It was reiterated so many times and in several articles here in Digital Marketing Philippines that the key to SEO and other digital marketing campaigns is create and promote unique, relevant and high-quality original articles in your websites, blogs and social media pages. As a business owner and digital marketer, having high-quality content should be at the topmost list of your marketing priorities for great content lies at the heart of every successful internet marketing campaign.
But if you really want to be ahead of your ballgame and have one up over the rest of your competitors, then you should create not only great content, but content that people will actually link to and share voluntarily – and these are called linkable assets. Having these kinds of materials will establish a stronger online presence for your brand and business that will do wonders for your overall marketing campaign. The following is DMP’s attempt to share with you some powerful ideas for creating linkable assets – and dominate the SEO landscape.
1. Linkable Assets that Feature Guides or How-To’s
People go online for different primary reasons, among which is the quest for information. Naturally, internet users seeking knowledge go for comprehensive guides, tutorials and how-to articles to learn something new for whatever purpose they intend them to be. Social Media Examiner consider how-to’s as the most powerful blogging content type, primarily because people learn how they can accomplish something by reading such guides.
How-to content can be an article, a blog post, an eBook, a whitepaper, an infographic or an instructional video that people can link to and share through any online channels available. People look for these how-to’s online whenever they need help about a particular topic. Aside from the information they provide, people link to how-to’s because of the following reasons:
- How-To’s Provide a Comprehensive Guide – the information that how-to’s provide are not only snippets of data people can use but they also provide a comprehensive step-by-step set of instructions to guide people on the proper way of how things get done.
- How-To’s Provide Easy-to-Understand Instructions – Users need not wrack their brains trying to figure out how they can accomplish something by relying on these easy-to-understand how-to guides. They will learn how to do things correctly and in the easiest way as they can quickly absorb what these guides are saying in the most basic way.
- How-To’s Provide Free Information – Internet users seeking information can get free guides and instructions from how-to content. How-to guides are published freely and is accessible by everyone. These makes them very appealing particularly to researchers and digital marketers working on a low budget, linking or syndicating your linkable asset to boost their own campaigns as well.
- How-To’s Attract More Readers – Since how-to’s are very popular and attract more readers compared to other types of content, digital marketers use these assets and create a citation link back to your site.
- How-To’s Appeal to DIY Enthusiasts – The Internet made it possible for enthusiasts to work on DIY projects. Content like how-to articles and eBooks provide them with the information and guide they need to work on their projects correctly and cost-effectively.
2. Linkable Assets that Feature Visual Media
Content with visual elements are more effective than traditional text-only content and this applies to how effective linkable assets can be. People are visual creatures so are naturally attuned to visual content. No wonder social media users share pictures more than any other content, which can even go viral when people re-share or re-tweet the more compelling ones.
Useful information enhanced with visual elements, like what they are doing with infographics, are good linkable assets that people would want to share more. A recent study highlighted that infographics get shared or liked three times more compared to other types of content. Digital marketers linking to this asset will enhance its viral effect even more.
And of course there is video which, if done right, can be one of your most popular linkable assets that business owners and digital marketers would like to see and use. Online video is slowly taking over the pedestal TV had enjoyed over the years as the most popular way of reaching out to targeted people. Now, reaching out to targeted audience like the age-range group between 18 and 24, can get better mileage and result if they coursed it through online video.
Creating visual media as linkable assets need not be hard. DMP shares the following guide on how you can engage more people, create better social-media impact, and establish effective linkable assets with visual content.
- Start with simple video materials with the newscaster or the talking head style of presenting information. Your video need not be very complicated and can be produced using low-cost methods. There are many low-cost digital cameras today that can deliver great visuals. What is more important is the message you are trying to convey.
- Focus on video content that is useful for your targeted audiences. How-to guides, instructional videos and tutorials that can help online users how to do things are great content that you can use for your video.
- Share stories, even the more personal ones, to inject life and realism into your videos. Injecting a dash of natural humor and amusement in your videos can make them more palatable for your audiences. Play with their emotions if you can and you’ll be rewarded with links, likes and shares that would be great for your SEO.
- Keep you videos simple and don’t try to imitate what the professionals are doing if you really don’t know how to. Cheap special effects will not do and you’ll be better off using clear and easy-to-understand slideshows that will work well together with your “talking head”.
- If you need a larger production and have the marketing budget for it, then it would be to your greatest advantage to work with professionals who know what they are doing with regards to video production. You can work with an advertising agency or hire the services of freelance videographers and editors who can do the job in the most cost-effective way.
- You can use video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo to host your videos and just embed links into your websites. This will make it easier for people to share and link to your videos. However, since they are hosted in third-party platforms, there is a tendency that the bulk of traffic will go their way. If your own hosting bandwidth can, you can upload and host your videos directly from your website.
3. Linkable Assets that Feature Apps and Tools
Sometimes information will not be enough to help people with what they need. For these purposes, apps and tools are made available that are designed for specific needs of particular groups or people. These apps and tools have become so popular that they have become one of the most linked-to assets business owners and digital marketers can have.
It would be a great advantage to create linkable assets using apps and tools. If you have your own development team, tap them to create linkable assets in-house. If this will not be possible, work with professionals to create the app and tool for you. Many qualified freelancers and 3rd party companies are capable of creating these tools and apps, so choose one who will work well with you.
4. Linkable Assets that Let Users Create Something of Their Own
One of the characteristics that most popular sites have like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ is their facility for crowdsourcing – allowing registered users to create their own little spaces and assets from within the network. Depending on your platform, you can create the same crowdsourcing feature by letting users create something new by using an app, tool or feature in your site. These include forum identities, polls, questions, wikis, contests, etc – anything that will allow them to interact directly or have something to do.
5. Linkable Assets that Feature Influencers
Working with an influencer or influential person can do wonders for your SEO in terms of links, likes and shares. Working or featuring influencers will boost social signals and activities as you can leverage on the influencer’s own network and following to build for yourself a bigger audience. Studies show that just having an influential person linking or sharing your content can boost social signals by up to 31.8% – and the figures just keep growing more as you continue to work with even more influential.
The following are some of the ways on how you can work with an influential person and create linkable assets:
- Let an influential person create a particular type of content for you and feature what they have produced in your websites, blogs and social media.
- Interview influential persons and feature the article, video, or podcast in your network.
- Quote an influential person and include it in your article. Another way to do this is to create a list of views, insights or answers to questions or issues that you raised among several influential persons.
- Create other lists that involve influencers such as top influencer lists and other award-type posts.
6. Linkable Assets that Feature Trusted Sources and Original Research
Trust is a very important thing in Internet marketing and how effective your SEO and Social Media Marketing can be. This depends on how credible your content are and how credible you are as the content provider. Studies show that people will share or link to articles and content created by someone they trust and know. Just adding a short bio, byline and picture of the content provider will boost the trust factor and the social signals as well.
People will also link to content that are backed with credible sources of information, more so if the information you provided in your content is based on original research. The reason for this is that people view primary or original research as factual and not just the interpretation of the writer. This is different from content providers featuring secondary sources of information as what they present will be subject to their own analyses or interpretation.
7. Linkable Assets that Answer Questions about Your Industry
Create linkable assets that answer specialized questions that are specific to your particularly industry niche. People from your industry will be attracted to link and share these assets as 73% of people naturally share information from sources that share their interest as a way of connecting with them. 69% share such content because they feel that by doing so they will get to be more involved in your industry or interest group. This will even go higher up to 84% if what you got them involved will be in support of a cause they are involved and care about.
8. Linkable Assets that Create Controversy
Talk shows are very popular because of the controversies they discuss and form dialogues about. The same can hold true with linkable assets. Create one that is controversial, eye openers, and appeals to their core emotions will most likely be linked to by people who can identify. The following shows which emotions can be very popular that you can use for creating your linkable assets.
Creating your original content and turning them into Linkable Assets can boost your SEO into levels you never thought would be possible just by using ordinary content. There are several ways on how you can do this but these 8 powerful ideas shared by DMP can show you how you can create some – and create the buzz and impact that you like.
Jomer B. Gregorio is a well-rounded expert when it comes digital marketing. Jomer is also known as a semantic SEO evangelist and practitioner. Check out our Digital Marketing Services today and let us help you in achieving positive and profitable results for your business.