As more professionals begin working with virtual assistants, they quickly realize that the unique skill set of the VA in today’s market is invaluable in promoting, marketing and enhancing their business ventures. Today’s coaches, authors, speakers and other businesses are recognizing the value of VA support, not only in areas of traditional support, but in specialty areas as well.

One specialty area that virtual assistants are able to handle for their clients is sending out articles, press releases, and even media campaigns. This can be exciting as well as rewarding for both parties. As a virtual assistant, if you haven’t already added article marketing to your list of services, you should.

These tips will help you master article marketing:

Research

One of the most important items to remember is to do your research. Be proactive and research some of the following in advance of promoting article marketing as a service to your client:

Your client’s product/service--Is there something different and/or relevant about it? Is it uniquely marketable?

Your target audience--Their needs/problems, and are the solutions enabling their business to run better/smoother?

Costs--What are cost-effective, specific avenues for releasing articles, press releases, PR campaigns that will generate the best exposure for their product/service?

Ranking--Your client’s Google status, including their Amazon Page Ranking for the articles you are submitting for them.

Writing

The success of any PR campaign is in highly relevant, fresh, insightful content. Know and collaborate with your client. Ensure that your writing:

Is thought-provoking. Ask questions; peak your readers curiosity.

Includes how/why this product/service is a valuable asset. What are the benefits gained by using this product or service?

Offers valuable information. What is there about this product or service that is relevant for the times or critical to the target audience?

Keywords

Inserting keywords into your articles further promotes success, generating additional exposure and publicity. Incorporate the content below before you send out that article or press release:

Relevant keywords. Do a keyword search and analysis.

An SEO search including Google, Adwords, Word Tracker, etc.

Add keywords to image links whenever possible.

Can you see why you should be adding article marketing to your services as a VA? You benefit, the clients benefit, and most importantly you are getting valuable information out there on topics of interest.

Author's Bio: 

Diana Ennen is the President of Virtual Word Publishing, http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com and co-author of So You Want To Be a Work-At-Home Mom: A Christian’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business with Jill Hart and also VA the Series: Become a Highly Successful Sought After VA (Kelly Poelker). Follow her on Twitter @dianaennen