Article marketing, or promotion through free publication of your articles, is by far my favourite online marketing strategy for online exposure and search engine optimisation. It is highly effective to boost your profile, generate qualified leads and drive traffic to your website. Best of all, it’s free and has long-lasting results.
So, what the benefits of Article Marketing?
1. Positioning
By generously sharing your unique information, you can elevate your status from ‘Knowledgeable’ to ‘Expert’ and position yourself among celebrities. Not only people prefer buying from Experts but they’re also willing to pay more for their products and services. So, why not stand out and command higher fees?
2. Pre-selling
Although this is the most important reason for writing articles, it ranks second on this list because you first need to build you credibility and earn your reader’s trust before selling.
Compare your article to a song you hear on the radio. If you like the song, you rush to the shop and buy the CD. You trust the CD to be good based on only one song.
Likewise, if people like your article, they’ll follow the link to your website to subscribe to your newsletter, buy a product online or contact you. The article serves as a sample that pre-sells your products and services.
3. Readily available material
If you know your business well, you already have this unique information on hand. It’s a matter of putting together a series of articles using your wealth of knowledge. And if you hate writing, why don’t you talk in a microphone and send your recordings to a freelance editor or ghostwriter for transcription and editing?
4. Viral marketing
Like a virus, your article can spread fast around the internet. Should someone like your article enough to share, it will travel quickly by email and social media. Viral Marketing or online word-of-mouth is perhaps the best credible and no-cost spin-off of Article Marketing.
5. Long-lasting benefits
You only need to write your article once to benefit from unlimited online exposure. Your articles will continue to be displayed on websites and web search results for many years to come without requiring any effort or money on your part. Unlike PPC (Pay Per Click) listings, your incoming traffic doesn’t depend on money spent on bidding campaigns.
6. Organic Search Engine Results
Your articles will be listed under the ‘organic’ search engine results. These are based on relevance to the keywords searched. Organic search results are perceived to be unbiased and therefore more credible than paid ones e.g. PPC adverts. This could be likened to the credibility of newspaper articles versus paid adverts. Research reveals that 70% of web users click on organic search engine results versus 30% on paid listings.
7. Search Engine Optimisation
The number of backlinks or incoming links to your site will increase with each site publishing your article. In Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), the number of backlinks is an indication of the popularity of a site and determines the website ranking on Web Search Engine results. So the more backlinks you have, the higher your website will rank on web search results.
8. Free publicity
Usually with publicity, you have no say on what people publish about you. For example, journalists edit interviews to suit their needs. But with Article Marketing, you write your own promotion in the Resource Box. It becomes a cross between publicity and advertising. The content of the article publicises your expertise and the Resource Box advertises your business. Because you generously share your information, people are receptive to your advertising.
9. Lead Generation
Each time your article is published on blogs, email newsletters and other sites, you gain a new source of qualified leads coming to your website through the link from your Resource Box. Can you imagine how many people you can reach this way? For one reprint in an email newsletter, you can already gain instant exposure to 100s and 1,000s subscribers, depending on the size of the list.
10. Revenue generation
You can create a new income stream from your website with Google AdSense and affiliate programs when you place their adverts beside your articles. With affiliate programs, you’ll receive a commission for each sale generated through your affiliate link and with Google AdSense, you’ll get a commission for each click on text links or banners.
11. Recyclable resource
Publishing your articles will force you into a writing discipline and will give you a better indication of what people like to read. What articles are most read? From this market research and source of material, you can instantly create popular products such an e-course or an ebook that you can sell or give away for free to build your list.
12. Sense of achievement
On a personal level, you’ll find that writing articles will help you clarify your mind and provide you with a fulfilling sense of pride and achievement long after you’ve written them. And as you become an authority in your field, you’ll gain special recognition and respect from friends and colleagues.
Can you find a cheaper way to promote your business with such valuable long-lasting results?
Download
Speed Article Marketing ebook for more tips and techniques on how to market yourself and your business through writing articles. It’s much easier than you think to write articles and become the Expert in your field … once you know how.
