3 Tips on Marketing Your Small Business With Articles

Article marketing the most effective way to define yourself as an expert in your field and market your business. Understanding the basics of marketing with articles will help tremendously with your marketing campaign. A complete article marketing campaign includes more than sharing of information.

Quality content with a catchy title is only the beginning. You must know how to create a great author biography, often called an author resource box. Article submission and distribution will ensure a wide reach and deep, targeted placement in article directories. Getting your content circulating is important; getting it read by your target audience is even better.

Quality Content

Due to the power of the Internet, consumers never blindly purchase products or services. Your goal is to promote your business in a positive light and provide information to potential customers. Make your readers want to come back for more.

The article title should be a short, informative snippet that grabs your readers' attention. Keep your title around 65 letters. The purpose is to draw readers to the article out of curiosity or some other emotional response.

The article body needs to be short, simple and easy to scan. Don't make people hang on every word to get the full benefit of what they read. Article content needs to be at least 400 words but no more than 900 words. Very short articles are perceived as not nearly informative enough. On the other hand, very long articles require more time to read; time your reader could be spending making a purchase.

Content needs to be informative and concise. Don't fill your articles with a lot of fluff. Write each article like it is the one that will produce your next sale. Use perfect grammar and spelling to help cement your position as an expert in your field.

Catchy Author Resource Box

The author resource box is the last thing your readers will see. Make it something they will remember. Publisher limits and restrictions usually only allow 300 to 500 characters and some allow you to create links to your website. Use your author resources to provide an easily clickable link to your website's home page or even to a specific product or service.

Continuous Distribution

No proper article marketing strategy is complete without distribution to multiple article directories. Publishing to thousands of directories can be very time consuming but it doesn't have to be. Look for distribution services that submit your articles for you. Such services are not free, but they are worth the minimal cost.

Free article distribution is a great start if you're working with a startup and limited funds. The objective is to simply get your articles published and circulating. Make use of social networks, forums and blogs to help push your marketing campaign.

Not a Writer? That's OK!

In many cases, entrepreneurs are not necessarily the best writers for their own articles. It's perfectly OK to hire someone to write your articles for you. Provide the writer with potential topics and information you'd like included in the article. If you have a unique way of providing products or services via your business, make the writer aware of it. Each professionally written article should reflect who you are and how you do business.

Some entrepreneurs feel that the integrity of their business will be threatened if they hire a writer for articles. They worry that their expertise will not be taken seriously if they don’t write the content themselves. The best way to avoid letting the world know you didn't write it yourself is to hire a ghostwriter for articles.

Writing services are just that; writing services. They rely on the articles they provide as examples of their work. Ghostwriters pride themselves in providing quality content while ensuring their clients' anonymity.

Choose your writing service carefully. Ask for examples that prove the writer is worth your money. Writers may produce any type of article to prove their skill. A ghostwriter will provide an example that does not belong to one of their clients. For best results, look for a ghostwriter you can trust to help build a complete article marketing campaign.