SEO and Article Marketing

Welcome to Part 2 of the Wizard’s guide to powerful article marketing.

If you remember from the last episode, the goal of your article is to evoke an EMOTION in your readers. You want people to be affected and changed by what you read – intrigued, excited, curious, angry, envious, hopeful,

Why? Because it is EMOTION that stirs up ACTION – and isn’t that what you are looking for from your prospects?

So, as we discussed in the last episode, your first task, before starting ANY article, is to answer 3 questions:

1. WHO is your intended audience?
2. What EMOTIONS do you want to evoke in your reader?
3. What ACTION do you want him or her to take?

Once you have done that, the next step is to choose the right TOPIC for your article. The answers to those three questions will guide you in this.

For example, if you are a charity looking for donations, you may want to excite compassion, pity, and guilt in your readers, motivating them to donate to your cause. In that case the best topic will probably be a human interest story full of pathos, suffering, and hope.

It would probably NOT serve your interests to write a dry, factual, account of the logistics of transporting grain to Africa. Though interesting, it probably would not evoke enough emotion to prompt the reader into ACTION.

If your target audience is fashion conscious young women, you may want to tie your article in with some celebrity gossip. Your goal here would be to evoke a desire, and hope, that your brand of clothing could make them feel and look as glamorous as the celebrities.

On the other hand, an article for an video editor, or an engineer, needs to be much more factual and less touchy-feely. They know the problem they are trying to solve, know the frustration, and cost, of not having the right tools to solve it, and want ANSWERS.

Tell them what they need to know – the exact method or tool they need to solve their problem – in a clear, unbiased and factual way, and you will be halfway to your sales.

Ok, so, what types of articles could you write?

Now, bear in mind that your article needs to be short – 300 to 500 words – so you cannot go for a long, complicated structure. If you need more words than that to fully get your message across – write a white paper, special report, or even an ebook – and use your article as the teaser to drive people to your site to get the free report.

As I said, keep your article short and focused. Most likely you will want to use one of these six types of articles:

• The Tips/List Article- all you need for this is to come up with a list of some sort, that you can then arrange as bullet points. For example:

• “Photography: The 5 Simplest Ways to Instantly Improve your Photographs”, or
• “Job Hunting: The 3 Deadliest Mistakes Made by Job Applicants”, or
• “The 7 Sexiest Celebrity Tattoos”

• The How-To Article – This is a great way to introduce your product without any sales pitch or to position yourself as an expert in your field – just give them step-by-step instructions on how to solve a problem, for example an article on “Video Production: How to Correctly Set Up Lighting for Your Video Filming” might describe how to use cheap lighting from WalMart – or professional lighting from your online store (or affiliate link). Or might position you as an expert so that you can sell your “Expert’s Guide to Video Filming and Production”

• The Story Article- It is used to tell a story that does not have to be a personal experience. It can be true or fictional as long as it pertains to the subject. The trick is to do whatever it takes to keep the reader reading.

• The Personal Experience Article-This article will be about you and a personal experience you’ve gone through. It must deal with your niche and be informative, such as “How I Quit Smoking.”

• The Facts Article-This is simply an informative article that uses proven facts for content. This is perhaps the hardest one to make engaging and motivational.

• The Review Article- Reviews are a great way to market a product. This probably works best if you are able to do a series of reviews on different competing products that you retail. Be unbiased and factual, describe the pros and cons, and relative benefits of your different products. Send your readers to your website to read more reviews about other products.

You will help the prospect find the right product for themselves, and establish yourself as a trustworthy and reliable source of advice. When they are ready to buy, they are more likely to come to you.

Remember, an article is an article NOT a sales pitch. Be informative and engaging, but do NOT try to push or sell a product in your article. Remember your most wanted response, the action you want people to take in response to your article.

So, to recap:

First, figure out who you are targeting, what you want them to feel and what you would like them to do.

Secondly, decide what kind of article you feel will be most effective at keeping the reader interested. Whether it is an emotional story, real or fictional, a carefully researched factual approach or a balanced review, be sure to consider your choice carefully to elicit the emotions and actions you are looking for.

Thirdly, don’t try to sell your product through your article. This is the number one reason for article failure, and worse, the creation and spreading of a bad reputation.

And Lastly, Stay tuned for episode 3 of The Wizard’s Guide To Powerful Article Marketing, where we will teach you how to choose a killer title.

Tags: article marketing, audio, how to, podcast, video

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