15 B2B Customer Acquisition Strategies that Increase RevenueÂ
Want to find new customers who truly value your business? Weâre here to help you out with a list of the top 15 B2B customer acquisition strategies.
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Let the B2B SEO experts help you secure links that generate real impact
Schedule a callB2B link-building is a key factor in SEO strategyâone of Googleâs top #3 ranking factors, in fact. You canât have a successful SEO strategy without putting effort into building authority through backlinking to your website.
Skale has been doing SEO- and providing SaaS linkbuilding services for quite some time, actuallyâand weâve picked up some effective link-building tactics throughout. Here are 11 of those strategies to help your B2B business better understand and make use of link-building opportunities for SEO.
TL;DR: the 11 B2B link-building tactics experts use are:
However, weâd recommend letting a B2B SEO agency handle things. đ
Link-building is important for a number of reasons, for example, to increase credibility, authority, and understanding of the context of the page thatâs being linked to. This in turn helps improve your search engine ranking and makes it a powerful SEO practice for businesses big and smallâbut, how?
Ultimately, search engines decide whatâs important for SEO and whatâs notâwe essentially just play by their rules. The guidance on backlinking is that it plays an essential part in your SEO campaign and that strategic backlinking efforts are a key step towards a high-ranking website.
Backlinksâlinks from an external website to one of your website pagesâare like votes of confidence. Votes from reputable sources help build your domain authority and, over time, help to push your pages and the whole website to the top of search engine results.
Link-building is just one of the methods used by SEO experts, but alongside other methods, itâs a great weapon in your SEO arsenal. Search engine optimizationâalthough the most importantâisnât the only reason for focusing on link-building.
Here are some other reasons link-building is important for B2B websites:
See? There are plenty of reasons that link-building is important for your business. Weâll stick to the SEO benefits, thoughâitâs kind of our thing. đ
Read more about how we help you hit your SEO goals here.
B2B link-building requires SEO managers and specialists to dedicate ample time and resources to getting backlinks. Itâs very much a quality-over-quantity approachâbut realistically you need both quality and quantity.
B2B link-building often revolves around creating quality content within your niche that provides readers with exactly what theyâre looking for at the stage of the funnel theyâre in, providing them with unique information and expert insights that will truly answer their queries and needs. Itâs about creating content pieces that people want and need in order to improve and growâitâs not directly selling your product. (Here is a list of the top ranking B2B content marketing agencies).
Whether original research or podcasts, strategies are usually time-consuming and demanding.
Itâs also heavily reliant on connections in your industryâconnections that take time to source and turn into relationships. Many smaller B2B businesses will struggle to get the attention of key industry players that have the power to strengthen their domain authority, making strong inbound links harder to achieve.
Thatâs not to mention the need to understand âgood SEOâ and âbad SEO,â otherwise known as white hat and black hat SEO.
Despite the name, SEO isnât black and whiteâthere are great methods that make sense but could end up getting you penalized for being a black hat. Hereâs an example of just thatâpyramidal link-building, which consists in backlinking to your backlinks. This is what our very own SEO Growth Strategist, Jordi CubirĂł, had to say about this method:
âSo, youâve got the main site at the top of the pyramid, then you point some backlinks to it. Those are your âTIER 1 Backlinksâ. After that, you build some backlinks to your TIER 1 backlinks (those are your TIER 2 backlinks). This boosts the authority of TIER 1 backlinks and repercutes in the authority of the main site.â â Jordi, SEO Growth Strategist @ Skale
Jordi finishes by highlighting that this could be considered âa bit black hat-ishââso caution is advised. Distinguishing between âgoodâ and âbadâ SEO is a challenge for B2B businesses, and it can have heavy repercussions for domain penalties if done incorrectly.
Link-building is great for SEOâespecially when backed up by appropriate keyword researchâbut it must be done right in order to secure your desired ROI within your allotted SEO marketing budget.
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See hereVendors and partners are key advocates of your brand, and likely mention your business relationship on their website. Appearing on vendor and partner websites is a strong GTM strategy for many SaaS businesses when starting out and a great opportunity for building links to your own site.
When working with a partner or vendor, make sure theyâre including a website link when mentioning your brand. You can further strengthen your connection by writing a guest post for the siteâguest blogging is a link-building strategy weâll dive into shortlyâand include links back to a page on your website that you want to push.
Brand mentions can be unlinked or linked, and require different efforts to get your desired backlink. First, letâs look at unlinked brand mentions.
Unlinked brand mentions are times when another site has mentioned your business without linking to it. If you spot a post like this, your best bet is to research the author, shoot them a message, and kindly request they include a link back to your page.
This ensures that readers are able to easily access your page following its mention, and means one more backlink for your website.
Realistically, youâre not going to organically find every post thatâs ever mentioned your brand. Thatâs why itâs a good idea to set up Google alerts for any website that mentions your business. That way, youâll never miss an opportunity for a backlink.
Then weâve got linked brand mentions. This involves reaching out to other websites that have linked to your homepage and asking them to link to a more relevant page of yours. Itâs an essential element of successful link-building and a key factor in getting your most important pages to the top pages of search engines.
Every badge you see on any website typically includes a backlink. The best example of using badges to create backlinking opportunities is G2, their badges youâve definitely seen on a number of different websites.
It makes a lot of senseâcompanies add the badges that highlight their high-ranking status and G2 gets a link back to their website.
In fact, G2 Customer Success Managers are trained to push clients to include the badgeâand most importantly, the linkâon their websites.
Press releases aid your SEO strategy indirectly. There was a time when they had had a direct effect, but then Google clocked on to how some brands were abusing this benefit by publishing unnecessary press releases purely to fill them with backlinks.
It worked for a whileâcompanies were getting backlinks from respectable news websites with little effort. However, a couple of years ago, John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, burst a lot of press release bubbles:
âWe try to ignore links from things like press releases because we know in general companies put the press releases out themselvesâso any links in there are essentially placed by themselves⌠I wouldnât rely on press releases as a strategy for building up links.â
Editorial links are now mainly no-follow links, however, they are incredibly valuable. They often need more time, higher-quality content and they are way harder to get, but they can significantly help you to:
Funding and investor updates are key for keeping stakeholders in the loop. Theyâre also a good way to get featured on other websitesâwebsites with strong referring domains like Mashable, Tech Crunch, and more.
These sites give strong votes of confidence for your website domain and getting featured on them is a big win for your B2B link-building strategies.
Hereâs an example of a well-known tech news site, TechCrunch, reporting on a funding update and backlinking to the source:
Check these stats about B2B podcasts:
Podcasts are definitely a great way to increase brand awareness, brand consideration, and even purchase intent. They are also a great way to get links back to your webpage of choice. Most podcasts also have a website on which they post their podcasts and any relevant informationâlike any businesses or tools that have been mentioned during the podcast.
It may seem like a lot of effort for one backlink, but is it really?
One member of your team is spending 30-40 minutes chatting about a topic theyâre already competent in. Theyâre sharing their thoughts and advice on a platform that attracts your target audience.
Appearing on a podcast positions a speaker as a thought-leader, and itâs likely that many listeners will choose to further investigate them and their work.
Of course, not just any podcast will do. Aim to appear on a well-known podcast within your nicheâitâll do wonders for your B2B SEO strategy and brand exposure. Here are some top picks for B2B marketing podcasts to consider:
These podcasts highlight B2B success and strategies, and you should be aiming to get your best speakers on these and others like them.
Lastly, itâs important to know that Google has itâs own podcast platform and by following its prerequisites, you can have your podcast indexed by Googleâmaking your overall SEO game even stronger!
Here are the prerequisites in case you were wondering:
A product roundup is an article on your blog, a social media post, or an email that features several products in the same category or according to a themeâthink âThe 5 top examples ofâŚâ or âThe 10 bestâŚâ types of articles.
This is an easy way to acquire links on relevant sites without the hassle of guest blogging. You should actively reach out to websites if you think your product fits the roundup article topicâtheyâre typically open to updating.
Itâs also a good idea to reach out to any website whose audience could benefit from reading an article or a resource on your website. Even if you arenât featured in a roundup, they could point towards your content as a further source for learning.
Hereâs an example from Mazeâs website, where theyâve listed the top 13 product management tools for 2021. For number two, theyâve included links to the product management tool, Chameleon.
Guest blogging requires time and effortâbut that time and effort really pays off. Itâs a tried and tested link-building strategy.Â
Guest posting consists of building a relationship with another brand within your niche and offering them high-quality content. Sometimes you will get monetary rewards, but most times than not what youâll get is a link back to your website or social media accounts.
With this method, you write an article showcasing your knowledge, expertise, or unique opinion and original insights on a topic, and if a site decides to publish this article they will reward you with a link back to your website. Of course, theyâll only decide to publish your work because they see it as relevant and that it will attract interest from their readersâso always focus on providing real value (original case studies, original statistics, research of another kind, embed a video and add your commentary, etc.) and showing that you are an industry expert.
When thinking of content ideas for your guest blogs, here are four simple pieces of content you can do:
Once you start receiving more and more backlinks from guest posting, the vote of confidence for your website will increase, and so will your domain authority gradually.
Original research in your industry is a smart approach to link-building, however, itâs no small task. That being said, here are three reasons you should put the effort in, because it will help you:
For example, Sona, a Social Care workforce management platform, published the âAppreciation Mattersâ research. Others in the industry, like UK Care Week, have used this work as a referenceâand included backlinks to Sonaâs research and homepage in their own articles. A backlink and thought leadership win for Sona!
However, itâs important to mention that it does come with some downsides, for example:
But, we still think it has many more benefits than drawbacks. Figure out what it is your audience is most interested in and what kind of research they would like to see. Whether itâs experiments, analysis, aggregating existing research, online surveys, or even things like case studies, they will all have a very specific audience in mindâso find out which one is the best for your target audience. Hereâs a part of original research for SEO from one of our co-founders, Italo Viale:
âIn B2B Iâve seen that âin-depth reporting analysisâ on an Industryâs state or trends generates lots of attention and links to it.â
Product reviews are not only great for SEO, but also for social proof and lead generation. This backlinking tactic consists in offering your productâfree of chargeâto influencers and bloggers in your niche.
In exchange, theyâll publish a write-up on your product within a set amount of time from starting the free trial. Itâs great for building authority, brand awareness, and potential new customers.
You can also garner product reviews from your customersâjust ask. Give them the tools to review your product and incentivize them with affiliate links. Itâs great to get your current customers talking about your product and sharing a sign-up link with their network.
Conferences provide a platform for you to share knowledge and insights in an area of your expertise. Itâs a great tactic for getting high-quality backlinks that reach your target audience.
When one of your team speaks at a conference, their profile will appear on the relevant webpage with links to connect with them. Some of these will be social media linksâto connect on LinkedIn and the likesâwhereas others will be backlinks to your organization.
Hereâs a speaker profile made for Nathan Latka at the annual Growth Marketing Conference. It includes a link to Nathanâs LinkedIn and Twitter profilesâboth hugely influential for his personal brand and wider business goals.
This is another win-win SEO approachâyou get a backlink AND the kudos of appearing on a conference panel as a thought leader.
B2B link-building is an arduous and time-consuming task. For 15 links a month on relevant websites, youâd need to put in about 212 hours worth of work. Thatâs substantially more than the 160 hours/month worked by full-time employees, and weâve not even factored in other tasksâlike answering emails and attending meetings.
Outsourcing your link-building efforts also provides some unique advantages that you couldnât get if you decided to employ someone in-house and equip them with SEO tools. Here are some of the benefits an agency provides over an in-house SEO junior.
Thereâs plenty more to building links than just SEO knowledge, you also need someone who can:
Realistically, you need a whole team of people to manage a comprehensive link-building strategyâthatâs exactly what a B2B SEO agency provides.
An SEO agencyâs exclusive offering is SEO expertiseâtheyâve spent years figuring out the best solutions to your SEO issues. Hiring an out-of-house agency to handle SEO frees up more time for you to focus on other business goals.
Alongside trying and testing various SEO tactics, SEO agencies have also spent years building up connections with key players in your industry. Itâs a process that requires time, persistence, and knowing the right people.
Theyâve got the connections you need to successfully improve your link-building efforts.
After years in the same organization, itâs easy to miss key opportunities due to a tunnel-vision approach. Skale CEO, Jake Stainer, recounts how he spent years at Typeform as an SEO Managerâbut it was only after he left that he could finally see the wood from the trees.
An SEO agency can put fresh eyes and minds on your SEO goals, and find solutions you may never have stopped to think about.
These benefits are exactly whatâs on offer at Skaleâan entire team of SEO specialists whoâve got the experience to get you where you want to be. Just like weâve done time and time again with our proven results, like:
Skale is the B2B Link-Building Agency that worksâlearn more about how weâll approach your SEO wants and needs here. For now, weâll leave you with what one of our clients has said about working with us:
âWeâre a fast-moving startup with a growing marketing team. Using Skale has enabled us to focus on creating new landing pages and articles, while the Skale team takes care of off-page factors that we donât have the time to deal with in-house.
I love seeing the quality links that they provide for us that give our Organic channels a massive boost, plus their team is a delight to work with!â â Kirsty, (Previous) Content Strategist @ Holded.
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15 B2B Customer Acquisition Strategies that Increase RevenueÂ
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