Advantages of Article Marketing

Posted by Justin Harrison on February 2, 2010

In the time before the Internet, marketing using articles was an effective method for promoting products and services. The need for well written articles and newsletters has exploded with the new online options that include newsletters, ezines, and web sites. Due to this marketing with articles has grown in popularity.

Article marketing involves a writer providing well-crafted content for distribution to various e-publishers and websites and, in return, receiving a brief blurb about his or her business and contact information. A link to the business owner’s website is generally included in these so-called “bios.”

For a business owner, offering content for publication basically provides them with free ad space on thousands of websites all over the world. There is a compelling opportunity for exposure to the right customers in the right market, while the expense is next to nothing, which makes the practice a powerful and quite elegant method for a business’s communication.

E-mail campaigns used to generate leads commonly one result in a response rate of 1% whereas marketing via articles is targeting an audience eager to read. The article readers have either signed up on the web site or decided to receive the newsletter. This audience wants to receive this information and is more apt to visit the author’s site to find out more information.

When a publisher decides to use an article they commonly have a market of possible purchasers. When readers take interest in an article they may also be interested in purchasing the services and products that relate to that article. The cost to acquire a list of these targeted leads would be unspeakable. Creating an article only requires putting in the time necessary to create it.

A higher conversion rate can be achieved by business owners by incorporating a link to some specific information in the writer’s bio. Writers should provide a link to an article further explaining the subject on their own website instead of a link to just the homepage. This will encourage readers to look for supplementary information on the subject.

Increasing conversion rates is possible by providing an e-mail address that people can use to subscribe to the author’s web site and/or newsletter. Making this option as simple as possible will increase the chances of the person subscribing. An auto-responder can be set up that provides the reader with links to specific items on the author’s web site.

The first thing some company’s think about it, how can I draw more customers to my site. And then they try and figure out how to succeed. When this happens it will not happen over night. It may take some time for the site to get a lot of hits, but when it does, the company will have more business that they probably will know what to do with.

Justin Harrison is a leading Internet Marketing consultant responsible for the Internet Marketing strategies behind some of the biggest online brands including Amazon, BBC, MasterCard and many others.