One of the best ways to get motivated prospects to your site is to write an article about the benefit offered by your product or service. Here’s why…

An article isn’t advertising, so the reader approaches it with less scepticism than he/she otherwise would. This allows you to fully describe the benefits offered by your product without having to worry about whether or not you’re being believed.

Of course, this will only work if your article obeys four simple rules…

1. Describe the benefit, not the product
2. Seek to educate rather than sell
3. Provide plenty of examples
4. Don’t name a specific product until the end

Armed with these four simple rules you can turn out articles that deliver hundreds of people to your site. What’s more, I’ve found potential buyers referred by articles are far more likely to buy (see rule #2 below for the reason why). I’m sure you’ll find this too.

Articles are a brilliant way to boost your sales. Especially if you write a series of articles, and become well-known as an expert author for a specific publication (e.g. this one).

Regular authors do even better from their articles, and quickly build a fan-base who keep an eye out for their next instalment. Regular authors also get better at writing articles, and discover they can deliver better articles more quickly than they used to. This is a virtuous circle, providing more visitors from less effort.

Now, let’s look at each of the four simple rules in more detail…

Describe the benefit, not the product

Remember this is an article. It’s not an ad. The purpose of an article is to give the reader useful information he/she can apply to his/her business.

If it’s obvious to the reader that your only goal is to flog your product, he/she will stop reading.

The important thing to note here, is the context in which your article appears. When a person starts to read your article, he/she is looking for information. The reader doesn’t expect to encounter advertising. If the reader then discovers your ‘article’ is actually an ad it won’t go down well.

You can avoid making this mistake by focusing on the benefits of using your type of product, rather than your specific product.

In other words, use your article to sell the reader on what he/she gets by using a product like yours. Then you can offer your specific product at the end of the article (see below).

Seek to educate rather than sell

This point follows on from rule #1. Your reader is looking to find out more about whatever it is the headline and introduction to your article promised. Your only job is to provide it to him/her.

Simple, huh?

Chances are you know lots of useful things you can share in your article. And chances are, the reader won’t know some of the things you do.

By providing a service (useful information), you create a debt in the mind of the reader. Human beings are influenced by the law of reciprocation (find out more), and providing genuinely useful information in an article is a great way to invoke it.

You can also use an article to establish yourself as something of an expert. Naturally, you do this by providing useful information (implies expertise) rather than declaring yourself an expert (implies bragging). Your readers will naturally be interested in your own product or service, because they’ll come to trust your advice.

Writing an article is a great way to overcome the number one sales killer: doubt. You really will make more sales per visitor from an article, than you ever will from an ad.

Provide plenty of examples

Articles are more interesting when they include a liberal sprinkling of true stories. That is, where you provide examples that illustrate the points you’re trying to make. For example…

Jane had written several articles for a well-known ezine, and linked back to her own site each time. Yet she hadn’t seen anything like the increase in sales she was hoping for.

Jane decided to ask some of her clients to read her articles, and provide feedback. She discovered (to her horror), that many found her articles dull.

Undaunted, Jane tried a number of things to spice up her articles. Eventually, she discovered that people responded to real-life examples.

In other words, people love reading about other people’s experiences. This is true whether the example is positive or negative. We’re suckers for both good and bad news, as long as it’s someone else doing the suffering!

There’s something about what other people are up to, that we find inherently interesting. Make use of this phenomenon to…

• Reinforce the point you’re trying to make
• Inject interest

Don’t name a specific product until the end

If you’re like me (i.e. human), then you’re going to want to scream out about how great your particular product is right from the very first sentence. Don’t do it!

It’s essential that your article focus on the benefits of using your type of product. An article is a tool best suited to education.

Use the article to provide genuinely useful information to the reader, and establish yourself as something of an expert.

You can then complete the article by describing the ways in which your product delivers on the benefits described. But limit this to no more than 2-3 sentences.

Then end your article with a brief ‘About the author’ style description. Describe yourself in the third person, and explain how you help people with respect to the type of product you’ve been discussing in the article.

Anybody who has read your article, and found it useful, is highly likely to take the opportunity to click the link to your site and pay you a visit.