Promotion is important for all businesses and one of the tools many smart business owners and managers are now using is article marketing. This style of marketing involves writing articles that are relevant to your business and then submitting these articles to free content websites. Why go to the trouble? There are many reasons why you might consider using article marketing to promote your business:
- Your articles can be exposed to hundreds, thousands and even millions of people.
- Submitting articles, and subsequently having them read, helps establish you as an expert in your field.
- When you submit an article you include a link to your business website. If your article is picked up by other website publishers – and users on social sites such as Facebook – you will enjoy the benefit of increasing the number of links coming in to your website (called external links). This can be extremely valuable for improving your ranking in search engines.
- You build trust and credibility with potential customers.
- You build your business’ brand.
- Ultimately, all this can help you sell more products or services.
If you feel comfortable in writing your own articles the only investment you’ll need to make is your time. If you’re not a writer, consider hiring a copywriter to do the work for you. Because you are paying for the work, you will own the articles produced for you. Your name and the name of your business will be promoted in the same way as if you had written the article yourself.
Either way, it’s important to remember that article writing is not a way for you to blatantly promote your products or services. Even if an article solely about your products and services gets published (most content websites check material manually before publishing) the article would be unlikely to be picked up by other web publishers and social sites, therefore negating your efforts.
What you need to do is aim to write articles that are useful and informative, and will engage readers. If you can do this, readers are more likely to share your article with others, visit your website or contact you, and that’s where the real benefits of article marketing begin.
Other useful tips for writing articles are:
- Keep your target customers in mind when decided on content for articles.
- Check for spelling and grammar before submitting.
- If you write your own articles it can still be a good idea to have a professional copywriter look over your work to check for errors and make suggestions for improvement.
- Generally you should avoid overly technical language.
- Have a catchy title that will entice readers to view your article.
- Spend as much time, if not more, writing the section at the end of the article (called the resource box). This is where you can promote yourself and your business. This section should always include a link to your website.
Article marketing is simply another way of promoting your business and yourself and, once you get the hang of it, can be a lot of fun. Most importantly, when combined with other effective marketing techniques article marketing can help your grow your customer base and your revenue.
LOOKING FOR FREE CONTENT? PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE THIS ARTICLE FOR PERSONAL OR BUSINESS USE. SIMPLY ATTRIBUTE THE ARTICLE TO PAUL HURKMANS AND INCLUDE A LINK TO PAUL’S BUSINESS: EN POINTE – THE BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING MATERIALS SPECIALISTS (https://www.enpointeconsulting.com.au).