A popular, proven strategy that builds brand identity, increases recognition as an expert amongst peers, and helps label you as an influential source in your target market is article writing. However, if you are unsure of the topics that would resonate with your potential customers, or are unaware of resources to help develop an article marketing campaign, I have identified 5 proven strategies that can aid in creating an article writing funnel that can consistently generate topics of interest specifically for your target audience.
1. Surveys: Hidden Source of Story Ideas
3 or 5 question surveys can garner a wealth of information useful in developing new products and services, marketing opportunities, good will and feedback from current and prospective customers. Responses can be used to develop story ideas, providing relevant subject-matter information that can be used in article, service and product creation.
2. Blog Hopping
Develop ideas from other sites’ content. Frequently visit your favorite or the most popular blogs and see what people are talking about. Is it controversial? Can you offer a different perspective? Can you create an article around the topic? Once you develop your article, link back to the originating site. Don’t forget to leave a comment on the site’s blog and let the owner know you stopped by and have expanded the conversation on the topic. You will drive more traffic to your site and increase readership.
3. Analyze Your Blog
Review your own blog and determine which postings receive the most views and reader comments/feedback. Develop a short series on the topic(s) to entice return visits. Use your social media outlets/networks to promote the series and increase blog signups. By giving readers want they want, you will develop loyal readership and capture those all important email addresses.
4. Article Directory Goldmine
Running out of ideas? Visit article directories and read articles written specifically for your target audience. Develop a new “take” on the article’s theme or select an important point, and write about it from your perspective. Article directories are excellent sources for staying abreast of popular topics and you can use them as a starting point to express your opinion and share insights with your ideal audience.
5. Web 2.0: Social Media Opens Doors
Social media venues such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, etc., offer unfettered access to topics, opinions and experts on literally any conceivable topic. Search these sites for resources and various comments that stimulate your creative writing processes. Create a swipe file of ideas, so you will an ongoing repository of new potential subject matter.
It may take a few months of article writing to really benefit from these tactics, and you may be too busy to implement all of them at once. However, the more options you choose, the greater opportunity to increased visibility and nurture brand creation. As more readers visit your site or interact via social media connections, the greater your opportunity to increase traffic, leads and profits.
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Relationship marketing is the process of attracting, maintaining, and enhancing relationships with key people. It is the establishment and coordination of lines of communication between two or more parties.
Recently, I had another opportunity to take charge and solidify relationships. Read more
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You know, ever so often I visit a very useful web site, Copyscape, to check if anyone has copied language from my web site. Most times, I’m lucky and find no perpetrators. Recently, however, I’ve identified three sites that have blatantly copied verbiage from my homepage and two other sections of the site.
Now of course, there are but so many ways to describe virtual assisting, but an individual should at least place her personal “brand” on the web site; and thereby, of course, not encountering the rage of the originating author who is determined to protect her work product.
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another author, or excerpts, ideas, or passages therefrom, and passing the material off as one’s own creation. (University of Colorado Library)
Copyscape recommends the individual act quickly to have the language removed. (See suggestions below):
1. Look for contact details on the offending site and send a polite message asking for the material to be removed. If there are no contact details available, try emailing webmaster@ the domain.
2. Use a Whois service to find out the website owner’s name and telephone number and contact them directly. Enter the domain name in the search box and the contact information should appear towards the bottom of the page.
3. Contact the web hosting company used by the site and inform them of their customer’s abuse. This information is also available through a Whois search.
4. Send a formal ‘Cease and Desist’ letter notifying the offending party that they must remove the stolen content from their site. Some sample letters are available on the web.
5. File a notice of Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) infringement with search engines such as Google and others to have the offending site removed from their search results.
6. If you need proof of infringement, you can use the Internet Archive to show that the content appeared on your site at an earlier date than it appeared on the offending site.
I have completed Step 1 and given the perpetrators five (5) days to act. I will revisit the offending sites to ascertain their response. I’ve also asked each to respond to my email. If action isn’t taken within the allocated time, I shall proceed through the process to have the content removed.
Prime Directive: Branding is not about getting your targets to choose you over your competition. Branding is about getting your prospects to see you as the only solution to their problem.
First Law of Big Time Branding: Brands are not about you. Brands are about them.
Second Law: If the branding is wrong, so as everything else.
Third Law: Advertising grabs their minds. Branding gets their hearts.
Fourth Law: Build from your strengths.
Fifth Law: If you can’t articulate it, neither can anyone else.
Sixth Law: The success of a brand varies directly with the ability to accept the mantle of leadership.
Seventh Law: The stronger your brand, the less susceptible you are to pricing issues in competition.
Eighth Law: The brand begins in the business plan.
Ninth Law: Advertising is not branding. Branding is branding. Advertising raises the awareness of the brand you create.
Tenth Law: There is no such thing as co-branding.
First Law of Web Branding: The more you niche, the better you do.
Second Law: If you don’t get them on the first page, you don’t get them at all.
Your brand promise is only what customers see but also what they FEEL. The eyes and brain create a kaleidoscope of impressions: past and present; real and perceived; rational and emotional. It is what is physically in front of customer’s eyes and senses, and then what the brain does with that information.
No one will ever know or remember your brand unless it is the same every time they are exposed to it.
It is the most important thing that the company promises to deliver – EVERY time.
Your Brand Promise is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.
Once you define these elements, your promise is to deliver every time, again and again and again! Without consistency, brand awareness becomes impossible to achieve.
Repetition is the key to the success of the branding promise. You must self-enforce and live it!
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