subject: Drive New Customers By Writing Good Articles [print this page] There is no way to truly stress the importance of article marketing for your online business. As much as it may be encouraged, many people overlook the possibility of not only increasing their customer base, but increasing their credibility as well. More website owners are learning just how important article marketing is to drive new clients and new business.
While there are certainly other valid and effective internet marketing strategies, not all of them will give you the impact that well crafted articles. The more attention you pay to article marketing, the more likely you are to draw the attention of new customers. This means that you are going to need to either (a) learn to write a high quality article or (b) hire someone to do them for you. Bear in mind that you not only need to draw the attention of possible customers but you must hold their attention long enough to make sure that they are going to read the article. A badly written article will do you no good.
With this said, these are the essential elements to a successful article:
Do your homework - yes article writing is great for your business and if you type fairly fast, you can push out 2 or 3 good quality articles in an hour. However, if you have failed to properly research the topic that you are writing about, you will not only lack "meat" in your article but you'll also cost yourself credibility.
Know your niche - it is customary for people to focus in on a niche - their websites and blogs all focus on a single topic or "class" of topics. Make sure you are current on the latest developments in your niche market and that you know the top viewed websites and blogs that relate to your niche. This will give you better knowledge and lets you write in a firm and determined tone that will attract and keep the readers attention.
Titles mean a lot - the old saying "you only get one chance to make a good first impression" is relevant when you are selecting titles for your articles. This will be your "first face" when clients are searching for information. The catchier the title the better. Just make sure that your title is relevant to your article. You want to pick a title that will catch attention and convince the reader to read more.
Avoid the sales pitch - avoid turning your article into a one page sales pitch. Your article must contain good information that is well researched and adds value to the readers experience. You do want to have an "action" statement in the article (e.g. something to get them to read more for example) but you do not want your article sounding like a sales pitch.
Promotion Matters - one thing that lot of article writers do is write articles and forget about them. Do not fall into this trap. Make a spreadsheet or word processing document of your article titles and promote them through your favorite social media sites like Twitter or Facebook. Do not overlook bookmarking on popular sites like Digg, Redditt and StumbleUpon. Remember to always use relevant keywords when you are promoting.
Summary
These are the basic things that you need to know about creating articles that attract new customers. Consider article marketing as a portion of your online marketing efforts and you will soon wonder why you did not think of it sooner.
