Article Marketing Success

5 Ways To Jump Start Your Article Marketing Campaign

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Just ask my husband, whenever something needs a jump-start, it’s because the darn thing is dead.                      

Thankfully, he’s not always right.  Your article marketing campaign is not dead, but is it just where you’ve left it – ready and primed to leap off the pages of the Internet and pump some high-octane visitation into your commercial website.

Not off and running yet?   Article marketing success is all about perseverance, know-how, and a little priming.   These five steps will get you into high gear:

#1  READ OTHER’S BLOGS.   Seriously.  Reading other blogs gives you a better idea of how yours should sound and how article marketing works.

• Understand the new ratios.  It’s mind-bogglingly cheaper to engage in article marketing now than it ever has been to engage in classic print or TV marketing.  Your return on investment expectations will be redefined.  Low upfront costs for an Internet-based article marketing campaign mean greater chances for huge ROI when things get rolling.  There’s also less to lose if the campaign stagnates. Be brave.

• Call yourself to action:  You cannot afford to do nothing at all! Your competitors are starting article marketing campaigns and your customers will notice them.  Think of those little doubloons thrown out at Mardi Gras parades.  Way back, real doubloons were solid gold and would have cost as much to throw out by the handfuls as running a Super Bowl ad.  But now that marketing articles are quite economical, they should be treated like modern-day doubloons . . .  throw lots more than you think will land in the right person’s hands.  Remember, you can easily hire outside writers to furnish enough quality content for your campaign.  
•  Prioritize Marketing Directories – Research and be ready!

#2  FIND GREAT TOPICS AND GREAT TITLES.   Coming up with new ideas feel impossible?  Seems the more we need creativity, the less easily it comes to mind.  My best inspiration tricks:

• Read magazines - (If they’re related to your business, they probably qualify for a tax deductible expense).
• Read your competitors’ websites  - The point here is you’re not looking for the bigger picture.  You need to quiet your mind enough to see a little picture, something that’s little and new and thought provoking.  Nothing starts an article better than an inner dialogue.  And nothing sparks an inner dialogue like critiquing your competition!  
• Make titles your gatekeepers - They bring readers into the article.  Or, they send readers away.  Psychological studies show that successful titles in any article marketing campaign are a variation of one of these two formulas:
  • Solving a problem for the viewer, or                 
    Sharing the answer to a secret. 
• Coming up with dynamic titles is an art in itself.  If yours aren’t getting results you want, consider hiring qualified, word-artist help.

#3  LOSE THE WRITER’S BLOCK – GET MOTIVATED – GET STARTED.  The biggest block in a beginning article marketing campaign, by far, is lack of motivation.  And guess what the number one suggestion for motivation is?  Reminding yourself of your motivation in the first place.  Not to go round and round here, but what the experts are saying is that if you keep a good reminder on hand of why you’ll benefit from the campaign in the first place, e.g. more press, more presence, more customers, then you’ll be able to use that motivation to, well, motivate yourself.   Some good tools for self-motivation can be found reading author Jim Estill’s article about writing fast and efficiently. 

#4  IMPROVE THE WRITING.  Engage the audience.  Write words that interest your readers.  The internet knows no loyalty - anyone can opt out before finishing your article.  It’s a new medium with new content needed and no room for boring!  Blogger Jonathan Morrow offers some entertaining advice about interesting writing.

• Sharpen Your Grammar.  In an article marketing campaign, you cannot afford to break grammar rules.  No shortcuts here. Your computer checker won’t catch your biggest offenses, but your readers will – and snicker… (Use your spell check too.)
• Speed it up!  Internet readers like going fast.  Avoid over-educating them.  They found you by going on-line for a quick answer to their problem anyway, so don’t write as though they’ll hang out with you, reading about more than they asked for.

#5  RAMP UP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE– Get Noticed! After Facebook (you are there, right?), blogging is the top way to spread your brand.  SOCIAL media really means SEE ME media. Use it and your article marketing campaign will define your business.