It was print media where article marketing first saw success as a promotional tool/ However, the explosion of content on the world wide web has lead to an enormous demand for articles on any topic imaginable which are well written; article marketing has now come in to its own as a web based advertising technique.

Article marketing consists of providing content for others websites and publications (both on and offline) with a blurb and link to the authors website being included by way of compensation for the author. These blurbs are what motivate many to write these articles, being a vehicle for promoting one's own website.

These articles will be submitted to article directories and offered to webmasters for use on their sites which in effect functions as free ad space for the author. Exposure is important in any kind of marketing and the internet offers a marketplace of nearly limitless size so it is important to get as wide of a distribution as possible for your articles if it is an avenue of marketing which you have chosen for your business. The cost is nothing except for a little of your time but the rewards are potentially great.

Article marketing is a much more efficient technique than is direct email. Direct email, as you may or may not know, has a response rate of around one percent. In contrast, article marketing casts less of a wide net than a focused approach. Article marketing tends to reach those who are already interested in the topic in question and thus more likely to make a purchase if they click the link to the author's site. Additionally, unlike email marketing, these articles are read by those who have chosen to view them.

Those who pick up your articles will do so because they already have a readership who may be interested in your content. These people are the market you want to reach; if they are already interested in your content, they are more than likely also interested in making a purchase of your product or service. Now compare the cost of this (basically nothing) to the cost of buying a list of targeted leads like this. Article marketing is a very cost efficient method of advertising your business.

You can get an even better conversion rate from your article marketing efforts by linking your article to an article on your website.

Business owners can further increase the conversion rate by including a link to a particular article on your own site which is more in depth on the same topic. You will then have the reader's interest, making them a likely candidate to keep looking through your site. Conversion rates can be improved further by publishing an email address that readers can use to subscribe to the author's newsletter or website.

Be certain to include an opt-in form for your newsletter (you do have one, right?) or email list so that you can keep in contact with these targeted leads. You can alert these already-interested readers to new features or content on your site.

The small amount of time you need to write an article can provide you great results. More traffic, more leads and simply getting your branding and marketing message out there all for practically nothing.