Is Your Article Marketing Campaign Losing Momentum?
Posted by Robert St. Louis on Wed, May 18, 2011
You've been involved in an article marketing campaign for awhile now.
You and your company have continued to write articles for the industry, and one of two things has happened: either those in your industry have come to respect your knowledge and authority on the subject and are already your clients or they have reached the conclusion that they are not interested in your services.
Either way, you're running out of steam and need to shake things up a bit.
The reason that your company began an article marketing campaign was to establish credibility. You needed to show that even though you were new to the industry you possessed the knowledge and the tools to do the job effectively and could provide a quality product to your clients.
Now that you have established that reputation within your industry, the question becomes: what do you do next?
Perhaps you've been publishing your articles on a particular circle of professional blogs. Those blog readers have already read your work and gained a familiarity with your company. Maybe you chose to send your campaign to a professional journal or industry publication. Those readers have seen your articles in their monthly magazines.
It's time find a new audience.
If your company produces leather briefcases, for example, you may have been sending your article marketing campaign to circles that would include the stores you hope would stock your briefcases. Your campaign has targeted commercial outlets like Office Depot to appeal to why they would want to stock your product. After some time of reading the articles, these outlets have already decided whether or not they wish to carry your product.
After a while, you will gain very little by continuing to write for these circles. It's time to find a new "circle of friends" for your product!
Did you know that one of the most common gifts to graduating law students is a briefcase? Maybe it's time to begin targeting that article marketing campaign to campuses such as Georgetown and Harvard. Have the law students read reviews on your product. When people ask them what they want for graduation, or when they are ready to purchase their own briefcase, they will have read about the benefits of owning one of your products.
Sending your article marketing campaign to these venues would not only provide an initial bump to your visibility, but add a long-term element to it as law students will cycle in and out every few years. This would leave you with a brand new audience every few years that has not been exposed to your audience.
Perhaps your company has only written articles for hard copy publications. The advent of the Internet is leaving many magazines and periodicals on the shelves as the public turns to internet consumption for information via "e-zines" and "blogs".
Adding an online element to your article marketing campaign could be rewarding as well. That would afford your company a greater amount of exposure in a lesser amount of time.
There is a window of opportunity for marketing campaigns. After a person sees something repetitively they begin to tune it out and stop paying attention. If you drive by the same sign every day for a month, will your eyes still read the sign, or will they just know what it says by now and ignore it?
Marketing works in much the same fashion. After awhile you will need to either change the content matter or change the audience.
Because most businesses are not redefining their products and services on a frequent basis, it's far easier to find ways to introduce fresh eyes to an article marketing campaign. The key is to change something without changing who you are as a company.