Can You Use Articles for More Than Attraction Marketing?

What is Attraction Marketing? Put very simply, attraction marketing is any ad, article, banner, etc. designed to attract the viewer to the site or business.  When done successfully, great job. Now what?

Attracting visitors to your site is a major part of the battle to win customers, but once you get them there, how can you keep them through stickiness, and gather their information to continue to market to them with permission?  Many sites give away premiums in an effort to get permission to market to visitors.  This is called a house list, or just the list, and many businesses are quite successful by staying in touch with their list.  This is done through a variety of methods that include newsletters and e-mail marketing, and in some cases, offline direct mail marketing.

The key to turning a house list into a profitable asset for the web business is conversions, and the key to conversions is building trust and creating a conversation with the customer.  Many businesses are experimenting with social media, which are evolutionary extensions of forums and blogs.  The idea is that the customers can participate with the company in an effort to create and deliver a better product.  But an often overlooked key to increasing conversions is to use articles to the house list to “pre-sell” them on the product or service.

There are several web companies that do this very successfully by incorporating “client stories” or testimonials in their article marketing. The stories are well constructed narratives that deliver powerful information on how using the tools and techniques, or products the site offers had a dramatic effect on the customer, and how they used it to solve a problem.  Stories are one of the most effective ways to convey information, and using stories in the article is a powerful way to share the message.

When telling business owners to think outside of the box with their article marketing, it’s great to illustrate HOW they can accomplish it.  Most people are not geniuses, but it doesn’t take a genius to be creative.  A favorite parable about the power of smart thinking is about a small store owner who had a great location for his shop. The general store had been in his family for five generations, and he was prepared to pass it down to his grandchildren. One day, a big box retail executive called and said, “We want to buy your store.”  The owner answered, “It’s not for sale.”  The executive then said, “Look, you’re going to sell us your store, and if you don’t, I’m going to buy the land on both sides of you, and we’re going to put up two stores, one on each side, and run you out of business.”  The owner responded by saying that his store still wasn’t for sale.

True to their word, the big box retailers came in and built their two giant stores, one on each side of the small business owner.  They put out huge banners on each store that read “GRAND OPENING.”  The business owner was scared of the competition, and was pretty sure he was going to lose his precious business. But then he started thinking outside of the box, and the night before the grand opening, he had an idea.

When everyone arrived the next morning to witness the grand opening, they saw the two giant signs, one on either side of the tiny store in the middle.  But on top of that tiny store was another big sign that simply said, “ENTER HERE”.

How can you apply creative thinking to your article marketing to turn your existing customers into happy buyers? Can you provide them with enough information and entertainment so that they will turn into evangelists for your site or your product?  Increasing conversions turns a higher return on investment from your attraction marketing.

Another way to use articles is for retention.  Many web owners are beginning to recognize the lifetime value of a loyal customer who may spend thousands of dollars over the course of ten or twenty years with one company.  This has a dramatic effect on how most businesses approach their existing customer base.  Most clients don’t wear a sign that states how much they will spend with a company in a given year, but imagine how much better customer service would be if they did.  A fast food joint regular who walked through the door with a sign that stated he would spend $1000 eating at that establishment over the next fifty two weeks would be treated a lot better than the guy who walked in with a $5 sign.  The idea of conversions is to not only turn more casual visitors to a website into customers, but to continue to provide them with solutions over the course of their lifetime and generate additional revenue from them.  Article marketing to increase retention and referrals from an existing customer list is a great way to increase the lifetime value of that list.  These articles are written a little differently, targeting different solutions to problems those customers have.  Identify those problems through surveys at the end of the articles, or be purposely controversial to generate feedback.  Existing clients are the best source for new products for your website because they have a disposition to spend money with you.  Use your house list to ask what solutions they are looking for, and then create product to satisfy that solution.

Article marketing can be used for more than attraction marketing. It can also be used for increased conversions and retention.  Just remember to target the article to the market and keep the content fresh and relevant.