Don’t let me scare you off talking about writing articles, newsletters and blogs. I know it sounds like a ridiculous amount of work. And if you’re a business owner, we both know you don’t have time to write all that “stuff”. However, you don’t have to do all three. And with my tips and tricks, it’s a lot easier than you think.

How will writing blogs, articles or newsletters help you dominate the web?

Let’s say you sell promotional materials. Something a friend of mine in the trade calls the “trash and trinkets” niche. I’ve done enough networking to know there are a lot of people in that business fighting for a limited amount of local marketing dollars.

People want to deal with an expert. Whether they’re B-to-B or B-to-C, they want to spend their dollars with the company that’s the biggest local expert. That way, they’re likely to get the most bang for their buck.

But how do they find the expert?

No business owner or consumer is going to believe your hype laden website. And I see websites all the time that talk about themselves like they’re the “expert” in their field.

"We give the best service, we go the extra mile, we have 100 years of collective knowledge, our engineers are all Phds…or we have the lowest prices in town."

And I always recommend to clients that they don’t compete on price. When you compete on price, everyone loses.

Start out writing a blog

Writing a blog is the easiest way to start establishing yourself as the local expert. Write short informative “bits” on your subject. A promotional materials firm can write about:

• Pros and cons of using name-brand clothes for promotions.
• How many hands does a promotional pen end up in before it’s gone?
• Which golf promotional items give the most “bang for the buck”?

And the real beauty of it is, every one of your blog articles can have a link to more information on your website. Case in point, if you want to know how to generate quick and easy articles or blog entries, just follow that link to an article on my site.

Also, Google considers every blog entry a page of new content on your site. Even if it’s just a paragraph long. Are you telling me you can’t generate a paragraph of helpful content for your customers three times a week?

Does it work?

Yes, indeed! I used to have to establish myself as an expert on web copywriting every time I sat down with a new or prospective client. Now, when we sit down, the first thing they say is, “I visited your website. You’ve got a lot of great information.” They don’t have to ask if I know my stuff. They are already convinced I do.

Take advantage of all that content you generate…

Eventually, if you continue blogging, you might also start writing articles, case studies and white papers to post on your site. And maybe start generating a newsletter once a month to keep your name in front of clients. You can even have a copy writer generate the articles and newsletter for you. I do that for a number of small proprietors and a couple of large businesses.

UPDATE - (6-9-2010) I'm now using an article spinner to take one article and turn it into 250 different articles. Does that sound like an amazing time saver? Read this review of the best article spinner.

Then, once you have all this content on your website and blog, you can use that content to start creating ebooks to give away as premiums or collect a bunch of the content into a book to get published. You can give the books away to special clients or potential clients and sell it on your website. Nothing establishes you as an expert like having written a book!

 

Guess what I plan to do with all my newsletters, articles and blog entries soon?

Check out our complete list of business marketing articles and online marketing articles!

Follow my blog!

Follow me on Twitter!

Online Marketing help...

Download our FREE 38 page Online Marketing Primer to learn about the most effective online marketing methods available today. Then Contact me for an Online Marketing quote or to discuss creating a cost effective online marketing program to drive customers or clients to your website.

Premiere Vendor in the Minneapolis, Minnesota Copywriter, Copy Writer Directory at Marketingtool.com.

Member: TC Web Pros

Member: MIMA - Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association