In my last article, I outlined several tactics
for building links in challenging industries. I focused on different ways to create link-worthy content, but as we all know, that’s only half of the equation. The other half is planning a thoughtful link-building outreach campaign, because no matter how awesome your content may be, no one will link to it if they don’t know it exists.
In this article, I’m going to talk about link-building outreach, an equally important aspect of link building at a tactical level.
I’m also going to continue using the hypothetical dumpster rental company I used in the last article as my example industry. While this article uses a particular industry and targets general contractors in the examples, the concepts I share can be applied to any industry.
Create a plan
It’s easy to get excited and dive into a link-building campaign like a kid at the pool on the first day of summer. But if you do, you will probably fail, since jumping in without a plan does little for you.
If you’ve read Tim Ferris’s book “The 4-Hour Work Week,” then you should already be familiar with the concept of batching. If you haven’t read it, batching is basically just performing a particular type of task, such as compiling data or sending emails, in larger blocks of time rather than jumping back and forth between various types of tasks.
Batching is a proven way to increase productivity because in general, humans are no good at multitasking.
Before you get started, you’ll need to decide:
What type of link-building prospects you want to approach.
What you want them to link to.
Why they should link to your content.
Then you’ll need to compile all of the necessary data, set up your systems for outreach and tracking, and then begin engaging with your prospects.
Build your list
Your first step is to decide on the type of link-building prospects you want to target. There are a few ways we can go about compiling the data we need:
You can compile a list from one or more Google searches.
If you’re involved in networking and/or trade organizations, you will have access to a member directory, or perhaps even a comma-separated values (CSV) file of the member list.
You can utilize a tool to create a list based on a specific set of criteria.
I recommend a combination of all of these methods. That will give you a larger, more diverse pool of…
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