When we speak of article marketing we typically mean online. Internet businesses have used article marketing as a way to build links to their web properties and to drive traffic to landing pages and it’s a very effective method of marketing. But traditional businesses can use article marketing offline just as well. It does work a little bit differently.

Your offline articles can be published in many places and serve as a way to build your reputation plus send more business to your brick and mortar store. Essentially, what you do is write articles for magazines, trade publications, newspapers, and other periodicals. The bylines some times pay but the real benefit is the boost in credibility it serves you and the new business you can gain from your efforts.

But today it is necessary to think beyond the online/offline divide. Your business can benefit from article marketing online and offline and use both strategies to compliment each other. The idea is to get new business and increase your visibility as well as your credibility. If you are a brick and mortar business person then you’ll want to start a website. If you run an online business then you can still use offline marketing tactics to get people to visit your website. The interplay between online and offline is growing and will continue to grow into the foreseeable future.

When it comes to marketing your business with articles, I recommend doing your research on keywords and topics early on. Then, narrow down who your target audience is. Your audience may be different for online and offline and that’s OK. It could be the same. Either way, you’ll need to figure out who your target market is and write toward that market. Then you need to research publications from which to receive a byline.

Article marketing is effective online as well as offline. Try it! I’m sure you’ll agree.

Caroline Melberg
Melberg Marketing
Blue Chip Marketing Tips
Small Business Mavericks

Tags: Article Marketing, credibility, offline, online business, traditional marketing

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 9:45 am and is filed under Article Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.