Article marketing has been around for years. Many people use articles as a sales pitch. The article may receive a lot of traffic but are the readers enjoying it?

Valuable Information

Articles get attention because consumers do a lot of research. Nearly 80% of Americans go to the web for information about a product or service before they commit to making a purchase. They aren't looking for sales pitches, they're looking for information.

Put yourself in your reader's shoes. What keywords would you use to search for your product? What information would you seek?

Create a list of questions about the products and services you promote. Answer those questions in the form of articles. Write several articles about various aspects of the items you promote and create a complete article marketing campaign surrounding them.

Educate and inform your target audience. Provide the information they need to make an informed purchase. People buy from companies they trust. Build a relationship of trust through the honest and accurate information you pass to your readers.

Unique Perspective

Information may be found anywhere. Provide readers with a unique perspective. Answer questions they may not think to ask. No one should be expected to make a purchase without the appropriate information.

Know your products and share that knowledge. No one wants to make a purchase from someone who doesn't understand the products they sell. Increase sales by familiarizing yourself with the product. Buy one yourself so you can answer even the deepest questions.

Give readers new ideas for the product. Show them how versatile and incredible the product is. The more viable information you can give from several perspectives, the better.

Length of Article

This is where a lot of people mess up an article marketing campaign. Articles should be between 400 and 800 words. Articles shorter than 400 words are perceived as being too short or more like blog posts. On the other hand, articles longer than 800 words often require too much time to read.

The ideal size of an article is 550 to 700 words. Use short paragraphs and subheadings to help break it up and make it easy to scan. Overall, people are busy. They need content that allows them to scan for the information they need.

Well-Written Content

You're the expert on the subject of your business. Share that knowledge in well-written articles and express yourself as an expert. Show your readers that you enjoy what you do and that you can answer their questions.

Making a purchase isn't something people take lightly. The economy has suffered setbacks from late 2006 until mid 2009. We're finally seeing an upturn in sales and economic growth. Some businesses may continue to fail but consumers have learned some valuable lessons in the last few years.

Well-written, informative content shows your readers that you're intelligent and worthy of their business. The information you pass along to them in an easily understandable article creates a sense of trust and helps pre-sell.

Subject matter experts aren't often writers. Write articles yourself or convey the knowledge to a professional writer who can write them for you. Professional writers can take the information you provide and create excellent articles to boost traffic to your website.

Build Relevant Links

Every article you publish creates a relevant link to your website. Why is that important? Search engines use link popularity as part of their sophisticated algorithm to determine page rank. High page rank equals more traffic.

Not all links carry equal weight with search engines. Building relevant links has never been easier than a complete article marketing campaign. Submit 5 articles per week to several publishers.

Articles inform and educate your target audience while building relevant links and increasing page rank. Plan your marketing campaign in advance. Write articles that readers want to read then publish them with as many publishers as possible.

Each article published creates a link that is relevant to the products you sell. Links create traffic and increased traffic creates increased sales. Your customers are satisfied because they feel they've made an intelligent purchase from a knowledgeable person. They will recommend you to their family, friends and coworkers.

Once the momentum builds, don't give up on your article marketing campaign. Continue marketing and educating people. Enjoy sharing the knowledge you have with others.