Why You Should Use These 2 Advanced Link Building Tactics For Outreach

For a single campaign, your content marketing strategy probably looks a bit like this:

1. Ideation
2. Content Creation
3. List Build for Outreach
4. Write Pitch Emails
5. Secure a Placement
6. Repeat Steps 3-6 (until you’ve earned enough as many links as you can)

But, what if you didn’t have to repeat steps 3 to 6? What if you could build an outreach list so advantageous that you only had to send a few strategic email pitches to meet backlink goals and lift up those PR metrics?

By taking advantage of the natural syndication networks that exist between online publishers, the power of a single email pitch is far-reaching. 

The techniques you are about to learn will provide a competitive advantage over the competition when pitching your target publishers, giving you a unique understanding of how different news publications and writers are associated and connected.

New to pitching? Learn from here how to craft an unbeatable media relations pitch from BuzzSumo's analysis of 600K journalists.

Step 1: Start with great content

You can send the most well-targeted and well-written email pitch the world has ever seen, but if your content fails to excite, inform, or surprise the publisher, it will never see the light of day.

It’s important to start with great content—the rest will come easy. If what you’ve created is so intriguing and surprising that online editors want to share the content the moment they see it, you’ve succeeded.

What makes great content? Believe in the power of data. Present strong news hooks with data-driven stories to the publications and writers who are likely to be interested in the story.

Starting with great content allows you to generate the highest return on your investment, benefitting your brand or your clients with dozens to hundreds of links on their content campaigns.

Step 2: Optimize your list build

This does not mean sending a generic email blast to everyone in your network hoping that something will stick. This technique is a highly personalized approach to pitching that takes time—but the results are worth it. 

There are two approaches you can take to optimize your list build: Finding influencers in your niche or vertical and understanding natural syndication networks to take your reach that much further.

Tactic #1: Finding media influencers in your niche

Let’s say you have the option of getting your content on one of two online publishers: Buzzfeed and CNN. Both great placements, right? You’re probably thinking that either features would be great press for your brand, and you’d be right.

But now let’s say the journalist who will cover your content at CNN is a recent hire with 256 Twitter followers, and the writer who will cover your content at Buzzfeed is verified on Twitter and has a following of about 30,000 people.

Now who do you choose? The answer becomes a little easier.

I have found that BuzzSumo is the best tool to quickly and efficiently determine the influencers with the most engagement in your niche.

Buzzsumo’s Influencers tool helps in the discovery of influencers interested in your topic area. From there, select “Active Influencers only” and “Verified Influencers only” to exclude bloggers and non-verified accounts, focusing your research on major reporters and online writers.