Article marketing can be a valuable tool for any business with a presence on the Internet, but how effective it will be depends on your overall content marketing plan. If you don’t have a plan, you may find that your article marketing efforts are a waste of time and money. Organized marketing plans that include article marketing as a component can be an invaluable tool for driving traffic to your website and increasing sales.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the benefits of an effective content marketing plan, and explore a few real-world examples along the way.

Article Marketing - Web Design Melbourne

Ensure the content you create is optimized for your keywords. Don’t be afraid to include long-tail keywords.

Be Credible

In order to have an effective article marketing plan, your business has to be considered credible. This means creating content of value that you can share with your readers.

Start by creating a series of high-quality articles that in some way benefit your customers. As time goes on and you continue creating high-value content, you’ll become more credible in your industry, and more of an influence over the products and services that your readers buy. Take time to answer the questions your customers have and focus on marketing your products as a secondary goal. The more credible your business becomes, the easier it will be to convert traffic into sales.

Optimize Your Content

Search engine optimization should be a key component to any online marketing plan. Start by researching the keywords that are relevant to your business and your target market. It’s also a great idea to assess your competition and see how they stand in the search engine rankings.

Ensure you include your relevant and researched keywords within the articles that you write. Don’t be afraid to use long-tail keywords, as these usually have lower competition and can provide a higher return on your investment in the long run. If your articles are shared or published across a variety of sites, you’ll have a bigger chance of picking up some back-links and increasing your domain authority.

Keep up to date with the keywords you use and revise your SEO strategy if you find it to be ineffective. SEO goes hand in hand with creating high-quality content. If the content you create is not shareable, you’ll have a much harder time establishing yourself in search engine rankings.

Increase Your Traffic

The more visible your business is on the Internet, the more traffic you’ll be able to drive to your website. Try to publish your articles across a variety of sites, including social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Look for guest blogging opportunities with like-minded businesses, and offer guest blogging opportunities on your website as well.

The content you create needs to be fresh and produced on a regular basis. It’s ineffective to write one article per month and assume that’s all you need. Readers are looking for content that is up to date and relevant to today’s topics. If you don’t keep things updated, your article marketing plan will be ineffective and a waste of time. If you don’t have time to write the articles yourself, hire someone who can do it for you.

Article Marketing - Web Design Melbourne

Blog as often as you can while keeping things relevant and interesting. Share across your social network and look for guest blogging opportunities.

Be Effective

Take a look at what other companies in your industry are doing to create an effective content marketing plan.

For example, Syncsort, a big data integration company, routinely publishes posts on its company blog. They keep their posts relevant to the industry and focused on what the readers want. In addition to the company blog, Syncsort’s posts can be found on a variety of websites across the Internet, including social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and published to relevant websites as guest blogs.

Article marketing can be effective as long as you have an overall content marketing plan. If you don’t have a plan or goals in place, you may find that your articles are ineffective. Ensure your articles are optimized for your market and competition, and that you keep posts relevant to what your readers want. If you’re finding it hard to gain credibility in your market, it may be time reevaluate your content marketing strategy as a whole.

Brian Flax is a freelance writer based out of the Washington, D.C., area. He is experienced in a variety of topics including education, technology, and business management.

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