You must have at some point or the other heard of viral marketing. But have you ever heard someone use the term article marketing? Think of it as content marketing done by businesses that use short articles to disseminate information about their respective industries. They achieve this by distributing and publishing this information in the marketplace so as to increase awareness of their work and what they do. And each of these articles will come complete with references and contacts for the business that has done this content marketing. It’s viral marketing in a much simpler, much more honest format if you ask me.

And if you’re not doing this, why aren’t you doing so already? Free content that is well written has great potential to increase the sales and credibility of a small business. I’m going to be brutally honest here and say that while there’s tons of free content out there on the internet, the main problem with it is that most of it is rubbish. So you can understand how quality content will stick out like a sore thumb (but in a good way of course). You might rightly feel that writing is not your strongest suite, but you don’t have to write anything at all. There are plenty of people out there that would be willing to ghost write for you for a fee.

Several forums allow you to set a budget and specify what is needed and accordingly you get responses from people that would be willing to do the job for you. And even if you don’t want to go online in search of writers, consider your hometown as a pool of talent as well. Talk to the college career department about the possibilities (an internship, a project based assignment, whatever) and you’d be surprised how students would be willing to do it for cheaper than most professional writers would. That’s because they are willing to write not just for the money it’ll pay, but because it is a requirement of their course and they get credits for doing so.

Once the article is written, your job isn’t finished yet. You must make sure that it goes viral by posting it on forums and boards that tie in with your target audience and linking it back to your blog or business website where it is located. You can even compile articles into an e-book and give it away for free (everyone loves free stuff) so long as it helps you get the hits rolling for your business. Good luck with your viral marketing ventures!

Back when I was a copywriter, I had some clients come up to and tell me what it was they wished for the brand to achieve and I listened to them patiently while they outlined things for me. Sometimes, I would have some of them come up to me and tell me that they want to improve the brand image but don’t want to resort to anything like marketing or selling. That’s because it makes them feel sleazy. And so cropped up the million dollar question; could you use some creative packaging to get our idea across without cheapening it?

I didn’t know what to say. Here were sensible folks that clearly needed to put their energies behind a marketing or branding campaign and yet they tell me instead to use “creative packaging”…what does that even mean? That I use not marketing, but something else that is equally sleazy to get the job done? Or is it that they do want marketing done without their name being attached to it? But then what’s the sense of that? It’s like a tree falling in a forest when no one can hear it. It’s an exercise in futility.

I didn’t know what to say to that, or if the question even merited a response. I had half a mind to laugh and ask the client in question if they were high or something of the sort. But suddenly within me an idea sparked and I smiled at the thought welling up inside me. I looked at the client and knew just what I had to say.

“You know what? I have just the idea for you”

“You do?”

“Indeed. Here’s what we’re going to do; instead of using a full-blown marketing campaign, which you clearly don’t want and which will cost a lot, we’ll just use creative communication and tell your customers how they stand to benefit from using your product. We’ll just talk to them, engage them, converse with them, put everything in context for them. How does that sound?”

For a few seconds, the client was asked and then simply asked whether I could do that. When I replied in the affirmative, we closed a deal pretty fast. But that right there was what creative packaging is all about. What is communicating but marketing in itself? Marketing is nothing more than the function of the message it has to place in the minds of its consumers, making them feel good about using it. And that’s what I told the client I would do for them. Sometimes, it seems to be that a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. And you can use this creative packaging to sell almost anything to anyone.

Like this; instead of saying something is 25% off, I’ll just say you buy 3 items and get a fourth of your choice free. See what I did there? Now go have some fun and weave some magic of your own. But just don’t call it marketing, please.

There are times, I must admit, when I am writing this blog and a thousand other things are preying on my mind and demanding my attention and content creation is the last thing on my mind, the last thing I want to do. Take for instance the dilemma of a blogger that is inundated with questions and requests from his readers to the point that his time is left answering queries and not actually writing anything new at all. Just what do you do when your mental inbox is full and the last thing you want to do is write anything?

What’s worse is there is a certain pressure with growing a blog that is still in its infancy. There are certain demands and it is like a baby that is growing; it has certain needs and requirements, and just as a baby needs to be taken care of and fed, so too a blog requires that its creators consistently keep at content creation to keep the blog alive. Once a blog dies off, it is very hard to revive it. Let’s take the example of the blogger flooded with questions from readers. What’s stopping him from turning that line of questioning into a blog post? Clearly, there is interest in whatever the subject of the question is. And it isn’t that that hard to simply say that there will be others interested in it too. So that line of questioning can be used as cannon fodder for content creation. There’s nothing to stop you from doing just that.

Take a different approach to content creation from time to time and it will certainly help to keep you fresh. Perhaps you can link back to other blog posts, connect with fellow bloggers and get them to write guest posts. Maybe at other times you could simply do a video blog post. The options are all there before you, and you can make of it whatever you will. By taking a different approach each time, you will not only keep your mind fresh, but you are also likelier to keep your readers more interested as the focus and style of your message delivery change.

If you were a military leader, how important would it be if you had someone working for you on the other side of the divide? The cold war was famous for secret agents and sometimes even double agents. But as a businessman or blogger, how wonderful would it be to have a secret ally on your side that helps you achieve your goals, all without the prospect or target even knowing about it? That’s the power bestowed by understanding brain function. By using it, you will be able to convince your customers that this is the thing to do simply by treating their mind as your playground.

The mind and brain function is a potent weapon for marketers and bloggers alike. Using it, capturing it and controlling it will help you immensely. Some feel that they constantly need to reinvent their schedule to appeal to their audience. That is not true in the slightest. The thing is, once your prospects are used to something you shouldn’t take it away from them. People don’t like change, especially if they like it and it resonates with them. Change it and you’ll undo all the good work done so far.

But what’s more important is you risk confusing them and their minds, and brain function will struggle to fully interpret different messages. The brain doesn’t want to remember everything, it is selective in its choices. But if something is repeated relentlessly, it will remember it since it figures it is important. This is also true for messages that are emotion heavy and consistently delivered. It’s why you remember your wife nagging you so clearly while you don’t remember where you kept that damn remote/key/pair of socks. Emotional context can be everything for brain function.

Advertisers know this and that’s why we remember advertising slogans dating back to our childhood more than we remember our fourth grade teacher’s name. It’s also why our first crush or love is remembered so vividly since details of him/her are played over so often in our heads. That’s the power of repetition, and that’s the power of harnessing brain function. Get a message and stick to it; the minds of your prospects will thank you for it and retain your message better.