Article Marketing Strategy - How To Turn Readers Into Customers
- ARTICLES |
The best article marketing strategy is not a 'one size fits all' proposition. But, that's how many marketers who are new to the concept of article marketing often see it.
I bet this strategy looks familiar to you:
What I prefer is an article marketing strategy that turns readers of an article into pre-sold, ready-to-buy, "hot" prospects. You still get the SEO benefits of backlinks in your articles, but you also push the right buttons in those who read the article, getting them revved up and ready to buy your product, hire your service, join your list, or whatever other action you want them to take on your site.
I call this way of writing articles the 'sales article' strategy. You want to do many of the same things you'd try to accomplish in a sales letter, only instead of buying at the end, your goal is to get readers to click your link and visit your site.
The approach is based on the AIDA model:
Attention
In article marketing, grabbing your reader's attention means coming up with article titles that are not run-of-the-mill and boring. I try to come up with a unique comparison or a quirky way to think about the topics being covered in that article. This strategy will often help conjure up some really eye-catching titles. The key is to make your article titles stand out so you capture the attention and curiosity of a potential reader.
Interest
Once you've snagged a reader and he starts reading your article, the next stage in this marketing strategy is to engage his interest. Remembering that your goal is to get the reader to click your link at the end of the article and visit your landing page, you don't want to spend much time or space in your article on this part of the process. Just a few sentences about why the topic at hand should be of interest will suffice.
Your goal in this part of the strategy is to avoid losing readers early. Focus on a major benefit that will perk up your readers and keep them glued to your article.
Desire
Playing on a reader's desire is the lynch-pin in this article marketing strategy. This is where many otherwise good article writers go completely wrong. The common mistake here is to give too much away. After all, it feels natural after you write about something your reader will desire to give them the answer or the solution. It closes the loop. But that's deadly to you as an article marketer!
Instead, play upon the reader's desire to get what you're talking about (or find a solution if it's a problem topic). Push some emotional buttons. Get your reader excited about the idea of obtaining something good or eliminating something bad as it relates to whatever it is you're writing about.
But, always stop short of giving the entire answer away in the article! That's the key to utilizing this article marketing strategy effectively. Be a tease.
Action
When you've handled Attention, Interest, and Desire well within your article, Action is easy because it falls neatly into place in this strategy. You will have kept your reader engaged and worked on his emotions to the point where he's chomping at the bit to know what to do next. So, you tell him. End your article with a strong call-to-action (click my link now) and tell the reader the major benefit of taking that action (your desire will be fulfilled at my site).
This really is a pretty simple article marketing strategy to implement. But, if you're not used to writing in this style, it will take some practice. Stick with it. The payoff in terms of more visitors and more conversions is significant. Doing article marketing with this strategy effectively pre-sells your visitors, making them much more open to buying from you, signing up to your list, or following your recommendations.
There's more to it, of course, but that's the basic idea. For a more detailed, step-by-step blueprint for this and other highly effective article writing and marketing strategies, check out Article Impact. I created Article Impact to help anyone who writes articles and other online content to get maximum results with minimal effort. If you do article marketing, you will definitely want to grab a copy today!
I bet this strategy looks familiar to you:
- Write tons of short articles and pump them out as fast as you can
- Put anchor text links back to your "money" pages in all of them
- Blast them out to as many article directories and syndication sites as you can find
- Move your site up in the search engine rankings from all that link love
What I prefer is an article marketing strategy that turns readers of an article into pre-sold, ready-to-buy, "hot" prospects. You still get the SEO benefits of backlinks in your articles, but you also push the right buttons in those who read the article, getting them revved up and ready to buy your product, hire your service, join your list, or whatever other action you want them to take on your site.
I call this way of writing articles the 'sales article' strategy. You want to do many of the same things you'd try to accomplish in a sales letter, only instead of buying at the end, your goal is to get readers to click your link and visit your site.
The approach is based on the AIDA model:
AttentionI want to move my article readers through each AIDA step in the correct order as quickly and effectively as possible. This marketing strategy is easy to overthink, but it's really quite easy to do once you've practiced it a few times. Just keep it simple and don't pad your articles with any fluff or this strategy can easily backfire.
Interest
Desire
Action
Attention
In article marketing, grabbing your reader's attention means coming up with article titles that are not run-of-the-mill and boring. I try to come up with a unique comparison or a quirky way to think about the topics being covered in that article. This strategy will often help conjure up some really eye-catching titles. The key is to make your article titles stand out so you capture the attention and curiosity of a potential reader.
Interest
Once you've snagged a reader and he starts reading your article, the next stage in this marketing strategy is to engage his interest. Remembering that your goal is to get the reader to click your link at the end of the article and visit your landing page, you don't want to spend much time or space in your article on this part of the process. Just a few sentences about why the topic at hand should be of interest will suffice.
Your goal in this part of the strategy is to avoid losing readers early. Focus on a major benefit that will perk up your readers and keep them glued to your article.
Desire
Playing on a reader's desire is the lynch-pin in this article marketing strategy. This is where many otherwise good article writers go completely wrong. The common mistake here is to give too much away. After all, it feels natural after you write about something your reader will desire to give them the answer or the solution. It closes the loop. But that's deadly to you as an article marketer!
Instead, play upon the reader's desire to get what you're talking about (or find a solution if it's a problem topic). Push some emotional buttons. Get your reader excited about the idea of obtaining something good or eliminating something bad as it relates to whatever it is you're writing about.
But, always stop short of giving the entire answer away in the article! That's the key to utilizing this article marketing strategy effectively. Be a tease.
Action
When you've handled Attention, Interest, and Desire well within your article, Action is easy because it falls neatly into place in this strategy. You will have kept your reader engaged and worked on his emotions to the point where he's chomping at the bit to know what to do next. So, you tell him. End your article with a strong call-to-action (click my link now) and tell the reader the major benefit of taking that action (your desire will be fulfilled at my site).
This really is a pretty simple article marketing strategy to implement. But, if you're not used to writing in this style, it will take some practice. Stick with it. The payoff in terms of more visitors and more conversions is significant. Doing article marketing with this strategy effectively pre-sells your visitors, making them much more open to buying from you, signing up to your list, or following your recommendations.
There's more to it, of course, but that's the basic idea. For a more detailed, step-by-step blueprint for this and other highly effective article writing and marketing strategies, check out Article Impact. I created Article Impact to help anyone who writes articles and other online content to get maximum results with minimal effort. If you do article marketing, you will definitely want to grab a copy today!