Article Marketing Research For Business Success

Before attempting to tell you, based on my experience, how to develop an effective articles marketing strategy – let me try to illustrate why it is important that you do so.

Articles in the newspaper, magazines, and professional journals have always been the most effective way of showing our audience that our insights have value.

For college professors the expression “publish or perish” meant literally that, if you could not get your work published by a reputable academic publication, it was unlikely that you would be taken sufficiently seriously by your peers – putting a very real ceiling on your career growth.

In 1483 Martin Luther used his writing to start a revolution in faith that spread around the world. Others before and since have used the power of the written word to promote themselves, their opinions, and their uniqueness in their marketplace.

Most of us regular people develop our articles marketing strategy to help us gain customers or clients. We want to rise above the noise of our competitors, provide substance not hype, and we want to back up our assertions with facts – all things we can do more effectively through an article writing campaign than in any other way.

And because there is no editorial board running the Internet, we do not have to seek the approval of our “betters” in order to get our message published – making relevant and well reasoned articles a small business marketing strategy that can be truly effective.

When your articles drive people to your web site you have done the hard part. Getting the right traffic to our sites is job #1.

Because people search the Internet for solutions and your articles address them compellingly enough for people to click through to your web site – you have won the battle for their attention. You must now convert that fleeting attention into action. Depending on your product or service and the normal buying process you may have an opt-in page powered by a shopping cart system, simple direct sales offers, or another relevant call to action.

Needless to say there is no “single” articles marketing strategy that is most effective for all of us all the time or there would be just one. Of course there are some that work better than others – and what will work best for you depends upon your strengths and your objectives.

When I began writing articles for online publication I had an objective – something I want people to do after reading them and something I wanted to become more widely recognized for. You should do the same.

Are you an expert? Well of course you are, even if you feel funny about identifying yourself as an expert. In your field you are an expert. It is up to you to define what you are an expert at, illustrate your particular uniqueness. Practically everyone is an expert at something and if you really don’t consider yourself an expert then you can learn to be one by hiring someone that is actually an expert and modeling them.

Did I mention that this is a small business marketing strategy that costs next to nothing, other than your time researching and writing the articles themselves? You can easily set up an autoresponder system powered by a shopping cart program and distribute these articles in the form of an email newsletter.

This is not your conventional newsletter that requires you to go to the printer and distribute a three or four page synopsis of what’s going on in your company or community.  It is an electronic version of that old-fashioned, and in its time, most effective marketing and customer retention tool.

In order to set up your 21st century email newsletter, you need a small business marketing strategy that allows you to gather e-mail addresses. Let’s say that you start out with one of your customer’s e-mail addresses.  You send them a copy of your electronic newsletter.  (Always ask for permission first)

If the newsletter includes some bit of advice that their friends would find interesting, encourage them to send it along to them.  Research indicates that most people have at least six friends that they contact regularly.

Because of the popularity of social networking, some people have dozens of friends that they are in touch with on a regular basis.  With an effective articles marketing strategy, you can tap into that network and grow your business.

One suggestion I always make if you expect to have an effective small business marketing strategy is to precisely identify your specific niche audience.  What group or groups of people would be especially interested in your products or services?  If so, that’s your niche.  Are there discussion boards, social networks or e-magazines targeting that niche?

There is a web site for practically every hobby or group interest that you can think of.  If you run a company that made kites, you can find specific groups of people that are kiting enthusiasts.  All that you need to do is to start writing brief informational articles about kites and then post those articles at a kiting e-magazine.  A link would be placed in the article that connects to your web site.

This type of articles marketing strategy does not even require you to collect e-mail addresses to grow your business.  It’s all electronic.  Learn more about these strategies and start watching your customer base grow.

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