Article
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
1) Have An Engaged Program Owner
While it's true that anyone can make a good program owner, it's important that this person be engaged and committed to the program. Custom content takes work, and it's important that this person knows that up front. Compendium Account Managers will help this person and assist in any way needed, but this person should be ready to execute, measure and develop ideas.
2) Establish Program Goals
Up front, think about what you want your goals to be. A content curation strategy is great, but what do you hope to accomplish? Organic search traffic? New customer acquisition? Generating leads? Talk to your Account Manager about these goals in the beginning, so you know what to work on as your program progresses.
3) Put Together An Action Plan
Once you've got all the pieces above in place, it's time to put together an executable plan. Start with the initial kick off call and work your way through. Who at your company is responsible for the CNAME? For monitoring your analytics? How will you promote the blog? Set dates for your goals, and stick to them.
4) Content. Content. Content.
Any good program needs one huge thing: content. Where is this content going to come from? Now is the time to put together a content calendar and develop content sources. There are many places where you can get content.
With Compendium, there are so many different "add-ons" you can do to make your program successful. Why not take advantage of all of them?
How To: Start Your Program Off on the Right Foot
So you've decided to become a Compendium client—GREAT! We're excited to have you. But, you may be wondering: what can I do to make this program successful? There are a few key pieces you can put in place that will help your program succeed in the long run.1) Have An Engaged Program Owner
While it's true that anyone can make a good program owner, it's important that this person be engaged and committed to the program. Custom content takes work, and it's important that this person knows that up front. Compendium Account Managers will help this person and assist in any way needed, but this person should be ready to execute, measure and develop ideas.
2) Establish Program Goals
Up front, think about what you want your goals to be. A content curation strategy is great, but what do you hope to accomplish? Organic search traffic? New customer acquisition? Generating leads? Talk to your Account Manager about these goals in the beginning, so you know what to work on as your program progresses.
3) Put Together An Action Plan
Once you've got all the pieces above in place, it's time to put together an executable plan. Start with the initial kick off call and work your way through. Who at your company is responsible for the CNAME? For monitoring your analytics? How will you promote the blog? Set dates for your goals, and stick to them.
4) Content. Content. Content.
Any good program needs one huge thing: content. Where is this content going to come from? Now is the time to put together a content calendar and develop content sources. There are many places where you can get content.
- Internal Ideas: Program owners, bloggers on location, bloggers within various departments
- External Ideas: Web-to-post (client stories), Email to post (various news stories)
With Compendium, there are so many different "add-ons" you can do to make your program successful. Why not take advantage of all of them?
- Web-to-Post on Facebook: If you're using web-to-post, put the form on Facebook, so you Facebook audience can share their stories as well.
- Dynamic CTAs: Talk to you Account Manager about adding dynamic CTAs to your blog, so your readers will view a targeted CTA each time they arrive.
- Email Sends: Put together an email campaign. Define your audience and target this audience with an email send. Why should they share their story? What do you want them to write about? Provide ideas in your email and get the audience excited to share.
- Link on Website: It's crucial that the blog become an integrated piece of your online presence. This means you should have a link on your website that takes readers to your blog page.
