Business To Business Article Marketing

Business buyers are different than traditional consumers. The business buyer from a government organization, corporation, resale facility or institution doesn't want to hear your cute slogans or watch babies and puppy dogs paraded across the TV screen in a cheap attempt to win your loyalty. He doesn't want oversimplified hype or blatant calls to action without concrete reasons why he should act. The business buyer expects more research, more relevant news, more examples of product application and more descriptions of the features.

If your prices are higher than the competition, he wants to know why you offer more value than the next guy. He anticipates a series of copy designed at winning him over, such as brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, emails, ads, presentations, mailers and article submissions. Mark Toner, advertising manager for Amano, a manufacturer of computerized time-clocks, explains: "In high-tech direct mail, the key is to educate the prospect." This can be done through business to business article marketing.

Social networking has emerged as a valuable tool for brand building. Many of the most successful brands use business to business article marketing published on sites like Facebook and Myspace to enhance their image and separate themselves from the competition. According to a 2009 survey conducted by Razorfish, an internet marketing firm, "brands with an online presence were overwhelmingly likely to have had a measurable influence on whether consumers or businesses purchased products from them."

Most people decided to "follow" or "friend" the business and make a purchase to gain access to exclusive discounts or other promotional offers. Moreover, "Nearly two-thirds of respondents told Razorfish that their first purchase from a brand had been as a direct result of their experience with the brand in an online environment," the survey stated. Therefore, article promotion should center on announcing these special offers.

Another important reason to add business to business article marketing to your overall strategy is the undeniable truth that search marketing is still generating the bulk of business-to-business leads. The 6th Annual B2B Marketing Benchmark Report 2009-2010 (conducted by Marketing Sherpa) sums it up by saying, "During the most difficult economic times that the search marketing industries has seen in its decade-long life, search marketers are more relevant than ever. The Web itself is getting 'smarter.' Web 1.0 was mostly static with publishers communicating to consumers. Web 2.0 is two-way, with consumers talking back to publishers. Web 3.0 uses information from the consumer to tailor the experience to individuals."

A true article marketing expert understands current trends and knows just how to use programs that analyze online article submissions to see what keywords bring traffic to a website, as well as what keywords bring business owners who are most ready to buy, what messages are bringing in the most targeted traffic, what messages are scaring people off and where are they going and what are they looking for once they leave the site without buying.

A great business-to-business campaign begins with a well-designed website. Within moments, a business owner should be able to find the "About Us" page, the "Contact" page, the pricing/package page and links to additional information if need be. (This is where content article marketing comes in!)

In addition to having business to business article marketing appear right on your homepage, you can also submit articles to third party publishing sites and affiliate networks to reach a broader audience. These articles will be optimized for search engine friendliness, so anyone looking for something via Google has the opportunity to be redirected to your homepage.

The best part about article promotion is that you can test the waters with several different messages, keywords or angles and then track the results using analytic software to see which campaigns are producing the most sales. A SEO/article marketing professional should be able to do all of this for you.