The wonderful world of marketing has so many words, phrases, and acronyms that can be alienating and intimidating for non-marketers.
It’s a bug bear of mine!
I like to speak to my clients unassumingly and use straightforward words to explain things. Maybe it’s my hang-up from being an ex-army wife (now that is sector that loves an acronym), but it excludes people. And in the world of business, you shouldn’t be excluded from knowing how to succeed.
So, this blog will hopefully explain what outreach marketing means, and how you can harness this powerful marketing strategy.
Outreach marketing in a nutshell
When another website adds a link to your site on their own website page, it builds the number of backlinks (sometimes called inbound links).
The art of building relationships with other companies and organisations (and building backlinks from their sites as a result) is called outreach marketing.
How does outreach marketing help?
Having credible businesses linking their traffic through to your website gives you credibility too. If they are a respected company, their website visitors are likely to trust them, so there is a strong chance they’ll click on links they provide.
And, they’re not the only ones taking this as a positive sign – Google and other search engines do too.
These links work like votes for your page – they indicate that your site is credible, relevant and useful, which counts for a lot when search engines are deciding which websites to show on their search results pages.
Having lots of links from other quality, relevant websites can increase your score, giving you extra visibility when people are searching for what your business offers.
How to build backlinks
Building relationships with other businesspeople is where to start with your outreach marketing.
Talk to similar, complimentary businesses – they might be in your industry but not providing the same service or product as you, or they might share the same values as you (for example, eco-friendly businesses).
What’s in it for them?
Two things:
1. Content. We all know it can be challenging to create enough regular content for our websites (and fresh content also helps with your Google score, as well as giving your website visitors a good experience).
Show the other business a great piece of content on your site (perhaps a strong news article, useful blog, or interesting research study, for example) and ask them if their visitors would get value from reading it. Talking about (and linking to) your content gives THEM content, so focusing on a content exchange is your biggest bargaining tool!
2. Reciprocity. In return for them giving you exposure on their site and linking to you, why not do the same for them? It’s a win-win for both businesses.
Placing content in the right places that’s aimed at your target audience is truly valuable, so build some great content, nurture a network of compatible companies, and go get those links!