Marketing your online presence as a professional with articles and white papers

Share quality information that your readers can put to use immediately through articles and whitepapers and you will make major strides in setting yourself apart from your competitors.

Writing articles, or white papers, is a way to meet the needs of your customers and while earning a position of authority. You can share your knowledge about your industry, trends, specific products, and how your services will help your clients save time, money, find new customers, generate revenue, improve their health -- or whatever their needs and wants are.

Article Types

Tips articles are excellent topics to produce.

About articles are good to provide an overview of an industry.

Case studies show how you've created results.

Article lengths for online writing should run from 350 words to 600 words. Use headings and sub-headings to break up text and make paragraphs no more than a few sentences.

White papers should be more formal and include citations from journals and quotes from industry leaders. These should contain more detailed information on macro forces shaping an industry and then building a case for actions your prospective clients should take.

Make sure your website pulls in your blog where you can post your article. Click here to see a free demo for a website content management system that can pull in Wordpress blogs or Blogger blogs.

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.

PR Success for Any Business: Article Marketing

The ability to quickly publish articles on your business across the Internet is a strategic Public Relations move for any size business. Here are compelling reasons to use article marketing in your business, according to Right Touch Marketing & Media:

1 Speak directly to the target client and show how you meet their needs

2 Speak directly to the need of a potential customer by showing the benefits your company offers

3 Sharing knowledge – article marketing gives a chance to showcase your knowledge and track record

4 Cost effective: the cost of articles is in the initial writing. A skilled writercan write several articles efficiently. Once articles are written they have alife of several months, thus stretching the marketing dollars.

5 Can replace or supplement traditional public relations efforts.Building relationships with the media takes time. Press releases are often not published or published once and then forgotten.

6 Use online articles as printed fact sheets.These can easily be distributed to customers or handed out at networking events.

7 Improve web site visibility. Articles submitted to leading web sites and directories can contain links to a corporate web site.

8 Establishes credibility for a company or for an individual service provider

9 Establishes a personality, too, allowing potential customers to get to know the point person. This establishes a "personal brand" for a corporate salesperson or individual professional such as an attorney or real estate agent.

10 Effective to use in an integrated media campaign. Online articles can be easily emailed or referred to in a direct mailing.

Don Simkovich of Right Touch Marketing & Media, ph: 818-667-1789, offers writing articles as a cost-effective solution to meet the marketing needs for any business.