DIGITAL MARKETING II

FOR E-COMMERCE AND DIGITAL MARKETING 2

CONTENT

1. Email Marketing
2. Display and Video Advertising
3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Paid Search
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Organic Search
5. Digital Strategy
6. Analytics

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Email marketing refers to the use of personalized, branded emails to promote the products or
services of business. It can be used to make customers aware of the latest offers, generate leads,
create brand awareness, build relationships, and keep customers engaged between purchases.

Display advertising refers to an online advertisement that combines text, images, and a URL that
links to a website where a customer can learn more about or buy products. These ads can be
static with an image or animated with multiple images, video, or changing text. Display ads
mostly appear on third-party websites. Banner ads are a common form of display ads that are
frequently used for awareness campaigns.

Search engine marketing involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility on
search engine results pages primarily through paid advertising. Advertisers bid on key words that
users of search engines such as Google might enter when looking for certain products and
services, which gives the advertiser the opportunity for their ads to appear alongside results for
those search queries.

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Search engine optimization refers to the process of improving your site to increase its visibility
when people search for products or services related to your business on Google and other search
engines. SEO contributes to improve the quality and quantity of website traffic.

A digital strategy is a written plan that clarifies a business’ online goals and helps put the right
technology and processes in place to achieve these goals. It establishes the direction that a
business follows online.

Digital marketing analytics consist of processes and technologies that enable businesses to
effectively evaluate the success and value of their digital marketing initiatives, identify trends
and patterns over time and make data-driven decisions.

All the above components are used by a professional digital marketer to deliver a unique and an
unforgettable customer experience to the users of a business’ products and services and to
contribute to the achievement of such business objectives like cost minimization, customer
satisfaction and retention, building brand reputation, profit maximization etc.

EMAIL MARKETING

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is promoting a business by sending emails and newsletters to both current and
prospective customers.

Digital marketers need to connect with their audience in a highly personalized way, while
staying on budget. Marketers who are good at email marketing can connect with their customers
in a highly targeted way. They will be successful in delivering ROI and revenue back to the
business.

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Components of Email Marketing

- Direct Emails: Emails are sent directly to current and potential customers.

Receiving direct emails is like receiving a flyer from a local business. In this case, the business
may be providing an announcement for something, like a special deal going on for a limited time
or a coupon for one of their products or services.

The distinctive element of direct email is that it is a call to action on the part of the customer.
The purpose of direct emails is to be promotional. They are used to offer a product or service, or
to ask to sign up for something.

They are mostly sent to potential customers.

- Retention Emails: Frequent and regular emails are sent to current customers

Retention emails are the equivalent of printed newsletters. While still promotional in nature,
retention emails attempt to retain customer loyalty by offering the customer something, like
coupons or up-to-date news on the latest products.

They are sent out on a weekly or monthly basis. The regularity helps to retain customer interest.
To be successful, an email marketing campaign should have a moderate use of retention emails
as well as good content use within an email.

- Email Placed Ads: Marketing ads are placed within emails sent by others.

Knowing what other type of businesses your potential customers go to and listen to is a great
advantage because it allows you to strategically place your ads in emails likely to get clicks.
It is also a benefit for the business with which you have an ad placed because they will know
that their emails are being read and they can also do some analytics work to determine where
their customers are clicking.

How to Do Email Marketing

1- Mailing List

A mailing list is simply a list of addresses to which the same information is being sent. An
electronic mailing list uses a list of email addresses from people interested in hearing about or
discussing a given topic.
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There are two types of Email Mailing Lists:

Announcement Lists: These are used so that one person or group can send announcements to a
group of people.

Source: lsoft.com

Discussion List

It is used to allow a group of people to discuss topics amongst themselves, with everyone able to
send mail to the list and have it distributed to everyone in the group. This discussion may also be
moderated, so only selected posts are sent on to the group as a whole, or only certain people are
allowed to send to the group.

2- Collecting Emails

The very first task for email Marketing is to collect email addresses of those who would like to
listen from you. There are many ways of collecting data in detail:

Basically, everything begins with content. People will find your site because of your amazing
content. They will keep coming back for this amazing content. Your content will be the
foundation of what you email to them, which will be the reason they stay subscribed (or not).

It all starts with amazing content. If you have got amazing content, then start asking for emails.
People who are interested would like to receive that content as often as you create, delivered
straight to their inbox.

The CTA (Call-to-Action) is your final instruction to the reader.

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Strategies to Grow Email List

Multiple CTAs: It seems like those who build lists design their web, blog best and calls-to-
action. You cannot escape their calls to sign up. There might be a signup in a popover, a signup
at the top of a blog post, another one at the bottom. Basically, the design assumes that people
will view the site differently and that in order to maximize the chances that a potential subscriber
sees a signup form, it is better to put sign up forms everywhere.

Give & Take: Attaching something valuable to your email signup form is a sure way to create
interest in readers’ mind. Basically, give something away for free, for the price of an email
address. For example, you can attach E-books, Cheat sheets, Email series, Video, Private blog
content, and Early access to new features.

Handy Opt in Links: Bear in mind that people can sign up to an email list in places other than
an email capture form. You can get the link and share it in a huge number of different places like
email signatures, social media messages, and guest blog bios. Depending on your email software,
there is likely a landing page devoted to acquiring email signups. Once you have the link, keep it
handy. You never know when you might have a chance to use it.

Disclose Your Social Strength: Would you be more apt to join an email list, if you knew 80,000
other people were already signed up? The concept of social proof says yes, which is why you see
many sites advertise the size of their email list on their signup form.

Create Remarkable Email Content: Your content needs to be amazing, if you want people to
stay subscribed and forward your emails to their friends, family, and colleagues that are not
already on your email list.

Gain more Signups

These are some favourite sources for email collection:

- Reply to each mention on social media, often starting a conversation with those who have
shared your content. As a part of this conversation, drop in an offer to sign up for your
email list, sending over the direct link to do so.
- Encourage your current email subscribers to share and forward your emails by including
social sharing buttons and an "Email to a Friend" button in your marketing emails. At the

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 bottom of your emails, include a "Subscribe" CTA as a simple text-based link, so that
those receiving the forwarded emails can easily opt-in, too.

3- Organizing the Mailing List

It is very important to organize all the email addresses that you have gathered. All you have to do
is to combine all the emails you collected in one single mass Email List, so that in the end, you
have got all subscribers in one single file. You can use MS-Excel for combining the list. After
combining the list, you may need to export it in text or a CSV file as required by your Mailing
Client.

You can convert an Excel worksheet to a text file by using the Save As command. Click the
Microsoft Office Button Click Save As. In the save as type box, choose the text file format for
the worksheet. For example, click Text (Tab delimited) or CSV (Comma delimited). Don’t forget
to do some sorting to avoid any invalid emails.

Formatting Emails

This is the main part to clean your list from bad, dead email addresses. There might be many
wrongly typed email addresses in your list. Some typo errors, syntax errors and possible some
bouncing email addresses, if you are dealing with your old email List.

On an average, about 22.5% email addresses get deactivated, banned or deleted per year, so that
must be the bad news, if you are one of the victim dealing with an old email list.

Opt-in

An opt-in policy requires a potential customer to self-select the services they wish to subscribe
to, and how any information they provide may be used. It is also referred as permission-based
marketing.

As discussed above, there are formal ways to gather email addresses using a CTA. Cash rewards,
coupons, and convenience appeal to many consumers, but often these benefits come at the cost
of an undisclosed contract for use of personal information.

Individuals may choose to share their data, but they should be afforded transparency over how
their data will be used and with whom it will be shared.

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Opt-out

An opt-out policy through which a customer can unsubscribe through the link attached in the
email.

Do Not:

- email people that never signed up nor have done business with you and tell them they can
unsubscribe if they don’t want to hear from you.
- start building an e-relationship by force-feeding recipients you’re messaging and telling
them they can opt out or unsubscribe.

By doing it the right way, your brand will be protected.

Note: Email marketing is not as simple as sending out a single, standard email to thousands of
people on an email list. It involves planning and designing and getting customers to read and
take action. It is impossible to get everyone to read your emails, but you have to work to improve
the chances of customers reading them.

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Never send Spam: Responsible email marketing is permission-based. Before you even send out
an email to a customer, you must have their permission. If not, you can become subject to
accusations of spam. Spam is an unsolicited and/or bulk commercial email sent to thousands of
people at once. If you are accused of spam, the following can happen:

- your email account can be closed

- your website can be shutdown
- your reputation can be damaged

DISPLAY AND VIDEO ADVERTISING

What are display ads?

Display advertisements are online ads that combine copy and visual elements with a call to
action (CTA) message that links to a landing page.

You typically see display ads along the top or sides of a website—or sometimes, in the middle of
the content you’re reading. Display ads are visually appealing, cost-effective, and a measurable
way for a brand to reach their marketing goals.

They could also be considered as a type of online advertisement that combines text, images, and
a URL that links to a website where a customer can learn more about or buy products.

There are many ad formats. These ads can be static with an image or animated with multiple
images, video, or changing text (also called rich media ads).

An ad campaign can have different goals, and some display ads educate about the product while
others are designed to entertain and engage through simple games or puzzles.

Banner ads are a common form of display ads that are frequently used for awareness campaigns.

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Types of Display Ads

1. Banner ads: Banner ads are one of the most common types of display ads ‌that you can
find across a variety of online platforms, including business and news websites, blogs,
social media channels and online forums. Banner ads often come in traditional shapes and
sizes, where marketers can apply banners in landscape, skyscraper and square sizes.
Traditionally, banner ads display a combination of text and images to gain audiences'
attention.
2. Native ads: Online marketing also applies native ads, especially within content
marketing strategies. Native display ads fit into the content of the web page, website or
email naturally. Marketing and advertising professionals assimilate native display ads
into content in such a way that audiences relate the ads to the content or brand itself.
Links that lead to other pages of a website, recommended content, sponsored search
results and promoted social media posts are several examples of native display ads.
3. Animations: Display ads that feature animations can use components of video, audio and
text to gain readers' attention and are effective for promoting brand messages, products
and services. These elements also give you the ability to use animated display ads as
long-form advertisements that explore complex or deep explanations about a specific
product, service, process or challenge. Additionally, animated ads can be shareable,
giving audiences more motivation to spread a branded message or offer. Animated
display ads can also result in higher audience engagement, which can help solidify a
brand's connection to its target market.
4. Interactive content: Display ads with interactive features combine multiple elements to
engage with online audiences. Text headlines, images, graphics and other embedded
features within interactive display ads allow audiences to engage with the advertisement.
On websites, interactive display ads can be beneficial for showing online customers the
internal features of a specific product where audiences can hover over certain parts of the
ad to view content, click on elements and otherwise interact with the display ad. These
types of ads can be advantageous for brands and businesses that want to educate
audiences or bring additional insight to users of specific products or services.
5. Video content: Display ads with video content often engage audiences by
communicating a specific message, asking a thought-provoking question or introducing a

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 product or service. Video display ads combine video, audio and sometimes text to
showcase an offering and motivate audiences to take action or make a decision. The
biggest benefit of video display ads is the ability to explore topics in more depth than
with traditional or even native display ads. Similarly, you can apply live-action
videography or animation with video ads, making these types of display ads effective for
many marketing applications.
6. Infographics: Infographics represent a type of display ad that features graphics and text
to educate audiences about a specific topic, idea or offering. For instance, a
pharmaceutical company's advertising strategies might include infographics to engage
with, educate and build rapport with its customer markets. Integrating infographics into
an online advertising strategy can be useful for business websites that focus on educating
and providing information on products or services. Another advantage of developing
infographics to advertise.
7. Expanding ads: Expanding ads are display ads that users can expand beyond the initial
size that the ad displays on a website. Some expandable display ads open up when users
hover over different elements of the display, and other expanding ads may open up after a
certain triggering action on the part of the user. Marketers often configure expanding ads
to initiate based on user action and intent. For instance, on a business website, an
expandable ad starts in an invitation phase where users see the ad as a small display
within the content page. As users interact with the page content, the display ad expands to
take up more space on the page, gaining audiences' attention for a variety of purposes.
8. Lightbox display ads: Lightbox display ads are a special display ad Google developed
some time ago. These display ads are similar to expandable display ads where users on a
website must interact with the ad for it to initiate into full-screen content. Unlike
traditional expanding ads, though, Lightbox ads can include a combination of video,
audio, text, animations and other elements that boost engagement with online audiences.
Another key feature of Lightbox display ads is that they only function when users hover
over them for several seconds or more. This key feature helps reduce the chances of
audiences unintentionally triggering the ad when visiting websites and interacting with
online content.

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 9. Pop-up displays: Pop-up display ads use a pop-up content feature most commonly on
websites to encourage users to learn about offerings, sign up for services or purchase
products from a business or brand. Pop-ups usually appear on a website as a small, square
box that motivates users to take a specific action. For example, a brand that provides
online services to its customers may use pop-ups on its website to engage with and
encourage potential customers to learn more about its offerings with an email
subscription. In this case, the brand makes a pop-up ad appear when users spend several
seconds on its website, encouraging audiences to sign up for its email newsletters.
10. Interstitial display ads: Interstitial display ads are becoming more common within
mobile device applications, including in games, social media apps and other online
mobile applications. Interstitial ads appear during key transitions of an application as
users engage with the app. In mobile game applications, interstitial ads often appear
between different scenes or game levels as users move from one element of the app to
another. If your digital marketing strategies include mobile integration, applying
interstitial display ads within a mobile app can help the organization you work for expand
its market reach.

How to Create an Effective Video Ad

1. Make the First Few Seconds Count

The beginning of your video is critical. To avoid having potential customers skip your ad or click
away, you need to get their attention immediately. Start your video ad with a statement that will
spark the interest of those in your target market. Make an effort to hook your audience within the
first few seconds by addressing a common problem, asking a relevant question, or by sharing
something that makes your brand stand out.

At times, you’ll notice that video ads can be on mute, therefore it’s also important to start your
ad with great visuals that encourage viewers to take interest to your video.

2. Highlight What Makes Your Brand Great

Why should viewers be interested in your brand? Answer this question in your video ad by
emphasizing what makes your company great at what it does. Tell viewers why your brand is
unique and different from others. Share your achievements. Showcase your track record for

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success. You can even include customer testimonials and positive feedback. The more you
highlight the benefits of your company, the more effective your video ad will be.

3. Timing Your Video Ad

Avoid turning your advertisement into a documentary. A majority of the video ads online are 30
seconds or less. Keep this optimal length in mind as you create the script for the video.

That being said, if you are using videos for brand positioning, longer videos can be effective as
well. For example, if you’re telling a story about your brand that features a customer or company
representative, a longer video would be ideal.

Either way, it’s essential to eliminate unnecessary content, and spread your message as quick as
possible to keep viewers watching and engaged.

4. Tell Viewers Why

Your video should tell viewers why they should choose your brand. What is it that makes your
products or services, “the right choice”? Whether it’s a great value, unlimited warranty, or
patented technology for creating a unique product, you need to give viewers a reason to go with
your company. It’s important to emphasize this when planning and filming your online video ad.

5. Use a Call to Action

The goal of every advertisement is to encourage people to take some sort of action. Your
advertisement should be no different. The call to action (CTA) can either be filmed, or added
through graphics and text.

Ideally, it’s best to include the CTA at the end of the video. For example, to show viewers how
they can visit your website for more info, sign up for a discount, or purchase your products and
services.

Create an Effective Video Ad – What to Consider

- Solve a Problem – What problem is your business solving? How are you doing so? A
good video ad will highlight a problem, and show viewers how it will be solved by the
brand.

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 - Use a Script – It’s essential to have a well put together plan before creating content in
any format, especially when it comes to video. Create a script for your video ad that
includes the important components mentioned above. After doing so, get it reviewed by
friends, family, and those with a good understanding of your brand. Feedback is
extremely valuable for making the necessary adjustments.
- Choose a Platform – Once you’ve produced and edited your video ad, it’s important to
upload the content to a quality platform. Video hosting issues are the last thing you want.
At the moment, YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook are the most popular and reliable choices
for uploading video content. You can use all three options to extend the reach of your
video.
- Get Creative – Online viewers are used to seeing commercials online and clicking away.
Choose a unique format or style that allows your brand to promote itself while appealing
to your target market. The more creative you get, the more your video will stand out from
the content of competitors.

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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
How do search engines work?

Search engines have become an indispensable aspect of modern life; therefore, it is important to
understand how they actually work.

We will take a look at the three major components that power search engines, and the general
approach to using them so they understand our content and rank us the way we want.

1. Crawling

There are search engine “spiders” that crawl around the web looking for content. These are
actually bits of computer code that find information on a web page, “read” it, and then tirelessly
continue along their journey by following links from your page to other pages.

The spider periodically returns looking for changes to the original page, which means there are
always opportunities to modify the way a search engine sees and evaluates your content over
time.

If for any reason the spider cannot see your content, or does not understand what it is about, your
page cannot be indexed and ranked.

2. Indexing

The spider is not just casually browsing content; it is storing it in a giant database. This is called
indexing.

The spider’s goal is to save every bit of content it crawls for the future benefit of searchers. It is
also gauging how relevant that content is to the words that searchers use when they want to find
an answer to something.

3. Ranking

The final critical aspect of search technology is the way the engine decides to deliver the most
relevant results to searchers. The search software accomplishes this by following a complex set
of rules. These are the ground rules for a duel between your content and other content that might
satisfy a searcher’s keyword query.

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Search for : what are the rules that spiders use to rank a content for keyword qurry

The 5 Essential Elements of Search Engine Keyword Research

Keyword research is great. It allows you to gaze or look (IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT
SOME ONE IS THINKING WEHTA YOU DO) directly into people’s minds.

Rather than listening to people say what they think they might do, you get to observe what they
actually did, by looking at the words and phrases they used to find information.

And when aggregated, you get a nice view of the words people most often use when thinking
about and searching for a certain topic.

Once you have keyword intelligence that is relevant to your niche, you have the unique ability to
create highly relevant content that aids your site visitors and enhances your credibility. You are
speaking the language of the audience, and satisfying their needs.

And if you get it right, you will likely rank well in search engines too i.e. after promoting the
content and gaining traffic from social media.

Here are five essential things to understand when it comes to keyword research:

1. Research Tools

Some use free keyword research tools e.g. Rainmaker Platform. Business-focused online
marketers often use paid keyword tools over those provided free by search engines due to the
bias that comes with wanting to sell you search advertising.

2. Get Specific

“Keyword” is the term that gets tossed around, but what you are really after in most cases are
keyword phrases. For example, a property lawyer in Douala, Cameroon would gain very little
actual benefit from ranking highly for the single word “lawyer” while specific keyword phrases
based on geography and specialty would yield highly targeted traffic e.g. “Douala property
lawyer”. And don not forget synonyms e.g. “Douala property attorney”.

KEYWORD is made up location, property and person

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 3. Strength in Numbers

Don not take as gospel truth the reported number of monthly searches provided by any particular
tool. But do pay attention to relative popularity among search terms.

You want to make sure enough people use that phrase when thinking of your niche to make it
worth your while, especially if this is one of the primary search terms you want to target for your
site overall. At the same time, be realistic.

4. Highly Relevant

Make sure that the search terms you are considering are highly relevant to your ultimate goal. If
you are a service provider or selling specific products, keyword relevancy may be easier to
determine i.e. you ultimately want someone to purchase the product or service. Other goals may
require more careful consideration, such as subscriptions to content publications and
contributions to charities, for example.

5. Develop a Content Resource

Here is the key element: can a particular keyword phrase support the development of content that
is a valuable resource to readers and act as a foundational element of what your business is
about?

Something that:

 Satisfies the preliminary needs of the site visitor

 Acts as the first step in your sales or action cycle
 Prompts people to link to it

It is this step 5 – a foundational content resource – that translates keyword research into strong
search rankings, so we are going to look at it in more detail next.

How to Create Cornerstone Content That Ranks Well on Google

Imagine for a second . . . someone has just arrived at your website, and this person has no idea
what you are talking about. And this is an important visitor.

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Imagine further that this single visitor could make the difference between success and failure for
your business. She has no time to waste searching around your site trying to figure out what you
are all about, so she immediately picks up the phone and calls you, demanding an explanation.

What do you tell her?

When you want to write a content

You would probably give her essential information about how you understand her problem,
options for solving the problem, examples of how you can help, and explanations of why you
perfectly meet her needs, right? And you would obviously want to explain it in the most
compelling way you could, given what is at stake for you.

In a nutshell, that is what Google wants you to do with the content on your site.

When trying to rank well for the central topics your site is built around, creating cornerstone
content is your best option.

A cornerstone is something that is basic, essential, indispensable, and the chief foundation upon
which something is built. It is what people need to know to make use of your website and do
business with you.

And when approached in a strategic fashion, this content can rank extremely well in search
engines. The key is creating compelling content that is worth linking to, and then finding a way
to get the word out.

5-step Strategy to Develop Cornerstone Content that Ranks Well in Search Engines

1. Keywords

The rule is to choose the most appropriate keyword phrase for your content. In other words, what
is the relevant question searchers are asking that your content and business solution answer?

Will answering that question aid a visitor to your site in getting the most out of the experience?
Are enough people asking that question to make ambitiously answering it worthwhile?

Then you have to make sure that search engines think your content is actually about that
keyword or combination of keywords.

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 2. Title Tags and Headline

In SEO, it is important to use your targeted keyword phrase in your title tag. Search engines want
to offer relevant results, so those results should prominently reflect the words the searcher is
using in the title of the page.

also remember, the title tag is a headline. You want to speak back to the prospective reader in
their own chosen words. Plus, you want to wrap those words in a compelling headline structure
that promises to answer the exact question the searcher is asking with the query.

And finally, writing the best keyword-enhanced headline makes it more likely that someone will
simply use your title to link back to you. Since link anchor text is a significant component of
search engine algorithms, putting the right keywords into your headline can give your content a
significant boost.

3. Content

Can a 500-word article rank well for a competitive search term all by itself? Absolutely.

But if you have a newer website trying to rank for a competitive search term, you will need links
from other authoritative sources to make it happen. That means your content has to be
impressive, both in quality and scope.

Develop an awesome multi-part tutorial. Write an inspirational manifesto. Answer the question
so much better and more comprehensively than the competition does, and chances are much
better that your effort becomes worth linking to and your search results improve dramatically.

4. Content Landing Page

If you are going to be ambitious in scope with your content, it makes sense to make things easy
on the reader from a usability standpoint. A content landing page is designed to instantly
communicate what is going on to the visitor as soon as they arrive, and also acts as a table of
contents (via links to each part of the content) that increases clarity.

Here are some of the benefits of the content landing page approach:

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Retention: Keeping a reader from hitting the back button is crucial to every aspect of successful
cornerstone content. You cannot win a reader, customer, or link if the benefit of the resource is
not quickly communicated.

Bookmarks and Sharing: When a visitor is presented with a highly beneficial content, the first
impulse is often to bookmark the page for a return visit. When that bookmarking occurs at a
social site like Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter, it can lead to long-term traffic. And do not forget
that sharing better content is a sign of social media status among influencers. Content landing
pages help you score the bookmark and prompt that sharing impulse at a glance.

Links: A visiting blogger or webmaster might be instantly impressed with your work, and link to
you based on the benefits and scope communicated by the landing page itself. The quicker you
can impress a potential link source, the easier you are making it for them to follow through.

Optimization: Optimizing on-page copy will boost your ranking after attracting those links, so a
landing page is a key benefit. It is a lot quicker and easier to optimize a content landing page
than your undivided 5,000-word write-up.

5. Related Content

Search engines favour websites that have a lot of relevant, frequently-updated content, and they
also like a lot of general link authority. Given the ease of publishing blogging provides, it is
smart to use blog software to manage all that content. And given that active blogging allows for
constant participation in the social media space, it is a critical way to build general site authority
via links, get into specific and related topics, and to reference your cornerstone content.

Put a link to your essential content in your site sidebar. And if you have focused on the right
topics, you will naturally keep cross-referencing your cornerstone content and link to it from
your future content as well.

The Two Huge Benefits Cornerstone Content Provides

The first goal of cornerstone content is usefulness and relevancy to the website visitor.

The second goal is to make that content so compelling and comprehensive that people are willing
to link to it.

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If you focus strategically on these two goals, search engine optimization tends to get a lot easier.
Since attracting links is so important, in the next section we will look at ways to proactively get
the word out about your cornerstone content.

Three Link-building Strategies that Work

We now know the real secret to modern SEO is creating compelling content that naturally
attracts links.

The way to create compelling content is to focus relentlessly on “what’s in it for the reader.” And
in the same way, no one is going to link to you unless there’s something in it for them.

This is the formula - understand who you’re talking to, figure out what will catch their attention,
then convince them to take the action you want.

Here are 3 ways to do that:

1. Guest Writing

Guest writing on established blogs and other content sites has become the most powerful strategy
for getting your own site progressing. You freely contribute content that not only allows you to
raise your profile, but allows for links back to your own site.

Once again, creating good original content will open doors for you, especially when it is created
for the benefit of someone else. And you can use that good cornerstone content you have already
produced as an example of the quality you can deliver.

2. Social Networking

Twitter and Facebook have become amazing content distribution networks. And now with the
addition of Google+, the search engine giant now has direct signals of content quality and
popularity coming from social media.

To gain followers and fans you have to create a dynamic network which results in new people
seeing your content. And the more people see and share your content, the more likely it is to
attract those valuable links.

Networking on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn is about establishing and growing
relationships with influencers in the social media space.
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 3. Linking Out

Engaging in dialogue with the owners or staff of content sites relevant to your niche is a great
way to get noticed, and it can lead to links back to you. Bloggers definitely watch who is linking
to them, and you can take the initiative by linking out first before looking for a link in return.

Simply linking out for the sake of linking will not accomplish much, especially with bloggers
who receive lots of links. The key is to be strategic about how you link and what you say.

Use a great headline to make sure you are noticed, and then deliver the goods. And since your
cornerstone content is the foundation of what the conversation is likely about, finding a way to
mention it in the context of the dialogue will naturally bring it to the attention of influencers in
your field.

Remember this:

Content + Promotion = Links and Sharing

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