Your product is fantastic your
service excellent and your customers will make huge savings - but no
one is buying.
It is a
challenge familiar to many a business owner. One sure-fire way to get
your business noticed online at minimal cost is to sit down and write
about it - or commission someone else to write about it for you.
Promotional or advertorial articles have traditionally worked well to
publicize businesses offline in magazines, newspapers and circulars.
Now, the Internet offers a myriad of web-based opportunities in the
form of specialist news sites, portals, on-line newspapers, ezines and
newsletters - all of which require a source of fresh & interesting
content. But where should you begin?
What do your
customers read?
You should first consider the types
of material your potential customers will read and where they will view
or download that material from. Perhaps they subscribe to specific
online trade circulars or newsletters published by a site or magazine
they subscribe to. Look to cover all the options and where possible
obtain subscription data so you can determine if the target audience of
a publication matches with the audience for your product or service.
You will have little success if you target the wrong audience who have
little interest in what you are selling.
Making the
content work for you
Developing the content for your
article is obviously critical to your success with this marketing
method. It is also important to realise that whilst some editors will
accept promotional material, others will not. You will therefore need
to think carefully about how your article is constructed. One way to
approach this is to have a few different versions of the piece to hand
~ from one that overtly promotes your product or service to one that
does so more subtly. You can then choose which version to submit to the
editor based on their preferences.
An effective
publicity angle for those that do accept some form of promotional
advertising in an article is to present your product or service as a
solution to a problem. To increase your chances of publication, look to
base it on topical events. For instance, if you are selling anti-spam
software you can base it around a piece that discusses the implications
of the latest laws against spam. If you do not have the time to pen
such advertising, then an alternative is to have someone interview you
about a topic, and ask them to put the material together for you.
Advertising your business through promotional online
articles works
wonders for businesses all around the world. Make sure you don't miss
out on this global promotional opportunity.
About the Author
Scott
F. Geld is the Director of Marketing for MarketingBlaster.com, a
company providing targeted traffic and direct links starting at only $5.
For more info:
http://www.MarketingBlaster.com
