Although, Mark Hyman, M.D, the New York Times Best Selling author, and practicing physician, had a strong, multi-faceted marketing and sales plan in place, the addition of an article marketing strategy helped him in his successful quest to push his book, UltraMetabolism – The Simple Plan For Automatic Weight Loss to the #2 spot of the NY Times Best Seller List. Dr. Hyman's article marketing campaign was only one piece of the puzzle, but an important piece that helped him establish key relationships with website publishers that will result in increased, targeted traffic and stronger sales for many months and years to come.

By including a targeted article marketing program into your marketing and sales plan, you too could achieve book-marketing success. Doing this effectively requires planning and perfect execution from beginning to end:

Step 1: Create An Article That Grabs Readers Interest

One of the most important parts of the article is the title. Remember, the first 3-4 words of your article title have the most weight with Google and other search engines. The point of the title is to intrigue your audience to actually sit down and read the article. You may even want to offer an outrageous proposition that you can fulfill within your article body as we have with the title of this article.

The articles that get the best results are the ones that provide unique, high quality content that solve at least one piece of a problem puzzle. However, to convert readers to buyers, you must not give the reader all of the answers to the “HOW” to solve a particular problem. Instead you want to tease them with some of the how and top it off with the why it's important.

Step 2: 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 unique. This is your Unique Selling Proposition. Do this by chiseling away the information that no one cares about from your golden nuggets. Refine them 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 dazzles the reader with so much human interest that it is indeed much easier to click and go to your website than skip.

If you add a free bonus offer, you will make it even easier for readers to click to your website. You can offer a sneak preview of your book, a free ezine subscription, or a free special bonus report that further enhances your credibility as the expert.

Step 3: Maintain Reader Interest & Create a Squeeze Page

Think of your article as a sales funnel. Your article title, content, bio box and the link you send your readers to should all flow right into each other. Including a link to the main page only distract and frustrate readers. You will lose that sale forever.

When you promote your book in your bio box, then take them to a squeeze page within your site that convinces people why they should either buy the book or why they should subscribe.

Step 4: Target Your Audience With Ezines & Websites That Make a Difference

You need to find websites that are highly visited and ezines that are the most read, but more importantly, you want to focus on websites and ezine publishers within your specific niche that have strong emotional connections to their audiences. Through our research for Mark Hyman MD, we found information for a popular About.com editor. About.com is among the top 50 sites on the net today. This submission resulted in over 1,500 opt-in and new sales in one day, not counting the successes from other credible websites.

Step 5: Submit Your Article & Build Your Links and Traffic

Now is the time to perform the tiring, boring and tedious task of submitting your articles. But, as you completing this process, know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. By using these article marketing strategies, you can build a steady stream of warm ready-to-buy visitors and substantially increase your book sales

By including article marketing into your multi-faceted marketing and sales plan, you too can achieve success in marketing your book. You will then only be limited by your imagination and your time. The question is, “What is your destination?”