While scanning one of my social networks, I noticed that a business friend recently published a few articles on EzineArticles.com. It caught my eye because when I started blogging back in 2005 I used EzineArticles as an article marketing tool as well. For those un-familiar with EzineArticles, it is one of the early adapters of content marketing. Writers submit articles to the site and other website owners re-publish the content; the content is shared freely with the appropriate byline references cited.
What are the benefits of article marketing?
There are many benefits associated with content marketing on such sites. Here are a few listed by the publisher of EzineArticles:
- Boosts Your Personal and Business Credibility: Getting published in EzineArticles.com boosts your credibility and begins the trust cycle with your readership. For many authors, being listed with EzineArticles.com is an excellent way to get started, especially if you are a published author or hope to be published soon. There is a book inside each of us waiting to come out.
- Builds Brand Equity & The Brand Called You: Having your articles featured in EzineArticles.com builds brand equity for you, your business, and your expertise. It begins or reinforces in your customers’ and prospects’ minds what you can do for them.
- Surges in Traffic to Your Website Like No Other Site Can Deliver: This is caused by the ezine publishers who come to our site throughout the year to pick up quality articles for their email newsletter or website in addition to our end-user base of millions of people who are looking to immediately benefit from your expertise. When your articles get picked up for reprints, you will often get a surge of traffic as your articles are introduced to their email list members or audience.
- Massive Exposure To The Hundreds of Thousands of Unique Visitors That Come To EzineArticles.com Daily: Your articles may be viewed by the (MILLIONS of visitors) that use our site every month! We work very hard to deliver a positive, fast and end-user obsessed experience that keeps our fan base returning for more.
- Receive Quality and Relevant Leads to Your Website: People who read your articles and click on your link(s) found in your Resource Box at the end of each of your articles are highly-qualified prospects by the very nature of how they found your website.
- 7-10 Times More Effective Than Regular Advertising: You become known as the expert by your article and this endears potential customers to you before they even visit your website. There is no better way to “pre-sell” your prospects than article marketing.
- You’ve Got A Head-Start on The Reciprocation & Trust Cycle: Your prospects are pre-sold as you have already begun the reciprocation cycle by giving first, through your expertise in your articles. When they visit your site, your qualified prospects will already know something about you and feel endeared to reciprocate, or at least check out your products.
The following article on branding was published by Karen Dunlap. I enjoyed reading it and I hope you do as well.
Is There Passion Behind Your Brand?
By Karen Dunlap
Do you create from the inside out or the outside in? That question applies as much to designing a space as it does to creating your brand because the answer to both is the same. You should build from the inside out. But, like many of our clients who make the mistake of choosing the paint color before anything else, we make the mistake of designing our marketing materials and building our website before we even define the brand. And a brand that connects with people and draws them in starts from the inside, with you and your passion.
Your brand should communicate your passion. When people visit your website, pick up a marketing piece or listen to your greeting on your voicemail, they should sense that passion that is behind what you do. Passion by definition is energy and people are always attracted to that energy. They want to get a piece of it, experience it firsthand.
Think about your passion. What inspires you about design? What moves you and stirs your soul? Get crystal clear on this because once you make that connection and incorporate that into your brand, both clients and prospects take notice. They’ll sense there is something different about your business and they’ll be attracted to working with you.
Your passion is your calling. It’s a reflection of pure alignment between being and purpose. When you see someone living their passion, it is contagious. My son’s music teacher from many years back was a shining example of this. He taught music at the elementary school level which for many music teachers is just a job. But you could tell for him it was so much more. It was an opportunity to share his passion with the world around him. He gave these students so much more than just an appreciation of music because he was living his passion. The kids loved him and wanted to be around him. In sharing his passion with young and old alike, he draw us all in and left us feeling energized and inspired. You could tell what he did was with ease and pure joy. While he didn’t need a “brand” per se, he was a perfect example of how living your passion becomes your brand and draws people in. You said his name and people instantly smiled. That is what you want to create for your business through your brand.
Realize your passion is very much connected to your brand. A brand that stands out and resonates with your ideal client starts from the inside out. It starts with your passion!
Action Steps:
What is your passion? If you find yourself hesitation to answer this or unclear of your answer, take the time to discover what that is. So many times we get so caught up in the day to day that we lose sight of the passion that lies within us. It is still there and always will be; you just need to make the time to connect with it. Make time for the things in your day that allow you to slow down and nurture that passion. Once you have a clear understanding of what you’re passionate about, make sure your brand reflects that passion. As you look through your website and marketing pieces, do you feel connected to the words and pictures? If not, your passion is not coming through. Create a brand that speaks from your heart and is a reflection of your soul. You’ll connect with prospects and clients alike in a very powerful and lasting way.
Karen Dunlap is an interior designer, business owner and creator of the Design For Your Success NOW System™, a unique training and coaching program specifically created for design professionals. Using specific strategies and systems, Karen coaches design professionals on how to simplify their business, attract ideal clients and get back to their original passion, designing and decorating.
Karen Dunlap | Interior Designer, Student Member ASID, Trade Partner AIDP
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KMD Interiors, LLC
43283 Thaddeus Lane
Lansdowne, VA 20176
p. 571.218.6531
w. http://www.kmdinteriors.com
Article Source: EzineArticles.com – Expert Author Karen_Dunlap | Is-There-Passion-Behind-Your-Brand
