Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

Why article marketing takes the prize

By

There are so many ways to get attention and attract new clients for your service-based business.  So how do you know which is the right one for you? As you’ve guessed from the title of this article, I’m already quite biased about the answer.

Ads, cold calling and speaking, oh my!

Radio and television ads are usually too expensive for small service-based businesses to even consider.

Google pay-per-click ads or other forms of Internet advertising can be highly targeted, but can also get expensive and complicated to manage. As well, they do nothing to develop a personalized relationship with a prospective client.

Cold calling offers a chance to connect, but can be quite intimidating and puts the service-based business owner in the position of having to sell their service. Most of us need a lot of help with our telephone sales skills.

Networking is also wonderful for building relationships, but works best if you give before you receive. Service-based business owners who don’t want to give away their services (nor should they), often get stuck in the follow-up phase, because they don’t have anything valuable to pass along to their new contacts.

Speaking, if you like it and learn to do it well, is an excellent strategy for gaining visibility and credibility, but until you build up the platform to earn large speaker fees, also requires follow-up to stay in touch with people and inform them about your other products and services.

The fortune is in the follow-up

And that’s where article marketing comes in. Whether you’re cold-calling, networking or speaking, if you have valuable content that solves a problem for your target market, you can now follow up with confidence. Instead of selling, you’re giving. Instead of creating pressure or urgency, you’re building a trusting relationship. 

And if you’re not out there making the calls, meeting people, or speaking, article marketing can pick up the slack and find the prospects for you! That’s because unlike advertisements or cold calls, people are on the Internet every day actively seeking exactly what you’re giving – information.

Other benefits and applications of article marketing

Service-based business owners with a storefront business can apply exactly the same strategies, and augment by publishing a column in a community newspaper right in their neighborhood. Or enhance your article a bit for submission to a trade journal, newsletter or magazine that’s targeted to your specific audience.

Writing original content based on the very same solutions you have created to solve the problems of your target market can also help you to systemize how you deliver your services. More importantly, it gives people access to your solutions who cannot or will not ever hire you personally.

There are plenty of helpful ways to market your business, and you will be naturally more skilled at some than others. As you find the mix that works for you, please include some article marketing!

If you feel like you’re lacking the discipline, skill or structure that you need to apply the power of article marketing to grow your business, contact me to today about how I can help!

Starting from scratch? A beginning strategy for article marketing magic

By

If you’re just getting started with marketing your business online, I believe that the most effective strategy is a combination of blogging, email, and article marketing. In a nutshell:

  • Blogging will get your content published quickly so that it is immediately available to people (prospective clients) who are online and searching for information about your areas of expertise and the topics you care about. 
  • Weekly (at best) or monthly (at least) emails to your contact list will help you follow up with people who have visited your site and are already interested in you.
  • Article marketing will draw more traffic to your website and/or blog, where people can join your mailing list, learn more about you and continue to stay in touch.

Here is how to put it all together:

1. Get a Typepad account – I have a Pro account for $14.95 per month, but you can choose the one that best suits your needs. Consider whether you’ll want to use your own domain name (you’ll need at least the Plus account, $8.95) or customize the design (you’ll need at least the Pro account).

2. Get an AWeber account (starts at $19 per month) and set up the blog broadcast feature to send out new posts from your blog as soon as you publish them.

3. Create an editorial schedule of one topic per month. Piggyback onto the holiday times that people are sure to be discussing or looking for help with. You can also be strategic here and plot out possible chapters for a book.

4. Set up four separate idea catchers (e.g., draft posts in your blogging program, or four pages in a notebook) to collect your thoughts about these four types of blog posts:

  • A full-length article exploring the whats and whys of the topic (e.g., what is the problem/solution/strategy/issue, what is the impact, why is it important)
  • A tips list exploring the hows of the topic (e.g., how to apply the solution, how to practice the new strategy, how to explore the problem further with coaching questions)
  • A list of related resources (online and offline)
  • Case studies, stories or examples from your own life

5. Every week, flesh out one of those blog posts and publish it on your blog. As soon as you do, AWeber will send them out by email to your mailing list.

6. At the end of the month, compile content from some or all of the blog posts into an article and submit it to EzineArticles, searched by 1,000s of visitors every month, including newsletter publishers, consumers and the media – at the end of each article will be your bio and a link back to your website or blog.

Using this combination of strategy, planning and automation, you’ll be on your way to generating an information empire in no time!

Of course, if any of this is going to result in new clients and customers for you, your website had better be working! Stay tuned for an announcement about a free class that Linda Claire Puig are offering called, “Help! My website’s not working!” In the meantime, check out my website manifesto.

Do you have the patience to make article marketing magic?

By

I’m really saddened when I hear people say that they don’t write articles and publish them online because they tried it and it didn’t work for them.

Did you know that since I opened my own account with Ezine Articles, back when I was promoting my self-care coaching business, my three most popular articles have been viewed a combined total of 72,235 times? Check out the latest report that EzineArticles just sent me.

Did I get all of those page views in the first month? No. In the first year? Nope. It’s been four years since I posted these articles (you can tell by all of the Style Guide violations!!).

So please have a little patience with your article marketing. Be consistent. Submit clearly written and creative articles that speak to your target audience. And while you keep doing the things that make you great at what you do, your articles can be working magic in the background.

Article marketing isn’t the only part of being a small business owner that requires patience. Idea Generator reader Gale Denning Mailloux sent these thoughts last week:

“Patience, oh patience….by staying in the moment to observe and be informed, and knowing it is NOT all about me, but the context…I have been able to generate creative ideas on how to continue to do what I love as a therapist even when economic realities have impacted my practice. I did not leap into the solution-only mode, but with patience, am able to co-create my practice with my clients, and enhance what I do. THAT is how patience has helped my marketing!“

Then I polled my new friends from the Twitter chat group #sbbuzz about patience. Here is a transcript summary of that part of the discussion, courtesy of the #sbbuzz website:

sbbuzz: Q1 from @lindadessau for tonight’s sbbuzz chat: How has having patience paid off when growing your small business? #sbbuzz

  • BeckyMcCray: Patience pays off when it takes a dozen years to be an overnight success. You never know when it will come.
  • rongraham1: On Q1, it… ummm… hasn’t quite paid off yet. But it will. Probably starting middle of next month. LOL
  • bradfordshimp: Q1 – Hmm, sometimes I think I am being too patient (or maybe that is just procrastinating).
  • soclmediacoach: Q1: Slow and steady wins the race. I’ve seen my competition burn out and grow too quickly. We learned from that.
  • toddschnick: @sbbuzz need patience to be disciplined and dedicated to sustained effort
  • pardiman: Q1 I’m the overnight success (taken almost six years to get there) I originally had a five year plan, and then I was moving on
  • Whistletree: We often over-estimate what we can do in 1 yr. and under-estimate what we can do in 5. Keeping perspective is key.
  • rongraham1: @soclmediacoach, sometimes we just have that tendency to grow a lot when we know we can grow a little. I’ve seen that too.
  • adarowski: Q1 We’re kind of in a crowded market, so patience was needed to allow the world to see why we’re different and awesome.
  • mattharrell: Q1: It’s taken a long time to land some customers…but when they came on our product was much better…and ready for them.
  • mattgillooly: @sbbuzz – Q1 – Waiting until 5 or 6 to crack a beer… Some days that takes a lot of patience!
  • pardiman: Q1 Now I introduce myself and people say I’ve heard of you. Build the brand one brick at a time. :)
  • JoGolden: Q1 Perseverence is just as vital as patience and perspective–all 3= a triple threat to the competition
  • rongraham1: On Q1, those first few customers are really precious, because we want ‘em to become our champions. :-)
  • pmohara: Q1 – I liked @mikemcderment’s answer that the cover of Entrepreneur mag came from “stringing together 1000 tiny victories”
  • RPamela: Q1 Patience=Results. Only a few are truly overnight successes. Relationships, trust and loyalty take time.
  • chelpixie: Q1 Patience I think came from hard work. I was too busy to notice I was being patient too. ;)
  • Timberry: Q1: in my case, owning the business outright, without investors, would have been impossible without patience.
  • merylkevans: Q1 When I left corporate America for full-time freelancing, I had a full load. I worked both jobs for 5 years before switching.
  • mattgillooly: @sbbuzz – Q1 – on the flip side, I’ve been really glad on a few occasions that I stopped having patience for a bad idea.
  • bradfordshimp: I would add the caveat – patience on the right things – you can be patient but be doing the wrong things and hoping they will work.
  • Whistletree: Sometimes patience can also turn into overthinking. There is a time to push a little, too.
  • rzazueta: Q1: Patience = sanity. Sadly, the world is not on your schedule. You need to actively push, but you need to demonstrate patience.
  • Timberry: Q1: Great concept from @trunkclubjlv: for startups, don’t wait until all the lights are green. Patience isn’t everything.
  • wvpmc: Hi everyone – sorry I’m late tonight – Q1 patience essential to weather economic cycles

Structure: The last (or first) piece of the article marketing puzzle

By

Have you ever noticed how boundaries and structures that seem limiting at first actually give us more freedom?

We think we don’t want to be fenced in, we think we don’t want to be controlled, but then we realize that boundaries give us freedom FROM and freedom TO.

For example:

  • Limiting the number of cups of coffee you drink frees you FROM the harmful effects of too much caffeine
  • Letting calls to your business line go straight to voicemail on evenings and weekends frees you TO cultivate your personal relationships and practice self-care

When it comes to article writing and article marketing, I know you probably have no shortage of ideas for how to help the members of your target market solve their most pressing problems.

Are you blocked by your thoughts? Start with structure.

But sometimes your ideas get blocked behind your thoughts (like “I’m not a writer,” or “No one will want to read what I have to say,” or “Who do I think I am, some kind of expert?”). You feel disheartened, discouraged and defeated, and you end up with no words and no article.

Writing structures like editorial schedules, generators and templates free you FROM hurtful self-talk, and FROM clutter and overwhelm. Writing structures free you TO write consistently and strategically, and TO let your creativity flow.

When you’re blocked, I suggest you START WITH STRUCTURE:

  • Begin with a simple affirmation that will shut down your inner critic and unleash your creativity, e.g., I have a message that someone needs to hear and that person is only tuned in to hear it from my unique voice.
  • Create an editorial schedule with potential ideas for future articles or blog posts. It’s much easier to start with an outline (or even a title) than a blank page.
  • Use a generator like the Top 10 Article Generator. People use formulas for a reason – they work! Or create a template based on an article that got a lot of attention from your audience.

Are you bogged down by your ideas? Finish with structure.

Other times, your ideas flow out so quickly that you feel overwhelmed, scattered and confused. You end up with words everywhere but still no article.

In this earlier blog post, Writing structures – friend or foe? I told you to walk away from structure when you’re bubbling over with ideas, suggesting instead that you capture your ideas as they flow instead of trying to box them into any kind of format.

I’m not contradicting that advice here, but I’m broadening my definition of structures to include idea catchers like journals, mind maps, voice recorders or a session with a ghostwriter.

When you’re buzzing with ideas, I suggest you FINISH WITH STRUCTURE:

  • Begin by giving yourself the time and space to let all of your ideas out with the help of an idea catcher.
  • Use a readability checklist to hone in on the one main point you are trying to make.
  • Refer to your editorial schedule or content strategy to make sure you’re being consistent with the message and brand you are delivering.

So I invite you to free yourself with the boundary of a writing structure. You will be giving a gift to everyone who is waiting to hear your unique message.

If you feel like you’re lacking the discipline, skill or structure that you need to apply the power of article marketing to grow your business, contact me today to find out how I can help!