Why Article Marketing is good for your business

Why Article Marketing is good for your business

Article marketing is an effective tool for promoting your business online to a broad audience. The aim is not to sell your products or services directly, but rather to give advice, share knowledge and help others with your expertise, for free. The more knowledge you give away, the more your customers - existing, new and potential - see you as an authority, which then in turn enhances your credibility. 

Not everyone wants to be sold to all of the time, which is why article marketing is an effective way of reaching new customers. Many people often want simply to learn more about a given subject and so your readers will genuinely regard your article as being of value if you provide good, useful, relevant content. Indirectly, you're selling them on your knowledge and expertise, which is invaluable. A well-written article may well then convince people searching for information that you have the answers to the questions they are looking for. 

There is also a greater likelihood that readers will follow the links to your website, blog or social media pages from an article with useful, valuable content and so in this way learn more about your business. It makes sense that people prefer to buy goods and services from businesses that they can get to know and trust. 

Articles can be used in many different ways to build your online presence. You can submit your articles to article directories, publish them on your own website, blog, or newsletter, or share them on social media. Well-written, well-researched and attractively presented articles can form an important part of building your online brand, which is what connects your business to the public. As Google itself puts it in its Australian blog: “Connected businesses are growing businesses”. 

For small and medium enterprises, article marketing is at its most effective when it focuses on niche areas of your business. For instance, if you are a retailer, direct your article marketing at a product range that you specialise in, or that you are the sole distributor for. Use article marketing to highlight products that you stock that your competitors may not. Alternatively, if you are a service provider, you can use article marketing to highlight one particular aspect of your business that you think you do better than anyone else, or that might be unique in your market. Article marketing works best when it has a specific focus in mind, rather than general promotion of your business. 

As with any type of online content, if your articles are fresh and original, they will serve you well. But be wary of content spinning software. Are you willing to put the credibility of your business into a software program? Would you trust a computer to write the kind of articles that people want to read? 

Article marketing, when it is done right, can be a sound long-term investment to boost your business profile. However, patience and consistency are the keys to success. Don’t expect article marketing to boost traffic to your site overnight - you need to put in a place a long-term plan for regular articles over an extended period of time to enable your presence really to be felt. Your aim should be to create a range of interesting and engaging content and to create new pieces on a regular basis, to ensure that your profile and presence online is always growing. 

Of course, not everyone has the confidence or ability to write effective and informative articles, nor do busy small business owners always have the time to devote to such tasks. However this doesn’t mean that you need to miss out on the value of article marketing. Media Gain uses the services of Cadogan and Hall, freelance writers based here in Adelaide, who specialise in writing compelling, engaging articles for all types of businesses and industries. Using a locally-based team of freelance writers has many advantages: the writing is of the highest quality; you can have as much or as little input into the process as you want or have the time for; and nothing is published or distributed without your approval. 

At Media Gain, we can advise you on all aspects of implementing a cost-effective, highly-visible article marketing campaign. For small and medium size businesses this can be a very positive and straightforward approach to enhancing your online presence.
Written by +Denise Angus