How to Turn a Third Party Informational Article into a Power Marketing Tool

Despite the fact that cyberspace seems filled, the world still craves fresh, interesting and unique content. To be successful both online and offline publishers must provide a steady stream of zippy content to catch and retain today's demanding readers and viewers.

Viewers want content that is relevant, interesting, informative, entertaining and makes them feel something. Once viewers find good content they will keep coming back for more. And publishers know that. It's their business to know that.

This content can include a positive article about your company written by a third party. You can take this story and use it as a promotional article for your business.

The article needs to be at least 700 words for widest Internet exposure and not be an obvious commercial for you. In fact, your company name may only appear in the article a time or two and probably not even in the title.

There has to be an angle or hook about your company that lends itself to a good story. Everybody has a story and most likely you have several angles a writer could use in an informational article.

The third party makes the article appear as if a reporter is doing a story on you and not a promotional public relations piece. To pull this off requires it be written in a lower key. Today's savvy viewers know when they see an advertisement.

A good informational article writer will retain the copyright since many of the biggest article distribution services require the author own the copyright. But you should be able to get the use rights so you can use the article as a multi-purpose marketing tool, especially if you are paying a fee.

Depending on the nature of the article, it is possible to gain widespread exposure for your company including having the article posted on dozens or hundreds of websites and blogs.

You may even find that the article may be spreading across the World Wide Web and if you Google your company's name you might find your own website way down on the search results list.

But not to worry. When your exposure suddenly leaps you should be glad. Remember the article contains the backlink to you so if someone is curious about your business they can just click. And the backlinks pull your own site's search engine ranking up which is what it's all about, no?

The first step is to put the article on your website. Make sure you use the author's resource box or byline to show readers it was written by a third party and not you. If you have a company newsletter be sure to include your article there.

The author can also put the article on his/her website and then distribute it. A good, well written informational article can end up on hundreds of different web pages. Some sites may include the article in numerous categories.

When the article appears on other websites it also means you can print the article from those websites. That means you have a fourth party website which further improves credibility and distances the article from looking like an ad.

To track the article's exposure, do a Google search for the article name put in quotation marks. This will give you a listing of where the article appears. Give it some time as it can take up to four weeks or more to get picked up with some search engines.

Check the websites that have the article to see which sites are more appealing and bookmark the best sites using them for your article reprint files. Don't forget you have a third party article posted on a fourth party website.

Article reprints can be used as handouts, flyers and brochures. These can be used in word of mouth campaigns such as 'here is a story about us and an extra one for a friend you think might be interested.'

Article reprints can be mailed out with statements or other mailed material.

E-mail allows you to send the article's URL or Internet address and the viewer simply clicks on the link to view the article. The article can also be cut and pasted as a text file in an e-mail message. Either way there is no handling, paper or postage and those are big advantages.

One of the best uses for the article is in providing media leads. Include the article in your media packet or use the article as a lead teaser for a reporter or interviewer. Show hosts, reporters, and program managers are constantly looking for new and interesting material and the article you provide them can point them right to you.

Like any tool, a marketing informational article is best when used. Its flexibility and low cost make it a perfect fit for any marketing plan.

The marketing informational article might just surprise you and become the most cost effective power tool in your marketing tool chest!