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THIS WEEK
Article Copywriting - Why Your Business Needs to Share Its Knowledge
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| Copywriting Tip - Article Copywriting: Why Your Business Needs to Share its Knowledge |
One of the best ways to boost your credibility and expertise in the eyes of clients and potential clients is to share your knowledge with them. Of course you could do this one-on-one with each and every client, but if you do this it will be a very expensive exercise in terms of your time. If you really want to leverage your time and extend the reach of your marketing effort, then writing articles is the way to go!
Articles form the basis of most magazines and newspapers that we read. They also form the basis of web pages, ezines and electronic newsletters. People crave knowledge – they love to know how something works, to build their personal knowledge base and if they are looking for a product or a service they want to know enough to help them make an informed decision.
 My experience is if you create an article you should recycle it and use it in as many places as possible.
- Submit it to magazine editors
- Use it with your ads as advertorial about your business
- Attach a copy to all business proposals to boost your credibility
- Hand them out at Trade Shows
- Include it in your ezine or newsletters
- Include it on your website
- Submit it to article sites around the web
So, if you want to adopt the use of article marketing, here are a few of my top tips for getting the best bang for your buck.
Length Matters
The best articles are generally between 550 – 750 words. This is enough to make a few key points, convey core information and still remain interesting.
Keywords Are Important
If you are going to use your article on the net a reasonable length article also has enough content to allow you to insert a good number of your keywords in the content, which increases the likelihood of your article gaining good search engine rankings. Your keywords should appear in the title, the article summary and throughout your text.
Watch duplicate content
Search engines are very clever. They know where a particular stream of words first appears on the net. If you don't follow the rules with where you place your article content, you can be penalised.
So what is duplicate content? Google says in its rules:
“Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar...In some cases, content is duplicated across domains in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or garner more traffic via popular or long-tail queries.”
What this means is search engines know if you have the same content on different pages within your website. The simple rule of thumb is never to use the same article on different pages within your domain, or within different domains that you own.
This doesn't mean that you can't use other people's articles on your website though. Just make sure you comply with all copyright rules, credit the person or the source of the article and include the site title, a link to the site, the author's name and follow any rules they may have about reprinting the article.
For example, all of my articles are available for reprinting in your newsletters or magazines provided you follow a few simple rules you can read here. http://www.heartharmony.com.au/articleuse.html
... But share your information widely
This may sound like it contradicts the previous point, but the wider you share your information the higher your credibility, the better your marketing (and the better back-links you will get to your site).
There are numerous article directories and article sites across the web. One of the best known is Ezine Articles, which carries a lot of weight with search engines.
You could spend days searching out all of the sites to submit your content to, or you could do as I do and automate the process through a reputable article submitting site. I personally use Article Marketer and have found it brilliant.
Make it interesting & fresh
Your content needs to be interesting and fresh. Unless it is interesting people won't read it and you miss out on all of the marketing benefits. You also need to write regularly to keep your marketing advantage.
You don't have to DIY
If the thought of writing an article is as exciting as going to a dentist there are a few ways you can do it. You can just talk into a tape-recorder about your topic and have someone transcribe your notes or you could hire an article copywriter.
Article copywriters specialise in researching and writing articles about any topic. You are given the copyright to the content so you can publish the article under your name.
For example in the past few months we have written articles for clients about NLP processes for job interviews, bird lice, commercial leases, travel destinations, bollards, financial products, reiki, pens and a whole host of other topics. Just tell us what you need and we can write it for you!
Article writing is a great strategy for building your business. Give it a go and share your expertise with your clients (even if you hire an article copywriter to help you!)
| HR Tip - Tap into the Knowledge of your Team |
Have you ever considered how much knowledge is in the heads of your employees ... and what would happen if they left, were run over by a bus or retired?
 Do you have any strategies in place to capture and use this knowledge? Knowledge management is a buzz phrase that the big companies have been looking at for a few years now, and smaller businesses are starting to see the need.
One of my favourite clients, the Knowledge Management Team at BP Bulwer have been working on this for years. They go out of their way to capture and share information through tools suchs as in-house Wikis, intranet and through major cultural changes to ensure sharing information is rewarded.
Small to medium business needs to look at how they share their knowledge. If you send an employee to a conference or familiarisation session one of the requirements should be that they document what they learnt and share it with the team.
Write down all your procedures so someone new coming in knows what to do in what order for success.
Have one centralised phone list and database so everyone has access to the most up to date phone numbers for suppliers and contacts.
Have your top employees write articles sharing their expertise with the industry (and building your company's credibility in the process!)
Your employees have a very valuable resource walking around in their heads - tap into it!
Real estate is a highly competitive game - especially commercial real estate. In the present economic climate many real estate businesses are struggling but one stands out because it has bucked the trend and gone for a very unique niche.
Aussie Supermarket Brokers buy, lease, build and sell independent supermarkets and convenience stores across Australia ... that's all. All the agents successfully have run their own independent supermarket so they know the retail niche business inside and out. And business is booming!
Independent supermarkets in general are a great business investment with returns significantly higher than inflation. Stores in sea change areas and rural areas do better again than the norm, so many people are looking at owning an independent supermarket or convenience store to build a nest egg for their future.
The trick these guys tell me is not to compete with the big guys, but to find your niche (yes there is that word again) in your local community.
The guys at Aussie Supermarket Brokers send out a great newsletter with tips on growing your store and lots of retail news. They know that their business doesn't stop once there is a signature on a piece of paper - but their job is to grow the industry as a whole.
Aussie Supermarket Brokers are a great example of how to dominate your niche in a competitive industry - know your niche, hire experienced people and share your knowledge.
Keeping with our theme of dominating your niche, many people complain that all the good business niches are taken. This is particularly true of highly competitive industries such as fashion.
This blog post I share with you information about a Colombian designer who has created fashionable bullet proof fashion and is laughing all the way to the bank. Stab proof polo shirt anyone?
What I Wish I Knew About Websites When I Was Just Starting Out
exuberantly yours
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
PS: This week's Small Business Tips blog also included posts about making your own motivation and 21st birthday gifts.
 PPS: Check out my new Hub Pages:
http://hubpages.com/hub/So-You-Have-To-Conduct-an-Employee-Appraisal
http://hubpages.com/hub/Dealing-With-An-Overconfident-Employee-During-An-Employee-Appraisal
http://hubpages.com/hub/Great-Employee-Appraisal-Questions
http://hubpages.com/hub/What-Should-Your-Employee-Policy-Manual-Contain
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