Customized e-marketing for small businesses : Article marketing

If you had the chance to consult Tiger Woods before buying your next set of clubs, would you follow his advices?

And if you could meet Donald Trump in a seminar, and exchange a few business-building tips, would you listen to his recommendations?

As consumers, our shopping habits are influenced by the opinions emanating from our entourage, principally from the people we portray as experts on the subject.

Even if the Internet represents our most trusted source of information, we realized any corporations can say anything they want about themselves on their homepage.

As a small business owner, dispelling the doubts prevalent in your audience is a tough challenge, and one your organization must surmount to remain competitive.

Raise your voice

Showing your expertise doesn’t have to be an expensive process.

Today’s low-cost eMarketing technique has recently been the talk of the webmaster community. This tactic gives you the ability to raise your voice in your market, and drive quality traffic back to your website.

This strategy is called Article marketing. It consist of writing small essays of 450-700 words on a topic relevant to your industry, then submitting the article to an unbiased directory.

An article properly optimized draw attention from the search engines, who in turn will present this content to users searching for this topic. With your name and URL included with the article, your prospect will recognize your work as a proof of your Industry expertise, and won’t hesitate to visit your web site.

Your prospect finds the expert opinion he is looking for, and you get a qualified lead. Everybody wins.

Writing the article

I can already hear “But I don’t know how to write!”

Chase off your worries. First, anybody can write. Two, the learning curve is shorter than you think.

As long as you know your niche market thoroughly, you will be able to write an article interesting for its readers.

And to help you start off on the right foot, here are a few pointers:

1) Define your purpose: Pick a subject in your industry on which you feel confident. You can also drop in chat room and forums to see what your audience is talking about theses days

2) Select your title: The words in your title will decide how much traffic your article receives. Ideally, employ the same keywords optimized in your webpage.

3) Write the content: Start writing as soon as you find your subject. Follow the AIDA principle:

– Attention. Write a catchy intro to capture your reader’s attention.

– Interest: The article must match the interests of your reader

– Desires: Which benefits will you article deliver to your audience?

-Action: The article should invite your readers to visit your site. Close your article with the resource box (more on this below)

4) Easy to read: Write short paragraphs, and separated with bullets to ease the readability. You article should contain 400 to 700 words.

5) Close the sale: Your article must contain your credentials and the following:

– Your name and website address

– Your “elevator” sales pitch

– Your call to action: Ask your reader to visit or buy from your website with a specific, one or two sentence.

6) Submit your article: Your article is written and you like the result. Now you need to submit your creation to a relevant directory. We suggest EzineArticles.com, and articlecity.com.

There. That wasn’t so painful, wasn’t it?

Closing thoughts

Of course, you will need to produce several drafts before being happy with the result. But practice makes it perfect, and regularly publishing articles is an inexpensive way to build quality traffic for your website.

Too much traffic. Now would that be a problem?