Every deal is really BIG, or it’s HUGE, and sometimes it’s downright MASSIVE! “Circus barker marketing” has been all the rage with small business for some time now.
You know the type of pitch: Become a millionaire, or a zillionaire, in three easy steps. It’s a $10,000 value, but for you, if you buy now, it’s only $2.50! And the infamous, “But wait —here’s what I’m going to throw in.” And, by all means we must, “ACT NOW!”
It is a veritable jungle of expletives, imperatives, and superlatives out there.
It may work for some, but many of us, like holistic practitioners, coaches, professionals and other conscious entrepreneurs, it is a very uncomfortable approach. It just doesn’t feel right. Since it’s not a good fit, we don’t do it, but we know we have to do something to market our business or practice.
The good news is that there is another way. I call it organic marketing because it works from the inside out — by sharing your expertise you can build your business or practice, and make a difference too.
It all begins with your knowledge. You simply write a timely, relevant article from 500 to 700 words long on an aspect of your profession or practice that you believe is important to share.
This one article can do a lot. In addition to helping a lot of other folks out there in cyberspace, it goes to work for you in multiple ways including: enhancing the content of your Web site, beefing up your Blog or adding interest to your eZine, and it can even be used as an incentive to get people to join your email list.
But perhaps on of the most beneficial ways to use your knowledge and expertise is to send it to live on other people’s sites, or be featured in other people’s Blogs and eZines. Called “article marketing,” this is not only a very powerful way to help others by discriminating your expertise, but you can also build your reputation, and bring qualified potential clients to your Web site.
It works because content is still king, and the Internet is full of content hungry containers — thousands of Blogs, Web sites, and eZines are created every day and they all need fresh content. You can fill that need with your valuable information, and in return gain great PR and drive qualified traffic to your site. Best of all, the cost is minimal.
Based on your expertise, you write that great content-based, keyword-rich article in your field of knowledge. Make sure the article includes keywords that are relevant to your Web site. If this is difficult for you to do alone, there are many good, inexpensive writers and editors available online at sites like elance.com, or you may have writers in your personal or business network.
Next, create a short resource box with your copyright information, your value statement, and links to your Web site and any special offers or other information that is relevant to the article you've written. Append the resource box to the end of the article.
Then, submit the article to one or more high quality, heavily trafficked article directories like ezines.com. If you want to automate the submission process, there are also services available that will submit your material to multiple sites for a small fee.
Now, wait a couple of weeks and Google your article. You’ll be amazed at how it has spread! If the writing is good and process is handled well, the results will be impressive. You will see a lot more, better-qualified traffic; you’ll be getting great publicity for your expertise; and you will save marketing dollars. Finally, your information will be reaching a lot more people and, as a bonus, you will feel really good about your marketing program.