Article Marketing

If you can write, you have a great potential marketing tool at your fingertips! Articles can be a very powerful means of building a reputation, getting your site link placed where it can help you, and of creating useful content for your site to generate ad revenue.

The great thing is, not only is Article Marketing viral in nature, but the distribution channels are already in place. Just plug into them and go.

I have heard the complaint that they are very time intensive. Most free or low cost marketing tactics are. The important thing is not how long it takes you, but whether or not it is powerful enough to justify the time. Writing articles can be powerful enough to justify the time to write one or more a week for marketing purposes.

It can take you a day or so to get your first article right. Later, you'll be able to whip one out in less than an hour. That one article, if used right, can go forward across the web, and leave your words and your URL in places you'd never imagine.

It is nothing more than a viral marketing technique. Give something of value, and others will be happy to do some of your marketing for you. Giving good value is the real key!

There are three aspects to marketing with articles: Giving something of value, write well, and make it an effective marketing tool.

Give something of value.

If you are trying to give something that someone else will want to have, then your writing must be understandable, and your information must be useful. A glorified advertisement will be of use to no one. In fact, the best articles never mention what you can do for someone directly at all! The articles that have the most power are those that take a problem that someone has, and give them the solution to it in a simple way.

Consider what information you have that your reader might want. This has nothing to do with the products or services you offer. If you give them truthful and helpful information, then they will come to ask you for a solution when they get in over their heads. If you give them half truths, partial explanations, and over simplifications, they'll feel that you either don't know what you are talking about, or that if you deal with them in a business situation that you'll not be tuned in to their needs.

When you write an article that is nothing more than a glorified ad - for example, an article on Search Engine Optimization that focuses entirely on selecting a good firm to do it for you, and that keeps saying that your company fits the criteria - it will not be perceived as either valuable, or useful. Who does it benefit? If it only benefits you, then it will be useless as a marketing tool!

If on the other hand, you write an article on the same topic which tells a person which parts they can easily do themselves, and which parts require in depth statistical analysis, never referring to your own business except perhaps in an anecdotal way, then you have given people something of genuine value. The reader gains some knowledge from it. He goes and tries it and it works. Then he feels ready for the next step, and knows he needs either more knowledge, or a pro to do it for him. If he decides to hire a pro, there is a chance that he'll use your link in that article to open up a dialog with you. Because you not only gave him reliable information, you acknowledged his intelligence, and empowered him. He feels that if you can empower him then, that a business relationship with you will do the same!

And it does not stop there. People looking for content for their sites will also be reading your articles. If they read your article and it is nothing but an ad for you, they have no use for it. They want helpful information, not ads. If your article offers something of value to a reader, they are more likely to choose to reprint it. When they reprint it, your URL goes with it, and your sphere of influence just magnified to another level.

Articles serve a couple of purposes - They show your expertise, and they give you the chance to begin to build a respectful relationship with your prospective clients. That article can go out and reach people that you'd not normally reach, and if you have written it well, they'll feel like they know you just a bit. That can help them to feel more comfortable asking you for help with their needs, instead of doing a net search for a total stranger.

Write Well

It is important that you write well enough to convey your central message. Fail in that, and your article will flounder. You don't have to be an English Major, but you do need to write in an understandable and logical manner, and to pay attention to spelling, grammar and style.

Your writing style should reach your target audience. The best technique to develop an effective writing style, is to write like you are talking to the person whom you are trying to teach. A conversational style can be especially effective if you offer personal services, because it helps people feel they know you better.

If you have any doubts about whether or not your writing is effective, just ask a few people to proof-read it for you. They'll let you know if you left something out, or if your meaning was ambiguous.

Make it an Effective Marketing Tool

Even if all the other elements are in place, an article is not an effective marketing tool if it does not serve, in some way, to bring business back to you. You can get all the other elements right, and it can be a terrific informational or teaching tool, but if you leave off the critical footnote, it won't help you like it should.

Articles for marketing should contain a signature line. The signature line should do three things:

1. State your name, business name, and a brief business description (two to five words is best).
2. Briefly state your qualifications. No more than a sentence or two.
3. For some places, you'll want to include a copyright statement - that the article may be freely distributed as long as it is intact with the signature line untouched and copyright statement included.

The first two items are a way of saying, "By the way, if you need more help with this, here is how you can contact me". It should not be a blatant ad filled with hype! It should be another informative description, just telling people what you do, and how you come to know so much!

The third element is not needed when you post the article to a public database that exists for the purpose of distributing articles for publication elsewhere, because their copyright policy will cover that. But this third item can be highly useful for articles that you publish yourself on your website, in your newsletters, or which you post on forums. By including the copyright statement in the terms of reprint inclusion, you send that message out wherever your article goes also, meaning that if someone sees it in another person's eZine or on their website, they will know they can use it themselves under your stated terms.

You can include links within the article in context to your sites, or even to affiliate programs if they are appropriate. Again, you must make sure they are a bona-fide resource though, and that the purpose of the article is not just to push your program.

I have heard people say not to put multiple URLs at the bottom in the signature line. But if you have more than one website that applies to the topic at hand, go ahead and put in more than one. Who cares if they cannot click on both? If you increase the odds that they'll click on one of them by offering them a choice, you have increased the marketing potential, not diluted it (after all, 100% of the clicks that come are still coming to YOU!). Do not put in more than two or three though, because more is not better! Two is a choice, four is confusion!

Now, when you post articles online, there will be policies and conditions each time. Some sites have limitations on how long your article can be, or how many links you can put into them. Some have limitations on the length or format of the signature line. Make sure you read up before you post, and that your article complies with their terms.

You must respect copyright laws. You may only use content that you have created or have a legal right to use.

You can also build an article library on your own site. Whatever your product, if you write useful information related to it, and post it in a resource section, you can not only draw more people to your site, you can put copyright notices with them that allow reprinting with your signature line included.

A certain number of people will use your articles without including the signature line. But they are people who would steal your content anyway. Putting in the signature line gives others the chance to do you a favor in return, and a large number of them will.

If you wonder how far your article has gone, you can try using Copyscape (an online service) to search for matching copy.

If you can write well enough to share your knowledge with others, writing articles is one of the most powerful free ways to market. Because it is based on a principle of giving good value for the marketing you receive in return, it benefits everyone. It helps search engine ranking because it is perceived as a valued contribution. And when you write well, it perpetuates itself. It fits all the criteria of a good viral marketing technique.

Yes, it does take time. But it takes time only once to write an article, and then to post it in appropriate places online. Then it goes on working for you long after you have done the work.

Written by Laura Wheeler