Promotional Article Writing

By Scott F. Geld
Posted Monday, August 16, 2004

Your product is fantastic your service excellent and your customers will make huge savings - but no one is buying. It is a challenge familiar to many a business owner. One sure-fire way to get your business noticed online at minimal cost is to sit down and write about it - or commission someone else to write about it for you. Promotional or advertorial articles have traditionally worked well to publicize businesses offline in magazines, newspapers and circulars. Now, the Internet offers a myriad of web-based opportunities in the form of specialist news sites, portals, on-line newspapers, ezines and newsletters - all of which require a source of fresh & interesting content. But where should you begin?

What do your customers read?

You should first consider the types of material your potential customers will read and where they will view or download that material from. Perhaps they subscribe to specific online trade circulars or newsletters published by a site or magazine they subscribe to. Look to cover all the options and where possible obtain subscription data so you can determine if the target audience of a publication matches with the audience for your product or service. You will have little success if you target the wrong audience who have little interest in what you are selling.

Making the content work for you

Developing the content for your article is obviously critical to your success with this marketing method. It is also important to realise that whilst some editors will accept promotional material, others will not. You will therefore need to think carefully about how your article is constructed. One way to
approach this is to have a few different versions of the piece to hand - from one that overtly promotes your product or service to one that does so more subtly. You can then choose which version to submit to the editor based on their preferences.

An effective publicity angle for those that do accept some form of promotional advertising in an article is to present your product or service as a solution to a problem. To increase your chances of publication, look to base it on topical events. For instance, if you are selling anti-spam software you can base it around a piece that discusses the implications of the latest laws against spam. If you do not have the time to pen such advertising, then an alternative is to have someone interview you about a topic, and ask them to put the material together for you.

Advertising your business through promotional online articles works wonders for businesses all around the world. Make sure you don't miss out on this global promotional opportunity.

About the Author
Scott F. Geld is the Director of Marketing for MarketingBlaster.com, a company providing targeted traffic and leads: (http://www.MarketingBlaster.com)