Nobody knows your business better than you, and you have a lot of information to share. But how do you get that information published for your customers and prospects to see? And, more importantly, how do you leverage the credibility of editorial content to increase interest in your company and its products or services? One highly effective way is by contributing an article for publication. Although not an easy task, once published, the article positions you as an expert in front of your key audience—your customers and prospects.

While there are several wrong ways to pursue publishing a contributed article, we’ve found three very specific right ways to be successful: Selecting the Right Publication to pursue; Contacting the Right Person there to get the article in the publication; and Using the Right Tone to write your article.

1.   Select the Right Publication.
It's critical to the success of your writing effort that you choose a publication that accepts contributed articles and is read by an audience that includes your customers and prospects. Industry trade publications that are read by your target audience are generally the best bet. You also need to be familiar with the content of the publication so you can most appropriately write the article to fit the content. There are a few key questions you'll want to answer to make sure you're targeting the right publication:

  •   Why do your prospects read this publication?

  •   What type of information do they want to get?

  •   What is the circulation of the publication?

Also, local business publications and newsletters may accept contributed articles. If you don't know which ones to pursue check their websites or call to ask them.

2.   Contact the Right Person.
Just like you, editors and reporters have specific responsibilities, and they're busy fulfilling those tasks. That being said, you need to find out who at the publication is responsible for accepting contributed articles; otherwise, you may be ignored. Most of the time it's the person listed as editor but you should check the publication's website to make sure.

Once you contact the right persons, you'll want to confirm that they do accept contributed articles, as well as request their guidelines for writers:

  •   Are they looking for a specific topic?

  •   Is there a specific word count they require?

  •   Do they need photography or graphics to accompany the article?

  •   What is their deadline for the next publication?

The easier you make their job, the more likely you are to see your article in their publication. And asking them what they want is the best way to find out.

3.   Use the Right Tone.
And that tone is educational. Remember, this is not an advertisement, so it's critical that you write an article that sounds informative and unbiased. Specifically, your article should not focus on your company, product or service but rather an industry-related trend or issue that is affected by your company, product or service. What else is there to talk about? Plenty. Some good topics for contributed articles include:

  •   Five tips to increase sales in a competitive market

  •   How to improve efficiency with increasing costs

  •   How using a product/service in general will improve your       profitability

  •   How new trends affect your industry and business.

That doesn't mean that the reader won't notice you, your company or your product. Generally, articles will include a brief paragraph that mentions you, your company and a link to your website. Plus, the fact that you are the author speaks volumes about the credibility of you, your company and your product or service—credibility that you can't pay for.

If you would like help writing and publishing your contributed article, contact 360 Business Consulting at 949-916-9120 or success@360businessconsulting.com