First, you walk. Then you run. What if, instead, you learned to dance?
While Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a key strategy today, going forward, B2B marketers will take a more holistic view. More of a dance than a race, marketing is evolving to look at the entire lifecycle and how to care for the customer relationship at each phase. Driven by this holistic approach, Forrester proclaims in its New Tech: Account-Based Marketing Q1, 2022 report that “the term Account-Based Marketing will disappear by 2025 as B2B organizations focus on the entire customer lifecycle.”
As part of this evolution: Buying Group Marketing (BGM). While ABM blankets your key accounts with messaging, BGM targets the specific people involved in purchase decisions at your key accounts. It does this through carefully crafted buying group personas and delivering custom campaigns to buying team members. It’s a person-based marketing approach versus an account-based one. BGM is about relationship building – externally and internally.
While that sounds great, the devil is in the details.
One of the keys to implementing a successful BGM strategy requires a fundamental paradigm shift in how you market. As Forrester reinforces in the New Tech report, “sales and marketing must come together to identify and prioritize buying groups for effective ABM.”
A lead isn’t something to be tossed over the wall at the MQL stage for sales to run with. Employing a BGM strategy, requires marketing and sales to work together at every stage of the customer lifecycle from awareness to deal and beyond.
If your marketing and sales alignment has looked more like a tussle than a dance in the past, it’s time to streamline your moves into elegant choreography. Here’s how you and sales can ditch your two left feet and learn to dance well together.
How BGM sales-marketing alignment works
Let’s set the scene with an example from the movie Dirty Dancing.
In this 80s classic, there is a scene where Baby (the main character) is learning to dance the Mambo with Johnny (the dance instructor). His usual partner, Penny is on the sidelines and can see that Baby is struggling to learn the steps. So, Penny steps in and guides Baby from behind while Johnny leads. And the three of them move together in fluid unison to the music until Baby gets the moves down and learns the dance.
How does this relate to Buying Group Marketing?
In an effective BGM strategy, Johnny represents the sales team, Penny represents the marketing team, and Baby is the prospect. Marketing and sales work together to guide the prospect into finding the right steps and rhythm that will help them succeed.
This is a fundamental shift in how sales and marketing has traditionally worked together. With BGM, marketing is no longer stuck on one side (or in Dirty Dancing… the corner) of the MQL wall but involved in all the stages of the process. Because of this, each department needs to know the steps and be able to dance together first. Then they can bring the prospect in and teach them to dance, too.
5 Steps to improve your marketing and sales alignment
Below are five key areas to help you improve your marketing and sales alignment for an effective BGM strategy:
1. Align goals and operations
To ensure that your funnel is unified, sales and marketing must have common goals and a common bench of metrics that deliver insights for continuous improvement. One of the first steps in the process is coming together to develop this operational backbone and to create service-level agreements, defining the goals and the lead management process from the top of the funnel to the bottom.
2. Share your data
Sales and marketing teams need to have access to all the same data and insights around contacts and accounts at the same time. This will prevent missteps and ensure that everything that is created is of value to your prospects and enhances their journey.
3. Orchestrate your messaging
Because the messaging in BGM is more highly targeted to buying group members, it’s important to team up and work through your air-cover narratives and carefully orchestrate them. The focus should be consistent messaging that is on-target for every successive stage of the funnel with the end goal of generating value for the buying team member.
4. Align your platform structure
Synergy across sales and marketing starts with your systems. The platforms that you choose to use for BGM, whether a CRM, marketing automation or sales engagement tool, should be engineered to share data, processes, messaging, goals and metrics.
5. Communicate continually
To execute a BGM strategy well, you will need to design a feedback loop between the sales and marketing organizations for regular communications regarding pain points and successes and for developing mechanisms to test and learn. Content is king, but context is everything because your data is shared. There should be an open communication loop to adjust campaigns for the context of the prospect along the way.
How a BGM approach helped a B2B industrial workforce platform close more deals
One B2B platform whose business is to digitize the industrial workforce took a Buying Group Marketing approach, using top-of-the-funnel advertising to close more deals.
This organization had a highly specialized audience that was particularly difficult to reach. While marketing did bring in some viable leads, the organization’s existing solution (that was based upon reverse IP look-up) was insufficient to produce high-quality leads. The result was nearly non-existent lead follow up by the sales team. The lack of follow up led to a strained relationship between sales and marketing.
There needed to be better alignment within the two teams and a more granular approach to marketing efforts. To do this, the marketing team used sales’ data to create highly customized advertising campaigns using Influ2.
Sales were delighted with the results, receiving immediate notifications about engagement on the ads from the contacts they had been trying to reach. They were also appreciative of the context-driven insights and lead prioritization that marketing was now able to deliver. And what started as a pilot was expanded globally.
Taking this approach helped the marketing and sales teams better collaborate. They defined the processes, determined the appropriate infrastructure, orchestrated their messaging, and openly communicated with each other to improve the pipe and close more deals.
A meaningful competitive advantage with BGM
According to Forrester, “Many organizations have already evolved or are evolving processes and technologies to account for buying groups; those organizations have a meaningful competitive advantage over those who do not.”
Buying Group Marketing is here to stay. While there are many components involved in building an effective BGM strategy, marketing and sales alignment is among the most important. These five steps will help you get started with your BGM marketing-sales alignment.
Remember: not stepping on each other’s toes is great. But you can do much more. Learn to dance with your sales team and help your prospects achieve their lift!
This sponsored article was written by Nirosha Methananda, VP of marketing, Influ2.
With a number of privacy changes on the horizon, marketers will soon face new challenges with how we track and measure marketing performance. Measuring marketing ROI using native reporting from media platforms like Facebook and Google Ads will become increasingly less accurate and complete, and ultimately not even possible as third-party cookies are phased out.
Frankly, marketers deserve better than what third-party cookies have been able to deliver in terms of measuring marketing value. Third-party cookies are predisposed to inflation and double-counting when it comes to conversions. And conversions, whether tied to an online purchase or a form submission, are what most businesses truly value.
The deprecation of third-party cookies, therefore, presents an opportunity to improve the way we measure and report on campaign performance and ROI. It’s an opportunity to shift our reporting further down the funnel using first-party tracking and data strategies to create a more accurate and sustainable source of truth.
We invite you to learn more about creating a first-party marketing measurement strategy in our session “How to measure marketing value in a cookieless world” at the upcoming MarTech virtual conference on Wednesday, March 30th.
By attending this session, you’ll be able to:
Understand how third-party cookies have led marketers astray
Transition to first-party and even “no-party” marketing measurement
Put a 90-day plan in place to get your measurement strategy future-ready
80% of customers agree the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services. That’s why enabling more human conversations through 1:1 personalized journeys drives loyalty and engagement for consumers, translating to growth and efficiency for your business.
But getting started on the personalization path is easier said than done, especially with competing priorities across your business’ teams.
We’re told hindsight is 20/20. But hindsight doesn’t always tell you where you need to go. In fact, when it comes to research, it only tells you where you’ve been. On the other hand, Foresight research tells you where you need to go, sets you on the right path, and lets you continually check-in to make sure you are always headed in the right direction.
“Foresight research allows you to get quick feedback about what your customers want right now,” Feedback Loop CEO Rob Holland said. “It gives you the ability to rapidly innovate, test a hypothesis, get feedback, make another decision, test that decision, get more feedback, and do that all very, very quickly, so you can stay on track.”
Marketers looking to plan their next ad, message or campaign traditionally have relied on hindsight, or legacy, research. They look at how things have performed in the past to inform what they do in the future. But traditional legacy research is expensive and time-consuming, and it gives you a snapshot of just one moment in time, which by the way, is already behind you. It may have little to do with what’s in front of you.
We know of what we speak. Feedback Loop’s crackerjack marketers recently undertook a revamp of our digital presence. As the effectiveness of agile, iterative, foresight research for marketing became crystal clear, so did the tangible results of our campaigns.
“We would’ve been completely wrong.”
Jolene Pierangeli was surprised. A seasoned marketing consultant, she was charged with overseeing Feedback Loop’s marketing changes. As was her usual practice, she looked at previous ad campaign history and website traffic to gather data to use in planning the company’s website redux.
“Typically, in marketing, you look at how banner ads or display ads perform in other locations,” Pierangeli said. “You take into account personas and the demographics for your audience. Then you use that data to make assumptions and decisions based on what you know — but that legacy data isn’t necessarily right.”
Feedback Loop exists to provide rapid consumer feedback, so Pierangeli didn’t have to rely solely on that legacy data. She did what Feedback Loop tells its clients to do: She tested.
Marketing designer Michelle Baker created mock-ups of two new website designs. Option A had a clean white background, using graphics to add some color. Option B had blue elements and a darker blue background. Based on the legacy data they had, as well as the popularity of white-background websites, Pierangeli and Baker were certain their audience would prefer Option A. They did an A/B test using the Feedback Loop platform.
To their surprise, respondents favored Option B.
In addition to testing the color, layout, and user experience for the website, they tested whether to use clickable dropdowns, so all text information would be accessed by clicking buttons.
“Personally, I like to interact with websites that way, and I thought other people would, too,” Baker said. They used the Feedback Loop platform to test their hypothesis that users would prefer a cleaner experience that would encourage them to click through to get the specific information they wanted.
Again, Pierangeli and Baker were surprised. The overwhelming response to the test was that users wanted everything to show at once — no clicks needed — because they didn’t want to have to do any extra work to get information.
“That was not a behavior or a response we thought we were going to have,” Pierangeli said. “I realized you can use as much data as you want from previous campaigns, but you’re going to be missing out on what consumers actually want. In our case, we want product professionals, marketing professionals, research professionals, UX, and innovation teams to find the website useful and easy to navigate.
“All the data we had from other channels and the historical information — from a few months ago to a few years ago — did not tell us this. We didn’t learn this until we tested the different layouts, the different colors, the different ways text was presented. I was surprised. I’ve been doing this for a long time — a really long time — so you’d think I’d have a fairly decent understanding of what consumers would want. I have an understanding of target personas and what’s important to them. That’s why we do persona exercises. But without using Feedback Loop, we would’ve been completely wrong.”
The new blue website launched on February 14, 2022. Since then, Feedback Loop has seen traffic increase — and that doesn’t even include repeat users. The number of new website visitors doubled.
“In a week, we got a month’s worth of lead guarantee.”
On the heels of the website’s success, Feedback Loop launched a content syndication program. The company handling the promotion said it should take a month to reach Feedback Loop’s guaranteed lead goal.
Before launching the promotional ad, Pierangeli and Baker tested the advertising and messaging for their promotion using the Feedback Loop platform. For the ad, targeted at both marketers and product teams, Baker created one version using a cartoon treatment and one using screenshots. The majority of the audience-tested chose the screenshot version. That’s the one they launched.
Feedback Loop got their entire lead guarantee in one week.
“In a week, we got a month’s worth of lead guarantee, which is great because that gave us the entire month to nurture them. We were able to use the time we saved by testing to nurture those leads and then start converting them,” Pierangeli said. They’ve converted 30% of those leads to MQL — so far.
For the next iteration of the ad, targeted at marketers, Baker tested three concepts with the Feedback Loop platform: one with cartoons, one with screenshots, and one with a combination of both. The third option — a combination of styles — was chosen by 46% of respondents, so that’s the ad they’ll be launching.
“As a designer, before I started testing concepts, I never really knew how an audience would react to what I was creating,” Baker said. “Using the Feedback Loop platform lets us target exactly who we want to target, and the more data we have, the better the end results will be. Now, when I create something, going in blind is pointless since I have the ability to know what the audience prefers before we ever launch.”
“You already know going into it what your consumers want.”
The lessons she learned by using Feedback Loop for Feedback Loop changed how Pierangeli looks at marketing campaigns.
“When marketers build out a campaign plan, they typically build out a first draft, revision time, second draft, final draft, then launch date,” she said. “Unfortunately, a lot of times after a launch, the campaign does not perform and deliver the number of leads or MQLs or conversions to opportunities that marketing needs to build the lead funnel and help sales convert. That means marketing will have to go back and add new content to their campaign or do other types of activities. Basically, they’ll have to do more work in order to get to their goal.”
By building rapid consumer research into marketing processes early on, marketers can save themselves and their teams hours of work down the road and, potentially, prevent failure of a launch. Testing in the Feedback Loop platform only takes a couple of hours, and it can de-risk decisions, whether it’s what color to put on your website or what messaging to use for a promotion. You don’t have to wait weeks or months for traditional research methods to produce insights that are already in hindsight when you finally get them. A little foresight goes a long way toward ensuring you launch successfully.
“You need to bring in the voice of your consumers to have true data to make your marketing campaign successful,” Pierangeli said. “Then you can launch with confidence and know you’re going to get what you’re trying to get, whether it’s a number of leads or delighting your customers or a higher conversion rate. For all the things you are being held accountable for, you improve your chances of success by testing in advance.
“It’s OK to be wrong. But you need to understand that, even though you may have been doing this for years, even though you may have the most well-written persona until you actually ask your potential customers what it is they want, you really don’t know.”
Have your Google Ads results plateaued in 2022? If your conversion rates need a boost or you’re struggling to reduce CPA while increasing revenue, you’re not alone. Join the Google Ads experts from Paid Search Magic and Invoca for this webinar to learn the latest best practices for jumpstarting Google Ads ROI in 2022.
Link-building isn’t easy, especially if you want it to be done right (i.e., stay compliant with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines). Nevertheless, if your goal is to siphon more organic traffic through high search engine rankings, it is vital to study the intricacies of modern white hat SEO.
Stay tuned as we’re about to reveal ten actionable white-hat link-building tactics (and a couple of bonus ones) that you can use to start building high-quality backlinks today. The strategies we’ll be covering are not only proven to work today but also lay a solid foundation for what’s to come in the SEO landscape in the years to come.
And the best part? In our ultimate white hat backlinking guide, you’ll learn all you need to know to reach your organic traffic goals now and, in the future, as well as get educated about some of the common traps and pitfalls to avoid.
Right now, only thematically relevant backlinks are good enough to move the needle
Fast page load times and mobile-optimized websites are the essential cornerstones of modern on-site SEO, but for Google to rank you alongside the most trusted authorities in your niche, you will need to back it up with strong off-site SEO. Indeed, this means obtaining backlinks from thematically-relevant sources – Google sees this as a vote of trust. Think of it as “street cred” in your chosen niche.
In the past, the primary focus was convincing high-authority websites to link back to you. But nowadays, the topical relevance of the backlinks you build is arguably even more important than the raw authority of the website. Ideally, you would have a backlink cover both of these categories, but in practice, backlinking opportunities like this are hard to find. Therefore, your primary focus when building links should be on relevance – authority, while still important, comes second.
With this out of the way, what’s the ultimate strategy to conquer the search engine rankings the right way and hold them for the long-term, without resorting to any gimmicks or short-lived tricks? You’re on the verge of finding out!
Best link-building services
Before we move on to the best white-hat strategies in today’s SEO landscape, we’ll let you in on a secret and share a few words about why the following link building services can truly help you reach your SEO goals faster than any other method:
OutreachZ.com is a self-service platform that acts as a middleman between backlink seekers and webmasters willing to publish your content on their blog. The marketplace is enormous and constantly growing. This is an excellent solution for SEO professionals who prefer to have more autonomy by taking matters into their own hands. It lets you choose the blogs you want to publish your content on (based on industry metrics such as DA and DR).
We picked the platform because it effectively solves your blogger outreach problems through a user-friendly interface. Because every blogger listed on the marketplace has been pre-vetted, you’ll save a ton of time contacting them and negotiating the terms of the deal. As long as you can provide well-written content that’s relevant to their niche, it’s almost impossible not to strike a deal – this is a win-win relationship between you and the blogger who has already expressed their interest!
RankZ.co is a managed guest posting platform and one of the best link-building services to source highly relevant editorial links. Even if you know nothing about SEO, their friendly team of experts will take you by the hand and devise a custom-tailored SEO strategy just for you. Just like OutreachZ.com, RankZ has a broad database of bloggers from every niche who are willing to link back to you in exchange for quality content.
We picked it because it can help any website gain higher search engine rankings at very reasonable prices. Unlike some of its competitors, the managed SEO service provider chooses to take a personalized approach for every one of its customers. Before proceeding with the custom-tailored action plan, one of their experts will thoroughly analyze your website and make recommendations based on their findings. Thanks to their in-depth reporting, you’ll always know where you stand in Google, and every backlink they create will be listed there, right along with the relevant metric (DA, DR, and similar).
Best White Hat SEO link-building strategies
With this out of the way, you’ll learn what it takes to dominate the search engines without triggering the wrath of the algorithms:
1. Resource pages
MAIN IDEA: Writing in-depth resources on trending or niche topics that save time and are helpful will earn you the highest quality links for free.
Link type: Follow
When writing content, you should be willing to go above and beyond to help your audience in any way you can. If you take the concept of writing helpful resource pages and combine it with laser-focusing on trending topics that people are searching for, it won’t take much convincing for other people to link to you.
Moreover, since you’ll be utilizing the power of #hashtags that are trending when sharing your content on social media, people will organically flock to your website even before it starts ranking in Google. This can create a snowball effect as people are actively searching for the topics you’ll be covering. It’s like riding a traffic tornado – you’ll be giving them exactly the kind of content they’re starving for.
So, what is a resource page? In essence, it’s a comprehensive guide featuring helpful guidance on pressing matters (examples include COVID-19, the Ukraine crisis, and similar). Let’s say you decided to create a resource page on COVID-19 where you list a recap of the most important things the reader should know.
You will be covering topics such as:
What are the symptoms?
How to isolate properly?
What should your first response be?
Other ideas:
If you’re in the SEO niche: Write a post titled “200+ On-Page SEO Factors that Google Uses to Determine Your Ranking.”
If you’re in the software/entrepreneurship/misc. niche: Write a post titled “200+ Free Websites to Download Free Legal Software.”
Finally, to make this concept truly work wonders for your SEO, you should start searching for other people’s posts on the topic and find out who’s linking back to them. You can use any suitable SEO tool of your choice for this task (Ahrefs is a great choice). Then, reach out to these webmasters and say something along the lines of:
“Hey, I noticed you linked to this post; we created a well-researched article that is even better, more in-depth, and covers more sub-topics. We spent a ton of time making the definitive and most comprehensive resource out there. Would you be willing to link to us instead?”
Even if you only get 1 out of 20 to respond, make no mistake – it’s well worth your time and effort. Keep in mind the backlinks you’ll get will be of the highest editorial quality. In fact, this is one of the top white-hat SEO strategies out there, and it’s not going against the will of Google but giving it exactly the kind of thing it wants to see instead.
By following the strategy explained above, everybody wins you, the webmaster, Google, and the readers.
Link baiting: an alternative take on the above
Link baiting is a strategy you should use sparingly. But when executed correctly, it can bring you outstanding results. The premise is this: write something provocative or touch upon a sensitive topic and publish it on your website.
Be respectful and stay within the boundaries of the law, but other than that, say it like you mean it, and don’t pull your punches! This way, people will be compelled to reference your post to chime in, and the discussion can heat up well beyond the comment section of your blog.
This won’t always work, but when it does, your article or blog post can truly go viral. Plus, you can get a boatload of backlinks and traffic. A softer version of the same strategy is to post a discount on your products or services, which is also likely to attract links.
Get your creative juices flowing and think of other ways you could bait people into linking to your content. Anything related to politics, football, dating, and celebrity gossip is a good start.
In the beginning, however, your primary focus should be on getting traffic in the first place. This is the toughest part. Once your website starts getting the initial bout of traffic, the link baiting strategy can be a good way to expand upon the idea of “resource pages” and take it even further.
2. Guest posting
MAIN IDEA: Gain powerful editorial backlinks in exchange for content
Link type: Follow
Guest posting simply works. It’s one of the most efficient ways to secure high-quality backlinks from virtually any niche of your choosing. If the webmaster takes you up on your offer, this effectively grants you access to high-quality editorial backlinks, which are some of the most powerful ones you can get. This is due to the following:
Firstly, these are content-based links. Google looks upon them much more favorably compared to, for example, backlinks that are placed in the footer or the sidebar. The reason being is that backlinks in those side areas are often not human-generated, whereas the ones placed in the middle of the content most likely are.
Secondly, content-based links imply a healthy amount of editorial pressure. In other words, it’s up to the webmaster to either approve your guest post or reject it, meaning it has to offer something valuable to the reader – otherwise, there would be nothing in it for the webmaster to publish it. By favoring editorial backlinks, Google promotes the distribution of helpful and well-written content. It’s a win-win arrangement for everyone involved! The webmaster gets amazing content for free for their readers to enjoy, and you get a powerful backlink.
Best of all, any blog in your niche could potentially be willing to link back to you in exchange for quality content. At this point, you’re presented with two options:
– You can start contacting bloggers on your own. However, bear in mind it’s a labor-intensive process, and it’s quite typical for the majority of your emails to go unanswered. Furthermore, although still effective, the strategy has been chewed to the bone as you’re not the first one to think of utilizing it. Bloggers these days can be very picky with regard to what they’re willing to publish, so you’re going to have to come up with the very best content to stand a chance and pass through their filters. And that’s not even mentioning the time it takes to compile a list of bloggers and email them one by one.
– In case writing and emailing people is not your cup of tea, you’re better off outsourcing it to a professional or finding the best link-building service with native writers on-board (like the ones we mentioned above). But be very careful who you entrust this task to! A no-name blogger outreach services provider could end up promising the sky and under-delivering, or worse yet, providing the wrong type of links that could harm your entire SEO campaign.
Long story short: in the SEO sphere of today, guest posting remains the holy grail of white-hat link building. At the same time, it also helps position you as the authority in your niche and grow your brand. Once your posts get published, don’t forget to count the highly targeted traffic your website will receive directly from the webmaster’s blog when people start clicking through your link. This can drive highly qualified leads immediately, even before SEO benefits start taking place.
3. “Parasite” websites (with high Domain Authority)
MAIN IDEA: Utilize high DA websites that can rank for low-to-medium competition keywords on their own
Link type: Nofollow
How would you like to ride the waves of another website’s authority and capitalize on its high search engine rankings? With the so-called “parasite” SEO strategy, you can quickly claim the top spots in Google for low-to-medium competition keywords.
There are numerous websites you can use for this purpose, with some of the best being:
– Medium
– LinkedIn Pulse
After registering, simply publish an article there, and the platform will let you insert a backlink. Granted, it will have the “nofollow” attribute, but the strategy is worth pursuing for the direct clicks your website will receive alone.
For example, let’s imagine you’ve written an article about “blue widgets” and published it on your main website. Do some keyword research and identify some related LSI keywords (typically, these will have a low difficulty). All of these long-tail keywords are perfect to write a supporting article for – inside, you will mention your website as a reference where they can learn more about the topic.
You could, of course, use the long-tail keyword strategy on your main website as well, but don’t expect a miracle in terms of search engine rankings if it’s new. Although you will eventually rank for your chosen keywords either way, know that “parasite” websites already have a high domain authority in Google and are thus much better suited for ranking quickly. Yes, even without building any additional backlinks to them at all!
4. Infographics
MAIN IDEA: Create eye-catching materials that people distribute without you even asking
Link type: Varies
Infographics have long been a closely guarded secret and a potent link-building weapon in the hands of the best link building services and their clients. Much like press releases, once created, infographics are the kind of content people will happily distribute on their own without you having to lift a finger, provided the content (and its presentation) is truly something remarkable.
Granted, not every topic will perform equally well, so you have to do your due diligence. In general, info-based topics that are packed with stats tend to perform well (hence the name “info”-graphics). When brainstorming ideas, make sure to think about what kind of statistics or facts would invoke the “WOW, I didn’t know that!” response in your readers. Because let’s face it – some statistics are just plain boring. And content that makes people yawn won’t get shared.
Last but not least, consider hiring a graphic designer for the job. Even though you could technically get away with doing it for free using Canva or similar template-based tools, it’s essential to create something eye-catching.
Note: in case you catch someone publishing your infographic without linking back to your site, kindly reach out to them and ask for a backlink. Most will be happy to oblige. But just in case, don’t forget to also include your logo and your main website URL in graphical form.
5. Broken link building
MAIN IDEA: Get a free backlink in exchange for fixing other people’s broken links
Link type: Follow
This backlinking strategy is severely underutilized, but if executed correctly, it could net you some high-quality editorial backlinks. In essence, it works like this:
First, do some thorough research and web crawling to discover whether any bloggers in your niche have published any articles with broken links in them. These can be broken due to typos, but sometimes, the domain they were linking to could have expired or is simply no longer hosting that content. Then, get in touch with them, notify them about the issue, and offer your website’s URL as a replacement (ideally, you’ve already published an article that covers this topic).
As you might have guessed, the hard part is locating these broken backlink opportunities, and if you were to do it by hand, you’d probably go crazy. The good news is, there’s a myriad of SEO tools you can use for this purpose, so this aspect of the equation is semi-automated and practically done for you.
If you’re planning to use this strategy, there’s something very important to keep in mind: don’t try to hide your intentions. Be transparent. Say that “yes, my goal is to get a backlink from you, but if you help me out, we both gain something from it.” The reason being is that you’re solving a problem they’re having, but for this to work best, the replacement URL you’ll provide truly has to contain the kind of content that will leave them breathless. Ideally, it should be better / cover the topic more in-depth than the original. To check out the old article that is no longer reachable or someone has taken down, you can use a free tool like Archive.org.
6. Email those who scrape your content and request they link back to you
MAIN IDEA: Instead of going after copyright violation, turn it into your favor and get a backlink
Link type: Varies
Stealing other people’s content is not only a copyright violation, but it’s also not recommended for SEO (duplicate content issues). Nevertheless, the internet is full of individuals who are utterly unaware of the fact, so expect them to do it regardless.
Even though you’d be 100% in the right to request they take down the content that legally belongs to you, might we suggest a better strategy? Instead of going at them hard, kindly ask them to link back to you as a way to say “thanks.” This way, they can continue using the content, but you’ll get something out of it as they’ll list your website as the source.
Don’t worry about their stolen article potentially harming yours. If you published the article before they did and Google crawled your website prior to crawling theirs, your version will be recognized as the original.
7. Press releases
MAIN IDEA: Raise brand awareness with PR articles that get picked up automatically
Link type: Varies (mostly nofollow)
Although Google claims to be ignoring links obtained by distributing press releases (after all, most of them will have the “nofollow” attribute), it’s unlikely these backlinks will hurt you. In fact, they are not only great for diversifying your backlink profile, but also for the purpose of growing brand awareness. If you get lucky and your PR articles get picked up by the right news outlets, you can even score some high authority “follow” backlinks along the way.
So how do you write an amazing PR article that has the best chance to get picked up by the media? In essence, structure your content in such a way that it addresses the following 5 big questions:
– What message are we conveying / what is our announcement?
– Who are we trying to reach?
– What’s in store for our target audience?
– When will it be launched?
– Who will be the one to deliver the message?
Of course, the exact questions can vary from niche to niche, but you get the idea. As long as you cover the “who”, the “what”, the “when”, the “where”, and the “why”, you should be in good shape.
8. Q&A websites
MAIN IDEA: Get direct traffic by sharing your expertise
Link type: Nofollow
Q&A websites are an under-utilized yet powerful tool to grow your online presence. Not only do they let you leave a link back to you inside your profile and answers, but they also help you establish yourself as an authority in your niche – provided that your answers are genuinely helpful. In other words, you’ll be placing your business directly in front of a highly targeted audience who’s looking for a solution, which is exactly what you need.
The leading Q&A websites in today’s web space are:
– Quora
– LinkedIn Answers
However, you need to approach them with the right strategy in mind – mindlessly throwing your website’s URL around won’t get you anywhere (and it may even get you banned from the platform). In fact, even directly linking to your products or sales pages is NOT recommended most of the time.
What you need to do is research the most common questions people are asking, categorize them, if need be, and write a blog post on your website that addresses them from various different angles. Now, you have a powerful free resource you can share with them if they want to learn more.
So, let’s say you come across a question that asks about X.
In your answer, you would do your best to answer that question to give the reader a good basic idea of what they need to do (but don’t go into the details too much). Then, at the end of your answer, you can say something to the extent of “if you’d like to learn how you can solve X, check out the detailed guide I’ve posted on my blog that answers your question even more specifically.” And inside that blog post (and NOT on the Q&A website directly), you subtly promote whatever products or services you’re offering.
Do you see the difference? By doing it this way, no one will ever flag your answers as spam – in fact, the readers will thank you for it. Moreover, these Q&A websites often rank very highly on Google, meaning you can legitimately piggyback off of their search engine authority and funnel a healthy portion of their traffic your way.
Although things may change over time, these will always be worth it for marketing purposes in one way or another. Even if they suddenly decide to make all of your links “nofollow” (or even prohibit you to insert links in the first place), it’s well worth it to participate as these may net you a handsome chunk of direct traffic.
9. YouTube
MAIN IDEA: Repurpose your content by turning it into videos that generate traffic
Link type: Nofollow
Video distribution sites like YouTube and Vimeo are fantastic for getting your content out there and generating some thematically relevant backlinks while you’re at it. Did you know YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine? It functions exactly like Google in many ways, with the main difference being its focus on video rather than written content. By uploading to YouTube, not only can you leave a link under every video you post, but you will also get direct traffic to your website from targeted visitors.
If you’ve ever published an article, you can repurpose it for all sorts of things, including turning it into a video. Feel free to use the content you’ve already written as a manuscript for your video or amend it slightly if you wish. At any rate, most of the hard work will have already been done at this point – now, you only need to figure out what video production/editing approach would work best.
If you’re camera-shy, there’s no need to put your face on the screen if you’re not comfortable with doing so for any reason. You can make a captivating video by using nothing more than a couple of PowerPoint slides or it can simply be you talking over an image background. As long as you’ve got a decent microphone at hand, you should be able to produce something in a matter of minutes. Alternatively, you could also outsource any part of the video creation process to a freelancer.
10. Blog commenting
MAIN IDEA: Get direct traffic by adding value to the discussion
Link type: Nofollow
Although blog commenting shouldn’t be your primary link-building strategy due to it yielding nothing more than “nofollow” links that don’t count for much, the best link building services still recommend using it in modesty. The reasons are twofold:
– It makes your backlink profile more diverse
– It helps you establish a brand in your niche
Keep in mind that the vast majority of these links will be “nofollow.” In most cases, your author’s name will appear as a clickable link you can use to link back to your website, but don’t try to shove your links inside the body of the comment (this will most likely cause the webmaster to delete your comment straight away).
To be successful with blog commenting, the trick is to find relevant blogs in your niche and, ideally, be the first to leave a comment. This way, you’re almost guaranteed to be noticed and may receive some direct clicks to your website, provided the comment you leave contributes something valuable to the discussion.
In other words, don’t just leave a comment for the sake of doing it. Comments like “hey there, great blog post” are not enough to get your comment approved – you have to do better! The goal is to invoke curiosity in the reader. If possible, try to use your real name with an avatar for your posts to have an added bit of legitimacy and to stand out more.
Bonus strategy 1: Unlinked mentions
How many times has it happened to you that someone mentioned your name or brand, but it’s in plain text form rather than it being a clickable link? A pity you can’t do anything about it being hyperlinked… or can you? Listen: if someone decided to mention you in a positive context, chances are they will be more than willing to link back to one of your websites when asked nicely. And if not, try your luck with another person who mentioned you somewhere. With SEO tools (or Google directly), you’ll discover more of these unlinked mentions than you can chew on, especially if your brand is popular.
Bonus strategy 2: Link reclamation
Not every backlink you’ve created will last for a lifetime. Sometimes, sites get taken down for a myriad of reasons, domains expire without being renewed, etc. But in other cases, they get removed deliberately by the webmasters. Chances are, at least one of the websites that used to be linking to you no longer does, and there are several SEO tools that can help you pinpoint precisely what those are. Then reach out to those people and ask if they could add it back. Be polite. Sometimes it’s a mistake on their end, or perhaps they decided to rewrite the entire article. Either way, it doesn’t hurt to try.
Bonus strategy 3: Superior content
Have you ever stumbled upon a low-quality piece of content that had a ton of backlinks and couldn’t help but wonder how it got them in the first place? If you’re a part of the SEO industry, you’ll come across one of these sooner or later. Then, write an article on the same topic, but make it bigger and make it better. It has to be superior to the original in every way you can imagine. After it gets published, convince the webmaster to link to your article instead. If you’ve done your homework, this should be an easy win.
Bonus strategy 4: Directories
Obtaining backlinks from directories is an old-school SEO strategy, and most of them will be “nofollow”. While this is unlikely to give you a substantial boost in your search engine rankings, it does serve an essential purpose – diversifying your backlink profile. Do you think it’s natural to have only the highest quality editorial backlinks pointing to your site and nothing more? Of course not. So go out there and claim these surefire victories, as small as they may be.
Bonus strategy 5: RSS feed
Is your website powered by WordPress? Then you probably have an RSS feed already. In essence, this is a mechanism that broadcasts your newly published content to the world. Unfortunately, some will blatantly steal your content and republish it on their blog. But often, they’ll employ some sort of automation to do it, meaning they won’t bother stripping out any internal links you’ve left in there. So, make sure to insert them in your articles and mention other related content you’ve published on your website – it’s a good on-site SEO strategy you should consider utilizing either way.
Bonus strategy 6: Spying on your competitors
A wide range of SEO tools allow you to check the backlink profile of any page you’re interested in, including your competitors’. Why would you want to do that? The reason is simple: to see where they’re getting their backlinks from. If they’re willing to link to your competitors, they’re likely ready to link to you as well, especially if your content is far superior. The next step is to identify backlinking opportunities – which webmasters should you reach out to first? Go through them one by one and you should be able to get a response eventually.
Bonus strategy 7: Social media
Although any backlinks obtained from social media tend to be “nofollow” (Facebook, in particular, is set to “noindex”) and thus not likely to have a significant impact, it’s still a good idea to have them for multiple reasons. First of all, your backlink profile should be natural, varied, and diverse. By sharing valuable content on social media, not only do you get your brand in front of people’s eyes, but also foster healthy relationships with those who could end up becoming your loyal customers. You need to show them that you’re not just another faceless corporate entity; that there’s a real human face behind all of this, someone whose vision is to help others achieve their dreams and solve their problems. As a result, most will feel indebted to you and be more willing to do business with you – that’s the power of reciprocity.
Bonus strategy 8: Our retailers pages
This method only applies if you’re running some sort of retail or eCommerce store. Simply make a list of the products you carry in your inventory and jot down your manufacturers and suppliers. Then, write them an email and inquire whether they have some sort of “our retailers” page. Ask if they could link to your e-store. Most will be willing to oblige.
Bonus strategy 9: Tweak your redirects
In case you’ve restructured your website, it’s important to have 301 redirects pointing from the old URL structure to the new one. Without it, you’d be losing out on link juice from anyone who’s linking out to you. Of course, newly launched websites won’t have to worry about this problem, but if yours has been around for a couple of years, it’s good to have this in mind – a little tweak like this could do wonders for preserving your existing rankings.
Bonus strategy 10: Testimonials
Bought any products recently that you’d have zero second thoughts endorsing? Send an email to their creators, share your love and enthusiasm for the product, and ask if you could write a testimonial for them. In most cases, you’ll also be able to provide a link to your website. This works two ways: their sales pages get more credibility and you’ve just scored a powerful backlink to your site. Nice!
Bonus strategy 11: Free web-hosted tools
If you have a decent knowledge of coding, you could come up with a free tool and host it on your website. It could be something as simple as a calculator or as complex as an online scraper or SEO tool. These tend to attract quite a bit of organic backlinks. Alternatively, you could also hire a developer to do this for you, but bear in mind that, depending on the length and complexity of the project, it could end up costing you a pretty penny. Alternatively, it can be something creative: maps, tests, quizzes… you get the idea.
Bonus strategy 12: Blogger reviews
If you have a product to give away, see if they would like to receive a free copy in exchange for a review. It’s quite easy to score some high-quality editorial links this way. However, be careful how you present the offer – it’s against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines to give out a product in exchange for a backlink directly.
Bonus strategy 13: Get interviewed
Are you an established name in your niche? Perhaps you’re holding a Ph.D. or you’re a well-known athlete? Capitalize on your accomplishments by letting other people interview you. You can bet they’ll be happy to leave a link as well. And in case you’ve been interviewed before and haven’t had a website at the time, reach out to them and ask them to insert your link next to the podcast or interview.
Bonus strategy 14: Start a petition
Is your niche about a passionate subject, something to do with human rights, perhaps? If there are people who believe in the same cause as you, they will do anything in their power to support it, including linking to it. You might even get featured in the media.
Bonus strategy 15: Provide a transcription
There are many podcasts and videos online whose creators simply don’t have the time or resources to generate a transcription or provide subtitles. Offer to do it for them in exchange for a backlink.
11. The dos and don’ts of white hat SEO
Before we conclude our guide, here are some of the key points you should apply to your SEO strategy:
DO: Go after editorial backlinks
Editorial backlinks are placed somewhere in the body (as opposed to the sidebar or footer). For Google, this indicates that someone has placed the link there intentionally (as opposed to the link being auto-generated by some plugin or a script). Therefore, it acts as a vote of confidence and thus carries more weight.
DON’T: Overuse “exact match” anchors
In the past, overusing “exact match” anchors worked tremendously well and was used by many SEO experts as a shortcut to attain high search engine rankings in a relatively short period of time. However, ever since Google introduced its infamous Penguin algorithm update in 2012, this is a surefire way to shoot yourself in the foot and get penalized by the search engines. In other words, you’re 10 years late to the party!
DO: Focus on backlink quality rather than quantity
In SEO, quality goes a long way. Anyone can build thousands of spammy backlinks using automated tools, but nowadays, this will kill your rankings faster than you can say “cheese.” The ones you want to shoot for are usually the kind that are the hardest to get.
DON’T: Worry about keyword density (too much)
Keyword density is another SEO metric that used to be relevant back in the day, but nowadays, its relevance is minimal at best. Yes, it’s important to mention your main keyword at least a couple of times but going above 2% in terms of keyword density could get your content flagged for “keyword stuffing.” Just don’t do it – Google is now smart enough to know what your content is about because it can understand its intent (read about the Hummingbird algorithm update if you’d like to know more).
DO: Build backlinks at a steady pace
As a general rule of thumb, it’s much better to spread out your backlinks over a long period of time than trying to get it all out there in a single day. Also, it’s normal for your search engine rankings to fluctuate as you do this, so there’s no reason to panic. The odds of witnessing this phenomenon are even greater if your website is new.
DON’T: Engage in link exchanges
You may be compelled to link back to someone in case they linked back to you due to common courtesy. But in reality, this could harm your SEO efforts. Google isn’t the biggest fan of link exchanges; it wants to see people linking to you naturally.
12. Conclusion
Off-site SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. As long as you focus on acquiring backlinks slowly and steadily, your search engine rankings will gradually improve. Consider working with the best link-building services to take some of the burden off your shoulders – building quality backlinks is hard work after all. In fact, it’s one of the most challenging aspects of SEO and it’s easy to mess up if you’re not 100% sure what you’re doing. Best of luck on your journey and may you get the search engine traffic your awesome products and services deserve!
What would it feel like if you could chat with your prospects here and now from this article – or better yet, a third-party article on your product or service? No sitting around waiting for intent signals. No banner ads with pesky redirects.
Well, it’s here – and not only is it the future of selling in saas, but sales teams are using it today to engage with prospects in the earliest stages of the dark funnel.
The dark funnel explained: Did you know 75% of buyers are already halfway through their buying journey before they even speak to a salesperson? At that point, they’ve already completed their pre-purchase process – checked reviews, browsed comparison sites, and perused articles on third-party sites – before even reaching your site. In other words, all of these activities have occurred anonymously in what marketers have coined the “Dark Funnel.”
In fact, you can experience what it’s like to engage in the dark funnel simply by clicking the widget below.
Okay… but what is the dark funnel exactly?
It’s the touchpoints a buyer experiences before they are tagged and identified in any marketing stack – whether through self-identification, or traditional methods like downloading a whitepaper, form fills or cookies.
The problem lies in that the digitization of the sales environment has marketers falsely believing that they can accurately track a customer’s journey. The reality? Much of the customer journey happens offline and when activities occur online, they rarely follow a linear path. Instead, the modern consumer meanders along a path that bends and twists, leaving sales teams/marketers “in the dark” on intent.
So, why isn’t intent data enough?
Intent data isn’t a lead, nor are most intent signals actionable for sales/marketing teams. Often, intent data comes in at the account level and not the contact level, making it challenging to action. In other words, intent data lets you know that someone at a particular company is possibly interested but isn’t detailed enough to identify who to reach out to.
On the flip side, if a salesperson can discover who the contact is, they can reach out quickly. In a world where speed to lead is everything, intent decays almost instantly. The chance of the user biting on an email cadence, picking up calls, or clicking on retargeting ads diminishes every minute that a salesperson is not in contact.
Most marketers believe a form fill on a website indicates the highest moment of intent. This does not appear to be true with recent research.
A study on 2000 B2B companies found that on average: it takes a sales rep 42 hours to contact a new lead, of which 38% will never respond. Additionally, 4.3 days go by before the first meeting ever takes place. In the simplest terms, timing is everything, and the longer you wait on opportunities, the fewer responses you will receive.
In the modern-day age, convenience and quick response times are everything. Studies show when businesses respond in under five minutes, they are 100x more likely to connect and convert opportunities.
Imagine this process:
Zero seconds: A prospect asks to chat on an article, review site, or 3rd party blog post.
3 seconds later: The prospect selects whether they’d like to talk now or schedule a call
1 second later: The prospect chooses to talk now
6 seconds later: The prospect is chatting with a BDR or SDR
This all occurs in 10 seconds, and the prospect hasn’t even reached a company’s website.
Buyer intent is highest at the beginning of the buying journey while solutions to the buyer’s problem are explored. If a prospect actively researches, discusses, and evaluates a company, they clearly express interest. At this point, many intent signals are collected by data aggregators to re-sell for marketing purposes. Naturally, consumers’ intent to buy decays as they move throughout their buying journey. When an intent signal is received and the prospect books a meeting/demo, leads are lost. It costs time, money, and resources to rumble over prospects with your competitors.
The dark funnel is where the most advantageous opportunities can be won – where you can curate your brand and dominate sectors, all while creating demand.
Sitting around waiting for intent signals is a passive approach. Actively engaging with prospects in real-time when they need you is much more effective. You are there first. Meet their needs, and they won’t compare you to anybody. Once ready to buy, they will simply choose you.
And don’t we all want to be chosen?
The Helium platform provides sales/marketing teams direct real-time access to chat with prospects on articles, review sites, and any third-party site whereby your company is mentioned. An entirely new channel, Helium lifts the veil on the dark funnel by creating new actionable touchpoints earlier in the buyer’s journey.
Many mar-tech strategies have been created to uncover vital consumer information (intent data) within the dark funnel. However, these approaches still follow a linear sales/marketing funnel that doesn’t exist. This limits the ability to adapt to present-day buyer behavior. Buyers don’t want to complete forms, receive numerous email cadences or wait two weeks to speak to a sales rep. Simply put, they want to ask a quick question to qualify or disqualify a potential solution.
Helium creates a direct line for organizations to engage in chat with prospects using new touchpoints in the dark funnel. During a prospect’s highest intent moments, sales reps are able to answer questions and book meetings immediately.
The result?
Beating competitors to prospects
Accelerating your sales cycle
Increasing conversion
Expanding your audience
Being the primary source of education for your prospects
While Helium does not eliminate a traditional lead gen workflow, it creates an accelerated path for prospects to progress through the funnel. If you are able to activate direct engagement in conversation, traditional marketing funnels and intent data can be bypassed.
So, curious to learn more about how to engage with your prospects from third-party content? Click the button below now and experience the magic for yourself.
The stakes are high for marketers today to adapt and scale their operations. Trends like the hybrid work shift and the looming metaverse have cemented our digital reality while workforce and customer demands continue to escalate and create new challenges. As a result, it’s never been more perplexing for CMOs to manage and grow their organizations effectively.
Yet, many do not realize there is one overlooked issue that’s seriously costing their organizations—one that, if addressed, could significantly enhance their business: poor communication.
That’s what new research by Grammarly and The Harris Poll found. The “State of Business Communication” survey of business leaders and knowledge workers reveals that poor workplace communication is a pervasive problem burdening businesses and employees alike. In fact, the study estimates a $1.2 trillion annual loss among U.S. businesses due to poor communication—or approximately $12,506 per employee every year.
The findings are especially relevant for communications-heavy teams like marketing as they engage with each other, buyers, and customers across new digital touchpoints and channels. And while the cost alone is staggering, the findings go much deeper—illuminating the far-ranging impacts of ineffective communication today and the need to fundamentally rethink productivity and engagement in the workplace.
Let’s take a closer look at what the research reveals and the implications for marketers to succeed in the next era.
Boost productivity and profitability with effective communication
Effective communication across teams, customers, and prospects is essential as workplace demands evolve. Nearly all business leaders surveyed (93%) acknowledge that effective communication is the backbone of their business. From emails to documents to pings, employees report spending almost 20 hours a week (19.93) on written communication alone—or half of the typical 40-hour workweek.
At the same time, the research suggests poor communication is rampant in the workplace—with direct effects on business results. Nearly three in four business leaders (72%) say their team struggled with communicating effectively over the last year. Moreover, they estimate teams lose the equivalent of nearly an entire workday each week (7.47) due to poor communication issues such as resolving unclear communications or following up on asks.
That’s up to a fifth of employees’ time that they could reclaim with better communication. The consequences of not addressing the issue are significant: Over nine in 10 business leaders say poor communication impacts productivity, morale, and growth, citing impacts such as increased costs, missed or extended deadlines, and reputational erosion. One in five leaders even reported losing business or deals due to poor communication.
As CMOs look to scale, overcoming the impact of poor communication is pivotal to achieving growth and profitability.
Deliver an exceptional employee experience with better communication
Beyond the direct cost benefits, the indirect advantages of improving communication are just as critical to business success.
In particular, leaders have a new urgency to improve the employee experience as record numbers of workers continue leaving their jobs. The Grammarly and Harris Poll data shows most business leaders (57%) cited employee satisfaction and retention as a top priority this year, even ahead of team productivity and customer satisfaction.
But the findings also reveal links between poor communication and employee morale and turnover. The majority of employees (86%) experience communication issues at work, and they report increased stress as the top impact. Those experiencing miscommunications multiple times a day are more likely to feel stressed. Leaders reporting higher employee retention are also more likely to have better communication.
Any breakdowns in the communication process slow down and frustrate employees, with domino effects on productivity, engagement, and the customer experience. As workforce needs continue to evolve, improving communication with greater clarity and empathy and nurturing confidence among employees are imperative.
Harness new tools to underpin the digital workplace
Nearly two years into the shift to remote and hybrid work, teams still don’t have the tools they need for success in a digital environment. Despite all the time they spend communicating, the research shows leaders (88%) and employees (63%) alike wish they had better tools to communicate effectively.
In particular, written communication takes up much of employees’ day-to-day. Over half (57%) say they communicate in a written format most of the time, and email remains the most popular and preferred method, ahead of virtual video meetings and text-based chat. Teams may also be interacting more than leaders even know: They estimate their teams spend 29% of their time collaborating with others when employees say it’s nearly half their time (49%).
A more dispersed workplace creates more opportunities for misunderstanding, and CMOs must rethink technology investments to equip teams to stay in sync and productive. AI and automated technologies are available that can help augment and optimize teams’ communication in all the places they’re already working. Platform-agnostic solutions, like AI communication assistance from Grammarly Business, integrate into existing systems and channels to enhance the quality and efficiency of communication across the board.
By revisiting lagging technology, CMOs can recapture the time lost to poor communication while delivering more impactful engagement with customers and employees.
The bottom line
Now more than ever, effective communication is the linchpin of organizations that can determine their performance. CMOs can no longer afford to ignore the cost of poor communication—those that invest in building better practices, bridging communication gaps at every level, and empowering teams with the right tools will see their businesses reach new heights.
________
The “State of Business Communication” report is based on a survey conducted online by The Harris Poll in October 2021 among 1,001 knowledge workers and 251 business leaders in the U.S.
Now more than ever, customers seek out information about your business online. If you don’t offer the experience your customer is looking for, your reputation may be at stake.
Discover how A&W Restaurants achieved a 25% increase in 5-star reviews on Google in six months and how you can achieve similar results or more.
Evaluating a site for “quality” is the most misunderstood concept in SEO. As a result, you may be leaving sites out of your outreach that can drive ranking, or you may be including sites that will provide no value or potentially get you penalized. This presentation is for digital marketers who want to scale up a high-impact link-building program while lowering risk.
Join link-building expert Kevin Rowe, who will walk you through an in-depth analysis of what website elements need to be evaluated to determine “site quality” for link building.
