The pandemic has inadvertently changed our link-building strategy. With the focus now being on establishing credibility, more than anything else, it is essential to devise an impactful link-building plan to approach the existing outreach campaigns.
A majority of SEO professionals and startup owners have already shown their skepticism to initiate outreach-specific link-building strategies in the post-pandemic era. While the concept is still very much existent and necessary, the link-building plan that leads to effective outreach results is far from being a reality.
But then, instead of devising an entirely new link-building plan for outreach, it is better to modify the existing one and align the same as per your diverse set of requirements. Plus, with lockdowns, mandates, and restrictions aplenty, it is important that three effective link-building scenarios are considered to make the outreach program even more impactful than usual.
Personalize the Link Outreach Plan
If you plan on hiring a credible link-building firm that even deals with outreach campaigns, it is necessary to ensure that they follow a path towards personalization. In the pre-covid19 era, personalization wasn’t such a big thing as a majority of relevant yet high-end websites would allow well-written blogs to be published, without a lot of due diligence.
However, the post-pandemic scenario is different and the link-building service provider now needs to be considerate towards the website that is being approached. The concerning link building plan should take the preferences of the website or brand into account and provide assets that can make a difference to their readers.
For instance, if your company deals in wellness and mental health, it is better to be highly targeted with the outreach program and focus on websites that otherwise feature health-based content. But then, if you are sending over a resource, talking simply about diet habits wouldn’t be enough in the post-pandemic era. Instead, you might have to drafts posts or provide content relevant to student mental health or any less explored issue.
The idea here is to personalize the assets in such a way that the website doesn’t only accept the inclusion but also makes efforts to spread the word. But then, submitting an asset or blog post right away isn’t the way to approach outreach.
As you need to connect with the website via corresponding emails, having a personalized plan always helps. It is expected that individuals viewing the emails will now have a restricted attention span, lesser patience, and even less time to sift through the template-specific emails. They would want to read and interact with something personalized and curated.
If as a startup you are approaching the outreach program on your own, consider greeting the person by the name on the concerned email whilst starting off on an informal note to emphasize empathy. A humanizing introduction is expected to go a long way in establishing a sense of bonding, which would then ensure seamless access to the website.
In simpler words, sending out a more compassionate and user-specific email is what makes sense at the time of this crisis as it has better chances of getting read and replied to.
Follow up Subtly
The pandemic hasn’t been kind to most and quite understandably so. Therefore, you cannot expect the person reading the email to respond with the desired level of promptness. This is the reason why following up on the outreach email becomes all the more important. While the email could have already been discarded, the chances are presumably less if you have had adhered to the first point of this discussion.
Regardless, if you believe that your outreach email has enough zing to keep the reader interested, it is better to follow up and ensure that they get to read your piece. Also, even if the website seems functional to you, the owners might have other priorities to deal with at this very moment, which might be another reason for them to skip the email.
A follow-up of sorts helps bring the request or the outreach email on their radar, whilst increasing the chances of a reply. You should also understand that getting through to a good website isn’t easy as they often get a barrage of emails, each day, which often becomes overwhelming to read and revert to.
This is why consistent follow-ups are necessary. But then, it is important that follow-ups are drafted with the utmost respect with your urgency and their perspectives into account. While a humorous or even aggressive approach might make sense in a usual scenario, even the follow-up emails need to be toned down during the crisis.
Put simply, the follow-up plan should be drafted with sensitivity and politeness as the key elements as being pushy might kill off your chances of getting the outreach program underway.
Go Further than Emails
Despite email marketing being one of the more pronounced strategies for kick-starting an outreach program, it is important to look elsewhere to make the strategy work. I believe this is the perfect time to embrace some of the more exclusive online resources to get the campaign underway.
Apart from emails, you can even onboard individuals on a video chat to talk about link acquisition in its entirety. Also, quick video calls save time and ensure that you need not haggle back-and-forth, over an excruciatingly long email thread.
Another approach that makes sense is screen sharing alongside video calls. This way, you can clearly explain what your business is all about and how getting a link from the concerned website can improve its chances of getting optimized. Plus, with screen sharing, you can protect your asset by even highlighting the important aspects that might be most relevant to their audience.
But then, planning out the perfect outreach program isn’t a comprehensive outlook towards making it a success. Instead, your focus should be on doing everything in your power to make the outreach-centric link-building strategy a success. Here are some of the more essential factors that you need to consider for lending that additional heft to your link building strategy that focuses on outreach:
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Search Intent
You can create the best and most informative blog around but if it doesn’t satiate the search intent of the website, it might not get a place in the website of preference. The concept of user intent is one of the key search engine metrics and this is the reason why most websites have recently turned a blind eye towards posts that offer less value.
For example, if you are catering to a website that targets kids’ wear but your product or service concerns streaming devices, it might be next to impossible to create something relevant for the website. Google values search intent as a primary ranking factor and therefore, if you are planning to set up a targeted outreach program, it is pertinent to ensure that the topic and matter of the blog are in sync with the user intent.
Force-feeding links into specific pages and topics aren’t expected to work well, especially if you are looking for long-term boosts in ranking. For better understanding, you should focus on content that is actually useful to the readers. Only then can you make the links work and get the traction that you deserve.
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Optimization
Your link-building strategy isn’t going to work well if you do not align on and off-page optimization strategies with the user intent. Optimization here entails working on the betterment of the website, including making it highly mobile responsive, speeding up the pages, and more. But then, while building links for outreach, your primary focus should be on optimizing the content in hand, periodically, to make it more relevant to the users, in the long and short term.
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Focus on Quality
Building links for outreach shouldn’t be a game of numbers. This means, getting a lot of links from different low-end websites isn’t going to come in handy. Instead, your focus should be on getting one or two high-quality links from the top-rated websites of choice.
But then, what is a high-quality backlink? Any link from a unique domain qualifies as a high-quality link provided it comes from a trusted, high DA website. Plus, the domain needs to have high-quality external links as well.
Therefore, if you are doing the outreach campaign yourself or have hired an agency for the same, looking for high-quality websites becomes all the more important. Also, the relevance of the niche to be established as high-quality links without relevance or focus on user intent isn’t going to cut it.
Regardless of the approach you follow, it becomes important to keep working and building the web pages that you are currently planning to link to as if visitors find smoke at the other end, they aren’t going to stay or even come back.
Overall, the focus of any link-building outreach program should be on managing the contact arrangement effectively, whilst ensuring that your word, quality of the resource, and user intent get through to the website or blog owner.