Article Directory :: Internet Marketing/Online Business Articles

An Open Letter to Small Biz Owners: How to Get More Prospects (and Money!) in the Door

By Lani and Allen Voivod

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 29Sep2007 Word count: 522 Viewed: 301 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Dear success-minded small business owner,

We understand you've been wondering how to get more prospects, customers, and clients to your business.

You're definitely not alone.

However, because you're reading this, it's clear you're thinking beyond your next one-shot marketing effort to The Big Picture, where all of your marketing pieces work together to drive people to one central, informative, evangelizing hub:

Your website.

Smart thinking, friend. Very smart, indeed.

Ads in newspapers and magazines go bye-bye after they're published, and brochures get tossed in the circular file as soon as your prospect knows you're not looking. Your website, on the other hand, gets to brag about you, deliver information on your behalf, and encourage people to contact you to fulfill their needs, 24/7 – forever, if necessary.

More importantly, folks don't usually just "happen" upon your website. They arrive because they're looking for a certain product or service, and they've discovered you based on their specific online searches.

And odds are you're getting a lot of inquiries – and business! – from online sources these days. (If you're not, then your Internet-savvy competition is.) That's why we recommend marketing tools that are more content-driven.

>>>Press releases, articles, lists of valuable tips and advice, and a blog, to name a few.

Here's why:

1. Using targeted content to reach your ideal audience allows you to leverage the content over and over, to make it COST EFFECTIVE.

2. Content-driven marketing makes search engines very happy, and this makes it EASIER for people to find you online.

3. Instead of being assaulted by "generic" or "in-your-face" marketing efforts, your audience receives information they're searching for, that's valuable to them, and that offers a friendly, helpful voice and style. THIS BUILDS TRUST AND GOOD FEELINGS, which invites a relationship, which in turn becomes that coveted "warm ‘n fuzzy" emotion, driving prospects to your front door.

(Knock knock! It's your next opportunity!)

Now, some people have questions about what it means to leverage content successfully.

Let's use one targeted article as an example, "5 Tips to Finding the Perfect Widget." This one article could be used:

- To send to publications looking for content to fill space around their ads – which positions your business not as an advertiser, but as an expert with thoughtful information to share.

- To send to article directories online, creating links to your website that raise the site's profile in the search engines.

- To send through a press release service, creating links to your website on online news services and providing additional print publication opportunities.

- To post on your website (and/or blog) as keyword-rich content, to get search engines to come back to your website more frequently and give the site greater credibility and traffic.

- To excerpt and use on a postcard or direct mail campaign, which would direct people to your website to read the rest of it.

Smart, cost-effective, guerrilla-like, and wildly strategic, right?

Right.

Warmest regards,

Lani and Allen Voivod aka the "Content Lovers"

EasyPublish™ this article - publishers click here

More articles by Lani and Allen Voivod

Free Report!
Ten Essential Secrets Of Article Marketing ... Grab Your Free
Copy Now:

Need Content?
Regular Top Quality Content for your Blog, Ezine or Website ...
Delivered Direct,
For Free!
Click For Details