In this article we look at why Article Marketing can grow your Company’s business by increasing the number of new potential customers and/or sales of your eCommerce.
Content writing or article marketing creates reputation, visibility and interest around a product a service or a brand
You cannot live by word of mouth alone; we have to intercept customers by publishing valuable content on the Web.
There are endless possibilities available to a Company to acquire new customers. Traditional communication and marketing activities such as Television, print media, radio.
Or Web Marketing and Social activities such as: Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, PPC (Pay per click) Campaigns, Inbound Marketing and Influencer Marketing, just to name the main ones.
In both cases, what underlies everything is the right strategy.
To prepare the marketing and communication strategy and win in the market, it is essential to define your market positioning.
This is not trivial in fact, far from it.
If we do not position ourselves correctly in the marketplace, we risk speaking to an incorrect potential audience.
As they say, we are in danger of getting the target audience of our marketing and communication activities wrong.
Article Marketing what is
L’Article Marketing consists of the creation of content written specifically for the web, which aims to create reputation, visibility and interest, around a product or brand.
It is a branch of content marketing that allows companies to promote themselves by publishing editorials on industry websites and blogs.
Online there are several article marketing sites that allow you to publish your content.
While articles are a strategic form of Marketing, they are not written for promotional purposes.
Its main goal is to achieve an increase in brand awareness among the public, so as to broaden opportunities to sell products and/or services.
Publishing guest articles and editorials on other blogs or industry newspapers allows you to obtain inbound links, which are crucial for implementing SEO and domain authority.
This type of article is made to be published on sites, blogs and magazines, other than that of the company featured in the content.
Article Marketing: objectives
The goal of an Article Marketing campaign is to increase the number of articles indexed on search engines, with the aim of increasing visibility, reputation and ranking.
In fact, article marketing is also used by companies, public figures or politicians who have a bad web reputation.
By publishing new articles, it allows them to flood the web, taking the focus off those articles that have resulted in the bad online reputation.
It is important to distinguish article marketing from press release, which, on the other hand, was created to convey a news story, a recent event, or an important event.
Article marketing is one of the forms and expressions of content marketing.
Content marketing is a web marketing strategy that involves the design and creation of content (text, photos, videos, tutorials, info graphics) with the primary goal of building a strong connection with one’s potential audience.
Article Marketing: 3 basic requirements
To make one article effective and interesting, as opposed to another, it is essential to meet some basic requirements such as:
1. Originality of content
The article must be written without copying and pasting portions of articles found around the web. Otherwise, in addition to not being original, we risk being penalized by Google.
2. Value Content
The article must be perceived as valuable by the user. That is, it must address specific issues in depth.
Analyze each element, and if possible give solutions.
For example, if we have an e-commerce that deals with the sale of computers, the articles may cover topics such as assembly, installation of the operating system, how to take action in case of viruses. Let’s not talk about selling!
The more information and tricks we give the user, the more and more we will be perceived as competent.
We should not be afraid to “give away” our know-how.
We are building our Company’s credibility and relationships with our new customers.
Offering value, is one of the fundamental elements of Inbound Marketing, which allows us to build a solid and lasting relationship with customers, or potential customers.
If we do not offer a solution to our stakeholders’ problem, their attention will turn to one of our competitors.
3. Knowledge of the field = expertise
It is impossible to write clearly and competently for every area.
A thorough knowledge of the subject you want to write about is necessary.
Only a knowledgeable person can tell us that particular trick or solution.
The result of sleepless nights figuring out how to solve that specific problem.
So we make a difference for our readers, and they will be grateful.
Why is it necessary to activate an article marketing strategy?
The advantages of using an article marketing strategy are several, including:
- Increase the visibility of your website: Publishing articles on third-party websites exposes your brand to a wider audience and increases traffic to your own website and products.
- Improve SEO ranking: The backlinks (links from other websites to yours) you get through Article Marketing can improve your website’s ranking in search results.
- Create authority: By writing informative, high-quality articles, you position yourself as an expert in your field and increase the trust of potential clients.
- Generate leads: By including a call to action in articles, you can encourage readers to sign up for your newsletter or contact you for more information.
- Promotes Brand Awareness: Article Marketing helps you introduce your brand and products to a wider audience.
- Increase trust in your brand: a company can use article marketing to establish trust with its readers who will be able to convert into consumers;
- It is a type of marketing that is not too expensive: to improve the amplification of a product or service, buying editorial space or guest posts are a valuable aid.
Articles remain indexed and positioned as long as the websites on which they are posted are active.
How to create an effective Article Marketing strategy:
- Define your goals: What do you want to achieve with Article Marketing? Increase the visibility of your website? Generate leads? Improve your SEO ranking?
- Identify your target audience: Who are the people you want to reach with your articles? What are their interests and needs?
- Choose the right websites: On which websites do you want to publish your articles? Make sure they are relevant to your industry and have a target audience that matches yours.
- Write high-quality articles: Your articles should be informative, interesting and well written. Use relevant keywords and make sure links to your website are natural and not forced.
- Promote your articles: Once you have published your articles, promote them on your social media channels and other websites.
How to publish editorial articles
When publishing editorial articles on other industry websites, you will first need to find topics of interest related to your business that may be considered useful by users.
Once you have identified the topics, you can proceed with keyword research, which is a search for keywords useful for ranking the article within Google’s SERP.
In addition to creating guest articles to be published on websites related to your topic of interest, you will need to create ad hoc articles and pages on your site so that external links can lead to them, improving your traffic and page rank.
The advice we can give you is not to create content that is the same as each other: duplicate articles, in fact, instead of bringing benefit are a reason for penalization by Google.
For this reason, it is strongly discouraged to use the same keywords: range between different topics and offer different viewpoints, so as not to create duplicate content, penalizing your business.
Where can I publish my articles?
This is perhaps the most difficult and complicated part of the article marketing strategy.
There are 3 different options:
1st option.
There are several article marketing sites on the web where you can publish our article for free.
2nd option.
Portals such as Reteimprese etc. In this case, the goal is represented by the fact that we can create our own company card, with which the articles we publish will be associated
3rd option.
Through the publication of editorial articles on specially selected sites, magazines and newspapers. Compared to the first two solutions, this is definitely the best and most effective.
That is, the one that generates the greatest return, but definitely involves an investment to be realized.
For example. If our Company produces kitchens, it is definitely more effective to publish an article in a furniture head like ELLE Decor, rather than on article marketing sites or generalist portals.
In addition, as they said earlier, these sites, being well-known and specialized in a field, enjoy very good domain authority.
In fact, by focusing on a particular target industry, they help us in the proper indexing of our site.
But not only that.
In all likelihood, they will have among their readers our Buyer Persona of reference.
So by publishing an article on these specific portals, we will definitely have a better chance of attracting the attention of our ideal potential customer. To then turn him into a happy and satisfied customer.
Why is article marketing so important?
First, because it is not perceived as an advertising message.
When written with ease, competence, originality and a dash of sympathy it attracts the reader. It engages him or her.
In doing so, the values of the brand and its products are conveyed.
A relationship of trust and respect is built between the reader and the company.
The second aspect is strategic. Article marketing increases what is technically referred to as Link Building which allows us to increase organic traffic to our website.
That is, building valuable links between sites.
More simply. When we publish an article on a third-party site, we must provide a link within it that points to our site. This determines 2 things:
- Increased traffic: we have more opportunities for the site to be reached, and thus for our products and services to be seen.
- Increased search engine rankings. If the links pointing to our site are valuable, i.e., they come from websites with good web reputation and domain authority (option 3), this also increases the domain authority of our site, increasing its indexation.
In conclusion, in order to carry out a proper Article marketing strategy, it is essential to design proper link building as well.
I also invite you to read this article: How and why to implement a link building strategy.
Article Marketing: What does it generate?
As I mentioned earlier, it also generates credibility, respect, reputation. That is, the user tends to trust more those companies or brands that publish online information, insights, tutorial research etc.
We often meet new entrepreneurs now, who do not ask us for references or a presentation of our skills.
“We have already seen everything online on your site”-this is what I hear again and again.
And it is very satisfying, because making quality content marketing really takes a lot of time.
Our constant question is: How can we make a difference to everyone who reads the articles on our site?
How can we help them? What information do they need to improve their business?
Given for granted the analysis and positioning strategy, what we find underlying a content marketing strategy is the design of the editorial calendar.
To make an editorial calendar, it is essential to decide:
- Goals we want to achieve in the short, medium and long term
- The topics we want to cover in our articles
- The frequency of publication
- Which channels to use for publication (web and social)
Before the actual creation of the different content which can be text, images, videos, audio, tutorials etc., it is essential to prepare the SEO strategy.
That is, what are the keywords we want or need to use to properly position our content on the Web.
If you are interested in this topic, I invite you to read SEO (search engine optimization) consulting.
Benefits of article marketing?
There are several articles about this on our blog.
It is definitely the longest and most difficult road. Staying in the area of Web Marketing strategies, PPC Campaigns are definitely a faster and more direct tool.
When we decided on the strategy behind the agency’s growth, one of the basic points we defined was creating the right relationship with a possible new client.
It is not important to acquire dozens of customers. We do not have this requirement.
Content marketing makes everything easier and more magical.
When I meet a new entrepreneur I experience, again and again, a pleasant feeling: he or she addresses me as if we have known each other for quite some time.
In some cases, they quoted passages from my articles. What can I say, the ego is off to a flying start….
The choice made by my agency, definitely does not match for all companies or activities.
As I mentioned earlier, pay-per-click campaigns are an extremely fast tool.
My advice is to always include content marketing in your marketing and communication strategy.
Users who see your product or brand for the first time inquire.
They search online to find out who you really are. What you do. What are you, basically, experts in.
If they come to your site and find it rich in content, information and advice, you have scored a goal.
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