As a result of the relentless inundation of media messages, most consumers have developed a kind of mental filtering mechanism. This mechanism serves as a means of self-preservation. A person would experience information overload if he took the time to consider every piece of media he came across. This filtering system helps the human mind pay attention to the messages that are pertinent to that particular individual, while simultaneously and subconsciously ignoring the rest.

Mental filtration is an important concept for business owners to consider. If a marketing campaign is to be successful, it must appear relevant to the target audience. This is particularly important for the entrepreneur who chooses to utilize article marketing as a means of connecting with consumers.

Article marketing has quickly become one of the most effective ways to reach potential customers. It also happens to be one of the fastest and least expensive ways to market. Achieving the necessary relevance through article marketing is relatively easy. Consider the maelstrom of business ideas that constantly swirl around in your mind. Pinpoint one of those ideas and write an article about it. Those ideas can lead to the growth of your marketing campaign and thus your business.

This approach tends to be most effective because it encourages the business owner to write about something with which they are both knowledgeable and passionate. Consumers notice informative and interesting articles. It is these articles that tend to automatically rise above the rest.

Improvements in Article Marketing

As writers have begun to devise more effective ways to create relevant articles, the article marketing distribution services have also made improvements. Initially, article marketing proved to be a somewhat difficult means of connecting with customers. After writing an article, the author then had to determine whether the article had the correct number of words, if it needed to be in HTML or plain text, and what specific topics and categories were most fitting for certain publishers. This complicated process is due to the fact that each article bank and directory has different requirements. Once you figured out the exact stipulations of the various distribution services, you could spend hours manually formatting and reformatting your articles.

As the article marketing business has grown, so has the technology for submitting articles. Websites such as SubmitYourArticle.com, ThePhantomWriters.com, isnare.com and ArticleMarketer.com all offer automatic article distribution. Some of these services offer pay-per-article pricing, while others simply require a single fee for unlimited submissions.

The automated distribution, rather than manual, allows the writer to focus more time on crafting the actual articles rather than rushing through the writing process to allow an adequate amount of time for formatting technicalities. The other advantage to automatic distribution is that the articles reach a significantly higher number of sources in less time. You may find that a single article gets hundreds of hits on Google within a matter of days.

Being Mindful of Article Content

While article writers and distributors alike have contributed to article marketing enhancements, it remains the responsibility of the author to create useful content. Keep the following in mind when writing your articles:

-- Avoid writing keyword-stuffed articles. No reader is interested in reading the same phrase constantly repeated throughout an article. Provide pertinent information in your articles and the rewards will find their way back to you tenfold.

-- Never plagiarize. Ensure that all of the content you include in your articles is original.

-- Create engaging articles. If readers wanted to read a textbook, they would take a class. Attempt to make both the content and the language itself interesting.

-- If you are experiencing difficulties with the writing process, don't hesitate to hire a ghostwriter. This can dramatically improve your articles.

Article marketing is a booming industry. And small wonder -- it offers business owners a fast and easy way to reach customers, while providing consumers with important information. As writers continue their steady output of pertinent content, readers will continue to flock to every corner of the World Wide Web for information.