As many of you know I’m a sure fan of article marketing.  HUGE! Why?  Because it works!  I can’t tell you how many times even months later after I have sent an article out that a client has contacted me from an article I wrote.  How can I tell?  Easy.  They specifically address the article and often mention one of the tips I provided.   Bamm, That’s how it’s done.

Plus, another huge benefit is that I can do so much with each and every article.  For example, for the articles I write I will:

1) Add them to my blog
2) Add them to my newsletter
3) Create social media postings from them
4) Create a pitch from them and send it out to my databases I create in Cision, which often leads to major media mentions

What is even better is that this is a service I provide regularly to my clients.  And it works! (Wait, I said that already.  But it truly does.)  I will take their articles (often from old blog postings they already have written, although I’d be happy to write them as well) and not only send it out to the article databases we select for them, but also create pitches from them and get their name out to their target audience.  You know the ones, the ones that truly have an interest in that article and who can bring major traffic to their site.  For example, recently we were able to get our clients featured in the following major media: BBC Capital, Women for Hire, to name a few.

What is even better is that once you send an article to a site and they express an interest, you add them to your database and build that relationship.  That’s how PR truly works.

So let’s break down article marketing more.  We know we start with a great keyword-driven title, a title that contains the keyword phrases that your customers would be typing in.  It’s also important to keep those keywords flowing throughout the article, making sure your content is keyword rich as well.

Article content is important.  Really provide information that your targeted audience needs. It needs to be interesting, it needs to be full of information, and it needs to have some take away value.

Keep in mind this is NOT an ad for your business.  You want to be really careful that your article is worthy of being read.  Let’s go over a few more things.

Article Marketing Tips

* Be informative – you are an expert, be sure that shows but doesn’t brag. Do one wants to hear in your article how fabulous you are at what you do. However, they do want to hear how you do what you do.  See the difference?

* When writing an article, solve a problem, answer a question, and tell others how to run their business better or provide tips for achieving a better lifestyle.  What do you hear people talking about that challenges them?  Write on that!

* Make it easy on yourself and create templates and use the same formula.  I normally have an opening paragraph or two, three top tips, a closing paragraph and the bio.  (Bamm, it’s done!)

* BIO — Your bio is what sells you. Have it no more than a few sentences, don’t forget your website link and any free offers and really shine a light on who you are and what you do.

* When submitting articles online make sure that you check your article stats. Many of the article submission places have this. Check to see if the articles have been accepted recently? How many hits?  How this helps is even some of the best sites go cold and stop accepting articles.  You could be wasting your time sending to them.

*  Submit to quality sites.  Here are my favorites:  EzineArticles, iSnare, Go Articles, Article Blast, Article Snatch, upublish.info/, Article Biz, Article Rich, etc.  There are also many that take articles that are exclusive such as ArticleBase. (Please do comment below and let us know some of your favorite.)

Hopefully this helps!  If you’d like additional information on article marketing, we’d be happy to send you our free audio on article marketing from our PR Success Class.  Email me at diana@virtualwordpublishing.com to receive it.

Until next time … Happy Marketing … Diana Ennen