Corporate Blogging Blog

A blog created to provide timely information about corporate blog content writing, content strategy and social media marketing. Use this blog to learn how to increase website traffic and lead generation.

12/07
2009

Business Bloggers: How to Overcome Blogger’s Block

2009-12-07 7:55 am by Read Generation Blogging Team

Confused businesswoman, working on laptop in h...

You’ve heard how corporate blogs can help companies increase sales, so you’ve decided to  start your  own blog, but now what? Do you find yourself staring at the blank page, at a loss for what to write? Do you wonder where you’re going to come up with consistently good quality content on a regular basis? These thoughts can be enough to freeze any new blogger in their tracks. The good news is that the internet can provide you with tons of ideas for corporate blogs.  If you know where to look you’ll never find yourself at a loss for great content.

Have a look at Google. Google – or any search engine for that matter – is a wealth of information for corporate blogs. You can use the Google News search function to search for any industry relevant news and comment on it.  Breaking news is updated within minutes so it’s easy to be the first to bring an important news story to the blogosphere. Remember that corporate blogs don’t always have to relate directly to your industry. You can write about something you read in the news or a human interest story. It’s a great way to get your readers to comment and interact.  Isn’t that one of the main goals of corporate blogs?

You could also use the Google Image search feature to find ideas. You’ve heard the old phrase that a picture is worth a thousand words; well you might just find a thousand words in an image. Some images related to your industry will take you to some pretty interesting and unusual sites and you may just find one worth blogging about.

Finding something to blog about shouldn’t be difficult, but do make sure it’s something people will enjoy reading. Corporate blogs don’t always need to be filled with industry news or dry facts and figures. Readers don’t want to talk to a corporation. They want to talk with the people behind the corporation. Corporate blogs give people the chance to do just that. Don’t limit yourself to industry news. Have some fun with your blog once in awhile and you’ll never be at a loss for something to say.

Rory Siems
Read Generation Blogging Team

Filed under: corporate blogging, corporate blogging tips

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12/03
2009

Business Blogs are Not Advertising

2009-12-03 7:55 am by Read Generation Blogging Team

While it may sound like a contradiction, business blogs can provide an excellent tool for marketing, but blogging shouldn’t be confused with advertising. In fact if you use your blog for the sole purpose of blatantly advertising your products or services, you may actually drive readers away. So how can you take advantage of business blogs and convert readers into customers without ever advertising a thing?

When customers read business blogs they know the words are coming from a real person and not a magazine, newspaper ad or a TV or radio commercial. Business blogs give you the opportunity to show customers that there are real people behind the business name and that you’re about more than just the hard sell.  Readers are more likely to identify with an individual than with a faceless company or even a company’s website.

People tend to tune out traditional forms of advertising. Business blogs provide a way for you to talk to consumers directly, avoiding some of the objections customers may have to traditional advertising.  People read blogs and specifically business blogs because they’re not directly about selling a company’s product or service.  They’re more focused on connecting with consumers, providing answers, relevant information and good customer relations. In a very real sense, business blogs are the good will ambassadors of the corporate and business world.

Rory Siems
Read Generation Blogging Team

Filed under: business blog

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12/02
2009

Search Engine Marketing Strategies: The Importance of Keywords in Your Blog

2009-12-02 7:55 am by Read Generation Blogging Team

search-marketingA blog can be a great asset to your company and using proper search engine marketing strategies can make it an absolutely invaluable tool. You can reach thousands of potential customers who are actively looking for your product or service thanks to search engines. Since search engines and search results play such a big part in bringing in your readers, it helps to keep some search engine marketing strategies in mind as you create your posts.

Studies show that most people will only click on links within the first page or two of the search results; so, if you want to gain a competitive edge it’s important to get your content as close to the top as possible. This is where using keywords in your blog posts as part of your search engine marketing plan can work for you.

Keywords are a critical part of making sure the search engines can “see” your site and their proper use and placement is one of the most important parts of any search engine marketing strategy. One of the first things you need to do is determine what words people are using most often in search engines when they’re researching your product or service. In search engine marketing it’s very important to be specific about the keywords you use. The more relevant you make your keywords the more likely people are to find you when they search. If you don’t choose your keywords carefully, potential customers will never find you and your search engine marketing strategy will fail.

You can use free online tools such as Google AdWords or even Yahoo to help you narrow down the most popular keywords that are relevant to your product or service. These tools will provide you with some very accurate results since they are based on the actual words that people are using to search for a product or service. So when you’re planning your blog posts remember the important role that keywords play in search engine marketing. Choose your words wisely so readers and future customers can find you.

Rory Siems
Read Generation Blogging Team

Filed under: blog keywords, search engine marketing

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11/30
2009

Business Blogs Connect You with Consumers

2009-11-30 10:51 am by Read Generation Blogging Team

imagesBusiness blogs can connect companies with consumers in ways that are not possible with traditional advertising methods. Advertising is a one way street that presents a product or service for sale, while business blogs provide the opportunity to actually communicate with consumers. By allowing consumers a platform to provide feedback and express their opinions, business blogs not only help you improve your product or service but shows them that you and your company take the time listen and care about and respond to what your customers have to say.

Almost every business needs to budget a certain amount of money for marketing and getting the word out about their company and the products or services they offer. For many successful companies, business blogs have provided the perfect platform to do just that.

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Filed under: business blog

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11/25
2009

Four Tips for Successful Social Media Marketing

2009-11-25 12:01 am by Read Generation Blogging Team

3901247773_d8229727bcEveryone’s jumping on the social media bandwagon these days but did you know there’s a goldmine of business uses for social media marketing?  It can be an excellent tool if you’re looking for some new ways to promote your business and attract new customers.  But you do need to follow some basic social media marketing guidelines to help ensure success.

Social media marketing done incorrectly will simply annoy people.  Twitter is a good example of this where “wannabe” marketers attempt to exploit the system by spamming their followers with useless information.  The truth is that few people take these social media spammers seriously and their followers drop like the proverbial fly.  Let’s look at four things that will positively impact your social media marketing efforts.

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Filed under: lead generation, relationship building, social media, social media marketing

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09/28
2009

Blog Content Strategies: How important are they to SEO? – Event in Cambridge / Boston MA

2009-09-28 9:19 am by Stephen Turcotte

Marketers, have you ever thought — I know my company should be blogging but what should we be writing about? Do we have anything interesting to say?

If you’ll be in the Boston / Cambridge MA area next Monday night October 5th, then you should come to the next Boston SEO, Affiliate & Internet Marketing Networking Group Meet-up. I just looked at the registration list, and I can see that there will be a lot of interesting smart and good looking people there (it’s Cambridge after all).

I’ll be there to talk about.

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Filed under: blog content strategy, relationship building

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09/25
2009

The Value of Creating and Owning your Content

2009-09-25 1:50 am by Stephen Turcotte

Seth Godin’s recent blog post titled The platform vs. the eyeballs says marketers are no longer renting eyeballs (getting temporary attention via traditional media channels), they are creating social media platforms for a long term investment of buying eyeballs (or customers) and owning them for life.

This evolution is why I’m a huge proponent of investing in content on your website that is targeted specifically towards your audience’s interests. Sure, you can pay Google by the click or pay an ad firm a hefty monthly fee and, presumably, they will both work to drive in the business that you want. These efforts aren’t necessarily sustainable, however, since when you stop paying, the marketing activities end.

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Filed under: SEO, content marketing, inbound marketing

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08/27
2009

Defining Content Marketing

2009-08-27 6:07 am by Stephen Turcotte

Here is a post by Chris Brogan called How Content Marketing Will Shake the Tree. In the first sentence he defines Content Marketing as…

“The ability to produce useful and entertaining information that is worthwhile on its own, but that might also be useful towards a sale or subsequent action.”

The post goes on to explain why content marketing is a better way to go vs. glossy silky pieces, and then provides a great list of what a marketer needs to do next if they are considering adopting a content marketing strategy for their business. Here’s step 1 of 5…

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Filed under: content marketing

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08/26
2009

Is It Better to Hire An SEO Firm or Use HubSpot – Justifying the Cost of Hubspot

2009-08-26 8:07 am by Stephen Turcotte

A recent blog post titled  Has Anyone Used An Inbound Marketing Tool asks whether the cost of Hubspot is justifiable when similar metrics can be had from Google Analytics and similar tools for free. The facts: the list price of Hubspot is either $250 per month ($3000 per year) for the HubSpot Owner system, or $500 per month ($6,000 per year) for the HubSpot Marketer system. Without getting into a whole pitch, both systems provide a range SEO tools, Analytics, Lead Tracking, Social Media Analytics and a CMS.
The cost of either HubSpot system is certainly justifiable for any company that is looking to make organic SEO and inbound marketing an important part of its marketing mix. To be more specific, I would recommend HubSpot to any small, medium and even large B2B company that is ready to dedicate the nessessary time and internal resources to monitoring and really understanding the whole system. This includes following the inbound marketing prescriptions that are part of that system.  Hubspot is fundamentally a tool that tells you what best-practice SEO actions you should focus on.

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Filed under: SEO, inbound marketing tool, lead generation

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08/21
2009

Comparing HubSpot Inbound Marketing System to Google Analytics

2009-08-21 3:47 am by Stephen Turcotte

I came across a post today titled Has Anyone Used An “Inbound Marketing Tool. The writer of the post was struggling to compare HubSpot with Google Analytics, and also asked if it was better to hire an SEO All-Star or to use HubSpot. Here are my thoughts about the first question. I will follow this with a second post about Hubspot Vs. Hiring an SEO all-star.
If you are trying to compare HubSpot to Google Analytics then you are missing the point about what HubSpot really is. The most important thing that you’re missing is that HubSpot is MUCH MORE than just an analytics software / lead tracking software. It’s an integrated system that combines everything an SEO pro or novice needs to achieve top rankings.

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Filed under: inbound marketing tool

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