How to use articles to promote your business

Have you ever longed for people to knock on your door wanting to do business with you? Um - doesn't often happen does it?

Actually that's not quite true. There is a way to get people knocking at your door, but it doesn't just happen by itself. You need to influence this. And how you do that is to build relationships with people so that they perceive you as an expert and know, like and trust your approach.

That sounds so easy doesn't it? Well, I know it's not. One of the best ways to help people to perceive you in this way though is to write articles.

Articles are great for loads of things. They're great for building your reputation as an expert in your field and they have the added advantage that once you've written one article, you can then use it in tons of places.

Some ideas of where you can use your articles include in your newsletter, in other people's newsletter, post them on-line to build your presence on the internet and on social networks, send them to the press, include them in a book, put them on your blog, send them out to your clients and contacts as useful information or you could swap your article in exchange for people's contact details on your website.

Just in the last few months, articles that I've written have been included in three books (two are still being published, but one is on the bookshelves as we speak), got me several clients and I've also been ask to speak in several places too. How much free publicity is that?

I'm not telling you this to boast - I'm telling you this so that you can realise that writing articles is a powerful marketing tool that can really help you pitch yourself as an expert in your field. After all, do you think your clients would rather work with an expert? Yes, of course they would!

I'm constantly amazed though how many things put small businesses off from writing articles - from what to write about to where to put the article when it's finished. And I've often heard people saying that an article takes them weeks and weeks to write and as a result, they're put off from writing any more as it's too time consuming.

The message I want to give out with this article is this. Articles are great - they can be fantastic for promoting your business, giving you the status of an expert and you can use them time and time again in different places. But you need to keep writing articles. You can't just write one article and be done with it - you need to keep writing them and getting them out there.

So, because people seem to find articles really hard to do, I thought I'd talk to you about them on a call happening on Tuesday 3^rd November between 2pm and 3pm GMT. You can get all the details by going to my bio box. It's a free call and on it, I'll be breaking down everything to do with writing an article including:

• What to write about
• Who to write the article for
• How to come up with a great title that people want to read
• Where to use your articles
• How to get started with writing an article
• Keeping motivated so that you keep writing
• How to get an article written and completely finished in ½ an hour
• Getting business from writing articles

If you'd like to join me, just register for this call by going to my bio box. As soon as you register you'll receive all the call details and I'll remind you again shortly before the call too. Don't worry if you can't make the date or the time either - if you register for the call, I'll give you access to the recording afterwards.