Free marketing tip - write articles on the Internet

This free marketing tip says it's effective to write articles on the Internet as a marketing strategy for a company and especially for independent consultants.

Marketing with written articles is a way to share specialized knowledge, your unique perspective on a subject and, in the process, be found by people who need the services you offer.

My financial planner is writing a book and he sent me an email saying that people who were interviewing him on the book did a search on him on the Internet. They came across an article I had written on him in late '07 (two years ago) and they found it informative and helpful.

Here's a link to the article titled "Should you invest or pay off your mortgage?"

Writing articles as a marketing tool is not a short-term proposition. It takes consistent effort and there must be both quantity and quality in the posts. However, it is ultimately a marketing tool that offers credibility.

For an independent consultant who's working in one geographical area such as Orange County, California or southern California, it's likely that the article can be used to email to a prospective client. The article then is a second touch. That means the consultant uses the article as tool to build credibility.

For a company or sales rep working across multiple states it's likely the article can be a "first touch" found through search engines or a second touch when the rep says "we wrote an article on that very subject" and then emails it.

In the next post, I'll write more specifically on using articles as a marketing tool on the Internet to build credibility and as a tool in winning new customers and clients.