Article marketing takes it on the chin quite often among Internet marketing pundits. I have had a few things to say about article marketing through the years myself. But you have to ask if article marketing in all its forms (both good and bad) is not reflective marketing. The answer should be yes, but it’s not always so. Let’s take a closer look at what is going on.
Classic Article Marketing: Stylized Copy for Targeted Markets
An honest article marketer combines the skills of the freelance writer with an Internet marketing strategist. The first order of business for the article marketer is to define the message that is being promoted about a specific Website. Let’s say the site sells shoes. There are a thousand marketing messages that can be crafted for a shoe site so let’s say the marketer has chosen to focus on trail shoes.
Given just this one aspect, the article marketer will look for Websites that publish articles about trail hikes, gear for hiking, hiking activities, etc. Once these sites have been identified they must be vetted. You want to submit articles to sites that have real audiences, real readers. These sites may very well publish only original material but you can look for professional or semi-professional markets.
Having compiled a short list of markets you write the kind of article they would publish. The article should combine the expertise of the business or business owner with the needs of the Website(s) readership. When ready, you submit the article for consideration. Each Website that accepts such an article will want unique value. You may not be able to distribute more than a small handful of such articles. But there are other topics, other days.
The goal of these articles is to raise brand awareness among the readership of the Websites; you want those people to think of YOUR shoe site first when they consider buying trail shoes online. They have to see value in the business. These are real people, not mindless algorithms following links.
Some very good article marketers blend the freelance approach with what could loosely be called “guest blogging”. Unlike guest blog articles (which are essentially spam looking for links), guest article marketers are only interested in stimulating reader interest in a brand proposition. Hence, they have to write articles that appeal to the target audience, very much like in the freelance market. But guest article marketers may be able to leverage more general-purpose Websites using opinion pieces, fun articles, holiday themes, etc.
The difference between article marketing and article spamming is the intent behind the article: a marketer is trying to identify and reach out to an audience; a spammer just wants links.
Article Marketing Spam: Publish 1 Article Everywhere
You’d think that people would have given up on this concept in the aftermath of Google’s Panda and Penguin meltdowns. In fact, all people have done is pretend that their new article marketing spam is different from their old article spam.
In the old days you would submit your articles to a popular “article marketing directory” (a few still survive today) and wait for the links to come in. Some of these people still use software to drop links to their articles.
Now you take a concept and rewrite it, submitting each rewrite to “guest blog” directories and blogs accepting guest posts. These articles are pretty much fluff pieces and don’t offer anything of value. Unlike with true article marketing practices you’re not really targeting people but rather search engines.
In article marketing you have metrics that evaluate how effective your articles are at bringing in targeted traffic. In search engine spam you look at backlink profiles and watch your search referral traffic. The metrics you watch tell you in the most honest way possible what you are really doing.
If you don’t expect your articles to drive much traffic to your sites then you’re just spamming. A true marketing article stimulates brand value queries in search and drives real traffic from its own embedded links (assuming any are included — that is not always the case). You may even see an increase in DIRECT traffic, where people just type or paste in the domain name.
Article Marketing Spam: Guest Post Your Way Across the Web
Serious guest posting is only done for links. This has become one of the most insidious forms of Web spam because it’s hand-crafted and carefully packaged in rationalizations and justifications. The guest posts are being used to replace older link building strategies that led to search engine penalties. Hence, it’s only a matter of time before these types of guest posts lead to new penalties.
A leading example of bad guest posting practice is to use an author’s box or signature to promote a Website. The author bio should only be used to inform the readers of who the author is. If the author’s name is so unimportant that it has to be subordinated to a poorly disguised pitch for some Website then the quality of the writing is not likely to be very good.
A high-value guest post provides a new insight or perspective for a topic that is popular with the blog’s regular visitors. If the blog only depends on guest posts for content it’s not likely to have a large core audience. The difference between a high-value blog with a lot of contributors and a blog that just accepts guest posts is defined by the editorial policies of the blogs. The high-value editorial policy has clear and specific goals and guidelines. A guest post blog’s policy mirrors search engine guidelines.
People who write a lot of guest posts are not tracking the effective reach of those posts. They don’t care how much traffic the blogs send the site being promoted. They don’t even track brand-related queries.
Article Marketing Spam: Writing Really Long Blog Comments
Some people who think they are “clever” have figured out how to get long articles on blogs without submitting them for review: they just leave really long comments. These comments look like they were written as 500-word themes for high school classes. And they inevitably contain links back to promoted Websites (even if the links are only embedded under fake names).
This kind of link building makes any Website trying to benefit from it look spammy and unpressional. Real blog comments don’t look like freelance essays written by Fiverr contractors. Real blog comments provide useful, meaningful discussion about what is on the blogs. Real blog comments are not marketing tools.
That said, a gifted marketer may recognize the value in responding to blog posts made about a specific company or Website, acknowledging that the brand is aware of and appreciates the value of the discussion, even if the blogger is not writing the most flattering content. Marketing outreach through blog comments is respectively REactive, not invasive and spammy. The marketer focuses on the needs of the audience; the spammer is looking for links.
Long blog comments devalue the blogs where they are posted; but this problem is especially severe when the long blog comments are published through software, either using the same text on hundreds or thousands of sites or spinning the articles. The people who publish these comments have no real knowledge of marketing or how to build brand value.
Reflective Marketing Drives Traffic from Other Websites
A reflective strategy promotes a Website through the content on other sites. In its broadest sense reflective marketing even includes search marketing; but in a daily application of reflective marketing your strategy is designed to complement search referral traffic, or to enhance it indirectly by building brand value.
An honest reflective strategy relegates search-related metrics to second tier reporting. The reflective marketer wants to build a channel of brand communication through non-search resources. You don’t do this simply by syndicating your articles on high profile news sites. You do this by being a real part of the ongoing discussion. You create and respond to real user interest elsewhere all the while earning recognition for being the brand.
When an agency acts on behalf of a client, the agency may “ghost write” for the client but this is a risky strategy without close client review because the client’s brand and expertise is being put on the line. Other tactics that may work better include writing special interest articles that provide clear and specific information on behalf of the client to targeted demographics. The agency may have to craft more than 1 message when targeting multiple audiences.
Reflective marketing strategies create bridges between traffic sources and brands; they do not focus on links or worry about the SEO value of links.
If your goal is to build links then your article marketing is NOT a good reflective strategy. If, however, your goal is to build an audience channel for a specific demographic then article marketing may be a GREAT reflective strategy.
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