All Entries Tagged With: "sales"
The Purpose of Article Marketing
On Blog Content Provider earlier today we posted about the purpose of blog marketing. Every now and then we like to revisit this issue because there are still business owners online who think article marketing is about selling and that’ s not really what it’s all about.
Article marketing is about pre-selling.
What I mean by that is this: When you write and distribute articles to article directories online, don’t simply send out a marketing message about your company. People online are looking for useful information. So give it to them. Tell them something interesting that they didn’t know before. Then, at the end, in your author bio box, tell them why they should visit your website and give them the link. Let your website do the selling.
In a word, article marketing’s purpose is to drive traffic to your website. But that’s not the only thing it does either. You can also use article marketing to build inbound links. But those links are not from the article directories.
The big picture is that people in your industry who publish newsletters and website will use your articles if they like them. When they do, they will give you back links to your website and you’ll get visitors from their websites and newsletters. If you look at it from that perspective, article marketing serves a much bigger purpose than what most small business owners imagine.
and driving traffic to your website.
Article Marketing Is Pre-Selling
Article marketing is not sales. It is pre-sales. Successful article marketers understand this and use that knowledge to gain trust and win readers over to customers. I recently found an article online that illustrates this perfectly:
Advanced Article Marketing Strategy Reveals A Short Way To Sell Products Like Crazy
Let me ask you a very important question. Are you experiencing the results that you want from advertising your product. If you are not getting the results that you want you need to seriously consider promoting your website using articles.
As the famous sales trainer Jeoffrey Gitomer once said people only buy from people that they like, know and trust. If you write articles consistently and submit them to the major article directories you will find that people will build a relationship with you by reading your articles. Over time they will come to like and trust you because some people will like your writing style.
Now these people are the perfect candidates and if you treat them right will become your paid customers. This is the process that you need to follow. You have a link to a squeeze page in the bio of your resource box. On this squeeze page the reader can download a free report. This will build an additional layer of trust because if they like this they are very likely to purchase your product.
Once they have been added to your autoresponder this becomes your sales funnel where you will weed out the tire kickers from the serious buyers. I suggest that you have a valuable 7 day email course first before you try and sell to your subscribers. This will substantially improve your responsiveness. After this you need to have a few emails presenting a hard sell for the product that you are promoting.
Let us look at why this technique works so well with getting sales even if you have never gotten any before. Your subscribers will trust you because they know you very well from your articles. You first build up rapport with them and later on present a hard sell once you have established rapport with them
Try this and see how the sales of your product goes through the roof.
Are you really interested in driving massive traffic to your website?
Here’s the answer:
Secrets Of Article Marketing – Download your free ebook now.
Mark Abrahams is a full time internet marketer who has helped others to earn a living online.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_A._Abrahams
This article draws attention to three very important article marketing principles:
- Trust
- Landing Page Optimization
- Giving Something Before You Expect Something
Your first obligation to your article readers is to provide value. This is where you build trust. They will not buy from you until they trust you. Article marketing is a time-tested way to build trust with your potential market. By writing and publishing articles online you ensure that your target market understands what you are promising them before they ever visit your website. Once you’ve hooked them with your knowledge then they will want to visit your website. Until you build that initial trust, you can’t expect to make a sale.
Even when your target market visits your website, don’t try to close the sale right off the bat. You are still building trust. But you can take your relationship another step. Instead of going for the jugular right away, offer something else for free. You’ve already given away a little tidbit of your knowledge for free. Now, give away a little bit more – a little bigger slice of pie. Let your target audience salivate over your generosity. Remember, you are still building trust.
If you expect your target audience to respond by giving you their credit card number then you’ve got to give them a reason to trust you. You’ve got to pre-sell them before you can ever sell them anything. After you’ve built up and earned their trust then you can ask for the sale. Give them something for free before you ask them to give you something. Map out your plan then through article marketing work the plan until you see the dividends.
Should Your Articles Be Used As Sales Tools?
Are articles sales tools? It’s a loaded question. The answer is yes and no.
Yes, your articles are sales tools. No, you should not use your articles to “sell.” Don’t call that a contradictory statement yet. Read on.
Article marketing is about teasing your audience to make them want more. It’s about seducing them to your website where you will close the sale. If you come on too strong in your articles, which are off site marketing tools, then you stand a good chance of never getting a would-be visitor to your website. That’s why you want your articles to be a “soft sell” at most.
That “at most” is a key component. The best articles are information tools more than sales literature. You don’t want a strong sales message in those articles. You want to provide useful information that people can use, but you don’t want to give away the whole farm. Otherwise, tell them too much and they can do it themselves. Why do they need you?
Article marketing is based on the principle that if you give then others will give back. You really want your information articles published as far and wide as possible. By providing useful information that people can use, you build yourself up as an expert in your niche. Then, if people want more information, they will click on the link in your bio, or author resource box, and visit your website. That is where you will close the sale.
Think of it as an infomercial that is more info than commercial. You’ve seen those late night TV commercials that are 30 minutes or 1 hour long? You know they are paid-for commercials because they include order information that flashes on the screen, the actors are selling the benefits and hyping the product – but, they also provide you with information about a particular topic. The health and fitness machine guys talk about how you can improve your health and fitness and why you need to get your heart rate up and how science backs up their claims about their product. What you want to do with your articles is provide that kind of information, but leave out the commercial. You want the information to lead people to the real commercial, which is on your website. And that’s what article marketing is all about.
Articles Vs. Website Content: Information Vs. Sales
Articles are information. Website content is sales. Many webmasters aren’t quite sure about this distinction. I often here new webmasters refer to website content as articles. But articles and website content serve different functions. There is one exception to this, however. If your website is an information publishing website and you rely on AdSense ads and other display advertising as your sole or primary revenue source then you can view your website content as articles. Otherwise, there’s a world of difference.
Most service companies have websites that sell their services. Companies that have products for sell use a website to sell product. You can have articles on your website, sure, but be sure to make a distinction between your articles, which are meant to convey useful information to your target audience, and your website content, which is meant to close sales. Is your website closing sales? Maybe it’s because you need to stop thinking about your content as articles.
Articles vs. Press Releases: What’s The Difference?
Some people come to us asking for an article about their business when what they really want is a press release. There is a big difference between an article and a press release and how we write them depends a lot on your goals, both for your business and for the article or press release.
A press release is generally used to create short-term buzz for a particular event or promote a certain aspect of a business for a specific purpose. Articles are simply information pieces that you use to market your business through distribution to various article marketing directories. Those directories are not your real goal, though. Too many marketers think submitting to article directories is enough. But what you really want to happen is for other publishers to find your article and publish it on their website or in their e-zine.
You might write a press release for your company if any of the following has occurred within your company:
- Your company has won an important industry award
- A key employee has been promoted
- Your business is moving in a radically different direction than before
- A scientific finding has affected your industry in ways that will change how you do business
- New government regulations will change your business
These are not the only reasons why you might want a press release, but these are some are some good ones. You can also write articles about some of these topics. I would not write an article about your company getting an award. That’s better left for the press release.
Another key difference between articles and press releases is that press releases are usually a one shot deal. Something happens and you write a press release. While you can write an article about a particular event that is important to your industry, one article over a period of time is not going to do much good for your business. Article marketing is a strategy. To be effective, you want to write articles on a consistent basis and publish them over a period of time. That will get your name out there so that people interested in your type of service will recognize it when they see it.
There is one thing, though, that article marketing and press release distribution have in common: Neither are sales letters. It may seem funny saying that, but if you’ve seen the number of times that a person writes their own press release or article and wrote it like a sales pitch then you’d know why it needs to be said. While both tools can be used to drive traffic to your website in order to close sales, they are not in and of themselves sales tools. But it doesn’t mean they can’t make you money.
