Marketing through article writing is one of the oldest and easiest ways to get the point of your business across. You can include personal experiences, reviews, and your selling point and eventually, get the reason you’re writing the article in the first place: your product.

The problem with this marketing strategy is for some reason, every person with a laptop thinks they have the ability to write a successful and creative article that will actually benefit their business. Just because you passed English in college does not necessarily mean you have what it takes to market through article writing.

Play the Cards

Unfortunately, owning a small business sometimes directly correlates with owning a small budget. Not only can hiring a professional writer be expensive but it can take a lot of time finding the perfect writer for your business’ brand.

We’re often required to play the cards we’re dealt regardless of what options we have available or would like to pursue. When faced with the requirement of writing your own articles for marketing purposes, there are definitely ways to improve your writing skills without actually going back to college or signing up for creative writing classes.

Although, if taking classes is an option, that is highly recommended.

Some of the Improvements

Writing can be scary. You may have passed English with flying colors but when it comes to creatively writing or putting together a piece that doesn’t like it was written by an eight year old can be tough. If the words don’t flow correctly, it looks like mumbo jumbo. If you mistake a ‘their’ for a ‘there’, you look like you don’t really speak English.

Depending on your audience, this can make or break your business and its brand. As a consumer or client, you look up to the business you’re purchasing from. You expect the owner and their employees to know what they’re talking about and how to market to you.

The improvements you can make to your writing can be simple. If you’re not a skilled writer, there are still ways to implement your brand and cause into your writing without giving yourself gray hair.

1. Don’t limit your word count. This is extremely aggravating whether you’re Mark Twain or Michael Jackson. It doesn’t matter what your writing skills look like; limiting yourself to a certain amount of words can be overly stressful and cause you to leave important things out or fill your article with fluff that loses its focus. Write until you’re finished. Get everything out of your head and onto a piece of paper; edit later.
2. Do your research! Know what you’re talking about. It’s your business you’re writing about. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, who in the world will?
3. Lose the fancy lingo. In most cases, this is dependent on your audience, but for the average consumer, it’s unnecessary. Even doctors don’t want to have to think when they’re deciding what kind of purse to buy. Using too formal of a tone can take the focus off of the product and lose the attention of the reader. Truth be told, even writers can look at a word and draw a blank as to what it actually means.
4. Spell check is actually your friend. All of those red or green squiggly lines in Microsoft Word are important. Having a close friend or relative read the piece over can offer an outside look as well without requiring hiring an editor. Many of the spelling and grammar mistakes are minor but are important to change.
5. Many people aren’t even aware of the main keywords in an article unless it’s overstuffed with them. Keywords are important if your goal is to be SEO friendly, but don’t overdo it.
6. Capture the attention of the reader before you begin selling yourself. It’s just like a commercial – the watcher knows an advertisement is coming, but if it doesn’t catch their attention in the beginning, the channel will be changed.
7. Headlines are obvious. Think of yourself when writing a headline. Would you click on your page title? Does it ask a question or spark any interest?
8. Utilize the emotions of the audience. Begin your article with a sad or touching story. Tell a joke that you know makes people laugh. Any way to make the audience relate an emotion or feeling to your brand is beneficial. The commercials that show the abused dogs and play Sarah McLachlan – unless you’re not human, they make everybody cry. The goal of the ASPCA foundation is to strike up sadness. This way, you’re more willing to donate to their cause. Their marketing method is now successful.

Article marketing can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. If you allow yourself the chance to say what you mean, be direct and get the attention of the reader, your writing can be just as victorious as a writer you would have paid.

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