Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Article Marketing Does Not Work In Isolation

After 30 years in traditional broadcast media I would like to share a few truths about article marketing as a viable marketing strategy.

Let me just cut to the chase here, Article Marketing is a very sound strategy! But without Social Media, there is very little sound. You see, article marketing alone can not work in isolation. It needs to be part of a bigger effort and that’s where social media comes in. Here, let me give you an example.

Think of traditional media for a minute. How often have you heard a promotion on radio then hear them refer to the ad in today’s paper for more details. Then while reading the paper with all the promotional details you notice something that says, be sure to listen to WABC radio weekday mornings for further clues, or this week’s contest winner.

You see how neither paper or radio promoted in isolation, they used each other’s strengths to work together to achieve a “bigger” result. That’s exactly what article marketing needs to do, work in conjunction with other social media to achieve the desired “bigger” result.

Let me frame this picture another way. Article marketing is just like posting an ad on the grocery store bulletin board. A few people will look at the ad and respond. What social media does is hand everyone who comes into the grocery store a flyer that invites them to check out the bulletin board. You can see how more people would focus on the bulletin board ad, just because it was brought to their attention.

Here’s the hard truth for any traditional media people, social media embraced today, will do what no traditional media can achieve. Social media reaches a true global audience like no other media can. For that reason alone, advertisers of every description are jumping on board. Those that think social media is just a fad, will be sadly left alone, dare I say it, in complete isolation.

While it’s true articles may have a long shelf life in the search engines. 100 reads per article per month, does little on it’s own to bring greater traffic flow to your website or blog. You could write 100 articles per month for a year, and then you would have something very significant.

Assuming your article has already been optimized for the proper keywords it will get found easily in the search engines, but what if there were a way to increase that 100 reads to thousands of reads every month instead?

Until you arrive at the “how to” make that happen, articles will sit in isolation, just like that lonely billboard you drive by on the highway every other week, or that ad that sits on the grocery store bulletin board.

It’s very simple, while articles will bring attention, you need to bring attention to the articles themselves. When you can turn your 100 article reads per month into thousands, then and only then are you using the social media to it’s fullest potential. When you do this properly you are no longer using the media, you have become the media!

I offer my clients a simple initial plan. We draft a social media strategy that puts their message out no less than 1,000 times per month. Each of the 1,000 messages is exposed to many thousands of potential customers. By comparison to any other form of media, there is simply no better return on your investment than using a proper social media strategy. It has global reach and works for you 24/7.

So whether you work in Investor Relations and looking to grow your subscriber base, or trying to sell an expensive waterfront property, or maybe getting the word out worldwide to university alumni, there is a social media application to fit your mission.

Now, here’s your simple call to action: Be proactive when it comes to finding out all you can about making social media work for you! Take action, do it today, ask me a few questions .. the process has to start somewhere. Make it your mission to stop being busy, and instead be productive!

Let’s take article marketing and or the use of social media to a new level. I still use Hotmail because I know I can access it everywhere I go. And yes, I also know it’s considered very “pedestrian”, but I trust it everywhere I travel.

Best Always,

Mike Perras, P.Mgr
mikeperras@hotmail.com

PS – In addition to my blogs, here are two sites with samples of my articles

- ezinearticles
- Seeking Alpha

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook & Linkedin at
http://twitter.com/mikeperras or
http://www.facebook.com/perrasmedia
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeperras

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for this engaging article. Sometimes you use real-life examples in your articles that are perfect for me as a reader, but unfortunately, sometimes I didn’t get your point in the post. It seems fake or irrelevant. Well, it’s a good one. Techriprtion

    ReplyDelete