all behind the adoption of business blogging. Sign up here for Compendium's free Webinar and understand why you should be blogging for your business... since corporate blogging is here to stay!

Which comes first: the Blog or the Website?

Tuesday, September 8, 2009 by Kaila Woodside

Today I had a great meeting with one of our clients, Biotta Juices. Biotta Juices are organic juices made from naturally grown fruits and vegetable. The flavors range from Beet Juice to Elderberry Juice and are all really great for you.

The Biotta Juices Blog has been up since February of 2009 and seen tremendous results. When Biotta came to Compendium earlier this year they did not have a website - and they struggled with what to tackle first: the blog or the website. They decided to leverage the blogosphere, blog marketing and search marketing to really ramp up their name in the search engines and begin driving track-able results.

Without having a website, Biotta really focused on utilizing their brand throughout their content - proving successful on winning all of their branded terms as well as broader, more general terms. Now, only 6 months later, they are being found on over 7000 variations of organic juice terms both broad and branded and continue to grow week over week.

A successful online marketing strategy that began with a blog and has now incorporated a website and will soon add many more features.

Consumer Feedback

Friday, September 4, 2009 by Clayton Stobbs

Regulations aside, the ability for the pharmaceutical industry to speak directly to their customers is something to be desired, especially when there are large issues at hand. For instance, today Pfizer agreed to pay a $2.3B settlement for illegal promotion of Bextra, a painkiller that was removed from the market in 2005 (WSJ article here).

Naturally, with this type of record setting settlement involving criminal charges, there is going to be an outpouring of consumer opinion. Having a corporate blog available or some portal open for direct customer feedback, rather than traditional Press contacts, might be an interesting idea if regulations could be followed appropriately. Given that others in the marketplace will be talking about it anyways, having a corporate blogging strategy in place could serve as a great means to keep a pulse on what is being said if compliance and regulatory guidelines are met.

Linking your blog

Friday, August 28, 2009 by Stephanie West

As an intern, I feel that I am constantly linking things together...

http://www.piperreport.com/archives/categories/3.html

I link concepts from class to applications at Compendium.
I link work experience to things I learn in class.
I link real-life experiences to my blogs.
I link blogging to search engines.
I link search engines with search marketing techniques.

Get the picture?

Somehow, everything is linked.

The key is finding the link. With Compendium's blog software, the link is between your blog and your business via search engines.

For example, while standing in line for coffee this morning someone (who was dressed casually for class) asked me why I was dressed up (which I don't think I am, but that's beside the point). So naturally, I linked the conversation back to blogging.

Here's how it all played out:

Person: "So why are you dressed up this morning?"
Me: I'm dressed up for my internship - I have to be there right after class.
Person: "Oh yeah, where is your internship?"
Me: Compendium Blogware.
Person: "What's that?"
Me: It's a company that offers a platform for blog software to help companies get found in search.

And that's how the conversation unfolded. You see how it's all playing out - we could have talked about anything. I could have ended the conversation at the beginning and changed the subject to coffee.

But I didn't.

Here's why: I like my job - and I want everyone to know about Compendium and the great search marketing tool that it offers. Cheesy? Possibly. But it's true. I like blogging and believe that it gives your company an edge.

So if you want to stand out from other companies, take a look at what the blog software that Compendium offers and schedule a demo with a blog expert today!

How not searching lost me $25, so far.

Thursday, August 27, 2009 by mikey mioduski

I lost $25 monday night, and I blame it on the fact that I am not using online search this week. In case you're just tuning in, I'm running a little experiment this week testing the importance of search marketing and business blogging.

You might blame this loss of $25 on my naivety, my inability to say no, or my willingness to trust in the good nature of all mankind. But I blame it on not Googling for an entire week.

What happened?

I was pumping gas Monday night on Indy's west side, around 6pm, minding my business, when a middle aged man in a flannel and jeans approached my auto. He looked like a slightly more weathered Jim Crocce, but with red hair, and a massive beard. So maybe more like a lumberjack. [note: I would put a picture of Jim Crocce or a lumberjack here, but I'm not using search this week, and i have no clue how I would accomplish such an insertion.]

"Oh you went to DePauw? I saw your plates. I went to Purdue, great school that DePauw, I know it well..." This red hairy man continued about our respective Indiana schools, and I listened. Then he told me he was a farmer, at an organic milk farm in laffayette. he was in a sticky situation because he had a dead cow in a truck down the road that ran out of gas. He needed $18-33 dollars precisely to get his dead cow and his empty truck back to his organic dairy farm before there was trouble.

"I know what you're thinking, I'm just gonna use the money for booze or crack. But I don't smoke crack any more, and anyway, I promise you I'm a cow farmer, just smell my clothes." His clothes did in fact smell like those of a cow farmer's. An organic one at that.

"Have you ever seen a cow placenta?" he asked me. I said no. But I was beginning to really believe that he was a cow farmer.

The man repeated the name of his organic dairy farm a few times, telling me that he didnt have the cash because he left in such a hurry, but if I loaned it to him, he would take my phone number, and have Stacey, the farm's receptionist, arrange to wire me the money the following day. Not only that, he said if I gave him the money, he'd arrange some free organic milk to be shipped my way, and even offered to take me and my friends fishing on his awesome fishing boat.

"No drinking on the boat, though."

Well, like I said, I [used to] trust in the good will of all mankind, even dairy farmers. So I gave this guy $25, with obvious hesitation, but I did it. He wrote my first name and phone number on the palm of his soiled hand so that Stacey could call me and arrange the money wiring.

I realized as I drove off and saw the man with the manure-eating grin on his face, that maybe, just maybe, I wasn't going to see that money ever again. I've done so many dumb things in my life, but if you were to Google "the top 10 stupedist things mikey mioduski has ever done," this would surely make the list.

It is my feeling that if I could search "organic dairy farms laffayette, indiana" maybe I could at least make myself feel like less of an idiot. I can't remember the name of the farm, but chances are if I found a list of a few, one might ring a bell. But I'm not using online search engines this week, so until I come up with another way to figure out the name of that imaginary farm, I will just have to wait on that call from Stacey.

August CMO Survey

Thursday, August 27, 2009 by Clayton Stobbs

With the recent release of Duke University's CMO Survey, some interesting trends continue to show up in marketing spends projected for the next year. According to the survey, CMOs are forecasting that online marketing spending will increase 9.5% over the next 12 months. Along those same lines, the study shows that CMOs expect traditional media and advertising spends to decrease by 7.9%. Naturally these results are not earth shattering but it is interesting to see various sets of data surrounding a lot of the same questions.

I'd recommend browsing through the study if you have a few spare minutes -- the sections on revenue increases and social media overall are also pretty interesting.

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day

Thursday, August 27, 2009 by Brian Graham

Any online marketing strategy you decide to implement will need time to flourish and grow. Search marketing is a good example. It isn't a success overnight. The idea for a good marketing plan is to find what works and amplify it then repeat.

When looking at your online marketing strategy you need to be committed and know that results aren't going to be immediate. Especially when you are blogging and using blogging as a tool for SEO. SEO by nature is not a quick fix. It takes time to see results. And we have all heard, good things come to those who wait.

You should look at blogging if done correctly as the most affordable business SEO strategy you can implement. There are plenty of resources available to businesses looking to start blogging for business. What are you waiting for? The sooner you start the sooner you can see results.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Sunday, July 26, 2009 by Blake Matheny

As I write this I have just less than a 3 days before my tenure with Compendium Blogware will come to its end. I will be leaving my post as VP of Product and leaving it in the capable hands of our new Director of Engineering, PJ Hinton, whom I had the pleasure of hiring back in December of 2007. I started with Compendium Blogware in September of 2007 and since then have had the tremendous pleasure to watch it grow into a truly amazing company.

When I started as employee 4 (or so) back in September of 2007, I was in charge of a department of 1 (myself). I had a software product that was still very much in beta mode sitting on a single server. We had a small handful of clients (less than 25) and our single server had some issues supporting them. We didn't really have a product development process, there was no unit testing or any other formal testing, and next to no documentation.

In two years the product team has grown to a team of 8. The product has not only removed the beta tag, but is better than 4 nines stable. Our platform supports hundreds of millions of page views, millions of pieces of content, and tens of thousands of blogs. It does all of this on a service oriented, RESTful, multi data center, highly available and distributed platform. We have extensive automated testing, a published and well documented API, and a repeatable well understood release process.

In short, I'm incredibly proud to have been a part of such an amazing team and have witnessed this kind of growth. I've been very lucky in my career and most recently at Compendium to be able to make such in impact in such a short period of time. I will be starting at local search company ChaCha on August 10th as their VP of Engineering to take on a new and different set of challanges. Despite this change, I remain committed both personally and as a stakeholder to the continued success of Compendium. I have no doubt that Compendium will see continued growth and I look forward to seeing where that growth takes the company.

I'd also like to thank all of my coworkers over the past two years for making Compendium such a dynamic and fun place to work. Your continued generous support of my various fundraising activities was also much appreciated. We raised more than $10k over the past two years for various local charities which speaks to both the caliber and nature of the people I have been working with.

You can always reach my through my personal site, mobocracy.net which has all of my various contact information. Thanks again everyone and best of luck.

Open Championship

Thursday, July 16, 2009 by Clayton Stobbs

For those of you golf fanatics out there I am sure you're aware that this weekend (starting today) is the 2009 Open Championship. This tournament is being held at the famed Ailsa Course at Turnberry, Scotland.

Naturally I always tune in to the big championships and when Tiger is playing, it seems that everyone else does as well. In any case, how does this relate to search marketing you ask? Well, given the role of product placements and sponsorships, I always like to find out how the major golf companies are pushing their products online post-tournament.

Usually when I am interested in a new product or see that Phil Mickelson has changed drivers, I like to check out the new products and read reviews. Having a product development blog that is easily found gives me, the consumer, the opportunity to get the information I want. Many of these companies already have blogs, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages so hopefully more and more will continue to take advantage of these online marketing tools and really open up their product promotions.

Links: Why they matter to your blog program

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 by Jess Wehner

As a Client Success Manager, one of my main goals is to ensure that the clients that are putting effort towards their business blog program are getting search marketing results (and those that aren't putting effort in - start to!). Every once in a while our team will come across a client that has been writing frequent, relevant content but is not seeing the search engine results they would expect. While there are many areas we trouble shoot and look through in order to understand what's happening, one area that always seems to stand out is having links.

No matter how much great content your business blog might have, if you don't have any links pointing back to your site, it's hard for Google to recognize your site as an authority and consequently rank it. Links can happen naturally, for example, as you write better and better people will begin to link to you naturally. But in order maximize your search marketing efforts you can build links too. Here are a couple easy ways to get links out to your blog.

Put a link to your blog...
1. On your website
2. On your social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)
3. On your partner's websites

Additionally, SEOBook has a list of 101 ways to build links - starting with having good content that people naturally want to link.