Do you have an online business? Congratulations! There are so many exciting new ways to market your service or product, as you may already know. Or perhaps you’ve been hired to write articles for a client’s online business, and want to make sure you’ve thought of everything. This article outlines the key actions to take in writing professional, well-written and engaging content for an online business.

Action #1: Most online businesses have a matching online newsletter that comes out on a regular basis. Others are retailers who sell both on line and in stores, and use both email messages and hard copy catalogues. In every case, the articles (and other content) are focused on the benefits to the client. Your article may be about what you sell, but it must definitely tell the reader what they can do with the product and/or how the product will help them. “Our furniture is made of solid oak” doesn’t work as well as “Furniture from the Orchard Studio is made of solid oak that lasts for generations.”

Action #2: Begin your article with some intriguing statement or anecdote, as a way to draw your reader in.

Action #3: Remember that an article in a newsletter is not a sales tool, but a way to provide useful information to your clients and prospects. Over all, your newsletter should have only 20% promotional material-the other 80% should be informational. The purpose of the newsletter, especially its articles, is to be helpful and to demonstrate the depth of your knowledge. The more your clients see how expert you are, the more likely they are to trust buying from you.

Action #4: If your articles are to be published in an enewsletter, with the use of an email service provider, keep them quite short-200-300 words. People reading on line scan, rather than read carefully, and only read small portions of the content. If you believe that your content is important, while too long for an online newsletter, simply provide the first paragraph or two in the enews, and then provide a link to the rest of the article on your website-which is where you want them to go, anyway!

Action #5: If you send out a hard copy newsletter as part of your marketing plan, even though your business is entirely on line, you are free to use much longer articles. For example, Upton Tea Imports, in Holliston, MA, does almost all of its business through the web, but they also provide a 20-page combined newsletter and catalogue. The articles in the newsletter, highlighted on the web, educate the reader about the history of tea, its harvest and curing, and the many different ways it has been sold over time. Since Upton’s readers, as tea-drinkers, have a special interest in the subject, this makes good sense.

Action #6: Your articles, whether long or short, should be well-written. This means following all the rules of grammar, and proof reading for typos. Read the article aloud to yourself-a great way to spot rough patches-and ask someone else to read it over for errors. Remember that spell-check doesn’t catch everything!

Copyright (c) 2010 Jane Sherwin. You may reprint this entire article and you must include the copyright info and the following statement: “Jane Sherwin is a writer who helps hospitals and other healthcare facilities communicate their strengths and connect with their readers.”

Author Bio: Learn more about Jane at http://worddrivecommunications.com/index.htm. Subscribe to Jane’s free monthly e-newsletter at http://tinyurl.com/2enrdqx for practical tips on communicating effectively with customers, clients, employees and the public.

Category: Writing
Keywords: how to write newsletter articles,write articles for online business,guidelines for writing articles