Chances are when you started your online business you had no idea just how much of an impact the "written word" was going to have on the success of your business. You may be one of those many people that find it difficult to put your thoughts to paper or in this case onto a screen, and have had to rely on professionals to take care of this part of your business. There is nothing wrong with this, but the problem is this can be an going expense as you must be constantly marketing your business to enjoy a steady growth rate and it takes written content to do this.
Perhaps when you started your online business you did not perceive that you would also have to be a writer as well. It is pretty difficult if you are selling heavy duty motors and this is your area of expertise, to change hats and become an eloquent writer. It is a necessity however because you are running a virtual business. This means that your presentation for the most part about who you are and what your business has to offer, has to come through the written word. Your written words are one of the strongest marketing tools that you have available to you, and this will soon become evident when you learn all about article marketing.
If you have your business up and running you may not have realized it but you really have made use of a great many types of written material. If you have been cutting costs then you have compiled this yourself, otherwise you have probably used professional services. Your written materials would have focused on your site content as well as your marketing and promotional materials. The article writing that we are going to cover here is an extension of your marketing portfolio. Whether you decide to do your own article writing or have it professionally done, you need to make informed decisions along the way. First however its important for you to understand what article marketing is, how it is done, and why it is such a critical part to the success of your business.
What are articles?
Articles can take on many forms. They can be a short story, or a collection of facts and information, or even a "how to" do something. For your business you can make use of any and all of these variations to promote your business. Articles are not sales copy, and this is where people often fail when using article marketing as they fail to realize what their true purpose is.
What do articles do for business?
A good article marketing campaign will serve two purposes. It will educate and inform people about your business which will then entice people to come to your site to check you out. The goal of the article is not to make a sale, that's up to your website content to do that. Your focus here is to have something to offer to the reader that is so compelling and exciting that they just have to find out more about what you are saying. You do not use the article content to promote your business directly. You are using your articles to create an interest in what your type of business does or has to offer.
What are the basics of a good article?
The first responsibility of the article has to be to grab a potential reader's attention. This means you need to have a great title that is going to do this. Then once you have accomplished this you need to immediately create an interest or curiosity, which is what your first opening paragraph will do which is the introductory paragraph. Then the body of the article has to provide something for the reader. It could be valuable information about the topic of the article. Hopefully this will be information that they didn't have before, or it could be something that helps them to do something. Then your last paragraph has to sum up what the article has been about. This paragraph has to put out indicators that the information they have received so far is only the beginning, and that is lots more exciting stuff waiting for them.
Finally there is a resource box that is put at the end of your article. This is where you advise the reader where they can continue to find more great information. This is your "call to action". And your call to action is getting this reader to come and visit your site. This means that this section of your article has to be as compelling as the article itself is.
Getting the articles out to the right places
Now after putting all this hard work into writing your articles, you now have to get these out to the right places. There is no point in only put these types of articles on your website because remember we are trying to get people to come to the site by using these. By the same token though, it's a good practice to have a good selection of articles on your site as well, because it will keep people coming back to the site. For the traffic drawing articles though you need to get them spread out across the web. This is done by locating good article directory sites which there are many to be found on the internet. Be sure to do some research into this, and find article directory sites that are established and have a large number of visitors, and will allow you to put links back to your site in the resource box. If they do not allow you to do this then the article will not serve your purpose.
There you have the basics of article marketing. Make a point of working at perfecting your article marketing skills on a ongoing basis as they are a very powerful business tool. Measure your success by tracking the amount of traffic to your site. The increase in web traffic will also encourage you to do more. Happy writing!
Pamela Wigglesworth, CSP, is an entrepreneurship and marketing consultant, international speaker and the author of three business books. A resident of Asia for over 20 years, she is the CEO of Experiential Hands-on Learning. She works with organizations across multiple industries to help them increase brand awareness, increase leads and ultimately increase sales.
To learn more about Pamela, visit the Experiential website at www.experiential.sg or email her at courses@experiential.sg