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.

Research & Use Keywords. Optimize your blog for search engines. Use a keyword research tool to create a keyword glossary of words related to your brand, business, topic or industry that are in demand. Content creators should use the glossary as a reference for planning, writing and publishing content online.

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.

How can you make sure your blog stands out in a sea of content online?  TopRank CEO Lee Odden will  provide insight into using your blog as an engagement tool for your audience.   Odden’s presentation “Optimize and Socialize You Way to Better Blogging” will emphasize the importance of combining both an optimized and a social element to boost your traffic and increase your reach while providing scalable and engaging information that audiences can apply to their own business.

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:

Aprigo offers business-savvy IT managers solutions that enable easier management and tighter security of business data existing in the cloud.  TopRank’s engagement with Aprigo, rooted in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), will be designed to increase qualified online inquiries.

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.

So what’s so loaded about that?  The simple fact that we do not live in an ideal world.

Just as not every person is emotionally adept at entering a marriage, not every website is technically adept to host a blog.  This doesn’t mean that the marriage reticent among us are not fit for relationships, nor does this mean that technically challenged websites are not fit to connect to blogs. It just means that for some of us, both websites and people, compromises and workarounds must be made.

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:

Datatrend provides network services, including structured cabling installation and data center consulting, to companies in industries ranging from retail to telecommunications.  A renewed program with TopRank, focused on SEO and blog marketing, will be dedicated to increasing organic search traffic and qualified inquiries.

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.

This weekend, experienced and beginner bloggers from the Minnesota area will learn how to achieve next-level results from their blogging at the Minnesota Blogger Conference on Saturday, September 11. Adam Singer, Account Manager at TopRank® Online Marketing, will be speaking during two sessions:

10:30 – 11:15 a.m: Blogging for Business: Making Connections & Building Buzz - Panelists: Kevin Hunt, Thomson Reuters; Adam Singer, TopRank Marketing; Jamie Guse, International Dairy Queen

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.

The only way to hear about the guides being published is to be a recipient of TopRank’s Tips from the Top Marketing Newsletter. It’s free and you can subscribe here:  TopRank Online Marketing Newsletter.

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.

Key takeaways attendees will walk away with include:

• Techniques for concepting and creating a consistent stream of content
• Tips for leveraging keyword research to develop ongoing blog editorial calendars

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.

This June 23^rd, Odden will be expounding on the importance of social media and blog marketing as he joins the panel, Why Blogs and Social Media Should Be Part of Every B2B Marketers Toolkit, at the B2B Search Strategy Summit in San Francisco.  Joining Odden for this session, moderated by Galen DeYoung, will be Jonah Lopin of HubSpot.

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:

One Legal offers process serving and court research nationwide, and court filing services in fifteen states including New York and California.  In renewing its program with TopRank, One Legal will continue to enhance awareness, traffic and inquiries generated from a qualified and geographically appropriate audience.