The Ultimate Multi-Purpose Marketing Tool

By Stacy Karacostas

Time is precious…

Money is precious…

And as you probably know, if you happen to be in business these two statements are even more on target—especially when it comes to marketing.

Of course, it’s one thing if you are a big business with dedicated marketing staff and a budget that matches your size. Then you can afford to spend quite a bit of time and money on your marketing and advertising.

But if you are a smaller organization, chances are you simply can’t afford to keep running new ads and creating fresh promotions.

Instead, you have to find ways to do more with less…Either by finding opportunities to reuse what you’ve already got, or by creating materials that can be used in a variety of ways (and getting rid of ones that can’t).

Otherwise you are likely to end up recreating the wheel every time you want to market in a new way, or to a different audience.

Luckily there’s lots of ways you can reduce, reuse and recycle your marketing materials. It just takes a little thought and planning.

Personally, I love the challenge of figuring out how to help my clients get the most return from the smallest marketing investment. Over time, I’ve discovered a number of ways to do this…depending on client’s preferences and needs.

But one of the best options I’ve found—hands down—is articles.

Whether you write it yourself, or you have someone like myself edit or ghostwrite it for you, a well-written article is the ultimate multi-purpose marketing tool.

Think about it…Articles can promote your products or services, drive traffic to your Website, and increase your search engine rankings.

They can highlight your knowledge and expertise, and help you become more well-known.

You can use articles to stay in touch with your clients, or attract new ones. The list goes on and on…

Keep in mind that if you really want articles work for you, each one needs to be informative, well-written and carefully targeted to your audience. And be sure to include your Web address, and ideally a “call to action” directing people do something—sign up for your newsletter, call for more info, or visit your Website. And a short bio is often a good too.

Ready to start using the world’s most effective, multi-purpose marketing tool?

Here are ten different ways you can put one single article to work for you:

1. Even if you aren’t a professional writer, as long as you have something useful to say—and a clear, readable writing style—you can often publish an article in a local magazine, journal or newspaper.

2. That same article can also be published in your own newsletter (but always send it out first. Many publications want first rights, and won’t use an article that’s been published anywhere else).

3. Other businesses are often looking for content, so offer to let them publish your article in their newsletter.

4. Anything you write should also get posted to your Website. The more fresh, relevant content you have on your site, the higher it ranks in the search engines.

5. Submit your article to free, online article databases. This creates incoming links pointing to your Website, gives others the opportunity to use your article and spread your name, and can also drive people directly to your own site.

6. Give your article away as a handout at networking events.

7. Mail a copy of your article (especially if it got published) to your own clients and/or contacts.

8. Build your contact/mailing list by giving your article away for free on your Website in exchange for reader’s names and email addresses.

9. Include an article (or two) with any promotional packets or mailings you send out to potential customers.

10. Expand upon one article, or combine several, to create an e-book to sell or give away.

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