Link building is an incredibly important factor in finding success as an eCommerce entrepreneur. In order for online businesses to be successful and reach a large audience, they must work with influencers in their niche in order to make an impression on audiences they may have otherwise never found.
Having many external links leading to the same page is an excellent way to boost a page’s search engine ranking, however what really matters is the conversion rate of those links. For example, when a viewer visits a link from an influencer’s blog encouraging them to purchase an item, it’s important that readers actually convert into customers, otherwise this link is doing little to benefit the page and the store. Therefore, it’s important that companies implement a number of factors in order to boost the conversion rates of their external links.
Obtaining backlinks can be done in one of two ways: through the content quality itself, or through email outreach. When reaching out to influencers via email, it’s important to stand apart from the rest, as they very likely get dozens of emails each day asking to promote brands and blogs. Instead of offering the link right away, be different and ask the influencer if they would like to see the link first. This can be a great way to establish a good rapport with an influencer, as it is very polite, and it values their time, making them more inclined to help your cause.
Another issue many marketers have when reaching out to influencers is by sending emails that are far too long. Influencers are busy, and they do not want to read a novel about who you are or what you are promoting. It’s best to keep things short, cutting right to the point without overdoing it. In fact, the best emails to influencers should be under 200 words long, as anything longer will get lost with the rest.
In addition, it’s important that you make the process as easy for the influencer as possible. It may sound like a simple request, asking influencers to check out your site and read your article, but this can be a very good way to lose otherwise golden opportunities. While reading your article may not seem like a very large time commitment, it becomes one when the influencer has to read dozens of articles per day. Instead, make it simple and include the following:
- A link to which page of the blog you believe your content would fit best.
- Send an embedded code of imagery, if applicable.
- Give them ideas of how they could write about your link with post topics and ideas.
- Offer to edit an old post, in exchange for including your link. This is beneficial to both parties, and actually saves the influencer a lot of time.
Finally, the biggest mistake most eCommerce entrepreneurs make when link building is contacting the wrong influencers. To effectively reach out to influencers, a brand must first know which ones are relevant to the same niche, and which are not. There are many options for free software on the web that make finding relevant influencers easy, and applications such as Buzzsumo should be taken advantage of by brands looking to reach out to the best influencers.
