Are Customers Confused by Your Article Marketing Efforts?

Have you ever looked over a glossy magazine advertisement and found yourself unable to find the company tagline?  Or, have you driven down the freeway, blinded by a vibrant billboard – only to pass by not knowing who paid for the advertisement?  The only responses these advertisements elicit are confusion, followed by laughter at the advertising firm and freelance writer responsible for the senselessness.

Cleary, these advertisements were a tremendous waste of money, and as a self-respecting business owner, you would never subject yourself to such ROI mockery.  If this is the case, why are you not maximizing the power of the resource box for your article directory submissions?

Are you committing an online advertising sin?

Too many webmasters and business owners fail to realize the critical real estate an article directory’s resource box provides.  Committing business-savvy sin, many webmasters simply throw a URL in the article’s resource box, or compose a biography that is drier than the Sahara.

If you find that your directory articles are not funneling in the level of traffic you would like, then it may be time to revamp your resource box.   As freelance writers who are highly specialized in creating content for article directory submissions, we are happy to compose a powerful resource box that attracts your target audience.  With that said, should you choose to embark upon this process on your own, there are several important aspects to incorporate in creating a resource box that maximizes your article directory presence.

Three ways to maximize your article directory submissions’ power

Benefit the reader: Attracting a reader to your website means enticing them with benefits.  Although these may not be tangible, wording them in a beneficial manner will sub-consciously trigger the reader to click on your website.

Do you have articles or case studies published on your website?  Or will you be giving away a free white paper or ezine?  Encourage the reader to expand their knowledge base through visiting your site and enjoying these giveaways.  Even if you only have product descriptions and sales copy, ask your freelance writer to make even this content sound compelling.  For example, if your website simply has product descriptions of cell phones, your freelance writer could write, “Learn how the right cell phone can reduce your risk of brain cancer by visiting our website today.”  Providing the reader with a clearly defined benefit will prompt them to take advantage of the opportunity and visit your site.

Incorporate your branding: You should view your article directory submissions as another arm of your strategic marketing efforts, and therefore, you want to ensure that your branding is cohesive across all your advertising mediums.

At the close of the resource box, feel free to include a “soft sell” or tagline for your company – which ideally will tie back into the “benefits” portion of your resource box.

Touching back upon the cell phone website, an effective tagline that brings together both the beneficial and branding elements could be, “Dedicated to saving consumers money and protecting their health, Mr. Cell Phone evaluates all products with a meticulous eye for quality and safety.”

Include SEO details: Article directories are an excellent online marketing tool, especially when it relates to SEO.  Indeed, you enjoy the back link derived from the article directory, but you can take the SEO benefits one step further by hyper-linking the keyword in question.  Therefore, if you want to boost your website’s ranking for “cell phone reviews,” you should hyper-link that particular keyphrase with an appropriate URL.  From a SEO perspective, this is more powerful than simply listing the URL to your website.

The resource box should not be viewed as an opportunity to toot the author’s horn, nor should it be an empty space filled with one lonely URL.  Instead, take advantage of article marketing to build your branding, traffic, and SEO.  In addition, you will never have to worry about other webmasters and business owners laughing at your “advertisement” that neglected to include a tagline.