Why Article Writing Should (Still) Be A Part Of Your Marketing Strategy

When I first started online, marketers had limited resources. 

Back then, we had to make do with blogging, email marketing, joint ventures and posting in forums.

Now there are all kinds of things you can do to market your business online. And the options keep growing by the day.

From blogging to podcasting to YouTube to running ads to building an audience on any of the million social media platforms… you have plenty of options to choose from.

Article marketing.

It’s not as cool or sexy as whatever the gurus are teaching now, but article marketing has been around since the beginning of the internet.

With all the other options, why is writing an article STILL such an effective marketing strategy?

The whole point of marketing is to attract customers to your business.

While you can do that with ads and social media posts, articles do a much better job of attracting your ideal customers.

People read your articles, they get introduced to you, your philosophy and your business.

Some will really connect with you and want to read more, subscribe to your email list and maybe eventually become a customer.

And some won’t like you for whatever reason and they’ll leave.

Either way, your article did its job – it attracted people who would be a good fit for your business, and it repelled people who wouldn’t.

My first job after college was an assistant sales manager at a gym, selling personal training packages.

I didn’t know anything about sales at the time but one of the first lessons the VP of Sales taught me was that people buy from people they know, like and trust.

So my job wasn’t to “sell” people training, my job was to get to know new members, build relationships with them and offer to help them with their fitness goals.

Once I stopped trying to sell people and started getting to know them and help them instead, selling became a lot easier.

You’re not trying to hard sell people with an article.

You’re writing to help them. You’re writing to educate and entertain them. 

And as they read your articles, they get to see your personality.

Your style, word choice and the personal stories you tell all give the reader a chance to get to know, like and trust you.

Making them more likely to buy your products and services.

The problem with most marketing channels is they have a short shelf life.

You make a great post on social media, it gets lots of likes and shares, you get a bunch of attention, then it’s over.

Or you come up with an awesome ad idea that kills for awhile. 

But eventually ad costs rise, people stop responding and it’s no longer profitable.

People can discover your business from an article you wrote years ago.

Once you publish it, it’s out there forever. Working on your behalf, bringing you leads and subscribers while you sleep.

Plus, over time, as you publish more, your body of work builds and the momentum compounds.

You can’t say the same for most other forms of marketing.

You’re right, it is.

Writing a good article, that people actually want to read, is way harder than sitting around posting on Twitter all day.

Because most marketers aren’t willing to do the hard stuff.

They’re looking to do as little work as possible.

So they hang out on social media all day, looking for the next marketing fad that promises them easy money without having to do any work.

Meanwhile, smart marketers will keep writing articles.

I know it’s easy to get pulled into all the latest marketing trends. And that’s fine, you should explore new marketing channels.

Just don’t forget the tried and true fundamentals, like writing articles.

Because it’s STILL one of the best ways to grow your business.