by angela.booth on April 29, 2010
Article marketing is a very powerful promotional tool. If you’ve been using this advertising method successfully, you know how effective it is. However, you may not be making the most of each article you write. Let’s look at four ways you can do this.
1. Use Your Articles to Build a Targeted and Profitable Email List
Email marketing isn’t as profitable as it once was, however having your own mailing list is vitally important no matter what business you’re in.
Use your articles to build your email list, so that you get the opportunity to promote your products and services each time you publish a new article.
You can use your already-published articles to attract subscribers to your list. Bundle up your best articles, save them as a PDF file, and offer them as a subscription bonus.
Alternatively, if you have lots of articles, use a Print on Demand service, and publish your articles as a book. This method of using your articles works particularly well if you’re operating a bricks and mortar business — give your book away to your customers. (Remember to include promotional messages.)
2. Use Your Articles on Your Own Blog
Many article marketers publish their articles to article directories, but they fail to use their articles themselves. This is an error — you should be profiting from your articles yourself for increased traffic to your website.
If you’re worried about the “duplicate content” penalty, don’t be. There is no penalty as such. You can certainly publish your articles on your own site for the search engine optimization benefits.
3. Revisit Your Articles and Update Them
Articles become stale over time. When you revisit your articles, and update them with fresh information, it has almost the same effect as writing a completely new article. You will draw more traffic to your site and you will make more sales.
4. Build Your Website’s Internal Linking Profile Through Your Articles
Articles are extremely valuable as a search engine optimization tool.
Link back from your articles to your primary site or blog. This gives the other pages on your site a rankings boost. Site visitors will stay longer too, because there’s more information.
Need copywriting help? Top copywriter Angela Booth can help you with all your advertising copy needs, including article marketing.
Angela specializes in Web copywriting, so visit her new site Hot Web Copy for information on how she can help you to increase your profits on the Web.
by angela.booth on April 29, 2010
Over the past several years, article marketing’s popularity has soared, but there are doubters. Can you really sell more when you give away information? The answer is yes. Newspapers and magazines have been doing it for years. The articles in these publications depend on the advertisers. If the advertisers didn’t exist, neither would the publications.
Publishing articles works for businesses small and large. I’ve been using article marketing myself for years, and have promoted this inexpensive form of advertising to my copywriting clients. They’ve all been pleased with the results, because unlike advertising, which stops when you stop paying, your articles will keep selling for you for years.
Let’s look at how you can boost your business and sell more when you give away information.
1. Think About Your Market: Educate Your Prospects
What do you wish your customers and prospects knew about your products? Article marketing gives you a chance to inform them.
Everyone needs information to make decisions. Unfortunately information is often difficult to come by, despite the global use of the Internet. The more information you can give your prospects and the more knowledgeable they are, the more products you will sell.
2. Integrate Your Article Marketing With All Your Marketing Efforts, and with Your Website
I see many sites hiding their articles away in an “articles” directory. This is a missed opportunity, from a search engine optimization (SEO) standpoint.
Integrate your articles with your site. Big tip: don’t isolate your articles in your blog — link back to your primary site, always.
3. Promote Your Articles on Your Website and Elsewhere: Create and Use a Mailing List
Very few businesses have a mailing list. Those businesses which do collect customer information, rarely contact their customers.
It’s amazing to me that these businesses would rather spend many thousands of dollars attracting new customers, when they have customers who’ve already purchased from them, and no doubt would purchase again, if they were given the opportunity.
In these tough economic times, no one wants to throw money away. Therefore consider using your articles to build and maintain a mailing list. These days such a database costs very little, but it can be powerfully effective — if you use it.
Whenever you write a new article, send your article to your list of subscribers. You’re building a relationship based on trust and credibility, and you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes to your bottom line.
Need copywriting help? Top copywriter Angela Booth can help you with all your advertising copy needs, including direct mail.
Angela specializes in Web copywriting, so visit her new site Hot Web Copy for information on how she can help you to increase your profits on the Web.
Angela Booth, top copywriter, author and writing teacher.
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