Article Marketing is a proven way of online marketing. When it is properly executed, it creates a permanent means of channeling visitors to your landing page thereby increasing your conversions(sales). Article Marketing cannot be properly executed without an Article Marketing Strategy. This article highlights the steps needed in executing a proper Article Marketing strategy.
This is the concluding part of how to build an article marketing strategy. This is a continuation. It covers step4-step…..For those that want to get step1 –step3, kindly go to how to build an article marketing strategy I. This title; social media marketing tip: benefits of article marketing sums up article marketing and can help those who are not familiar with the term to understand it. I will advise that the initial steps be read (click of the former link) and those who are strangers to article marketing should click on the later.
Step 4: Content Creation
The first thing we want to look at is type of content. In the first of this piece, we spoke of article marketing being a form of indirect marketing where what the writer wants to sell is not directly canvassed for as such. We are going to see in greater details how this indirect marketing works with article marketing.
Type and Nature of Content
The type of content is not tied to the product or service you provide but to the industry or niche your product or service originated from. You are not talking about X hair cream but writing about how to take care of your hair, important mistakes to avoid when visiting the hair salon, cheap ways to keep a healthy hair. You will not be mentioning X hair cream in all of this.
From what we have just said, you can see that you will be aiming to add value to the readers through the information you are sharing for free. The better the information, the greater the value you are adding. Remember you have not mentioned X hair cream and will not be mentioning it if you want to use article marketing to sell X hair cream.
Write as much content that adds value to the readers. Stockpile them for the next stage. The more content you have covering different tips and areas of hair care, the better. You need enough content to create critical mass or tipping point but this is the beginning.
Step 5: Content Publishing
Start publishing the content on the platforms you signed up with.
Question
Do I have to publish the same article on multiple platforms?
Answer
No
Question
Why?
Answer
Several reasons:
- The platform may frown at the idea. Some have specific rules mentioning that your content must be original to them.
- You might just want to put your eggs in several baskets and see what happens (more on this later).
- Spreading your content while maintaining uniqueness could give you wider exposure since visitors may have peculiarities that make them choose to go to one platform over the other.
About the second answer (and the third), there could be a somewhat valid argument that concentrating on one platform and publishing through that alone could have more impact. It is “somewhat” valid, meaning it comes with a couple of issues.
- You will have to decide on that one particular platform will deliver on all your expectation including reaching out to your target audience.
- You may not have the tools to make that decision. Of course, every platform will tell you how even Martians post comments on articles published there but you just do not have all the tools to make that decision.
- There are people who for one reason or the other, go to just one platform. The reason could be regional or national affinity (Canadians love Blackberry), it could be cult followership (Steve Jobs is still an Icon) and then it could be for the more boring reasons like user friendliness, subjective love of interface etc. The point is this number could go into their hundreds of thousands if not millions. Spreading your articles could bring in more from different sources. Besides, you could be based in Borough of Chelsea with your X hair cream right beside you and your articles is being exposed only to people in Guangzhou (mostly).
- SEO. Some platforms are better optimized than others. Posting there will give you the chance of using their better optimization to gain more exposure.
However, the vein of validity in that argument can be countered by making sure your articles have enough depth on each platform. Reason 4 makes me lean on the side of spreading your articles. It will be nice to see you fighting with you on page one of Google Search Results.
Step 6: Drawing Traffic To Content Through Social Media Handles
It is time to start on your final lap. This is where you use the social media tools embedded on the platforms to promote your articles. This is not as tedious as it sounds and it is part of the final step of your article marketing strategy. By now you should know how to use such social media platforms. The only thing I want to say is to follow what the experts say and do no hard selling. This is me being frank; I would say dump this altogether or do not push it too hard. Rather, you should concentrate on step 7. What most fail to realize with social media accounts is that you may have a following or group or cloud based on every other reason but your writing, products or business.
Although I do not really count in this but if you ask me, I will say set up a business account and build a following, group, cloud (whatever they choose to call it) based on what you want to do. This way, it would be proper and they will be prepared to hear the “authority figure”. This is an advise that is practical and given with foresight, you do not want to change the commercial/social demographics of your account by creating an imbalance of sorts. Let personal be personal and business be business.
Step 7: Engagement
This is the real engagement where you do not have to worry about stepping out of line or pushing too hard. In fact the people in this circle want you to do just that.
These are the people that come to that platform where you did the publishing, read your articles and engage you on that platform. They are the ones that are most likely to follow the click through to your website. They are the ones that will most likely see your X hair cream and click on the buy tab. They are the reason why you should create separate social media accounts because all they want to talk about is their hair.
This is how you can develop an online article marketing strategy and sell you product, service, self and or website.
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