Use Articles to Boost Book
Sales

by Eric Gruber

Article marketing can
contribute significantly to a strong, multifaceted marketing and sales plan.
For instance, it helped UltraMetabolism:
The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss by Mark Hyman, M.D.,
become #2 on the New
York Times bestseller list. And it helped the author establish
key relationships with Web site publishers that will result in increased,
targeted traffic and stronger sales for months, and in some cases years.

Use the five steps outlined here
to including an effective article-marketing program in your marketing plan.

Step 1. Target your
audience via e-zines and Web sites that make a difference

You need to find sites with high
traffic and e-zines with sizable readerships; but more importantly, you want to
focus on sites and e-zines in your specific niche that have strong emotional
connections to their audiences. Through our research for Mark Hyman, we zeroed
in on an editor at About.com, one of the top 50 sites on the net today. After receiving
our article, that editor blasted a book-promotion email to her entire list,
which resulted in a substantial number of opt-ins for a free book sneak preview
and led to a large number of new book sales in one day. Of course, other
selected sites generated sales too.

Most likely, you are already
visiting the sites or subscribing to the e-zines in your area. If you don’t
feel you know all of them, plenty of e-zine directories—like
BestEzines.com—can guide you.

Other tactics include:

·      Researching your competitors.
Where are their articles being published?

·      Performing a search with your
favorite search engine. Just type in your industry or article topic, followed
by the words “article submission.” For <span
style=’font-size:11.0pt’>UltraMetabolism, I typed “health article
submissions,” “medical article submissions,” and “thyroid dysfunctions article
submissions” at Google.

·      Identifying organizations your
audience is likely to belong to.

And don’t forget to check sites
for print magazines within your niche. More and more print-on-paper
publications are looking for fresh content for their sites that will drive
traffic up and eventually sell more print copies. Articles published on sites
such as those of Entrepreneur
magazine (www.entrepreneur.com)
and Mothering
magazine (www.mothering.com)
can generate a good deal of exposure and build credibility.

Step 2. Create an article
that will grab your targeted readers

One of the most important parts of
any article is the title. Remember, the first three or four words of the title
have the most weight with search engines, and the title’s job is to get people
to actually read the article.

Examples of good titles include
Jill Lublin’s “Networking for Women Entrepreneurs: Connecting Is the Key to
Magical Networking”—which is effective not only because it has the
keyword “networking” up front, but also because it tells who the
audience is; and Martin Weil’s “Saving for College: A Parent’s Guide to 529
College Savings Plans”—which is heavily enriched with keyword phrases, as
parents often use the search phrases “saving for college” and “college savings
plans,” especially as their children get closer to their college years.

After you create a strong title,
write the article. Articles that get the best results are the ones with
distinctive, high-quality content that solve at least one part of a problem.
But since you want to turn readers into buyers, don’t provide all the answers
in your article. Instead, entice people with some of the “how” and top that off
with why it’s important.

Step 3. Turn readers into
prospects with a strong call for action and an offer they can’t refuse

You want to encapsulate the
essence of what makes you and your offering special.

Here’s the bio box that helped
move Dr. Hyman’s book to the #2 spot on the <span
style=’font-size:11.0pt’>New York Times bestseller list:

<span
style=’font-size:11.0pt’>New York Times best selling author, lecturer, and practicing physician Mark Hyman,
M.D., is Editor-in-Chief of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine and
Medical Editor of Alternative
Medicine Magazine. In his most recent book, <span
class=95StoneSerifIt>UltraMetabolism— The
Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss, he teaches you how you can
ignite the fat burning code hidden in your own DNA. To download a free sneak
preview of UltraMetabolism,
click here now: http://www.ultrametabolism.com/prlarticle1.htm

To create your Unique Selling
Proposition, chisel excess information from your first drafts of copy and
refine the remaining golden nuggets into gleaming insights. Hammer them into
logical sequence. Fasten them to reader benefits. Then polish and polish it
until your fingers ache, to create a glittering necklace of persuasion that
seduces the eye, charms the imagination, and makes it more tempting to click
and go to your Web site than to skip out.

A free bonus offer will make it
even more tempting for readers to click to your Web site. You can offer a sneak
preview of your book, a free e-zine subscription, or a free special report
that further enhances your credibility as the expert.

Step 4. Arrange to take
readers to a squeeze page (sometimes called a landing page)

Think of your article as a sales
funnel. The title, content, and bio box and the link you provide should all
flow right into each other. Don’t link to your main page; that will distract
and frustrate readers. And a frustrated reader means a sale lost forever.

Instead, when you promote your
book in your bio box, include a link to a squeeze page within your site that is
designed to convince people to buy the book or subscribe to a related
newsletter.

Step 5. Submit your
article and build your links and traffic

Now is the time to perform the
tiring and tedious task of submitting your articles. As you’re working through
this process, remember the light at the end of the tunnel. By using these
article-marketing strategies, you can build a steady stream of ready-to-buy
visitors, and substantially increase your book sales

Eric Gruber is an
award-winning public relations practitioner, and article marketing is one of
his specialties. He offers free consultations on increasing book sales by using
Internet marketing strategies. Email Eric@prleads.com or go to
www.prleads.com/article.htm to learn more.