Ever since I started 10stepmarketing, one of my primary marketing tools has been writing articles. I love it for several reasons.

First, it's free.

And, as a small business owner without a lot of money for marketing, that makes it tops in my book. But I wouldn't rate it so highly if it didn't also provide other great benefits.

Number 1: It's a great way to generate back-links to your website, which increases traffic.

Number 2: It's a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Number 3: And this one is the kicker ... You can use the articles you write for a variety of other purposes.

For example, I write articles for my weekly ezine, but I also post them in article directories, and I even pull out parts of the articles and feature them on my blog. That's ... count 'em ... three uses for the same content!

I call it re-purposing content and it's an incredibly efficient way to market.

You write something once and you're able to use it several different ways to market your business. It's efficient, it helps you accomplish numbers one and two above, and best of all, its marketing that doesn't cost you anything.

To get started, simply survey your existing content. What have you written?

1) Do you have articles on your website?

2) Do you have newsletter articles?

3) Are you posting to a blog or forum (yours or anyone else's)?

4) Do you write for trade journals and industry publications?

5) Do you respond to client or prospect questions or emails?

6) Have you written a book?

ALL of these are sources for content you can re-purpose and use for other forms of marketing.

And, if you can't answer "yes" to any of the above, do you have knowledge and expertise that others can learn from and can you start writing for one or all of these purposes?

Take a few minutes this week to take this step and you will have uncovered at least two to three new marketing avenues you can easily add to your marketing plan at no additional cost.