5 Simple Things You Can Do Right Now To Grow Your List

For those peak busy periods in your business when you are working on projects that are consuming a lot of your time, don’t put your marketing efforts on hold completely. It’s easy to let it slide for a while but try to be as consistent as possible because once you get away from it, it’s hard to pick it back up again.

Assuming you already have an opt-in form on your website for your free offering or ‘pink spoon’, and you don’t have much time, here are a few quick ways you can increase the size of your list:

1. Invite people in your social networks to sign up for your newsletter by enticing them with the next hot topic you’re writing about. i.e. “My upcoming newsletter will feature ‘x’. Not signed up? Click here to get your copy (include link to sign up page).”

2. Write and submit articles to the article directories. Include information about your free offering and a link within your by-line that takes people to the sign up form to receive it. No time to create a new article? Repurpose a previous blog post or newsletter article.

3. Ask in person. Are you giving a talk at your local networking group? Pass around a clipboard for those who would like to receive more information from you. Collect names and email addresses while they’re still excited about what they’re learning from you and are hungry for more.

4. Ask your subscribers to share your newsletter with friends and family i.e. “Thanks for reading! Forward this ezine to a friend or colleague who you know could benefit from this…”

5. Within your ezine, invite people to sign up. For example in mine I have a block that reads: “Did a friend forward this ezine to you? Make sure you get your own copy – it’s easy and it only takes a second. Sign Up Now (include link to sign up page)”

Marketing takes time and effort and it’s important to be consistent. When time is of the essence, there simply isn’t enough time to roll out the big strategies. All of the tips I’ve given you are still opportunities to market and can be implemented quickly and easily. Which one will you try?

Your Easy To Follow Getting Started Article Marketing Checklist

Article marketing is a long term marketing strategy that helps position you as an expert in your niche and generate more traffic to your website. There are a number of guidelines to follow when writing and submitting articles, and although it is not difficult, it is a multi-step process and having a checklist in place is a helpful tool.

Here is your ‘getting started’ checklist to help you prepare to market your articles:

[ ] Create your author resource box of about 50 words in length. This is what will appear at the end of your articles stating who you are, what you do, the service or product and benefits you provide and a call to action inviting the reader to your website to sign up for your free report, newsletter or other offering. The resource box should be written in third person.

[ ] Create your author bio of up to about 150 words in length. Some of the article directories require a bio in addition to a resource box. Your bio will be based on your skills, experience and achievements and should also be written in third person.

[ ] Choose an author image that you will upload when creating your profiles. Most article directories will ask for one. Your photo will help people connect with you and should be professional looking.

[ ] Create a list of directories you are going to submit to. Start small with about 3 directories. Try www.ezinearticles.com, www.articledashboard.com and www.goarticles.com to start. You can add more later. Just Google “article submission directory” to find more sites.

[ ] Sign up for accounts with these directories and record the Name of the directory, Login URL, User Name, Password and any specific guidelines. For example one site only allows articles with a minimum of 500 words.

[ ] Create an Article Marketing Tracking document in the form of a spreadsheet to track the above directory information, articles submitted and dates submitted.

[ ] Create an Article Template for your writing. Article directories work best with text based articles. Just use plain text, no formatting, no tables etc. by creating and saving your articles in Notepad or another text based editor. Within each file include the Title, Category, Word Count, Key Words and Summary. You will need to enter this information with each article submission.

[ ] Decide on topics based on your market & your expertise and create an ideas file.

[ ] Write your first 400 – 700 word article and start submitting!

Most of the above steps are to be set up once and left. When you have everything in place, make sure you write and submit your articles regularly. If you write an ezine or newsletter you can repurpose these works. Once your subscribers have received their copy, start submitting to the article directories. You can also rework chapters of a book or ebook you have written into shorter articles.

If the above sounds like a great marketing tactic but you lack the time, consider hiring a Virtual Assistant to set you up with the accounts, edit your writing and submit your articles. All you need to do is provide the content and watch your website’s placement in the search results increase.

Write Your Way To Expert Status

Everyone is an expert at something. Whatever product or service you provide in your business is your area of expertise. Writing articles about what you are an expert at and distributing those articles online through various article submission directories is a valuable marketing strategy called Article Marketing.

How will writing and submitting articles help your business?

Here’s how it works. You will:

Gain more exposure – When you write an article and submit it to various article directories it will be posted online for anyone to read. Surfers find your articles when they type related keywords into search engines to find what they’re looking for.

Generate more traffic to your site – You will create a ‘resource box’ that is included at the end of each article you submit. The resource box is a short bio about you, the author, with a link to your website. When someone reads your article and wants to find out more about you, they will click thru the article resource box at the end of your article & will be taken to your website.

Build trust – When you provide value to the reader by sharing information on your expertise through your articles, you gain their confidence in you, your products and services.

Grow your list – Make sure you have a ‘call to action’ in your resource box and a sign up form on your site to capture names and email addresses of those who visit. Offer a free report or a subscription to a newsletter that visitors can sign up for.

Boost business – When you build your market reach, name recognition and credibility, an increase in business is sure to follow.

Remember, no sales pitches. The directories are looking for content-rich articles of about 400-750 words. The only place you can promote yourself is within the resource box.

But what do you write about?

Consider:

• What is your area of expertise? What are you known for?
• Is there something that keeps coming up over & over again with several clients? Check your emails. What questions is your market asking you?
• Do you already write a newsletter? Repurpose your newsletter articles.

If there’s already many articles about your topic circulating out there, don’t worry, you will put a different spin on things as you write from your own experiences and in your own unique way.

Think you’re not a writer? Just write in your own voice, in a conversational style as if you were speaking one on one with someone. People like that.

Now that you’ve written an article, how do you go about circulating this article online?

Here are some simple steps to get you started:

1. Google the term ‘article submission directories’ to come up with various lists of the top sites you can submit your content to (start with 2 or 3 on up to 10).

2. Sign up for your free accounts and review their guidelines. I recommend starting with EzineArticles

3. Create your author resource box, about 50 words stating who you are, what you do, benefits you provide, call to action i.e. sign up for my free report.

4. It is best to convert all your articles to plain text with no formatting. To do this, copy from Word & paste into Notepad to remove any formatting. It makes submitting quick and easy.

5. Submit your articles making sure to track where you have submitted to, what you have submitted and when.

Repeat. Write and submit your articles regularly as an ongoing part of your marketing strategy. An ideal campaign would be to submit new articles weekly or bi-weekly. Articles are a great cost-effective way to market your business and gain expert status in your niche. What can you write about today?