Article Marketing

Article marketing is simply the writing of approximately 500 word articles on a subject that is somehow related to your business or industry. These content-rich articles are then published online through a variety of article submission sites. The resource box typically found at the bottom of the article is how readers find your company information and are directed to your website. Article marketing is so simple that many people overlook its power and effectiveness.

The Importance of Article Marketing

Article marketing is one of the absolute best ways to put Internet marketing to work for your business. By strategically writing articles that are relevant to your industry and submitting them to online article submission sites you will create a direct path to your website for anyone who does a search for information that relates to your business.

Remember that an article is not a sales pitch. It needs to be full of relevant information that is actually useful and/or entertaining. It must also be written using Search Engine Optimization techniques. Be careful not to keyword stuff your articles. Never plagiarize content from anywhere else.

Once you write good articles that actually teach your customers something while establishing yourself as a go-to expert in the industry you will need to get the articles published in a variety of places. EzineArticles.com and Squidoo are two excellent locations for publishing such articles, but ideally you will want to submit your articles to hundreds of websites. Article submission sites can help you do that. Be sure to avoid using duplicate content from your website as this may affect the ranking of your article and your site.

Articles are vital to your Internet marketing plan. Therefore you will need to produce them regularly. This is where those seeking your keywords will stumble across your company, thanks to the resource box that is always included at the end of your articles. However, they actually have to get to the bottom of the page to get that information. That means you had better have a captivating article written to keep their attention!

Regular article publication will set you apart from many of your competitors, but you must be consistent. You must create multiple articles each month in order to keep traffic flowing to your site. Luckily, this is a very easy task to subcontract out.

Articles are meant to attract people to your site. They are published on other websites with backlinks to your site, creating an added bonus for you, because as discussed before, the more backlinks to your site the better.

Use Articles to Create Interest and Reach All Potential Clients

To pique the interest of a wide variety of different possible clients, you will need to write a variety of articles, targeting a variety of subjects. Make sure you write articles that touch on every use of your product or service. Some great article ideas are listed below.

Write about

-          tips on the use of your product

-          reasons why someone would want to use your service

-          unconventional uses for your product or service

-          frequently asked questions

-          individual products and services

-          how to choose the best provider of your type or service or product

-          things to look out for when purchasing

-          the advantages of using your product or service

-          the disadvantages of not using your product or service

-          how to…

-          things you shouldn’t do

-          evaluations of different options

-          steps for using your products or services

-          how your products or services help people

-          little known facts

-          explanations

-          how to avoid a problem

-          tips on responding to a challenge

Once you have chosen a subject for an article, it should be in the 400-750 word range. Make sure it is well-written and flows naturally, in order to keep people reading. Nothing turns a reader off faster than poor grammar and confusing sentences.

The simple formula for article writing as an online marketing technique:

• Do your keyword research
• Get your content written
• Submit it to article directories

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Report Generation, Testing and Tracking

Report generation must be done regularly in order to stay on top of the performance of your online marketing plan. Through testing and tracking you can effectively and clearly see what is working and what is not. So then by doing more of what is working and less of what isn’t working, you’ll grow faster at less cost. This is a very important part of your business and must be done at least quarterly, unless you are functioning at beyond full capacity. As you are implementing or even prior to implementing your new marketing strategies, take the time to test and track so that you have a baseline to compare against.

Use the following types of data in your analysis of your marketing:

• Rankings
• Links/backlinks
• Traffic sources and volume
• Visitor data
• Visitor actions and behavior

Rankings

You will need to track the main site rankings for the different keywords. This will tell you where each keyword ranks, so you can get an idea of the ranking possibilities for the content you put out there using that keyword. You can use rank checker tools to assist you in tracking rankings for keywords. Check those of your competitors also.

Links/Backlinks

When testing your backlinks of your site, you need to find out where links are coming from. This is simultaneously a test to make sure that links are actually working. Track how many backlinks your site has and how many are recognized by Google. Do the same for your competitors, especially those who already have a good degree of online domination. This will give you ideas of where you need to link from. You can access link and backlink tracking tools to facilitate the process.

Traffic Sources and Volume

Traffic sources and the volume of traffic need to be tracked and optimized. This will tell you where your visitors are coming from and the number of visitors you are getting from each source. It is important to know if they are direct visitors, referred through natural search engine results, referred from other sites or referred through paid search engine ads. This type of tracking will also reveal the keywords that are working to get visitors to your site. There are traffic tracking tools available for this.

Visitor Data

Visitor data should also be tested, tracked and optimized as a regular part of your marketing program. You want to know where they are located, which web browser they use, the type of operating system they use, connection speed and if they are a brand-new visitor or a repeat one. This will help you create the best visitor experience possible for those who come to your site. The same tracking tools that provide traffic data will also help you track visitor data.

Visitor Actions and Behavior

You will also need to track visitor actions and behavior information. Details like the page of the site the visitor entered on and exited from will divulge the relevant information they were looking for. With such information, you will learn how well your landing pages and other content are working for you. You can also find out how long they stayed on your site, which will help you come up with ways to keep them there longer.

Record the links that get the most click-through traffic, so that you know what information attracts visitors most. The most important feature of tracking visitor behavior is the fact that you can find out the number of people who took action and what they actually did. There are a variety of technologies that allow you to track such information.

By regularly testing and tracking your site by the collection of important data, you will be equipped to optimize it so you get the best results possible. You will know what is working well and what needs to be changed. Discern what the data actually means, so you can change content or make site adjustments if necessary. This will help you improve your business by getting the right people to your site who will then convert to sales. 

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Blogging

Blogging can be one of the most effective ways to get yourself to the top of the search engine results for your chosen keywords. Google and other search engines regularly visit blogs and re-index the content found there because they love such applications. Therefore if you regularly blog, your site will get increasingly better results in search engines. As more and more backlinks are built, the traffic to your site will increase.

Shorter than an article with fewer guidelines than a press release, blogs can be quick and easy to produce. However, they must also meet SEO criteria for maximum effectiveness. This means you should focus on keywords, specifically long-tail keywords, when you blog. However, be sure to not stuff keywords into the text. It should have a natural flow so people keep coming back to it, actually want to read it and subscribe to your RSS feed.

Some tips for blogging.

-          Keep blogs short – under 400 words.

-          Use keywords in the title and throughout the blog.

-          Add an image for visual interest.

-          Schedule the appearance of a new blog about every 3 days or even more often depending on the industry you are in.

-          Make blogs relevant to what is happening in the news.

-          Don’t use a blog to rant about something. Keep it informative.

You can also use offsite blogs to increase traffic to your website by using Web 2.0 and offsite blogs such as:

-          Squidoo.com

-          Hubpages.com

-          Xanga.com

-          Vox.com

-          Blogger.com

-          360.Yahoo.com.

-          Wordpress.com

-          LiveJournal.com

-          Zimbio.com

-          Spaces.Live.com

Create even more backlinks by submitting your offsite blogs to social networking and social news sharing sites. 

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Adding Testimonials Create Validity and More

Testimonials are an excellent way to build consumer confidence in your products or services. Visitors to your site witness actual clients and their level of satisfaction with your company. They see how your products are put to use and get ideas as to how they can use them also.

You can add video testimonials for maximum impact, as they appeal to everyone even those who typically don’t take time to read websites and create a type of social proof that helps your personal branding. Alternatively you can post a testimonial in text form with accompanying pictures of the client and even the client using your company’s services or products. You can also use simple audio clips for testimonials.

Some tips for the use of testimonials:

-          get testimonials from both genders

-          if your product or service is used in a variety of different ways or industries, get testimonials from various areas

-          put some diversity of age and ethnicity in your testimonials

-          feel free to use just a portion of a testimonial if it is too lengthy

-          ask customers for testimonials that you can use

New customers feel more confident about their decision to purchase from you if you have testimonials on your site. They get the impression that they are a part of a group and that they are not just another sale.

In every testimonial, you must include:

·         customer’s name and title

·         city and state

·         credentials

Encourage them to talk about the way your business helped to solve their problem. Always get permission from the person to use the testimonial and information in it before publishing it. Keep a copy of the permission for reference. 




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5 Things No One Is Doing

While some people are using select Internet marketing techniques to drive traffic to their site, others are doing nothing at all, except hoping for the best. Using a wide variety of tried and true online marketing methods is the best way to see real results in your sales. A great place to start is by opting to implement the 5 things practically no one is doing. These things produce serious results and should be used by every business with an Internet presence. They include:

• Blogging
• Autoresponders, building an email list and following up
• Free reports
• Online video
• Basic SEO

Blogging creates a steady online presence that increases your chances of being at the top of search engine results for your keywords. Using a blog you can get content containing all your long-tailed keywords on the web. In addition, it allows you to build a following of customers and potential customers who are interested in what you share and who provide valuable feedback to you. This audience is ripe for being marketed to when your business is in a slump.

Autoresponders are tools that allow you to build an email list and easily follow up with those on it. They are a set of standardized letters that are set up once and the necessary contact with each new individual who opts into your email list is taken care of automatically. Autoresponders are an indispensable tool which saves time for you and actually does some of the lead nurturing that is absolutely essential in demand marketing.

Offering free reports to those who are interested is another of the underused tools in the online marketer’s toolbox. Everyone loves getting something for nothing. If you offer free reports on an area of interest to your potential customers you will establish yourself as an expert in that field and you will easily be able to get them to give their email or other contact information in exchange for a report that actually provides useful information.

Online video is the video version of blogs and articles. You can reach numerous customers and potential customers with this new hot online marketing tool. You can create a simple video from text slides and voiceover or music or record a video of actual products and services in use. Be sure to place video both on your site and offsite for maximum effectiveness.

Basic SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is another tool that goes unused by those looking to promote their business online. It is simply making sure that your website is as appealing as possible to the spiders that crawl the Internet collecting information for search engines. This includes strategic use of keywords, backlinks and more.

Many businesses pay a lot of money to have someone create a fancy looking website for them, but it simply is not search engine optimized, so it will never get ranked in the search engine results. Without the strategic use of keywords, a significant number of links to their site and the removal of sluggish elements like Flash, a website will never achieve a top ranking.

By putting in place these 5 things that no one is doing you will be able to easily set your website apart from that of most of your competitors. Your search engine results will begin to quickly climb and you will find that more and more customers are “stumbling across” your website. 

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Audio Marketing

By doing audio marketing you can more easily capture the attention of visitors to a site and get them involved in the content you are delivering. In fact, every business owner should incorporate audio marketing both onsite and offsite into their marketing plan. It is much more memorable than text and keeps visitors on a website longer than they would stay otherwise, because audio is more of a personable approach.

You can use audio to:

-          introduce your products or services

-          present the owner of the business

-          give consumer tips

-          give instructions

-          present testimonials

-          repurpose radio commercials

-          read blog posts or expert articles and

-          give a call to action.

In fact audio testimonials are a much more effective way of building trust with potential clients.

Offsite audio can be used to drive traffic to your website and to help with the personal branding of your business. It helps the owner appear to be a true expert in the field. Offsite audio also provides backlinks to your site and counts as content to help your site’s ranking in the search engines.

Opt to put offsite audio on podcasts, online radio shows or other forms of distribution. You might also want to record a message with expert tips and link it back to your site, to promote yourself as an expert.

Create a title starting with your chosen keyword phrase when you submit your audio to different sites. Use the same keyword in the segment description. You can also drive traffic to your audio content with backlinks using various online marketing techniques. There are many tools that will help you facilitate the use of audio in your online marketing. 



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