Advertising and Marketing Strategies: Article Marketing Basics

Article marketing is an advertising and marketing strategy that provides a business the opportunity to spread solid expertise. Business owners can distribute targeted information within the industry and attract potential customers through strategic placement, solid content and enticing copy executed in an online article. This strategy is not a new concept and has evolved with the introduction of new technologies. In today’s marketplace, articles are typically written for Internet distribution using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

History of Article Marketing

Since the inception of print media, business owners have harnessed the power of articles to promote their business. Well-written copy would appear inside a newspaper, for example, addressing an industry issue and include the business’ contact information. As a result, the print medium’s readership would gain valuable insight into the topic and possibly, seeing the business as in expert in the field, record the contact information for future use.

The Internet has changed the article marketing venue by providing on-demand access to information. As a result, this advertising and marketing strategy has changed substantially requiring technical SEO skills in addition to valuable content and promotion techniques.

Article Marketing and SEO

When Internet users search for an online article, they use very broad or very specific keywords to locate their interests. Online articles are indexed by search engines based on their relevance to search terms and keywords. As a result, an article that meets a search engine’s quality and relevance standards appears closer to the top of the search engine results page (SERP). Incorporating relevant keywords into an article’s copy while maintaining a high level of readership and consistent performance is called search engine optimization. While the technique can be very technical, it is required to reach a larger audience, which can translate into sales leads.

Article Marketing Distribution

After a well-crafted article is created, the article owner must distribute it to gain attention and readership. An article directory is an online database that serves articles related to a specific industry or general interests. Many article directories exist, each with their own requirements, editorial guidelines and submission details.

These directories are a key element to reaching an audience especially if a business does not have a website. In addition, many businesses utilize the directories to create “backlinks” to articles that exist on private web pages or to extend the reach of the message. The directories may earn money by placing relevant advertisements around each article and some sites may require a submission fee.

When executed correctly, article marketing offers business owners several benefits. The business appears to be an expert in the industry and increased web traffic to a specific web page can result in sales conversions. Web copy serves as one of many long-term advertisement and marketing strategies as they mature and become more prominent in the SERPs. As an advertising strategy, the success of web copy depends on the quality of the content offered.