Don't Sell: Engage Your Customers Through Your Online Article Submissions

It is the temptation of every website owner who sells products or services to try to use the articles that he writes for article marketing to sell his business or products.

In the article marketing world, this type of promoting of one's self and one's business is totally off limits though. As a product or service based website owner, what alternate approach can you take that will produce better results?

I want to teach some article marketing tips that will enable you to subtly, implicitly do a different type of "selling" to your readers using techniques that you might not have considered before.

First of all, let's review what purposes your online article submissions should serve:

1 - Your articles should give readers information that they can use to improve their lives. Of course, the information that you give them will be related to your field.

2 - Your articles also allow you to connect with your readers and develop a rapport.

3 - Your articles are a means of cultivating credibility and trust with readers.

4 - Finally, from the website owner's perspective, articles also serve the purpose of building backlinks to your website.

Notice that none of these purposes include selling things to your readers via the article body. In article marketing, the proper place to make any type of sales pitch is the resource box, which accompanies the article.

Although you may not sell outright in the article, it is perfectly fine to engage your readers, which has the roundabout effect of very subtly promoting interest in your business.

How can you do this?

*Write articles that show your expertise in your field.

If you write an intelligent, helpful article that shows that you know what you're talking about, the natural outcome is that the reader will develop confidence in your advice. This is the beginning of a relationship that you can build upon when the reader clicks the link in your resource box and visits your website.

The more confidence that a customer has in your trustworthiness and knowledge of your field, the more likely that he or she will become one of your customers.

*Be a problem solver.

Your readers are searching for and reading your articles because they have a problem that they need to find a solution for. When you are brainstorming article topics, think of some common problems or areas of misunderstanding in your field. Then, write an article that solves the problem or corrects the misunderstanding.

It helps to think of yourself as a teacher and your readers as your students.

They are coming to you for information. They do not want to hear you wax poetic about how great your business is. They simply want answers to their questions, and if your article can't provide them with the information that they need, they will look elsewhere.

This explains why the most popular articles on the internet are "how to" articles (articles that teach the reader how to do a practical task).

In your articles, you are not the star of the show--the information you provide is. You are merely the conduit through which your hungry readers are fed with the information that they crave.

The next time you sit down to write an article, focus on engaging your readers rather than trying to sell to them. You will accomplish so much more than you would if you tried to sell directly.

You will be building relationships, inspiring trust, gaining confidence, and most of all providing your readers with knowledge that can make their lives a little better. All of this subtle "engaging" makes it much more likely that your readers will one day become your customers.