Refresh your Article Marketing Strategy
Posted by Beth Hrusch on Thu, Dec 03, 2009
From time to time, it's important to step back from your article marketing strategy and reevaluate its effectiveness. Do your articles still generate interest in you and what you have to say? Have they become too obvious, redundant or self-promotional?
If so, you might need to refresh your article strategy. Consider two different variants on your usual approach to your own business: 1) my business through the eyes of my clients and 2) my business as part of a larger conversation.
What Are your Clients Talking About?
Take some time to read what your clients and potential clients are writing. Visit 
their blogs and make comments. Then, once you have an idea of what they're saying, you can address issues in their field from your own perspective.
For example if you operate a computer repair service, perhaps your clients are interested in your take on digital identity theft. Even if viruses and data backup, rather than identity theft, constitute the bulk of your business, you can branch out into new audiences and avoid merely parroting your competitors by forging new ground in your marketing strategy.
Creating the Broader Conversation
Maybe you've only been contributing to a broader conversation when you really can be creating one. Your article marketing strategy can also center on bigger, more ambitious thought-leadership initiatives, such as:
- Ebooks
- Quarterly reports
- Annual surveys
- Industry forecasts
Any of these forms can be previewed and promoted in your usual articles. These bolder and more ambitious conversation-starters have the added benefit of helping to structure your article writing schedule and might even lead to press opportunities.
Now, not only are you contributing to a larger conversation, but you can frame the terms of your own discussion. When you make the rules, you open up entirely new horizons for your article marketing strategy.