5 Link Building Campaigns that Drive Results

Link-building campaigns that drive results are like successful dating. You must first know what you’re looking for, and then you need a strategy to get there.

And no, mindlessly swiping Tinder doesn’t count as a good strategy.

Now that we’ve taken care of your love life, let’s focus on link-building.

After auditing your company and your competitors, it’s time to determine the links you need.

Then, you must find your audience, aka the websites that will get you those links.

Pro tip: Focus on authoritative sources and white-hat link-building techniques.

Next is email outreach, followed by implementation and monitoring.

A good SEO agency will help you with all those steps as part of your link-building package, but you can go through them just as easily for yourself.

This article takes you through five examples of link-building campaigns that move the needle from SaaS to finance and B2B companies.

We’ll share plenty of insights from our experience building links, so keep reading below.

‍TL;DR

• Successful link-building campaigns are like dating – they require strategy.
• Key steps: Audit, identify links needed, find your audience, use white-hat techniques, email outreach, implement, and monitor.
• OCBC Singapore's success: Creating a Financial Wellness report for Singaporeans.
• Spiros Margaris' strategy: Guest posting on high-authority websites and leveraging outbound and inbound links.
• inBeat.co's tactics: Focus on low-competition keywords, build linkable assets, use HARO, and publish regular content.
• Content Allies' transformation: Transitioned from grey-hat techniques to high-quality backlinks, leading to revenue growth.
• Arielle's approach: Premium link placements, HARO, and relationship-based link-building resulted in significant traffic and leads growth.
• Key takeaways: Invest in content marketing, produce linkable assets, write high-quality content, and focus on white-hat methods for steady growth.

‍1. OCBC Singapore

OCBC is a bank in Singapore that has adopted a content-based tactic for link-building, also known as linkable assets.

This white-hat link-building technique has a longer-term focus but can steadily grow your organic traffic and authority.

Here’s how it works:

• You identify a poignant need in your industry, and then:
• You create an asset that satisfies that need.

OCBC realized many stakeholders wanted a clearer picture of Singaporeans’ financial lives. These stakeholders include:

• Banks and licensed moneylenders
• Realtors
• Insurance companies
• And more

That’s why OCBC created an annual Financial Wellness report in 2019.

This report analyzes 24 variables that outline Singaporeans’ financial health using clear data and statistics.

The goal is to see how Singaporeans deal with their savings, debt, retirement plans, and investments.

Why does this type of content work?

OCBC’s study has been picked up and quoted by numerous authoritative websites.

The Financial Index report works because it identified an opportunity that nobody was taking and grabbed it.

Using a tool like SEMrush, you can easily see its metrics:

So, OCBC’s authority score shows that this report is “good and niche relevant.” You can also see the categories of referring domains, mostly news, and finance.

And most link attributes are do-follow.

Learning time: Follow (aka do-follow) links tell search engines they should follow the tagged outbound link. So, search engines trace back this link to OCBC, passing PageRank signals – aka SEO juice or link juice.

Each time someone links back to your website, it gets more link juice flowing back to it, thus increasing its page rank and making it more discoverable in organic searches.

From that perspective, do-follow links are more valuable than no-follow links.

How can you apply this strategy too?

You can adopt the same tactic by creating something that your target audience uses.

For example, you can build free calculators or pieces of content like case studies, reports, or more.

Create a blog with valuable recipes if you have an e-commerce website retailing vegan products.

If you retail SaaS, build virtual tools that editors will notice and even your competitors use.

Remember: You may have to reach out to interested sources first. But with time, you can earn links without actively asking for a mention.

2. MARGARIS Ventures

Margaris Ventures is owned by fintech and blockchain influencer Spiros Margaris, who offers diverse consultancy services in the financial niche.

As a result, Margaris Ventures must position itself as an authority in this industry.

One of the strategies that Spiros Margaris used for this purpose is guest posting on high-authority websites such as The Huffington Post:

That’s Spiros Margaris’ Huff Post profile.

He also gets a link back to his website each time he posts something new.

This strategy works well for Spiros because:

• He publishes columns related to the business and fintech sectors on a high-profile website, thus increasing his authority.
• He gets more organic traffic back to his own website.
• Getting do-follow links increases his own page ranking because of that SEO juice flowing his way.

Notice that Spiros Margaris doesn’t just count on external links built through guest blogging.

He also uses a nice combination of outbound and inbound links.

Take this example:

On January 14^th, 2023, Spiros Margaris published a blog post on his website titled The Coming Democratization Of Financial Services, Thanks To Artificial Intelligence.

At the bottom of this article, you will notice an outbound link to Forbes.

And that’s where you discover a Forbes article that quotes Spiros Margaris as an expert, pointing back to his website and LinkedIn.

How can you apply this strategy too?

• Head straight to your favorite search engine and try to find a list of websites that are relevant to your industry.
• After building this list, write the website’s name followed by “guest post” or “contributor” in the search bar.
• Google (we know that’s the search engine you’re most likely using) will show you the contributor guidelines for that website.
• That means you can start writing and submit your post within the same day.

The good thing about this technique is that you don’t have to spend hours finding email addresses, outreaching, and waiting for replies.

Another way to apply this strategy is by finding broken links.

• Make a list of websites where you would like to post.
• Use Ahrefs to find broken links on their websites that no longer work.
• Find the websites' owners' email addresses.
• Pitch them your articles to replace the dead links.

Remember: Re-post these guest posts on your social media and website to get more views.

Once you build a few connections, you may be invited to contribute directly to an expert panel, further improving your authority.

3. inBeat.co

inBeat is an influencer marketing platform that Blue Things helped reach over 300,000 unique visitors per month.

And that’s from an original 500 visitors on a monthly basis.

inBeat.co is an influencer marketing platform where businesses can find and connect with influencers.

But when the website was first created, it lacked authority and ranking.

Blue Things decided to build that authority on a strong foundation of organic traffic.

That means we decided people had to come to inBeat on their own. We did that through the following tactics:

• We focused on using low-hanging fruit keywords with less competition and a decent intent.
• We built linkable assets in the form of tools that marketers could use. Some of these tools are free, like our mockup ad generators:

But we also have some paid marketing calculators:

• We used HARO link-building to gain a better reputation.
• We found guest posting opportunities and brand mentions to get more external links pointing to inBeat.
• We advised inBeat to publish regular content on its blog, building a rich link profile featuring internal links and links to other authoritative sources.

How can you apply this strategy too?

We already discussed linkable assets, guest posting, and publishing regular content on your website.

Now, let’s see more on low-hanging keywords and HARO.

You, too, can find low-hanging keywords that work for your business with tools like Google Search Console and Ahrefs.

Then, write content to fit those keywords.

For example, if you have an e-commerce store selling laptops and additional instruments, you can brainstorm a list of keywords.

Then, use Ahrefs to test how competitive they are:

As you can see, “HP laptop charger” is an easy keyword your competition isn’t using but makes for an easy opportunity to rank for.

As for HARO, you must log into the platform and filter the subjects you’re interested in.

Then, start answering reporters’ questions to position yourself as an authority figure.

Those journalists will quote you on high-profile, relevant websites if your answers are fast and insightful enough.

And these editorial links are some of the highest-quality links you can get to build your backlink profile, particularly if they’re from authoritative sources.

4. Content Allies

Content Allies is a B2B podcast production agency and another one of our clients.

But unlike inBeat, Content Allies wasn’t new on the market.

The company wasn’t new to backlink-building campaigns either.

Before coming to us, Content Allies:

• Was already buying backlinks from other providers (note that this is a grey-hat technique that may not fully follow Google’s guidelines)
• Got to a decent domain rating

However, the brand hit a ceiling because the types of links provided were not of the best quality.

Blue Things helped Content Allies with high-quality links in authoritative sources, so the company’s search ranking increased considerably.

These high-quality backlinks were obtained using some of the same strategies as inBeat.

That’s how Content Allies saw a 60% uptick in enterprise SQLs and a $2,000,000 growth in top-line revenue.

How can you apply this strategy too?

Get mentions in quality sources in your niche. Here are some examples from Content Allies via the Ahrefs backlink checker:

As you can see, the company is often mentioned in listicle-type articles that review podcasting agencies.

To find your way in such a review:

• Google “best [niche] review websites.” For example, search by “best hiking shoe review websites if you retail hiking shoes.”
• Make a list of websites and some of their articles where you could be featured.
• Start the outreach step; contact the website managers and pitch your product to them. Of course, you shouldn’t be too pushy or try to pay for a backlink. Instead, mention that you find their articles very helpful and offer to send one of your products for a test.

Content Allies is also mentioned in other articles, like this one published by podcast booking agency Speak on Podcasts.

The article teaches B2B marketers how to use podcast appearances to drive demand, and Content Allies is recommended as a full-service agency that can manage the entire process:

You can also find magazines in your niche that can link back to your business through networking, relationship-based link-building, or HARO.

• Join a few communities in your industry, either through Facebook Groups or LinkedIn.
• You can also join HARO for good measure.
• Start networking with people, answering their questions, and offering your input.
• Once you build that relationship and showcase your expertise, they will be more inclined to link to your website. That's how you can increase your referral traffic considerably.

5. Arielle

Arielle offers resume creation services for executives, so they can get a position that fits their expertise.

Arielle wanted to increase organic traffic so more C-suite professionals could find and use its services.

We at Blue Things did that through premium link placements.

Two of the tactics we used are HARO and relationship-based link-building.

Here’s how we did HARO for Arielle:

• We analyzed Arielle’s digital persona.
• We created a pitching strategy and started responding to HARO queries daily on behalf of Arielle.
• We monitored the feedback and optimized our pitch to get more mentions.

And here’s how we did relationship-based link-building:

• We conducted an SEO audit to find the web pages that needed to rank higher.
• We analyzed several opportunities for target keywords.
• We created a tailored and scalable SEO strategy.

• Pro tip: We always emphasize finding the best anchor texts because anchors can make or break your link-building campaign.

• We audited Arielle’s competitors to find high-potential link targets, just like in inBeat’s case. That tactic works for most SaaS companies who want to become leaders in their niche because they get more organic traffic fast, which increases their ranking.
• Then, we created the links and tracked the results to ensure Arielle’s link-building efforts were optimized consistently.

And maybe you’re curious about the results as well.

With us, Arielle increased:

• Its organic traffic value to $73,000/month over six months from a previous $17,000/month
• Its qualified B2B leads by 300%
• Its referring domains to over 50, all with DR50

Here are a few examples:

• Irene McConnel, MD of Arielle Executive, is quoted as an expert in an article published by MatchBuilt:

• The University of Adelaide College in Australia, a website with an impressive domain rating of 84 according to Ahrefs backlink checker, links back to a how-to article posted on Arielle’s website. This article is highly specific, taking people through the step-by-step process of writing a resume that passes through the Applicant Tracking System Software.

• People development and training platform Zavvy.io links back to Arielle’s resume template using the anchor text “stand out in a resume”:

How can you apply this strategy too?

• Invest in content marketing: Start posting content on your blog and network in the right communities to build your authority. That’s how you can get the right websites to invite you as an expert on their panels. Broken link-building works well too.
• Produce linkable assets, like Arielle’s resume template: Then, reach out to websites that can potentially be interested in those tools. In Arielle’s case, universities and HR platforms can be a great start for this outreach process.
• Start writing high-quality content: How-to articles, infographics, and actionable guides work well to increase your search traffic. Remember to focus on low-hanging keywords with a high search intent but less competition.

Start Your Link-Building Campaign

These link-building campaign examples moved the needle.

You, too, can create and implement a thorough strategy that brings you steady results.

Of course, you will have to follow a few principles:

• Focus on white-hat link-building methods that help you build a healthy backlink profile.
• Strive for high-quality links in sources with high domain authority, even though they cost more – they are worth it. For example, Blue Things focuses on do-follow links in sources with DR50-90+.
• Audit your company and your competitors to identify the best opportunities.
• Focus on building a foundation instead of instant results. Our customers are growing steadily, with awesome results after a few months of hard work.

We’re a call away if you need us to do the same for you. Then you will be one of the awesome examples marketers read about in articles like this.

Schedule that free call and see exactly what we can do for your company.