Posts Tagged ‘Article Distribution Service’

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How to Make Viral Marketing Work for Your Business

Monday, May 10th, 2010

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Creative Commons License photo credit: llamnudds

One of the most potent forms of marketing today is viral marketing. Viral marketing is the build up of potential energy through one or more channels which then converts into kinetic energy. Once that conversion takes place your marketing uses that energy to spread rampantly throughout the Web. How do you promote that potential energy? Create interest!

Creating buzz about your product, service or industry will boost your business. Business article marketing provides topics of interest that will cause people to talk about your business—one reader tells their friend, their friend tells a few people…and you’ve turned one article into a perpetual-motion marketing machine.

Although this type of marketing may not sound healthy, it’s actually one of the best things that can happen to your business. Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing is one of the most common types of viral marketing and is a bootstrapped-budget’s best friend—today’s social media tools deliver an online version of WOM marketing. And you have the opportunity to create a super virus by combining multiple marketing techniques. Bolster your WOM marketing with regular article submissions. Whereas WOM may tend to rally around exaggerations or inflated retellings, articles act as the wiser older brother and anchor these excited claims. Articles can be forwarded on, linked back to, or directly copied and pasted to friends and associates while fully maintaining the potency of their original message.

Your business will enjoy mass exposure by providing valuable content through articles. Give people a reason to share your material with others—it’s got to be interesting and full of value! Give people plenty of reasons to pass on your articles and you will create a self-replicating viral process. Build brand awareness and increase sales through the same process.

It’s got to be entertaining! We’re not suggesting that your piece should have your audience rolling with laughter or excitedly clapping their hands at its conclusion. However, it does need to worded in a manner that encourages readers to talk to others about it (You know, just as you’ll do with this article…hint, hint, wink, wink.). For example, let’s compare articles A and B. Assume both articles cover the same exact points. However, article A reads like someone got their VCR instructions mixed up with their article submission, and article B creates a structured story that has you eager to progress from one paragraph to the next. Which one are you more inclined to talk about with your friends and associates? Article B wins every time here.

An important caveat to note is that there is a careful balance of entertainment and information to be attained. As many benefits as an entertaining article has, if you fail to include enough useful information your piece will seem fluffier than your neighbor’s cat. Professional article writing will help you avoid this potential pitfall and get the most out of your marketing efforts. Never take your readers’ intelligence for granted! Treat them like a simpleton who’s unable to recognize pure fluff and your business will suffer from negative viral marketing—the cousin of business death.

As part of your viral marketing plan you must also pair your articles with the power of social media. Social media is built on the premise of networking, making this a completely natural environment for people to share your useful and interesting articles. Your goal is to target audiences with high social networking potential (SNP) to achieve the highest probability of article sharing. Plug-ins such as “Tweet This Article” buttons for Twitter make it incredibly convenient for people to share your articles.

Check back often for more blogs on making the most of social media and you will monetize this relatively untamed beast.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

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Posted in Article Marketing Strategy, Article Marketing Tips, Article Writing, Publishing Articles, Quality Content Writing, Social Marketing | 2 Comments »

Business Is Always Personal—How to Sell to Strangers

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

Whether you own a brick-and-mortar store or run a website in which you will never meet your clients, business is always personal. Submitting articles about your company and services grants people an intimate view into how you can help them. It’s very simple—would you prefer to buy from a company you know more or less about?

Since people are more likely to buy from people they know or through referrals, you need to transcend the stranger threshold. Ultimately, the Web is faceless—avatars are cute and profile photos may show prospects your physical face, but they don’t show the true face of your business. You need to inject a personal touch into your business to increase sales. Article marketing provides a unique platform for establishing sales-inciting intimacy. Automated article distribution insures a steady stream of information and communication between you and your prospects and clients. This enables them to continuously learn more about you and how you can help them with their challenges and dreams.

In order to survive in today’s highly competitive marketplace your business must be three-dimensional. An automated article distribution service creates a three-dimensional environment through the regular provision of useful information and value-based content. It provides you with the opportunity to tell your prospects more about yourself and your employees. Get personal! Tell them your dreams, what you’d like to accomplish…your favorite color. Don’t worry—you can still maintain professionalism while sharing your personal side. These elements work together to put your prospects at ease. It establishes a sense of community and makes them feel connected. This is an ideal sales environment.

Regardless of how motivated you are to make money you should never let the almighty dollar blind you. Treat your prospects like your neighbors, offering help whenever possible. People are more likely to spend money with you when they perceive genuine compassion. As part of that, make an effort to actually get to know your prospects and clients. Take notes! Write birthdays down, take note of what they tell you about their family, record insights to their dreams and other such issues. Reference these notes later to ask them about issues they hold dear—show you care. And how thrilled will prospects be when they see their birthday or their kid’s latest sports accomplishment mentioned in your next article?

Maintaining a personal touch encourages your prospects and clients to confide in you. This helps you better understand their needs, which allows you to provide them with the most appropriate solution possible and achieve increased customer satisfaction. Plus, it promotes a more relaxed business environment which lends itself to you having more fun!

In addition, establishing a personal side to your business is ideal for older generations and Web skeptics. Although trends show more people above the age of 65 are now using computers, they’re still hesitant to submit personal information such as credit card numbers. Similarly, even younger audiences still approach the Web with extreme caution. Unfortunately, this skepticism is all too often justified. There are countless unscrupulous entities online that spawn new scams on a daily basis. Frequently providing people with helpful content legitimizes your company not only by providing useful information, but simply by showing that you’ve made an effort. Online scammers usually come in the form of fly-by-night schemes and rarely ever make a concerted effort to fully disguise their evil. The sheer fact that you’re taking the time to write and distribute helpful articles automatically separates you from black-hatters and con artists—a true credibility booster!

Frequent article distribution prevents clients from experiencing a hollow feeling after their purchase. It’s not uncommon for consumers to feel put off by the usual one-and-done sales method. Instead, maintaining continuous contact and a personal touch with your business will promote greater confidence in their purchase of your product or service. Why should you care after the sale is made? For one, it supports greater customer satisfaction which improves repeat business and client retention. It also makes your clients more likely to refer your business.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

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Posted in Article Distribution, Article Distribution Service, Article Marketing, Article Marketing Automation, Article Marketing Strategy, Article Marketing Tips, Article Writing Tips | 1 Comment »

Comprehensive Marketing Prepares Your Clients for a Purchase

Friday, April 23rd, 2010
-Monuments-
Creative Commons License photo credit: Vít Hassan

As much as you’d like for your prospects to be born ready to buy your product or service that’s not always the case.

Whether it’s a $5 e-book or $5,000 dollar business consultation service, prospects need to be massaged into the right mindset to buy.

Where advertising relies on a much more direct call to action, marketing is the masseuse that loosens them up for the purchase. It also establishes enough value and prepares them enough so that they are likelier to become a lifetime client instead of a one-and-done deal.

Develop a Checklist for Your Marketing

One of the first things you need to do is plan your marketing strategy before you begin marketing!

Although this sounds like an unnecessary dose of common sense, there are all too many businesses that fall prey to the kid-in-a-candy-store phenomenon. They quickly pluck at the shiniest marketing items and then gobble them down. You must have a solid plan of approach before you begin or you’ll eat your entire budget in no time at all.

  • You can address this issue by developing a checklist. This will help you make sure that you’re covering all the important points of your product and service, which will provide the foundation for a thorough marketing campaign. Think of it as a pyramid, with all your marketing pieces building up to the apex.
  • You must also determine which hot buttons your marketing will address. Do I have any marketing efforts in place that address people’s financial woes? What about my marketing helps create time freedom for people? What can I do to make life easier for people? What is a paramount fear in today’s society and what about my offer can assuage that fear?

Chunky or smooth marketing?

Break it into chunks! Don’t overwhelm your prospects with every single detail regarding your offer. You may not like the idea of omitting anything, but you may lose your prospects if you give them too much to digest at once. Break up your product or service into several main points and then create individual marketing pieces to address those main points. You can then accompany each main piece with a brief hint at some of the other benefits in the concluding paragraph. Invite your prospects to click on a link to your main website, to complementary marketing pieces or to articles that cover those additional benefits.

You’ve not only provided easily digestible information, you’ve also set the sales funnel into motion and created an active prospect by getting them to click through. With each and every click that a prospect makes (e.g. from article to article, article to website, webpage to webpage) their trust in your offer grows and it becomes easier for them to make the purchase than to back out.

Chunky Marketing Example

Provide specific solutions to someone’s questions or concerns through article submission and you’ve now teed up your product or service—you’ve given people the information they were looking for. And the creative and information-based content of quality article submissions fearlessly initiates first contact for your business without the usual harshness associated with a cold call. Article writing allows you to plug a single feature and benefit in one marketing piece and maintain a nice chunky consistency in your marketing.

Developing an entire army of informative and persuasive articles for your prospects combats doubt and eliminates sales-stopping uncertainty. Article submission? Check. Prospect’s mind clear for purchase? Check. Now you’ve created a warm lead before someone has even seen your website or talked to you or one of your reps.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

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Posted in Article Marketing, Article Marketing Strategy, Article Marketing Tips, Public Relations, SEO and SEM, Social Marketing | No Comments »

Your Prospects Will Buy More Often When They’re Part of a Community

Friday, April 16th, 2010
Shamrock Fest 2010
Creative Commons License photo credit: brandonwu

Businesses must always be on the lookout for opportunities to create a community for their prospects and current clients. Anything you can do to promote a comprehensive value-based sales environment will significantly improve your chances for success.

Online forums create a microcosm of useful information, opportunities to address client hot buttons and a confidence-building sales funnel. These microcosmic elements work together to support the ideal buying scenario for new prospects and demonstrate reasons for your longtime clients to stay loyal. You can then use frequent article submissions to promote your forum and get the discussion started.

How to Attain an Attentive Audience

Breaking through to the masses can be an overwhelming task in such a competitive online environment. However, you can take a path of less resistance and create your own audience, making sure your word is heard by setting up your own forum. Online forums, sometimes referred to by the old name of bulletin boards, provide an open platform for discussion. (Chat rooms differ in that they feature a real-time conversation between visitors, rather than a permanent message thread)

You can easily post topics for discussion that relate back to your product or service, drawing people in from the search engines through an entire world of keywords and hot topics. Just be careful to maintain an information-oriented forum as opposed to a sales-based forum. Another idea is to encourage your customers to ask their support questions on the forum (where there is no need for privacy). This means that they could possibly get an even faster reply from another customer who knows the answer, and also that you won’t have to keep answering the same questions over and over because they’ll be there for everyone to see.

Free Forum Software to Get You Started

Go ahead and pinch yourself—you’re not dreaming. You can actually find quality forum software for free. A solid example of this free software is provided by phpBB. They’ve been in business for over 10 years so you can be confident that they’ve mastered this software by now, gotten the bugs out, and will continue to be around for additional support. Simply visit phpBB to download this open source forum software. The download process is relatively quick and simple, but you may want to have one of your techie friends nearby just in case.

User-friendly Interface for a Full-control Forum

Once you’ve installed the forum software you’ll have a number of customizable features that you can take advantage of. One of the biggest benefits is that you’ll maintain administrative capabilities as the forum owner, so you’ll have full control over the threads (main topic of discussion) and the comments (replies to main topic and other comments). Your moderation capabilities allow you to generate your own topics for discussion and allow or disallow comments (You can also use filters to automatically block spam messages and messages that contain unwanted keywords or profanity.)

You Wouldn’t Invite Guests Over If You Weren’t There

So don’t do it with your forum either. Of course, you’re not expected to camp out at your computer around the clock, but you’ll increase visitor retention if you make a concerted effort to at least show up according to a loose schedule: “I’m thrilled that you’re all taking advantage of the resources I’ve provide here and look forward to building a fantastic community for some industry busting idea sharing! I’ll be visiting every couple of days to make sure your questions are answered and you get everything you need.”

And since it takes less than a minute to post an update to your “Announcements” thread, you don’t have to worry about getting tied down to a schedule: “Sorry I couldn’t make it today everyone—the baby threw up, my car got a flat tire, and I forgot my wife’s anniversary.” Alright, you may not want to be so honest, but the point is that you should respect your audience’s time and keep them engaged by demonstrating that you’re serious about your forum—never take your audience for granted! This will also show them that you’re human, too.

Use Articles to Promote Your Forum—A Virtual Invitation through Value

Essentially, you’ll be using your marketing to promote your other marketing. Your car battery starts the car, the running car then keeps the battery charged. Comprehensive marketing does the same, achieving a cyclic efficiency. Create a stream of articles that link back to your forum to drive traffic to it. Your article marketing and new forum create the perfect complement to your website.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

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Posted in Article Marketing, Article Marketing Tips, Article Writing Tips, Public Relations, SEO and SEM, Social Marketing | No Comments »

Set Your Marketing into Perpetual Motion and Generate Steady Leads

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
IMG_1642
Creative Commons License photo credit: Renato C Cunha

Can you afford to employ a sales force around the clock? If you could, you’d probably be retired. However, sales are what fuel your business, so how can you afford to support a sales presence around the clock? You may be thinking that your website is available all day and night.

Of course, your website is available to illustrate benefits and sell your products at all times, but it’s not actively getting out there and soliciting new business. Consider your website as the inside salesperson. Article marketing will act as your outside sales force.

This presents a fantastic solution for any size budget. Article marketing involves a one-time effort for each article that talks about your business every day. This creates an immense advantage over paying a sales force every day to say the same basic message.

Build your 24/7 online sales machine

While automated articles serve as the tireless sales force feeding live leads to your website, they maintain a special etiquette which traditional sales approaches and cold calls often fail to do. The most effective articles stay away from hard-selling language. There’s no need for a hard sale when you provide a sufficient amount of useful information and value within your content. Article readers are looking for relevant content that can solve their problems, answer their questions and provide clarity on confusing issues.

Increase your sales conversions by replacing cold calls with warm and informative articles. Don’t worry—opting for a softer sales approach through articles still achieves a strong message. The softness simply applies to the tactful presentation of your product or service. You will maintain strength in your message by assertively providing information, tips and resources that the readers can apply to their lives. Strength comes from proving that you can provide your readers with enough self-evident value that you don’t even need to ask for their business. They’ll have no choice but to see that you are the best resource and will ask you for your help.

Plus, articles have the advantage of being sought out by the reader. A cold call always runs the risk of interrupting people at an inconvenient time. Instead, people actively seek out articles. When someone clicks on the link to your article they are ready to read and learn. You now have their full attention and the best opportunity possible to provide your readers with useful information that will eventually lead them to your website or move them to contact you directly. All of this promotes a more receptive audience.

A receptive audience still requires relevant information! It was just a few years ago that we were even blessed with the gift of the Web, yet we have already become impatient, quadruple clicking our mouse when a page doesn’t load fast enough and cursing our computer when we can’t find what we need in less than a nanosecond.

Among the Internet’s top annoyances? Literally seeing millions of results posted for our specific search and still not being able to find an article or website that actually addresses the specific topics we’re interested in. Few things are a bigger turnoff to Web users than clicking through to a site or article and not being able to find what they expected. Call it impatience or insatiable hunger for quality resources, your articles must be well-written and highly relevant to the keywords you’ve targeted.

Whether you’re a bootstrapped business or a gargantuan conglomerate, smart business practices necessitate high efficiency and a simultaneous respect for one’s budget. Article marketing maintains a friendly relationship with your budget while introducing a soft sell that is actually considered useful to your readers.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

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Posted in Article Marketing, Article Marketing Tips | No Comments »

Hitting Hot Buttons on the Head Is Key to Selling More

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Buttons
We mean the other kind of buttons!
Creative Commons License photo credit: ahisgett

Marketing plans often fall short of their goal because they failed to zero in on their prospects’ hot buttons.

Your marketing plan must establish finite targets before you launch your campaign. Get a lock on the factors that trigger emotional responses from your prospects and you’ll figure out how to best present your offer.

Bang on those hot buttons

Hot buttons go far beneath the surface. Your product or service is not what’s in question. It’s what they help your target audience accomplish. Look for alternate dimensions to your product to hone in on the best way to present it. Use article marketing to effectively hit hot buttons right on the head.

Hot buttons consist of fears, worries, goals, aspirations and basic needs. They are all directly tied to people’s emotions. Many types of marketing simply don’t have the right platform to thoroughly appeal to emotions. On the other hand, article marketing grants you the perfect opportunity to connect better with your audience. For one, articles automatically have a better chance of digging below a prospect’s surface, since article readers are naturally more attentive. If they’re taking enough time to read your full article, then you’ve got enough time to truly speak to them. Whereas, T.V., radio and online banner ads can only quickly shout at someone and hope for the best.

Start by conducting some market research first to get a lock on demographics (sex, race, age, income, geographical location) and psychographics (attitudes, personality, values, lifestyles and interests). Study these factors  to narrow down your target audience and understand which emotions to appeal to. Don’t try and sell convenience items to single-parent homes—they’re looking for supplemental income opportunities and products or services that will grant them some time freedom. Push the convenience factor with a more affluent audience instead.

Accurately targeted hot buttons create a eureka moment, helping your prospects discover the perfect solution for their needs. Figure out what keeps them up at night and they’ll thank you with their credit cards for the full-night’s sleep. The fun part about crafting these articles for your business is that you won’t necessarily address the actual needs of your prospects. Play to their emotions—get a reaction from their heart and their brain will automatically follow suit. Consumers put their wallets away instead of taking them out when they think with their brain and not with their heart!

Learn to hone in on your audience

One of the biggest benefits article marketing provides is the ability to try again. Even if your market research led you astray and you missed hitting your prospect’s hot button on the head, you can make multiple attempts through an automated series of articles. Track the links back to your site and you’ll know what’s working and what needs to be improved.

And if you just can’t seem to figure out what’s most important to your prospects, feel free to simply ask them. Directly sampling your target audience through tools such as online polls and e-mail questionnaires will provide you with some excellent insight. Provide them with incentives such as discounts on your products to encourage them to provide helpful feedback. This not only increases the quantity of responses it also encourages more direct sales!

Understanding hot buttons not only helps you bring in first-time buyers it also encourages brand loyalty. Among the platforms for building solid business relationships is the understanding of what makes your clients sad or happy, what they value and what motivates them. Automate your article distribution to build an ongoing relationship. Build up value over time and continuously provide them with points that they can use to assuage their hot buttons.

Human behavior is a deeply rooted, almost unchangeable element. Never try to change your prospects’ behaviors. Instead, put yourself in their shoes and adapt your marketing messages accordingly.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

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Posted in Article Distribution, Article Distribution Service, Article Marketer, Article Marketing, Article Marketing Automation, Article Marketing Strategy, Article Marketing Tips, Article Submission Service, Article Writing | No Comments »

Are you failing to convert confused prospects to clear-minded clients?

Monday, April 5th, 2010
which way?
Creative Commons License photo credit: aurevoirkatie

Classic sales tips dictate that a confused mind never buys. Prospects require a mind clear of doubt before they’ll reach for their wallet. Why purchase a product or service if you have any residual reservations about it?

With the sheer quantity of services and products readily available on the Web there’s no reason why people should buy from you if they’re confused about your offer. Sales come through the path of least resistance!

Write informative article submissions regarding your product or service to wipe away doubt and clear people’s minds for a smooth purchasing process.

Understand your audience

The first thing you need to do is comprehensively identify your target audience. Every successful marketing plan is founded on thorough market research. Carefully consider exactly who you’re trying to appeal to and adapt your tone accordingly. Studying key demographics will help you do this. The most common demographic factors include sex, race, age, income, disabilities, employment, education level, mobility (vehicle ownership), home ownership, and geographical location. Add extra strength to your marketing approach by studying behavioral variables such as usage rate and loyalty.

“Firmographics” may sound like a big word, but it’s just about studying businesses instead of people. If you’re selling to other companies, understanding firmographic variables such as industry, seniority and functionals area relating to the characteristics of an organization create even more poignancy for your marketing plan. Firmographic factors include industry, employee size, revenue size, number of locations and geographic location of headquarters.

Once you’ve identified your key demographics and firmographics, take it a step further and develop your key psychographic values. This is just another big-sounding word that is just about knowing what makes people tick – things related to attitudes, personality, values, lifestyles and interests.

See the other point of view

Complement this approach by adopting your prospect’s perspective. What issues do they want to resolve?  Explain to your audience how your product will benefit them. What questions need answering? Use an automated article system to give them a continuous stream of useful content to provide those answers. What are their dreams? Share your service’s ability to help them excel. Their biggest fears? Let them know that your business provides a constant support network.

Fail to extend your thoughts beyond the immediate features of your product or service and you‘ll leave your prospects confused as to how your offer will directly help them. Address their most important issues and you’ll efface doubts and confusion, giving them the go-ahead to buy from you.

And you may be thinking that your complex product or service requires complex terms and explanations—not true! When in doubt, apply the K.I.S.S. rule (keep it simple and stupid). Use straightforward language and you’ll eliminate points of confusion about your offer.

Avoid the urge to discuss all of your product or service’s features and benefits at one time. The best approach is to break your offer down into manageable chunks. These chunks of information and value are easier to process and will not overwhelm your prospects. Article writing grants you the opportunity to introduce new value points in controlled stages. You will gradually build value while insuring that your prospect has mastered a feature/chunk before you move on to the next point.

Are you excited about your product or service? Great! Just make sure you’re not too excited. This can cause you to get swept away and relate the details of your offer in a very confusing and whirlwind manner. Excitement can be a great catalyst for writing your business articles if you harness it. And remember: always take a step back from your article after you’ve written it and revisit it later to see if you need to tone it down in spots.

To your success,

Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

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Posted in Article Distribution, Article Distribution Service, Article Marketing, Article Marketing Automation, Article Marketing Strategy, Article Marketing Tips, Article Writing, Article Writing Tips, Submit Articles | 2 Comments »

Add Value to Your Business Message with Article Marketing

Monday, March 15th, 2010
Free Macro Chewy Cocolate Chip Cookies Creative Commons
Creative Commons License photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography

Other than saying yes to a cherub-faced Girl Scout selling tasty cookies, when was the last time you immediately agreed to a purchase? Heck, you probably still needed to look the list up and down a few times before you chose which cookies you bought. Now, imagine what your prospects experience when they go online to find a particular product or service…absolute mayhem! They are instantly bombarded with virtually countless choices. This mayhem requires you to spread the word throughout the Web as to why prospects should choose your product or service over all the others—why are you an orange among apples? Article marketing allows you to lead the way by providing useful information. Well-written information that subtly relates to the benefits of your product or service adds value to your offer, creating a wedge between you and your competitors.

Let everyone know how you stand out from the competition

Unless your product or service is offered at over a 90% discount compared to your competitors (and probably even then), you will need to make sure your audience understands the extra value you bring to the table. Regular article submissions enable you to publish information relevant to your industry, creating an interconnected system of value points. Once you get these main points in place you’ve essentially painted a perfect picture of value—pointillism of the marketing world. When prospects look at your business offer from far away it may appear to be similar to countless others. Specific value points established through article marketing allows the prospect to step closer and see all the individual dots that illustrate how your business is different and better than those similar choices.

And, since today’s online audience is savvier, they now require more information before they feel comfortable buying from you—you can never just ask for their business. Although it may be obvious to you that your business is different, don’t assume your prospects feel the same. Current trends show that savvy Internet users now require lots more information and coaxing before they move forward with a purchase.

That is why content is king! Steady trends prove that more and more people are using the Internet as a research tool. Even if you are a local brick-and-mortar business that people can physically visit, there’s a significant chance that your prospects are checking your business out online first before they even set foot in your door. Whether people are dealing with a downturn market, bootstrapped budgets, or simply want to perform a credibility check, the more content you have online the more new clients you’ll win over.

Befriend the tire kickers and get more business!

Another element to consider is that a good number of people surfing the Web are going online strictly for research with no intent to buy. Even if someone sticks to their non-buying guns, they still may know of a friend or associate that could benefit from your product or service. The fact that you provided them with useful information and helped answer their questions makes them much likelier to pass on your article. Congratulations—you’re getting word-of-mouth marketing, which is very highly trusted indeed.

Here’s where we can see a prime example of what Zig Ziglar said, “You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” Internet users will recognize that you made an extra effort to provide useful information and the good deed is sure to come back around through direct and indirect channels. Make it easy for people to find the information they need and they’ll either buy from you directly or be much more inclined to refer your business.

It’s also helpful to think of your prospects as having research radars. Every time another article about your business is submitted to the Web you create an additional point that shows up on their radars, helping you show up in more search results than ever before.

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Posted in Article Marketing | No Comments »

Catch a Whale of a Client with More Marketing Lines in the Water

Friday, March 12th, 2010
2006-07-05
Creative Commons License photo credit: Derek Purdy

Just as it is with a quality financial portfolio, diversity within your marketing plan is ideal. As a classic example of not putting all your eggs in one basket, diversifying your marketing plan protects your business from tanking if one of your main marketing efforts fails. With multiple marketing lines in the water you can still get some bites on your other lines in case you used the wrong bait on one of them. Article marketing encourages diversity in your marketing plan—the more lines (meaning articles) you have in the water, the better the chance you have of reeling in a whale of a client.

Different breeds of fish require different types of bait. Although you may have a relatively uniform target audience, different people will respond to different things. For example, while pay-per click campaigns (PPC) may be an effective tool for capturing leads from certain individuals, many of today’s online users are getting savvier by the minute and choosing to pass on these PPC ads, opting for more information-based ads and marketing pieces. Articles that provide useful information relevant to your business make excellent bait for these savvier Internet users.

Catch bigger fish with article marketing

Article marketing consistently proves to be one of the best ways to market and advertise high-end products and services. In order to get fish to bite at more expensive offers you’ll need to provide meatier bait. You significantly increase your chances for successfully marketing high-end products or services when you provide more information and greater detail regarding your product or service. Article submissions provide tantalizing substance, demonstrating undeniable positives about your offer, clearing doubt from readers’ minds and encouraging them to take a nice healthy bite into your bait.

One of the most frustrating elements about fishing is when there seems to be an entire school of fish just nipping at your bait instead of taking it whole. Likewise, it can be a real heartbreaker to see that your site analytics show you’re getting a large number of impressions, hits and site visitors but barely converting any to active customers or clients. Value-based articles provide enough information and points of interest to actually set the hook and convert those nippers into the catch of the day.

Spread your bait far and wide

Overall, article submission can be thought of as chumming the waters. By taking advantage of mass article submissions you will effectively spread some enticing chunks of information and value throughout the Web. While article submissions can achieve a very specific type of bait through the use of targeted keywords, the large-scale exposure that these articles garner will get more fish swimming towards your business-boat. This gets them close enough to your boat to then feed them more articles and then bring them onboard (Ask us about excellent lead generation capabilities here through opt-in article campaigns.) after they’ve eaten enough of your bait to know that you provide the best quality in the sea.

Diversity within your overall marketing plan also guarantees that you’ll have lines in the water at all times. Since you can’t see your prospects swimming below you, you don’t know when they’ll strike. Even if your PPC campaign has reached its daily bid limit and is shut off for the day, your website is under construction, or your phone lines are temporarily down, your business articles are permanent. Once you have them sent out into the Web waters they’re out there to stay. This type of permanence in marketing will make sure your boat stays afloat.

To your success,
Andrew Rossillo

Andrew Rossillo is Content Crooner’s Marketing Blogger and Staff Writer. He’s ready to put his years of copywriting and online marketing experience to work for your business—he’ll help you get noticed!

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Posted in Article Marketing | 2 Comments »

Tracking Clicks in Your Article Distribution Campaign

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Smart marketing means tracking results. Now you can easily integrate Google Analytics into your article distribution efforts. This kind of data can be collected using the powerful “click tracking” features of Google Analytics.

Using an article submission or distribution service is the smart way to get your content out there and build backlinks. It’s a proven method to boost your SERPS and build exposure. But as any article marketer knows too well, some articles do great and others just don’t. Use this tracking technology to get a better handle for which articles are getting the most traffic.

Track Clicks in Each Article Your Distribute

So you’ve written a terrific article and you’re ready to post it to your article submission service. If you have a feature-rich distribution service, you’ll get comprehensive distribution and exposure reports so you can see where it went, and how much traction it’s getting in the search engines. That’s a great start.

To really understand what articles do the most work, you want to know how many readers actually click through that article and onto your site. For that, you’ll need to add a tracking link to your resource box. Fortunately this is easy and free, thanks to the URL Builder from Google Analytics. The process is easy:

1. Enter the landing page URL.
2. Fill out the campaign source info fields. These are up to you to decide; make it easy to understand.
3. Hit the button to generate your customized link. That’s it. Once a reader clicks on that link it will be logged in Google Analytics and you’ll quickly see how each article is performing.

Add Links to Emails, Blogs Posts, Etc.

The same process will help you track any of your outbound email campaigns, blogs, press releases, etc. As long as you add a new custom link for each, you’ll be able to track returns on every campaign.

Avoiding the Long Link

You’ll notice that the custom link is long, and includes a question mark and lots of other info. Many article distribution services and content publishers don’t allow question marks in links. It’s a common way for affiliate links to be formatted, and is often a flag for spam. Don’t worry, there’s a workaround.

Add a Redirect If You Like

To avoid problems with the customized link, simply add a redirect. For example, you can add a link to www.mysite/articletitle and simply redirect any traffic to that link on to the custom link you’ve created with the URL Builder. You get a nice short SEO friendly link in your resource box; Google Analytics gets the data it needs to track the clicks.

Article marketing has evolved along with web technology. Take advantage of this with the help of your article distribution service.

To your success,

Mike Lawson

Mike Lawson is a freelance consultant to internet marketers. His Professional Writing Service provides quality content for article marketing automation programs.

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Posted in Article Distribution Service, Article Marketing, Article Submission Service | 3 Comments »

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