Part Three will now show you how to get maximum impact from your articles, how to increase your chances substantially of getting them read, and how to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

One of key tactics in not only improving the visibility of your article, but also having it read by people, is the headline. In this respect it is no different to a newspaper – headlines are designed to entice readers to want to read the newspaper, and the same applies with your articles.

This Is The Single Most Important Aspect of Your Article

Your headline should of course be relevant to the content of the article, but it should also grab immediate attention. This is because you not only want the article to stand out amongst the crowd of other articles out there, but you also want it to be read.

You could have the most informative and best quality article ever written, but if the headline isn’t compelling and doesn’t convince your audience to read it, then your article is essentially useless. It is a good idea to write your article first, and then think of a suitable headline after.

In fact I would suggest that you write more than one headline, perhaps up to ten headlines to see which one you think is the best. This sounds like a lot of work doesn’t it? But believe me, it is not and it is definitely worth it too.

Do Not Do This

One thing that your article should not do is be promotional. Your article should not ’sell’ anything within the content of the article, as this would more than likely not be accepted for submission. Instead of selling your products or services, your article should be informative, compelling, educational and helpful for its reader.

This in itself is often enough to convince those reading it that they should visit your website, where they can find out more about you and your products or services. Once they arrive at your website, this is where you can do the selling.

Why It Really Does Pay To Be Different

There is a saying in marketing circles (in fact its the title of a book too) which is ‘differentiate or die’.

The fact is that if you are considered the same as or very similar to other businesses in your field or sector, you need to act quickly to differentiate yourself. Once again this may sound like hard work, but number one; it is not hard work, and number two; it is more than worth your while doing it.

First of all you need to ask yourself this question: “What do you have or provide or do that will encourage prospects to choose you, rather than one of your competitors?”

Well, if you implement an article marketing strategy you’ll find that by putting the name of your company into a search engine such as Google, Yahoo! or Bing, you’ll have multiple listings appear from a variety of credible sources and websites.

This would be a good start. It builds credibility, and prospects should be impressed and reassured, and feel that your business is one that they’d like to be involved with. Are your competitors listed multiple times across the internet? Why not have a look?

When you hear me mention about credibility and the correct positioning of both you and your business, this is what I mean. Having a presence and an authority is critical in any business, and you may have heard it many times but perception is reality. If you can get these key aspects in place they will form the solid, sound foundation to your empire from which everything else is built on

When you compare the benefits and advantages that credibility can bring to your business, it makes it a no-brainer in my opinion. It’s relatively easy and quick to implement and the ROI (Return On Investment) could be huge. Do you think your competitors are focusing on improving and increasing their credibility? I very much doubt it.

In Part Two of this article I am going to go in to more detail as to the benefits of article marketing, why every business should be using it and why the ones who are not will lose out to those who do.

As you have already read in Part One, information can travel very quickly across the internet and this is one reason why the strategy of article marketing works so well. As well as spreading your company’s name and credentials across the internet, there is another massive advantage to your business to using this form of marketing.

The Lifeblood Of A Website

By distributing articles about your business across the internet, you are providing your business website with something that the search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing) consider to be a huge online vote of confidence. It is so valuable because it acts as confirmation that your website is authentic, valuable to readers and worthy of being considered an authority in your particular area of expertise.

So what is it?

Well, what article marketing can do is provide valuable links back to your website, and this is considered a huge ‘thumbs up’ as far as the search engines are concerned.

The links to your website simply come from the article that you have submitted, and so there is no mystical force at work here, it is not magic. You are merely using leverage once again, something that many businesses fail to do at their peril.

What enables you to have a link (or links) back to your website is this: At the end of your article you are generally asked to write a short biography about you and your company. Within this biography you are often able to include a link (more than one in some cases) back to your company’s website, and it is this that can be like gold dust for your website.

Quality Over Quantity

Of course, the idea is to have good quality and interested articles to submit, as opposed to thinking that submitting hundreds of poor articles will still benefit your website. Believe me they won’t, so do not do it under any circumstances.

The links that your site receives are known as ‘back links’ – a term that you may or may not be familiar with. These back links can have an massive effect on your company’s website and its ranking within the search engines.

In fact it is something that all experts agree can improve your business’ online visibility, and in the highly competitive internet arena, being on the first page of searches can be hugely profitable for a business.

The whole concept of article marketing is considered to be one of the most efficient modes for generating traffic to your website. One reason for this is that once your articles have been submitted to the relevant directories, they are normally visible very quickly.

In fact, I have actually had some articles visible in a matter of hours in some cases.

What Will Your Competitors Think?

It is unlikely that many (if any) of your competitors will be using this highly effective strategy. You’ll also be pleasantly surprised at how quickly this strategy can be implemented.

It really is not a difficult as you might think, because you’ve no doubt got reams of relevant, quality information sitting somewhere in your business that could be put to great use. It might be on your work’s computer, or a member of your staff’s computer, or in a file somewhere.

Wherever it is hiding, this information can be used to good effect, and it would seem pointless for it to not be used to your benefit. As long as an article is your work and has not just been blatantly copied or plagiarised from another source, there is no reason why it cannot be used.

So that concludes Part Two of this article. In Part Three, I am going to reveal some of the key strategies and tactics that will have people wanting to read your articles and find out more about your business.

In fact in terms of subject matter, articles can be literally written about anything relevant to you and your business.

You Might Think It Is Too Complicated

And before you start thinking that you do not have any time during your busy day to sit down, think about what you want to have written in these articles, and then either do them yourself or have them written, think again.

I say this because you more than likely have good, relevant information and material stored everywhere in your office. Perhaps you have previously had an article written about your company and its products or services for a trade publication or a local newspaper.

Equally you may have been featured in a local magazine or even on local radio, and been able to highlight your business and its features and benefits. Failing all of that, you will certainly have plenty of material available in the filing cabinets of your office, or on your works computers, that can be used in order to help promote your business’ products or services.

Use This To Your Advantage

So what article marketing can do is to harness the power of the internet, where news and information can be transmitted virtually instantly. This is therefore worth utilising in order to help your business, and means that its impact is somewhat different to its ‘offline’ cousin – traditional printed articles in newspapers and magazines, because it can hit the headlines a lot quicker. One thing that the internet can give you is speed.

I suppose the one similarity between online and offline printed articles is that they need to be worth reading. There needs to be some interest for your reader, whether its in educating them about what your company does, or running them through a trouble shooting exercise, or answering their top ten questions about issues that they encounter.

So they need to be relevant, interesting and written so that they can be understood. It generally helps to try and minimise jargon and to explain any acronyms that you use. Do not assume that everyone will know what you’re talking about.

What Do You Do Next?

So once you have gotten some articles written to be used to increase the online visibility of your business, what do you do with them?

Well, unlike printed articles, instead of submitting your article to a traditional offline publication, it can be submitted to the many article directories that exist on the World Wide Web.

Each article directory site is similar to a huge, online library of articles. The articles that these directories house cover practically every subject and topic known to man, and therefore if you’re thinking that this type of strategy doesn’t apply to your business, you really should think again.

It benefits all businesses.

Increase Your Company’s Visibility

The principal benefit for you and your business is that the majority of the main article directories are well respected by the search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing). This very fact enables you to leverage your business on the back of their authority, and this can improve your chances of your article (and therefore your business) being seen by a targeted prospect.

One way of looking at this is that it is like being able to post a notice of your business or its products and services on ten (or as many as you’d like to use) of the best and most viewed notice boards in cities around the country, or indeed the world, as anyone globally will have the ability to view your article online.

This is one of the biggest advantages of using this particular strategy. You are in effect, scattering your company’s name across a variety of quality locations, a little bit like sewing seeds. And in doing so, you are increasing the chances of your company’s name being found online.

There is a lot more to article marketing too, as it has what I call a ‘double-edged sword’ effect that can benefit your business substantially. This is something that I will talk about in Part Two of this article.

This is possibly due to the fact that the concept of video marketing is still relatively new, and this could mean that most business owners simply do not understand how to use it effectively.

So if you’re business is not using video at the moment, then this is potentially good news for you, and bad news for your competition. If you could start creating some videos about your business, you could steal a march on your competitors.

The Good News Is

Your competitors are unlikely to be using video marketing yet, and so this could be happy days for you and your business. And as you may have read in my previous article about video marketing, it is neither very difficult or expensive to create and produce a video.

In fact the very concept of video marketing has grown in popularity hugely in recent years, mainly due to substantial improvements and the greater availability of affordable technology. Digital and HD (High Definition) camcorders are now relatively inexpensive to buy compared to when they were first launched, and this has allowed many more people to film and upload their videos for all the world to see.

This Is Why Video Is So Powerful

And this is without doubt one of the assets, the power if you like, of video marketing. It allows your business to capture the imagination of your prospects, and be completely honest and transparent about the products and services that you are offering.

Video also gives you the opportunity to enhance your reputation in the process. It can of course, also allow you to demonstrate in a few seconds on video, what would potentially take longer to explain in audio or in print.

Video marketing has now emerged as possibly the fastest, most efficient and persuasive mode of online marketing available, hence the importance that I believe it has as part of a successful marketing campaign.

But despite the fact that some larger corporations are now using it, the small and medium sized business community still appears to be lagging behind. They still do not appear to have grasped the fact that video marketing can be hugely beneficial in attracting more interest in what they are selling.

And It Gets Even Better For You

Fortunately for you, this is still great news for your business as your competition are unlikely to be using it either.

One of the keys to the success of video marketing has been the popularity of the You Tube website. Since the creation of You Tube a number of other video sharing sites have emerged on to the scene, however You Tube remains the one that is the most popular. In fact, such was the success of You Tube that in October 2006, internet giant Google purchased the site for a reported $1.65 billion. Yes that was billion with a ‘b’!

And in 2008, according to a service called Alexa, You Tube was the second most trafficked site in the world, getting 60 million unique views per month. Alexa is a well respected source of online information that has built an unrivaled source of information regarding websites, including visitor statistics, related links and much more. Given these facts, do you think it may be beneficial to your business to have a presence on a site that has 15 million visitors each and every week? I think you know the answer.

Given these two facts alone, don’t you think it might be something that you should be using?

The first objection that most business owners have with regard to using video marketing as part of their marketing strategy is that they think it is too expensive. There is still this common misconception that it is something that can only be afforded by, used by or only applies to the ‘big boys’ in business.

Well, this is now not the case and in this article I am going to explain to you just how easy it is to create and produce a quality video for your business, and at a fraction of the price that you may think it would cost.

Some Basics For Creating A Great Video

First of all, I do think that it is advisable to choose a location where the lighting is good. If you’re planning on filming your video indoors then use a room that has either plenty of natural light coming in, or light coloured walls, or even better, both.

Sound is also something that you will need to consider when creating your video. Ideally you do not want any background noise if you can help it. So things such as loud traffic noise, particularly noisy machinery or over enthusiastic staff could drown out the audio on your video, and so this has to be assessed when choosing an appropriate location.

And that’s really it in all honesty. As you can see most (if not all) of it is plain common sense in reality. Choosing an appropriate and well lit area that has little or no background noise is the absolute minimum that you want to aim for.

You could also think about what it is in the background, to ensure that the viewer is getting a representative and professional image of what your company is about.

So as you can see, video marketing is not as difficult or troublesome as you may have initially thought, and the benefits of it can be enormous.

This May Surprise You

The great thing is that with just a little planning, as you’ve seen above, you can set the perfect scene for your video. Also, with the advent of High Definition (HD) camcorder technology, you can still produce excellent videos on a lot less than a Hollywood film budget, even with a tiny hand held device.

You certainly don’t need a film or television crew to create a great video for your business, you really don’t. You only need to look at the videos that you can see on You Tube the next time you’re on the internet to see what I mean, as the quality of most home-made films is now more than acceptable
for the purposes of marketing your business.

I can assure you that many of the videos that you will see posted on You Tube have been created with simple, hand held devices, and the majority of them will not even have been made with the use of a tripod or any professional lighting.

Why Video Marketing Works

I suppose the closest alternative to video marketing would have to be television advertising. The reality is however, that for the vast majority of small and medium sized business owners, the prospect of advertising on television is still pretty much financially out of reach.

Television advertising even today is still relatively expensive when compared to all other means of advertising, and there is no realistic way that many small business owners can possibly justify the cost of running a television advertisement.

Even a simple 30 second television advertisement could blow a company’s entire years marketing budget in one fell swoop. This factor alone perhaps demonstrates the lack of feasibility in a small business using television advertising, which is why video marketing is something that can serve as a very effective alternative.

Using Podcasts For Expert Status

One hugely advantageous aspect of using podcasting as part of your marketing strategy is what it can do for your positioning.

So what exactly do I mean by that?

Well, producing a podcast can allow your business to create a valuable identity as a leader in your field, whilst enhancing your credibility too. By doing this, you could quickly find yourself becoming an authority in your industry, which is no bad thing.

It is also extremely doubtful that any of your competitors will be doing podcasting, or any other significant marketing strategies for that matter and so straight away you’re more than a step ahead of them.

You Can This Guerrilla Marketing Strategy

Why not, as a way of adding more value for your listeners, interview some of your top customers and use these interviews as powerful marketing tools for your business?

By doing this, what you are doing is leveraging something called ’social proof’. Social proof is exactly what a testimonial is, and by having this in audio format this will be infinitely more powerful than a written testimonial.

This will help prospects to visualise exactly why they should be doing business with you, as opposed to your nearest competitors.

It also cements your authority in your given industry.

Of course it would also be wise to use these very same recordings as testimonials and have them put on your website, so ensure that you ask the customers that you’re interviewing to voice their opinion of your products or services.

Plus, you could create customer loyalty as most of us like to be asked our opinions on something, and this may demonstrate to your top customers that they are indeed valued, and that their views and opinions do count.

The Double Whammy Effect Takes Place

This could potentially have a double whammy effect on your business as well. To begin with, you could get some excellent publicity from doing this as you’re customers will love you for it, plus you’re able to showcase your expertise in your particular area of business.

The double whammy effect takes place because this will in turn enhance your credibility, and the way that you are perceived by your peers, competitors, prospective customers, and of course your current clients.

You’re competitors will also be both curious and worried as to what you are up to.

Why Not Use Your Competition To Your Advantage?

So in that case, why not interview your competitors? As long as you position it correctly, they will probably be more than happy to have you interview them as it will give them so notoriety and publicity, however as it is you interviewing them, you will be perceived as the expert, and not them.

So they’re getting what they want, which is some publicity, but you’re also getting what you want, which is enhanced credibility of your expert status.

And if you’re anything like me, you’ll probably know from your own experience that most people love to talk about their expertise, their family and just generally about themselves.

This means that you probably know several people that ramble on and on about what they’ve done this week, last week and last month. These could be prime candidates for interviewing and as you will be seen as the expert, the benefits to your business could be enormous.

I hope this article gives you some insight in to just how effective a podcast could be in enhancing your businesses reputation and standing. And as you will have read in Part One of this article, it really is not that difficult to produce a podcast, so what are you waiting for?

It is evident these days that with the continual advances in technology that we’re seeing, the ability to record and produce a podcast has now become a pretty simplistic task. You certainly no longer need radio station or studio-quality recording equipment in order to produce a good quality podcast for your audience.

But why do it in the first place?

What Is A Podcast?

Well, lets start by looking at exactly what a podcast is. To put it into its simplest terms, a podcast is essentially an audio clip (or audio file) that can be placed (often referred to as embedded) anywhere on your website, and can potentially be listened to by anyone who visits your site.

Podcasting first became popular in 2005 with the launch of iTunes. If the latest statistics are to be believed, and given the current trends in the sales of portable media devices, as many as 275 million people around the world will own a portable media player by the year 2011.

This fact alone clearly demonstrates the popularity of listening on the move, or at least listening when it is convenient.

So why is this important?

Well, for prospects or customers who are interested in the audio that you have produced, it can also be downloaded onto an mp3 media device or onto a computer. In addition, there is also the possibility that people may want to subscribe to your podcasts, and as you’ll find out in Part Two of this article, this is something that can provide huge potential success and opportunities for your business.

So one critical reason why podcasts offer such potential benefits for your business is by downloading it, your listener can digest your podcast at a convenient time to them.

This is an important distinction because it fits in perfectly within the new ‘permission marketing’ framework that I have mentioned in previous articles. If you can use a media (such as podcasting) that your target audience is using and is comfortable with, you have an opportunity to get your message across more effectively.

Providing Choice Is So Important

Having a choice of how and when to see or hear your company’s message fits in perfectly with the way that your potential customers live their lives today. It can also carry more weight and effectiveness, as you are not ramming your company’s message down the throat of every poor, unsuspecting person that walks by.

This is one of the reasons why podcasts are as popular as they are. We all have so little time on our hands these days and we are bombarded with literally hundreds upon hundreds of marketing messages each and every day. But with a podcast, it can be downloaded and listened to at home, at work, on the train, on the tube, in fact anywhere.

And by producing podcasts your business will be perceived as being different. This is also very important, and something that I will cover in Part Two of this article.

Part One of this article walked you through the basics of why social media can benefit your business’ marketing strategy. Part Two will now look at some specific reasons why, and explain how you can leave your competition trailing in your wake.

As consumers these days, we are all so busy with life. We work hard, we spend time with our children and our families and we do not have time to necessarily stop what we are doing in order to be ’sold to’, which is really how things used to work.

That has all changed now however.

The order of the day now is subtly dove-tailing your marketing message within a medium, a means of communication that your target audience is already using. This means that your company’s message will not feel like an interruption at all, merely another aspect of the social media environment that your target audience is engrossed in.

Why The Internet Is So Important

One of the reasons why the internet is now becoming increasingly popular, is because it can literally be accessed from anywhere on the planet.

The introduction and accessibility of laptop computers, palmtop computers and mobile phones with internet technology (WAP enabled phones) means that you can now be online ‘on the go’ in virtually any environment that you choose.

You may well already be benefiting from this, as you can be communicating with employees and work colleagues, clients and even family or friends from a train or a taxi cab. Suddenly journeys which would have previously been ‘dead’ time as little as 20 years ago, can now be used productively.

So the internet provides convenience in our lives. What it can also do is provide instant information, and in an age where we tend to like most things done yesterday, the internet is often the first thing someone uses in order to seek information.

Beware, Things Are Not What They Used To Be

And so integrating your marketing into media where people are more likely to see you, much the same as a billboard on a busy street, is why the internet is beneficial for your business. The one difference is however, that with marketing in general, the rules have now changed.

There is now a new term in marketing called ‘permission marketing’. This effectively means that the ‘old way of doing things’, so simply just barging in and advertising your businesses’ products and services to the world doesn’t work any more.

The way that these social media sites work could lend itself perfectly to your business. One of the main benefits is the sheer speed at which communication takes place using social media. This speed can be used to potentially see your company’s marketing message passed from person to person in double quick time.

In fact, your company’s message can spread just like a virus, hence the term ‘viral’ that is now common place in the marketing dictionary.

The fact is that we are more likely to trust a recommendation of a product or service from someone that we trust. And by it’s very nature, this is one thing that social media can provide for your business. This also makes for an extremely powerful tool and rewards the businesses who are able to provide a great product or service, backed up by fantastic customer service and after sales service.

If your business is able to deliver on all three fronts then you’re not only going to have many satisfied customers, but potentially many more prospects knocking at your door too.

In the social media arena, views and opinions can be shared between friends (or by you too), and photographs, audio and video can also be used. This is yet another reason why social media is so powerful.

So to bring this article to a close, I would also like to just suggest something to you that could quite possibly send your business global.

If this is something that appeals to you, is relevant to your business or is an option that you’ve been considering, then you’ll find this hugely important.

How To Reach A World Wide Audience – Fast

When I look at my Facebook profile at the time of writing this article, I see that roughly one sixth of my ‘friends’ are located overseas, so not in the UK. Do you think that this could open up some possibilities for you in getting your product or service international exposure? You bet it is.

Going global may not necessarily be on your business’ agenda. It might not be something that you think is right for your business at this moment in time, but the opportunity is most certainly there if you do want to branch out.

Potentially all it’s going to cost you to have your product or service seen by a world wide audience is a small investment of time and a well planned and executed strategy. Just imagine what the results could be.

Social media will not work for every business of course. Its just like any other means of marketing in that respect, however it may just be the medium that propels your business to the next level, and who knows where that could lead?

If you’re unfamiliar with the term social media, you’re possibly thinking social what? If this is the case, please allow me to explain in this article what social media is all about, and how it can be used to help your business.

What Exactly Is Social Media?

Social media in its basic sense refers to online media (websites) that enables (and also encourages) social interaction. This was something that until the dawn of what was termed by the internet fraternity as ‘Web 2.0′, was somewhat lacking from our online experience.

Previously, websites did not allow for much in the way of communication.

And yet now we are not only able to see and listen online, but we can also interact too, and I am going to tell you how this can be used to your advantage, and also the benefit of your business.

Our experiences online have very much changed in recent years, with the advent of sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter to name but a few. If you are unfamiliar with any of these sites then do have a look at them.

These interactive, social media sites have not only given individuals the opportunity to interact more and more with their friends, family and acquaintances online, but it has enabled businesses to reach their potential customers in new and exciting ways, and this is good news for your business.

Why Social Media Can Help Your Business

Perhaps most importantly, the whole concept of social media enables you and your business to market to potential customers on their terms. So what do I mean by that and why is it significant?

By marketing your business using the internet in general, but perhaps specifically by using a tool such as social media, your fitting your message in to a logical part of the daily activities for many of us these days.

So what do I mean by that?

Well this is because browsing and catching up with friends, family and colleagues online, rather than doing what we did ten years ago and picking the phone up and talking to them, is now normal practice. So this is good news for you and your business.

So the important point for you here is that you are not having to interrupt or stop people from doing what they would already be doing. This means that people are likely to stumble across your business almost without consciously thinking about it, and so you simply need to make your business more visible to them, and I am going to show you how to do exactly that.

Assembling Your Herd

One thing that participating in social media has enabled most individuals to do is to increase their own personal ‘database’ of contacts, such is the ease at which it can be done on many of these interactive social media sites.

For the users of these sites, the advantage is that they allow you, more than ever before, to keep in contact with friends, family, old school friends, whom ever you want to, and all at the click of a mouse.

This is not only convenient for the vast majority of us that lead increasingly busy lives, but it saves us time as well. Once again, this is great news for your business as time is a precious commodity.

Whether you have any experience of the many social media sites that are scattered across the internet or not, you will soon notice that mini communities begin to develop within an individual’s sphere of influence. This could be a community of friends, family or work colleagues, and all of these contacts will have their own different interests, tastes and opinions, and therein lies the potential opportunity for you.

This is how you can quickly build a database of hungry prospects and potential clients.

In Part Two of this article I will discuss why the use of social media can help you obliterate your competition, and how you can literally communicate your message to as many prospects as you want to both domestically as well as internationally.

Once upon a time, these social networking sites were used only as a platform for communication. This is why most of its members were young adults. However today, social networking sites have other benefits to the internet world, and one of them is with internet marketing.

Social networking sites are internet marketing platforms

Why I say that social networking sites help in internet marketing is because its consumers are mostly adults, and professionals, who have services, products and businesses that they want to offer to other interested people.

In fact, this is why its platform is not only used for communication purposes, but also in internet marketing. I say that this transformation of the use of social networking sites from communication to internet marketing a worthwhile swap as this enables a greater growth of the social sites and different businesses.

It is basically the large list of users found in different networking sites that has led to the growth of internet marketing through social networking sites. In addition to this, it is the features of these sites which are dynamic and have a wide reach that has induced internet marketing through social networking sites.

Blogs help in internet marketing

Moreover, social networking sites have blogs, discussion boards, forums, video and text chatting, content promotion and other services that have lead to the success of internet marketing. This is because it is thorough these blogs and discussion boards, that internet marketers can leave their links for other visitors to the blogs and boards to click on and visit.

In fact, if this liaison between social networking sites and internet marketing continues like this, one day, social networking sites will even be referred to as an internet marketing tool for all the online marketing help it carries out.

Search engine optimization techniques help improve social networking site rankings

Of course, I have to remind you that these social networking sites manage to work as internet marketing tools only because of the traditional marketing tips that have been used to bring these sites to their present position and search engine ranking.

What I mean to say that you still have to use search optimization techniques, exchange links and index these links in different sites to make a social networking site help in internet marketing. Once these tips are implemented in social networking sites, they prove to be as effective in internet marketing as any other internet marketing tool can be.

Want to learn more about internet marketing, following soon …….