Writing and publishing articles, as long as they relate to your area of expertise, will always result in traffic to your web site. However, not all those visitors will become clients, or even prospects. Why? Because oftentimes they don't find what they're looking for. But this can be avoided.
Getting traffic is pointless if your visitors don't have a need that your products and services can fill. If you're just getting started in article marketing, or you're not getting the results you want from your efforts, consider the following tips for writing articles that will make your ideal clients want to work with you.
1. Know Who You Want to Attract
The first step to attracting ideal clients is knowing who, exactly, you want to attract. Every writer needs to have their ideal reader in mind, and when you're writing articles to grow your business, this ideal reader is your ideal client. The people you like to help, who get good results from working with you, and who can afford your services. You might identify these people based on their profession, hobbies, age, interests, sex, income level, or even marital status.
If you're not sure who your ideal client is, consider the solutions you provide and your own personality and preferences, and then think about how you can tailor them to fit a particular niche's needs, fears, and goals. For example, if you are a financial planner who specializes in college savings plans, and you're also a mom with young kids in the house, then maybe your ideal client is young moms who want to start saving because you can easily relate to and build rapport with people in that niche. Keep in mind that you can segment your article marketing efforts to reach different subgroups of clients. For the financial planner example, another subgroup may be grandparents, and you could tailor another article for them.
2. Use Keywords that Your Ideal Readers Will Search Online
After you've identified your ideal client, think about their online behaviors. When someone goes to Google to search for something, it's usually because they have a question or problem and they're looking for an answer. With that in mind, think about what that person might enter into the search field. What words and phrases do they use to look for the information you provide?
The most common search words and phrases may not be what you think, which is why you shouldn't just guess. Luckily, Google makes it easy to see what people are searching for with their Keyword Tool (you can access it here: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal). This should give you plenty of ideas for popular keywords, and then you can use them in your article title, introduction, and throughout the text.
3. Write about Your Products and Services
This may be a no-brainer, but when you're writing to attract ideal clients you should focus your topics on the specific programs and products you are selling. This means you need to focus your article marketing efforts around a particular service or program you offer. For example, if you have a book about house-training puppies, then you can write about all the different aspects of getting a puppy to go outside. But you wouldn't want to write about teaching a puppy to sit and stay because that doesn't directly link to what you have to offer.
Why is this so important? Well, let's say a person goes to Google and searches for information on how to train a dog to sit. When your article shows up in the search results, then they click on the link and read your article. All that is fine and good, but you've only attracted a reader-not a client. You aren't selling information on how to train dogs to sit. See the difference? If you want a person to buy from you, you have to write about what you have to sell.
4. Give Useful Information, Without Giving Away Too Much
There's nothing more attractive to prospective clients than useful information. If you really want to get people excited about you, your expertise, and what you offer, then you have to be knowledgeable and helpful. And you have to give them some kind of information that will bring them good results. At the same time, you don't want to give away the milk if they haven't bought the cow, right? And your cow's milk is valuable.
The key is to make the information in your articles useful, but incomplete. This is a good rule of thumb that many experts and information marketers use for their marketing content, including articles. The best thing about this is that it's not hard to avoid giving away too much information. It's nearly impossible to put all your knowledge into one article-you'll always have to leave something out.
Writing Content that Attracts Ideal Clients for Your Business
Article marketing can be much more than simply a way to get traffic to your web site-they can be compelling marketing pieces designed to lead to a sale. Before writing your next marketing article, take a few minutes to get clear on who you want to work with and what you provide them with. The clearer you can get about who this person is and what keeps them up at night, the easier it will be to attract them with your writing. Knowing your ideal client and the keywords they search for to find solutions and using that information as you write means people will come to your article ready to find an answer or information that relates to their question. And when you provide content that is useful and previews the services and products you offer at the same time, then converting these readers to clients will be much easier. Follow these tips to ensure every article you write and publish helps fill your business with people you're excited about having as clients.
Melinda Copp helps speakers, coaches, consultants, and self-employed professionals write and publish to establish expertise, build relationships with their clients and prospects, and make more money. For a free copy of "Write to Grow Richer; The 7 Secrets of Writing to Sell Your Services," go to http://www.WritersSherpaPrograms.com.