Whether most business owners realize it or not, virtually all business success in the future is going to be increasingly aligned with good online marketing, which implies the need to drive traffic to your website.
How to Drive Traffic?
The question is, how do you drive traffic to your site? There are numerous methods and subtle techniques to go with, but one that has stood the test of time is article marketing
What is article marketing? Article marketing leverages the power of the internet through the free distribution of your articles that are relevant to the industry, products or services in which your business deals.
Now these articles need to be written to appeal to your target audience, with useful information that makes these articles both valued by the reader in themselves, and such that it puts you in the position of being seen as an expert. To leverage that expert status, at the end of the article is usually a line of text about who you are, with a clickable link to your website or blog.
The articles are then released into the internet, with the aim that they will be picked up and used and have your message spread far and wide across cyberspace in an uncontrolled viral manner. Good articles can be spread between people very quickly and have broad viral reach.
This promotional technique deserves to be in every company's arsenal of marketing tactics, for it not only can be very effective in attracting new customers who are seeking to buy relevant products that you sell, but it also begins the process of turning you and your company into experts that generates a higher credibility and trust, leading to more referrals and sales.
You Can Do It
Now before you start to think that you are already busy enough without having to write articles, consider the following. You don't have to write them yourself. In fact, there are a number of techniques for turning your expertise into articles, including transcribing interviews of yourself, getting a ghost writer to do it for you based on your requirements, etc. Check out internet marketing books for more details on these tactics.
Now, for an article to do its job well as a marketing tool, it needs to be intelligently created around the keywords people are searching for on Google etc. Using Google's Keyword Tool can give you insight into what words people are using, and this should influence the choice of title and wording within the article.
Your free distribution is often done via you uploading the article to an "article site" directories, such as EzineArticles, where they are released for free distribution to people who are looking for articles to put into their website, or in their ezine. This is why you need to include the bio at the end, so readers far and wide can find their way back to you via that link.
So, by writing article marketing with good content for readers, and using the article directory sites, the company site should over time receive large numbers of visitors free of advertising cost.
Now one thing to bear in mind is that, it is not a good idea to submit the exact same article to many such directories. It is better to write various versions so that you get the benefit of multiple directory exposure.
Use Articles with Other Marketing
Furthermore, as with all good marketing, coordinated marketing campaigns try to make the various tactics synergize. So it is better if article marketing is used in conjunction with search engine optimization (SEO), and other internet marketing techniques.
Now clearly there are costs with this approach, but nothing like the cost of more direct methods as Pay Per Click (PC) advertising, such as Google AdWords. In fact, experience shows that over time, using good SEO with article marketing, you can do this for far less cost. What's more, you will raise you expertise and standing in the marketplace and create a loyal following if you give back to the target community such useful information.
From this foundation, sales will grow and be supported by your status, and most importantly, not be as easily affected by advertising campaigns by your competitors.
About the Author
Ian Hodgkinson has been active on the net for some years, and operates an internet marketing publishing business. Ian has found that a huge amount of energy is being wasted by people anxious to start making money online. Check out his materials and move from being a "consumer" to being a "producer" and earner.
To assist your marketing efforts, please download 7 free ebooks on SEO, viral traffic, Web 2.0 techniques, blogging, affiliate income, joint ventures, and the use of PLR products from: http://www.ianhodgkinson.com
(c) Copyright - Ian Hodgkinson. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
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