Six Easy Steps to Marketing Your Business With Articles

If you doubt that writing articles is worth your time and effort, consider these obvious benefits:

   Writing informative articles helps crystallize your ideas and express them in more powerful ways – which in turn makes you more attractive to your clients.
   Sharing your expertise through articles helps you gain greater visibility, positions you as an expert and establishes your credibility.
   Sending your articles to clients and prospects is a great way to keep in touch and educate them about your products and services – without being perceived as a pushy salesperson.
   Publishing articles gives you a chance of catching interest of even the most lukewarm prospects that otherwise would have never given your business a minute of their time.
   Placing articles on web sites frequented by your potential clients attracts targeted, “pre-qualified” visitors to your web site.
   Regularly adding new articles to your web site gives you fresh content and entices people to visit your site more often.

Still, relatively few professionals take advantage of this powerful marketing strategy. Many don’t think the task is worthy of their time. Many others can’t seem to zero-in on the “right topic”, worry about not having enough expertise on the subject, think that no one will value their opinion and feel stuck trying to search for the “right words”. Frustrated with the entire process, they frequently give up before they even get started!

Here is the good news – you don’t have to be another Shakespeare to write articles people will love to read. As a matter of fact, if your solutions help your clients solve their problem – you are expert enough to share your opinions and how-to tips.

Here is a simple to follow, six step process to getting started with writing and publishing articles.

STEP ONE – SELECT A TOPIC

This seems so easy, yet many people convince themselves they don’t know what to write about. If you are in this group try these ideas to jumpstart your creativity:

   ask your clients what they most want to learn about your area of expertise,
   make a list of the top ten solutions to the biggest problem your clients are dealing with,
   make a list of the top ten resources on a specific topic,
   make a list of the most common mistakes your customers make and how to fix them,
   review a book,
   interview an expert,
   have someone interview you,
   answer a customer’s question (This is one of my favorites; I often find myself taking 20-30 minutes writing an email response to a question from a client. Later, after editing out the specifics pertaining to that client, I end up with a great how-to article)
   share a case study,
   answer a most frequently asked question (if you have several clients asking you the same question – chances are more people would like to find information on that topic)
   share the “top five sure-fire strategies to fail” – this could bring a little humor even to the most serious topic!
   comment on current news events and how it affects your customers,
   comment on emerging trends you spotted,
   evaluate a hot resource you just found,

There are dozens of ways to get ideas for article topics but these should get your creative juices flowing.

STEP TWO – TITLE YOUR ARTICLE

Personally, I like to title my article before I even write it. You may want to do it in reverse. Either way, the title is an important part. It must entice people to read what follows; it’s like a mini commercial. Make it fun, exciting, controversial and make sure to communicate the benefits of reading it.

If you feel stuck and can’t come up with any good ideas for titles I suggest you hop over to a local Kinko’s store. Why? Because they usually have a display with popular how-to books and audio CDs – and they have great titles. Don’t have any Kinko’s around where you live? Then go to amazon.com and take a look at their bestsellers list. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of inspiration there.

But in case that’s not enough here are a few “title templates” you can tweak to fit your needs. (Just replace the words in brackets with your own.)

   (Provide a Number) Fun and Easy Ways to (Generate Pre-qualified Web Visitors) by (Writing Articles)
   How To (Negotiate Like a Pro) And (Create Win-Win Deals)
   Top (Ten) Tips You Can Use to (Keep Your Dog Healthy)
   (3) Deadly (Marketing) Mistakes and How To Fix Them
   The Lazy Way to (Make Your First Million)
   (7) Steps To Achieving (Financial Success)
   (12) Amazing (Life) Lessons I Learned From         (My Cat)

OK, you get the point, right? Oh, if you wonder what’s with the numbers in all those titles – well, they simply work! Numbers indicate a system. They tell the reader that you've given some thought to the process or solution you are about to share with them.

As a matter of fact as I was writing this article I got an mail from Jay Conrad Levinson – the father of Guerilla Marketing – titled “12 Things That Keep You From (Dominating Your Market)”. There you go – that’s another template for you.

STEP THREE – GATHER INFORMATION

OK, don’t panic. I’m not talking about reading dozens of books here. If you write on topics within your area of expertise most likely you already have enough information in your head to last you for dozens of articles.

But depending on the type of article you write you may need to do a bit of research to add depth to it. Also comparing and contrasting different concepts or opinions can make for a great read.

As you get more savvy with your writing process it’s a good idea to create your own editorial calendar. What’s an editorial calendar? In a nutshell it’s a plan of topics you want to write on and a schedule when you will write each article.

It can be a simple folder where you keep title ideas and resources you can refer to when you need them. Whenever an idea for an article pops into your head – write it down and scribble a few key points you would like to refer to later and stick into your folder. This will help you collect many great ideas and make your writing so much easier.

STEP FOUR – WRITE THE ARTICLE

This is another place where even those with best intentions get stuck. Many of us have such a strong “internal editor” that putting that first word on a piece of paper appears to be “mission impossible.”

While eventually you will find your own way of getting started there are some strategies that seem to make the process easier for everyone.

Begin with listing ideas you want to cover, write down key words and phrases you would like to use. Write as much and as quickly as you can – without stopping to analyze or edit your writing. Don’t worry about any specific order, neatness or spelling – this is just to get the information out of your head. The more you write the better – it’s easier to edit it down then to write more later.

Next, write a paragraph on each idea or key word you listed. Add examples and stories to illustrate your points, list additional resources. Just keep writing – include anything that makes your ideas easier to understand and makes your article more interesting to read and the information more valuable.

Don’t worry about making it all sound good right now – just keep writing everything that comes to mind. Your goal is to get this out of your head as quickly as possible – before you start editing your thoughts and questioning yourself.

Once this is done, you will likely have more content than you need for a good article. Now you can move things around and make sure the whole thing reads wells and makes sense. Spend time creating a strong opening and a good summary or call to action to close your article.

There are a couple more things to consider: tone and format. Both will depend on your target market and where you intend to publish the article.

Casual, conversational tone makes articles easy to read. Unless you are writing on highly technical subjects and your readers are engineers or doctors – use simple language that any sixth-grader could easily read and understand.

Informative, how-to articles are always popular. They have an easy to follow format:

   BRIEF OPENING. Start with a story, statement or a startling statistic to get readers interested in reading further.
   PROBLEM STATEMENT. Describe the problem readers are dealing with; explain what causes it and why some of the popular solutions fail to solve it,
   HELPFUL TIPS. Outline your solution/approach/process/opinion and give a few examples,
   RESOURCES. If possible tell readers how they can find additional resources,
   CALL TO ACTION. Conclude with a brief summary and encourage them to take their next step right away!

As a matter of fact, if you take a look at this article - it follows this exact model.

STEP FIVE – EDITING

I know you’ve done a lot of hard work to get to this point. But before you start looking for a place to publish your article there is just one final step – editing. Proof read what you wrote. Do it a few times. Print it out and read it in the printed form.

In addition – have someone else edit it for you. Often we get too attached to the stuff we created and it’s hard to evaluate it objectively or catch basic mistakes. Even if it’s just one of your colleagues or a friend – it’s a good idea to have an extra pair of eyes scanning your article before you send it out.

STEP SIX – GETTING IT PUBLISHED

It won’t matter one bit how great your article is if you are the only person reading it. It’s time to complete what you started and get your article in front of other people.

Submitting your articles for print in hard copy publications may take a while and the process is a lot different than publishing online. (Perhaps I will make this a subject of my next tip.) To begin with it’s much easier and faster to have your article picked up by online publications.

   Find web sites that attract your potential clients and then see if those sites accept article submissions – you’ll find that many do.
   Look for online newsletters whose subscriber base matches your target market and ask if they accept guest articles. Again, you will find that quality articles are always in demand.
   Finally, a quick search on “article submissions” will point you to dozens of web sites that are actively looking for new article submissions.

To make things even easier, here is a short list of the top eight web sites you can submit articles to right away:

http://ezinearticles.com/

http://thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/suggest.asp

http://www.authorconnection.com/

http://www.certificate.net/wwio/

http://www.ideamarketers.com/

http://www.submityourarticle.com/

http://webmasterhelps.com/submitarticle.html

http://www.web-source.net/article-announce.htm

And let’s not forget one of the best ways to get your articles out - publish your own ezine or newsletter. Since you are taking the time to express you expertise in writing you might as well take the extra step and invite people to receive your articles directly from you.

If this entire process still sends the shivers down your spine here are a couple of ultimate shortcuts.

Sometimes when we sit down to write this “big article” it’s impossible to shut up our “internal editor”. But for most people it’s much easier to talk their ideas out. So just let yourself talk out-loud and record your ramblings. Have the recording transcribed and edited – and voila – out pops your new article.

Finally, you can get other people to write articles for you. Just give them the topic and some basic ideas. There are people out there who will research the topic and create your masterpiece for you. And you will be amazed how cheap it is!

Depending on your topic you can have your articles written for you for as little as $10 each. (Yeah, I know – it blew me away, too!) Visit http://www.elance.com and post your project – I know you will be surprised by some of the bids and the good quality of the freelancers eager to help you out!

Well, there you have it – Marketing Your Business with Articles 101! Like with any new skill it will take a little practice to get good at it. But all the recognition, credibility, extra visibility, and getting pre-qualified prospects to call you - believe me - it's definitely worth the hassle.

If you still doubt if you can do this - just remember this - if a guy who barely got his high-school diploma and who 15 years ago couldn’t put together one sentence in English can do it – so can you! Happy writing!

Niche Marketing with
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