How to Sell Featured Spotlight Articles to Your Members

This Tip of the Week covers topics including:

• 0:55 – Benefits of Spotlight Articles for Businesses
• 3:40 – What to Include in a Spotlight Article
• 7:43 – The Power of Storytelling in Spotlight Articles
• 10:54 – Using ChatGPT for help writing spotlight articles
• 12:36 – Measuring the Success of a Spotlight Article
• 17:33 – Selling the Spotlight Article to Businesses
• 21:14 – 4 Spotlight Article Examples
• 25:20 – Let’s Recap the Benefits!

This is a segment from Webinar Wednesday 150, recorded live on February 1, 2023.

Selling Featured Spotlight Articles

In the digital age, having a strong online presence is key to success for any business. As a directory website owner, you want to provide your members with the tools they need to stand out in a crowded online marketplace. That’s where selling featured spotlight articles comes in. By offering members the opportunity to purchase a spotlight article, you can help them increase their visibility, connect with potential customers, and reap other benefits that come with standing out in your online member directory. But how do you go about selling spotlight articles and making them an appealing upsell purchase for your members? In this article, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know.

Let’s face it, with so many online directories available, it can be hard for members to stand out from the crowd. Often, the competition is just too steep, and it can be challenging to get noticed among so many other businesses vying for the same audience. This is where featured spotlight articles come in handy, providing members with the extra visibility they need to get noticed by potential customers. 

The Solution:

Selling featured spotlight articles is easy, but making them an attractive purchase for your members is key. You can start by promoting the benefits of these articles to your members. Here are some things to consider:

1. Extra Visibility: Featured spotlight articles give members more visibility in your online directory, making it easier for potential customers to find them.
2. Better Connections: By having more visibility, members can connect with more potential customers and other businesses in your directory.
3. Improved Reputation: Members with featured spotlight articles can improve their reputation in your directory and gain more credibility among potential customers.
4. Increased Leads: More visibility and better connections can lead to increased leads and sales for your members.
5. Exclusive Opportunity: Selling featured spotlight articles can be an exclusive opportunity for your members to stand out and gain more visibility in your directory.

Making Featured Spotlight Articles Appealing:

So, what should these featured spotlight articles include? When crafting an article, you want to make sure it’s engaging, informative, and relevant to your members’ businesses. Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Engaging Title: Your article’s title should be attention-grabbing and relevant to your member’s business. It should also include relevant keywords to help with search engine optimization.
2. Informative Content: The content of the article should be informative, providing readers with useful information that they can apply to their business. It should also be well-written, free of spelling and grammar errors, and formatted for easy reading.
3. Relevant Images: Including relevant images in the article can make it more engaging and help break up the text. Make sure the images are high-quality and relevant to the content.
4. Calls to Action: Include calls to action in the article, encouraging readers to take action and connect with the member’s business. This could include links to their website or social media profiles.
5. Member Input: Get input from your members on what they want to see in their spotlight articles. This can help ensure the content is relevant and valuable to them.

Benefits for the Directory Website Owner

Selling Featured Spotlight Articles to members can not only benefit the members themselves, but it can also benefit the directory website owner in several ways. Here are five benefits to consider:

1. Additional revenue stream: Selling Featured Spotlight Articles can generate an additional revenue stream for directory website owners. This is a great way to monetize your directory while providing added value to your members.
2. Increased member retention: By offering additional features and benefits like Featured Spotlight Articles, directory website owners can keep their members engaged and more likely to stay with their directory for longer periods of time.
3. Enhanced member engagement: When members have the ability to purchase and create Featured Spotlight Articles, they become more invested in the directory and are more likely to engage with other members, creating a stronger community.
4. Increased visibility for the directory: When members purchase Featured Spotlight Articles, they are essentially advertising their businesses and services to a wider audience. This can attract more visitors to the directory website, increasing overall visibility and potentially attracting new members.
5. Competitive advantage: Offering Featured Spotlight Articles as an upsell to members can differentiate your directory from others in the same niche, giving you a competitive advantage.

Use Cases for Selling Featured Spotlight Articles

While any membership directory website can benefit from offering Featured Spotlight Articles, some websites may see greater benefits than others. Here are five use cases for websites that may benefit the most from selling Featured Spotlight Articles:

1. Niche directories: Directories that cater to specific niches, such as restaurants or wedding services, can benefit greatly from offering Featured Spotlight Articles. These directories often have a high concentration of members in a specific industry, making it easier for businesses to connect with potential customers.
2. Local directories: Directories that focus on a specific geographical location can also benefit from offering Featured Spotlight Articles. This can help businesses stand out in a crowded market and increase visibility in their local community.
3. Career-oriented directories: Directories that focus on professional networking, such as LinkedIn, can offer Featured Spotlight Articles as a way for members to showcase their expertise and stand out from their peers.
4. Directories with a large number of members: Directories with a large number of members can benefit from offering Featured Spotlight Articles as a way to provide added value to members and create a more engaged community.
5. Directories with high traffic: Directories that receive a lot of traffic can use Featured Spotlight Articles as a way to monetize their website while providing a valuable service to their members.

Offering Featured Spotlight Articles as an upsell to members can provide several benefits to both the directory website owner and the members themselves. By creating a new revenue stream, increasing member retention and engagement, and offering added value to members, directory websites can differentiate themselves from competitors and provide a valuable service to their members. By highlighting the benefits of Featured Spotlight Articles and offering them as an option to members, directory website owners can take their websites to the next level and create a thriving community of engaged members.