Article Marketing: How to Run a Successful Campaign
I’m working with a new client on an article marketing campaign. This client is not new to online marketing. His firm runs a very successful pay-per-click campaign. But, they want more organic traffic, so they contracted with my firm to start an article marketing campaign.
Getting the Point of Article Marketing Across to the Client
Right now, I’m having a hard time trying to get the client to understand what article marketing is all about. Specifically that it’s not about his product, so to speak. “Huh,” you may be muttering. “Why would I start an article marketing campaign that’s not about my product?”
The Point of Any Marketing Campaign
The point of any marketing campaign is to serve up a benefit to the end user. This client keeps stressing to me the features of his product (they’re a national gift card distributor). And, I keep telling him that customers don’t care about the features of his product; what they care about are the benefits they get from using his product.
Where we keep getting stuck is that when I turn in a batch of articles – articles written from a benefits perspective– he keeps asking me to change this, that or the other. His changes all center on the features of his company’s product.
Finally, a breakthrough!
When I told him that the real point of article marketing is to dispense useful information so that you could begin to establish trust with prospects – it finally clicked, to a degree. While he still makes suggestions that focus on product features, I gently guide him back to the real point of article marketing – which is laying out for customers the benefits of the product at hand.
Article Marketing: Why You Should Highlight the “Bad”
When I write for clients, I try to stay away from “salesy” copy. I stick close to the benefits of the product/service at hand. And, sometimes this means telling the “bad”. Why do this? Because when you’re honest with prospects, — ie, tell them something “bad” about the product/service at hand — they trust you more.
The reason bad is in quotation marks is that you always want to select a product/service “defect” that the client’s product/service provides a solution to.
For example, as this client is a national gift card seller, I wrote an article about gift card fraud. I knew this article had a good chance of being picked up and distributed widely this time of year because of the topic matter. The client didn’t agree.
But I pointed out to him that this type of content showed his firm in a good light because they stood behind every transaction they made, that they were not a third-party seller and that they had a stringent verification system in place. All of this made their firm unique from other gift card sellers.
Aha! He had a light bulb moment and got it.
Sometimes the hardest part of my job as a freelance writer is to get clients to understand that I do have their best interests at heart. And, that’s what they pay me for.
If you decide to run an article marketing campaign, keep the above in mind.
Written by Yuwanda Black from Inkwell EditorialPosted on December 16th, 2008 and filed under Writing
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5 Responses to “Article Marketing: How to Run a Successful Campaign”
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Hi Yuwanda – great article
I find one of the most important – yet toughest – lessons for my professional service clients to learn is that selling is a multi-stage process.
Before someone buys your product or service you must have established a level of trust and capability appropriate for the amount of expense or risk the client will take by buying from you.
For costly products, or those where non-performance could cause big issues for the client, a lot of trust must be built up before they buy. This doesn’t happen in one go -either a single article or single meeting in the world of face-to-face sales.
You must use a series of interactions to move from unknown to favourite in the potential client’s eyes.
The old AIDA model can be a good help here if you view each letter as a stage the client must progress through. From gaining their attention, to raising their interest, to building their desire to buy, to driving action.
For smaller impulse purchases this can be done in one meeting, sales letter or website visit. For complex and costly products it takes time to go up each step of the AIDA ladder.
For a prospect who doesn’t already know or care about you, and who may not even fully understand the problems they have – Attention and Interest are all about getting them to empathise with a situation you describe. At this stage they’re not going to be interested in your solution – because they haven’t fully understood they have a problem your solution deals with.
Ian
Article marketing service utilizes search engine optimization to place their clients articles within the first few entries of specific search engine results.
Wow did this hit home, very good article! With a background in direct sales and a company of my own, it is so often stressed to consultants….it is all about what the product can DO for the customer!
Hi Yuwanda, this article was really timely for a few of my clients. They want to sell without educating. People like to build a relationship first, I like to send my customers relevant information like this and have them subscribe where necessary to the info they need. Most companies do not look at their overall cost of sales. If we are to be in a recession they need to be aware of how to maximize the coverage they can get through Article marketing which they can use in many ways. Thank you
Marketing campaign is an essential part of any business organization. What needed is to go on in proper direction by targeting all the web pages where from you can gain all potential customers. Above post describes all such details regarding targetted marketing campaign.