TopRank Internet Marketing News

Blogs are great for promoting key messages and distributing information about a brand, company or organizations. Starting a blog can be a valuable tool to help businesses sell their products while making better connections with customers, but it’s not as simple as slapping up some content. Creating a blog that is seen, shared and respected takes some research, strategy and consistency. Here are a few tips that I incorporate at Online Marketing Blog which other companies can follow to increase the value their corporate blog provides.

Chris Brogan & Lee Odden on a panel at BlogWorld - Photo credit: (CC) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com and bub.blicio.us.

Where do you go when you’re throwing around the idea of purchasing a new product for yourself or making a business investment in a solution?  It’s safe to assume that the majority of people would say that is a no brainer.  You go online!  A recent study shows that over 44% of B2B marketers are utilizing blogs as a marketing channel.

By design, software and technology companies exist to solve long-held problems in new and innovative ways.  And because technology can be so readily customized, by factors ranging from vertical industry focus to specific problems addressed, no two software or technology companies will ever be the same.

In much the same way, no two successful search marketing programs will ever be exactly alike.  Each program will need to customized based on factors ranging from the type of prospects being targeted to specific objectives being achieved.

The three companies below, each having developed a unique software or technology offering, recently launched customized search marketing programs with TopRank® Online Marketing:

As with most questions, the one at the title of this post has the potential to be fairly loaded.

In an ideal world, your blog will exist on your domain – benefiting from all the authority that you’ve worked to build up on your website – and lending the authority that you will work to build up on your blog back to your website.  Just as two good people enter a marriage and become a great couple, a website and blog married on the same domain is an ideal solution.

B2B technology companies exist in a world marked by lengthy sales cycles and niche marketplaces.  Maintaining awareness, while personally engaging with each customer and prospect, can combine to become a strong competitive differentiator in this environment.

Best practice online marketing programs, integrating elements of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and social media marketing, can be customized to meet the challenges posed by the need for visibility and engagement. By renewing programs with TopRank® Online Marketing, the two B2B technology companies below will continue to meet and ultimately overcome these challenges:

If you work in the corporate world, you’re likely already involved in blogging and seeing the power it has on your digital marketing efforts.  According to a TopRank blogging and SEO survey, 95% of respondents indicated that they do incorporate blogs as part of their search engine optimization efforts.

And while a majority see benefits from an SEO standpoint, most don’t unlock the true potential of blogging.  An effective blog marketing program can make your blog more than tactically effective – it can be transformative for your business.

So many business blogs suffer from tactical execution without understanding the power of search engine optimization and social media for attracting traffic and engaging customers. The following presentation outlines how TopRank Online Marketing worked with it’s own blog Online Marketing Blog and with a B2B marketing client to  achieve phenomenal increases in reach, traffic and a positive effect on the bottom line.

TopRank will be offering a new set of TopRank Guides specifically focused on B2B Social Media, B2B Blogging and B2B SEO. We’ll also be conducting several webinars to explain these guides and how best to use them.

Whether you work in B2B or B2C, your prospects and customers are turning to online channels to learn more about you and your industry.  At last count, 346 million of them were turning to blogs.

Business blogging represents an unprecedented way to connect with prospects and customers more powerfully than ever.  What could be cooler than that? How about watching the CEO of TopRank® Online Marketing jump out of a flying plane?

Later this month, TopRank CEO Lee Odden will present ‘Boosting SEO For Social Blogs‘ at Open Ca.mp in Dallas, Texas. During his presentation, Odden will detail how a sound blog marketing strategy can help boost online exposure while increasing search and social traffic.

In a recent post, Online Marketing Blog equates content and links to the Yin and Yang of any healthy Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program. Post author, TopRank® Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden, states, “Active content creation, promotion and social participation are essential for building a significant and relevant inbound link footprint on the web.”

As such, blog and social media marketing related tactics are no longer simply additional options to consider when fleshing out an online strategy.  They are now vital tools required to get the job done.

Crucial for the success of any business is its ability to generate qualified prospect inquiries.  For B2B companies, oftentimes targeting a select audience and working within longer sales cycles, each and every lead generated can be crucial.

Of course, lead generation must begin with a strategy designed to generate qualified traffic.  For the three B2B businesses below, each of which has just renewed its Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program with TopRank® Online Marketing, this principle is core.  Read on to learn more about these programs: