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Alternative Content Partnerships that Drive Backlinks (and Engage Your Audience)

Guest blogging is, let’s be honest, an old trick. While it has fulfilled its intended function, there are far too many guest articles competing for readers’ attention on industry blogs in the field of digital marketing. High-quality backlinks are the holy grail of SEO, and getting them through guest blogging is getting harder and harder to do in this competitive market.

Beyond the tedious guest post churn, link-building opportunities abound. It’s time to break out from the mold and investigate substitute content partnerships that offer engaging new methods to interact with your audience in addition to producing worthwhile backlinks.

The Guest Posting Conundrum: Why It’s Time to Diversify

Guest posting is beneficial. It enables you to reach a wider audience, become recognized as an expert in your field, and possibly even obtain some more backlinks. But this tactic’s efficacy has been progressively eroding. These are the reasons why:

  • Saturation: The abundance of guest posts competing for readers’ attention on industry blogs has lessened their impact. It is more difficult to separate out from the crowd when editors are inundated with pitches.
  • Quality Issues: It becomes difficult to maintain quality control when there is such a large volume of guest contributions. In order to obtain a backlink, many blogs may post low-quality content, which would be detrimental to both your audience and reputation, not to mention there so many private blog networks today disguising 
  • Limited Control: You don’t have much influence on the finished result as a guest blogger. It is possible to dedicate several hours to creating an exceptional essay, only to have it published with a poor backlink profile or altered beyond recognition.

Reveiling the Arsenal: Alternative Content Partnerships for Backlink Bliss

So how can we get those much-needed backlinks and break free from the guest posting rut? These innovative content collaboration ideas will help you improve your content marketing efforts in addition to generating links:

  1. Co-creation Extravaganza: Collaborate to co-create a piece of content, such as an ebook, video series, or infographic, with a business or influencer that complements yours. By doing this, you may reach each other’s audiences, produce original content, and build backlinks on both platforms.
  2. Infographic Powerhouse: Infographics are attention-grabbing visuals that are shared widely. Collaborate with a data analyst or designer to produce an infographic on a subject that will interest both of your audiences. Provide a backlink to your partner’s website from the infographic you embed on your website, and vice versa.
  3. Webinar Whirlwind: Webinars are a great opportunity to interact with your audience in real time and position yourself as a thought leader in the field. Join forces with a company that serves a comparable market to co-host a webinar on a subject that will benefit both parties. Together, promote the webinar and include backlinks to each other’s landing sites in the materials you send out for registration.
  4. Podcast Power Play: A guest appearance on a relevant podcast can introduce you to a whole new audience, as podcasts are a rapidly growing media. Look into podcasts related to your niche, make a guest appearance request, and make sure the program notes or website description includes a reference to your site.
  5. Skyscraper Technique 2.0: Raise the bar for the Skyscraper Technique by expanding on already successful content. Partner up with another business to produce a resource that is even more valuable and thorough than the competition. This joint endeavor not only improves your content but also obtains backlinks from the two websites that link to the updated resource.
  6. Expert Roundups: Roundups that include opinions from a variety of industry insiders is a fantastic approach to demonstrate your knowledge and expand your audience. Work together with other influential people in your field to provide brief articles or quotes for a roundup piece on your website. As a way to give your viewers a valuable resource and to generate backlinks for all parties concerned, include backlinks to the individual contributors’ websites.
  7. Broken Link Resurrection: Here’s a smart method for finding backlink chances. Find broken links on websites related to your topic by using tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush. Suggest to the website owner that your excellent material be used in place of the broken link. This benefits the owner of the website as well as gains you a useful backlink.
  8. The Interview Symphony: Interviews are mutually beneficial. Ask intelligent questions that will benefit your audience when doing an interview with a prominent figure or industry expert for your website. This establishes your expertise and fosters connections with influential figures in your industry. Remember to include a backlink in your post pointing to the interviewee’s website.
  9. Guestomatic Guest Hosting: Rewrite the story of guest blogging. Instead of pitching yourself as a guest writer, invite a complementary brand or influencer to write a guest post for your website. This allows you to curate high-quality content for your audience, gain exposure to the guest’s audience, and secure a backlink on their website as a “thank you.”
  10. Social Media Synergy: Collaboration isn’t just for websites. Engage on a giveaway or competition on social media with a related brand. This is a great method to create backlinks for each other’s brands and cross-promote each other’s brands in contest descriptions and social media biographies.
  11. The “Remix” Revolution: Avoid having to start from scratch every time. Transform your blog’s current, high-performing material into a video or podcast episode. Collaborate with a brand or influencer to co-host the reused content and obtain backlinks for your promotional materials.

Remember: Focus on developing sincere relationships with companies and people who match the values and target market of your business when forming content partnerships. More organic partnerships and reader-relevant content will result from this.

The Backlink Bonanza: Measuring Success Beyond Just Links

Backlinks are unquestionably important for SEO, but it’s important to keep in mind that they’re only one component of the picture. These extra metrics should be taken into account when assessing the performance of your content partnerships:

  • Increased Brand Awareness: How effectively did the partnership expose you to a new audience? Did you see a rise in website traffic or social media engagement?
  • Content Engagement: Did the co-created content generate interest and spark conversation? Look at metrics like comments, shares, and time spent on page to gauge audience engagement.
  • Lead Generation: Did the partnership lead to new leads or conversions? Track website forms, landing page visits, and sales figures to measure the impact on your lead generation efforts.

A successful content partnership should deliver a holistic benefit – backlinks, brand awareness, audience engagement, and potentially even new leads.

The Future of Backlinks: Building Relationships, Not Just Links

The future of SEO lies in fostering genuine connections and collaborations within your niche. By prioritizing high-quality content partnerships over mass guest posting, you’ll not only secure valuable backlinks but also build a strong network of partners, create engaging content, and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

So embrace the fascinating world of content partnerships and throw off the tedious grind of guest posts! Together, we can rewrite the guidelines for constructing backlinks and produce material that not only performs well in search results but also connects with readers and drives the success of your content marketing campaign.

At Javelinize, our only goal is to position you in front of your preferred audience. That’s why we work hard to earn you relevant backlinks using every inventive tactic we can (without using any blackhat methods!).

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Welcome To The Age of the Influencer

It’s easy to see that we’re in a world that utilizes influencers more than other marketing techniques. It is certain that you have come across influencers if you are a user of social media. You might have just in a naïve state thought that these are popular people. These people do have a lot of followers, but chances are, they’re doing it for other reasons than fame.

There’s the fortune that comes with being an influencer now. You don’t even have to have a lot of followers to be considered for the gig. Companies and SEO agencies are recruiting people with just thousands and ten thousand followers to be their spokespeople. They will pay money for just a picture with the product. In this article, we will explore how marketing is changing due to social media influencers.

One of the Greats

You probably know one of the biggest influencers out there – Kim Kardashian. Kim is an influencer who built her brand on the bad kind of fame. Her leaked sex tape was scandalous at the time. Her mom though was not one to cry over spilled milk. They used their notoriety to build the brand of the Kardashians. A lot of Kim’s work used to be just showing up for brand launches. Now, she just needs to be seen with a product on her social media and people will buy it. She’s a major influencer and probably one of the first clear cases of brand influencing that there is.

Now of course, she’s created her own brands and this is a different story. However, her job used to be just being popular and using that popularity to launch products off the shelf.

A Friend or a Lead?

Influencing has to do with people wanting to hear from a person. A person with 15 followers, aka me, could not really be an influencer. No one is interested in what I have to say when it comes to what you should consume, wear, etc (although we are not discouraging you if you’re just getting started).

However, someone with a thousand followers would be considered a nano influencer. This person has potential, and you cannot overstate this enough when it comes to a brand. If they are an ambassador of the product, they will probably officially have the brand in their bio. Instead of them filling out who they are, they will just plug in a line to your brand.

If it seems a little disingenuous, then perhaps that’s because it is. It’s a transactional relationship at that point. They are getting paid to promote the brand. They don’t even need to use the brand but just be perceived as using it.

What Businesses Need to Realize

There is a niche for every business. Finding a personality that represents what you stand for is just like finding a new employee. It’s a little bit like finding a model and a little bit like finding a marketing manager. The influencer is a bit of both rolled into one.

When you get into business, then you need to see that you are constantly going to be recruiting more people as your business grows. If you are responsible for building a brand, then you certainly need to get an influencer. This influencer will be the person on social media that gets all their “friends” or your “leads” interested in the product. The product is a natural match for the influencer as their values, personality, and taste are in line with the product. You can get an entire market from friends of friends that are motivated by their desire to have what the influencer has.

But Are They Really Your Friend?

The influencer market uses buzz words that denote intimacy. There are the terms friends, like, love, laughing at your joke, sad, mad, and other emotions that emoticons use to depict a sense of emotional attachment to the influencer’s content. But in reality, they are really reacting in a very personal way to an impersonal product. Their emotional connection to the influencer itself is often enough to sell them on what the influencer sells.

So really though, are these people really friends with all the people that follow them?

This is a definite “no.” They may be friends with the few they follow back, but followers are all about people that take an interest in the page, the person, or their products. Maybe really it’s a combination of all these elements. It is a lifestyle that the person is hawking. If you like their beachy sunsets or flowery dresses, you are bound to love the tropical tea that the influencer is an ambassador of.

On a small scale, the influencer doesn’t even really need to commit much to the brand. They simply need to agree to post one picture with the product in some cases. It’s just a spark that can fuel a fire in the influencer world.

Hot Potatoes

Sometimes people set their sights of influencers that are too big. A lot of weight loss teas target the major players that are celebrities. That can be exciting but is it plausible that this person really got their figure from drinking a tea that just came out six months ago? You don’t want to be like Proactive that got major celebrities to endorse it. But, people were left with subscriptions and a product that was really just not effective for major acne sufferers.

That being said, you need to find people that actually will use the product and have the integrity to endorse it with a good conscience. Focus on finding individuals to promote your brand who are:

  • Smaller in scale: This could mean they have a smaller social media following, are less established in their field, or are a smaller company themselves.
  • More passionate about your brand: By targeting individuals who genuinely like your brand and its values, they are more likely to be willing to put in the effort to promote it authentically and effectively.
  • More accessible: Smaller entities might be more open to collaboration and easier to reach out to than larger, established figures.

The overall goal is to find individuals who are both enthusiastic about your brand and willing to actively promote it through various methods (e.g., creating content, sharing on social media, attending events, etc.).

Here are some additional points to consider:

  • Focus on engagement: Look for individuals with high engagement rates on their platforms, indicating a more active and receptive audience.
  • Niche down: Consider targeting individuals within your specific niche or industry for a more relevant and impactful reach.
  • Value authenticity: Prioritize individuals who genuinely resonate with your brand and can create content that feels natural and relatable to their audience.

By focusing on these aspects, you can increase the chances of finding individuals who will effectively promote your brand and help you achieve your marketing goals. At the end of the day, you could be left with one big hot potato that you can’t really hold on to because the business is not sustainable. Go for real instead of glitzy and you will get started on a team player relationship with an influencer that holds promise for your brand.