5 Strategies for Successful Article Marketing

When you decided to build an online presence for your business, you may have learned that article marketing is an effective way to gain visibility and drive traffic to your website or blog. Hundreds of thousands of internet marketers use article directories to gain interest and grow their businesses every day. But not every article marketing strategy is created the same.

The vast majority of marketing articles just end up taking up virtual space, with no real business building power behind them. That’s because most article marketers don’t develop solid strategies before they start posting to article directories. Without a strategic approach, you can end up wasting valuable hours that you could be spending on other, more effective tasks.

Here are five strategies that will help you get the most out of your article marketing efforts:

1. Effective keyword research. Don’t assume that, just because you post an article to EzineArticles or another directory, your content will be read. Proper keyword research is essential for driving readers to your articles - after all, the majority of your article readers will come from search engine listings, not from the directories. A paid service like Wordtracker will help you identify the keywords in your niche that people are searching for.
2. Developing useful content. Many marketers look at articles as “throw-aways” because they don’t actually add a website or blog’s content… so they put less effort into putting useful, relevant information into their marketing articles. It’s important to understand, though, that these articles will be the first impression of you for many customers… and if your articles don’t enrich their lives, they won’t be likely to click through to your site.
3. Make sure your articles are well written. If you’re writing them yourself, revise them until they’re perfect. If you’re hiring a copywriter, make sure you choose one that not only understands article marketing, but also possesses superior writing skills. It’s well worth paying a bit more for a great copywriter – your articles will retain reader interest and drive more traffic to your site.
4. Keep it conversational. Your marketing articles are opportunities to teach others, but they’re also opportunities for readers to get to know, like, and trust you. Don’t write just to show how much you know… instead, write for the purpose of developing relationships.
5. Develop a compelling resource box. Even if a reader benefits from an article, he or she still needs a reason to click through to your site.  Let your readers know exactly what the payoff is, and your clickthrough rate will increase dramatically.

Lee

Twitter: @JJMbuzz

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