The goal when filing business tax returns is to pay as little as possible. This is a worthy goal, and tax write offs help serve this purpose. However, it’s important to remember that lenders will ask for financials. If business financial statements are not available, they will look at business tax returns. If it looks like your business is not profitable, you will not be able to get funding, or you may get less funding.
Taxes, Tax Write Offs, and Fundability
To understand how tax write offs can affect your ability to get business funding, you need to understand the relationship between taxes and Fundability.
There are many factors that affect the overall Fundability of a business. Credit Suite identifies 23 core principles of Fundability. We break these down further into 125 Fundability factors, and one of these is “Business Financials.” Business tax returns, in turn, are one of the factors included in this principle.
Business Tax Returns
According to the IRS, except for partnerships, all businesses have to file an income tax return. There are different forms, and the one you need to use depends on the business structure you choose. This could be a sole proprietorship, corporation, S-corp, or LLC.
Business Tax Returns 101
Business taxes are not exactly the same as personal income tax. Here are the major differences you need to know.
Estimated Tax
Federal business income tax is pay-as-you-go. You have to pay the tax as you earn or receive income. Usually, this is done on a quarterly basis. Sole proprietors and S-corps that expect to owe tax of $1,000 or more when they file their business tax return, will generally need to make estimated payments. Corporations that expect to owe $500 or more will need to pay estimated taxes as well.
Documentation Differences
There are also differences in required documentation. For example, you have to track expenses, asset purchases, income and more. As a result, it’s best to hire a bookkeeper or bookkeeping agency. At least choose a great accounting software option. Then you can print reports at the end of each tax period and just hand them over to your tax preparer.
Tax Preparation
Don’t try to do this on your own. Splurge on a tax professional. The cost will be well worth the time and money you save, and you’ll reduce the chances of a mistake. They will have more in depth knowledge of the tax write offs you can take legally and how they will help you. They can also help if you end up in an audit.
Your tax preparer should not be the same person as your bookkeeper or accountant. With smaller businesses the same firm is ok, but it is not wise for the same person to do both. This helps deter and detect fraud. Even if you have an in-house bookkeeper or accountant, they can get ready everything the tax preparer needs. However, they should not complete the tax forms themselves.
Cash vs. Accrual
You will need to choose your method of accounting. You can choose either cash or accrual basis accounting. Cash basis includes income as revenue when it is collected. Expenses are deducted from revenue when they are paid.
With accrual basis accounting, you record income when you earn it. Consequently, you count expenses when you incur them.
For example:
Using cash basis accounting, you don’t necessarily count revenue as soon as an item sells. You count it when you get the cash for it. Unless the buyer pays cash on the spot, you do not record revenue until the customer pays the invoice. As a result, there are no receivables carried on the books.
With accrual basis accounting, you record revenue at the time of sale. Then, a receivable for the invoice goes on the books. New businesses may have more unpaid expenses and more uncollected income at the end of the year. Taking those outstanding expenses as a deduction can reduce tax liability. This accounts for many of the most common tax write offs.
Later, when your business is profitable, your outstanding receivables will likely be higher than outstanding expenses or payables. If you are using the accrual method, you will be recording more net income, and paying more in taxes versus the cash method. Be sure you consider this when making your decision.
The decision of which method to use is for the life of the business. However, there are some exceptions that allow for changes to be made. In contrast, businesses with larger revenues or that carry inventory don’t even have a choice. They must use the accrual method of accounting.
Depreciation Decisions
Depreciation is one of the most common tax write offs, but there are some decisions to be made. Discuss them thoroughly with your tax preparer to ensure you are doing what is best for your business.
The first choice will be about first year depreciation. Typically, depreciation on assets is written off over the course of five to seven years. But the IRS allows a first year deduction of up to $100,000 for equipment and most furniture instead. This is an election most business owners take. If you do not make a profit, you cannot take the $100,000 deduction. Yet, you can carry it forward to a year that you do make a profit.
In the beginning, a slower depreciation method may work better. You can save the deductions for later, when there will likely be more income and you will probably be in a higher tax bracket. Again, a tax professional can help you make that decision.
Tax Write Offs and Fundability
Now to the real question. How does all of this affect your ability to get business financing? For a business to be Fundable, it needs to be fully recognizable as an entity separate from its owner. There is a lot of crossover between Fundability and business taxes. Entity choice is one example.
Entity Choice
You can choose whichever entity you want for your taxes, but you do have to choose one. That choice will depend on your budget and needs for liability protection. Your tax advisor will be able to help you decide. However, it’s important to note that the decision you make affects Fundability as well.
For Fundability purposes, operating as a sole proprietorship or a partnership doesn’t work. Your business needs to operate as a completely separate entity from you as the owner. To do that, you need to choose to operate as either an S-corp, LLC, or corporation.
Fundability, Business Tax Returns, and the EIN vs. SSN Saga
If you are operating as a sole proprietor, it is possible to use your SSN to file your business tax return. You should not file a business tax return using your Social Security Number for maximum Fundability. You need to use an EIN, and you can get one for free at IRS.gov.
How Tax Write Offs Can Affect Fundability
Business lenders will not always request business tax returns, but what if they do? It’s not likely that they will if you have complete, professionally prepared financial statements. Still, if tax returns are the only financials you have for your business, that is what they will use. This poses a difficult dilemma.
This is a problem because you want to make it look like you made as little money as possible on a tax return to avoid paying any more than necessary in taxes.
Typically, even if tax returns are on a cash basis, financial statements are prepared on an accrual basis. If all the lender sees is your cash basis business tax return, and it looks like you didn’t make a profit, they are going to be less likely to approve funding. And you can imagine why they will be likely to approve less funding.
Personal Taxes Can Impact Your Ability to Get Business Funding As Well
Even if they do not look at business tax returns, most if not all traditional lenders will usually look at personal financials separately. This is because almost all of them require a personal guarantee.
When they do, they will note how you get money from the business. Do you pay yourself a salary? Do you just take funds as needed? This may, again, lead to questions that require them to look at your business tax returns.
Tax Write Offs Can Impact Your Ability to Get Financing
Tax write offs are a great way to save on taxes. They are totally legal and it would be ridiculous not to take advantage of them. However, be certain you have someone preparing professional financial statements at the same time. These documents serve two different purposes. Tax returns are to show the IRS how much taxable income you have. Financial statements are meant to show profit, and that is what lenders want to see.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says Valtteri Bottas will be expected to hand victory to Lewis Hamilton at Saturday’s Italian Grand Prix sprint race if he is still leading his teammate towards the end of the 18-lap race.
Have you defined the distribution channels that will be used by your company?
If not, it’s time.
In short, distribution channels determine the path goods will take from the manufacturer to the final consumer.
Thus, they have direct impact over sales.
There are many types, formats, and levels of distribution channels.
The first step is to understand each of them.
To help you with this task, this page will go over the main things you need to know about distribution channels:
what distribution channels are
the three types of distribution channels
three distribution methods
distribution levels
the main intermediaries
how to define them
What Are Distribution Channels?
Distribution channels are the path products take from their initial manufacturing stage to selling them to consumers. The main goal of these channels is to make goods available to final consumers in sales outlets as soon as possible.
Distribution channels directly impact a company’s sales, so you want to make them as efficient as possible.
The Three Types of Distribution Channels
There are three ways to make sure a product gets to the final consumer.
1. Direct Channels
With direct channels, the company is fully responsible for delivering products to consumers. Goods do not go through intermediaries before reaching their final destination. This model gives manufacturers total control over the distribution channel.
This is the case with people who do catalog sales, for example.
Since the manufacturer alone is responsible for delivering products, this channel generally makes it impossible to have a high number of customers.
At the same time, it’s possible to offer lower prices, since the company does not have to pay commission to intermediaries.
2. Indirect Channels
With indirect channels products are delivered by intermediaries, not by the sellers.
Who are these intermediaries? They could be wholesalers, retailers, distributors, or brokers, for example.
In this case, manufacturers do not have total control over distribution channels.
The benefit is that this makes it possible to sell larger volumes and sell to a range of customers. However, products have higher prices due to the commissions paid to intermediaries.
3. Hybrid Channels
Hybrid channels are a mix of direct and indirect channels.
In this model, the manufacturer has a partnership with intermediaries, but it still takes control when it comes to contact with customers.
One example is brands that promote products online but don’t deliver them directly to customers.
There are three different delivery methods for distribution.
Basically, they concern who will be allowed to sell your products.
1. Exclusive Distribution
With exclusive distribution, intermediaries take the company’s products to specific sales outlets.
This is usually done by a sales representative.
This means that only exclusive retail outlets will be able to sell the items to consumers.
Depending on the quality of the product, this is a great strategy not only for manufacturers but also for the retail outlets or chain stores selected.
2. Selective Distribution
With selective distribution, the company allows sales to a specific group of intermediaries who are responsible for selling items to final customers.
An important factor in how succesful this strategy will be is the reputation of the intermediaries since they have a direct impact over the company’s performance.
In this case, the intermediary becomes the real consultant for consumers, answering questions and recommending appropriate products for their needs.
3. Intensive Distribution
In intensive distribution, the manufacturer tries to place their product in as many sales outlets as possible.
The manufacturers themselves, sales teams, and commercial representatives are all involved in this method. They are responsible for distributing products to sales outlets.
This distribution method is generally used by manufacturers of low-cost products with a high frequency of consumption.
Distribution Channel Levels
Besides the types and methods of distribution channels, they may also operate on different levels.
Their levels represent the distance between the manufacturer and the final consumer.
Level 0 Distribution Channel
In this level, there is a close and direct relationship between the manufacturer and the client.
For the company, the costs of the relationship with the consumer are higher.
Level 1 Distribution Channel
In level 1, the manufacturer sells the products to the distributor, who might sell it to consumers via retailers or wholesalers.
The distributor keeps some of the rights to the product, but not all.
The distributor is also responsible for the costs of sales and transportation to sales outlets.
Level 2 Distribution Channel
Level 2 is similar to level 1.
The difference is that in this case, the distributor delivers products only to retailers, who sell them to consumers.
Level 3 Distribution Channel
Level 3 channels are a traditional distribution model.
The product’s journey from the manufacturer involves distributor, retailer, and customer.
The costs relative to sales and marketing are divided between the parties.
The advantage of this model is that it’s possible to reach a larger number of consumers.
On the other hand, products have a higher price because of the operational costs of all the parties involved.
The Nine Main Intermediaries in Distribution Channels
After finding out more about operation details, it’s time to see who are the main intermediaries who take products to consumers.
1. Retailers
Retailers are intermediaries used frequently by companies.
Examples include supermarkets, pharmacies, restaurants, and bars. Each of these types of businesses has full sales rights.
Generally, product prices are higher in retailers.
2. Wholesalers
Wholesalers are intermediaries that buy and resell products to retailers. Wholesalers sell to those who are going to put products in their own stores.
These intermediaries generally don’t sell small quantities to final consumers, though there are exceptions, like supermarkets that sell in the wholesale model.
Prices are lower because sales involve large quantities.
3. Distributors
Distributors sell, store, and offer technical support to retailers and wholesalers. Their operations are focused on specific regions.
4. Agents
Agents are legal entities hired to sell a company’s goods to final consumers and are paid a commission for their sales.
In this case, the relationships between intermediaries and companies are for the long term.
5. Brokers
Brokers are also hired to sell and receive a commission.
The difference between agents and brokers is that brokers have short term relationships with the company.
That’s the case with real estate agents and insurance brokers, for example.
6. The Internet
To those who sell tech and software, the internet itself works as the intermediary of the distribution channel.
The consumer only has to download the material to have access to it.
A company can also have its own sales team who are responsible for selling goods or services.
There is also the possibility of creating more than one team to sell to various segments and audiences if the company has a wide range of products.
8. Resellers
Resellers are companies or people who buy from manufacturers or retailers to later sell to consumers in retail.
9. Catalog
Catalog sales, as the name indicates, is when a salesperson is connected to a company and sells its products using a magazine. Salespeople in this model also usually earn a commission for their sales.
This type of sales is common in the beauty segment, with brands like Avon and the Brazilian Natura.
Reverse Distribution Channel
Now you know the types and methods available for products to reach customers. But what happens when consumers need to return items to manufacturers?
Consumers need to rely on reverse distribution if they receive defective products or need to return clothes or shoes they bought online that don’t fit.
In this case, the consumer is responsible for returning the items and needs to find information from the manufacturer about how to do this. Usually, consumers find information about returns on the site for the product.
How to Define Distribution Channels for Your Product
Now you know the different types of distribution channels and intermediaries. But all this is of no use if you don’t know how to select the appropriate channel for your company.
Next up are seven essential tips to help you make this decision.
1. Benchmarking
First, you must look at your competitors to find the best practices they adopt.
To do this, it is not enough to have a vague idea of the costs. You must record all costs and analyze if the benefits of the channel you selected are worth it.
4. Company’s Daily Routine
Another relevant factor is the business’ routine.
What are the projects, processes, and activities in your business?
The distribution channel must be aligned with all these details.
Otherwise, you might have logistics problems that result in product delays that damage your relationship with customers.
Monitor sales indicators, for example, analyzing the performance of each channel the company uses.
Also, carry out satisfaction surveys with consumers, especially when customers are dissatisfied with the selection and availability of goods or when sales volume is below expectations.
Examples of Distribution Channels
Before concluding this reading, how about we get to know two examples from great companies?
Coca-Cola’s Distribution Channels
The largest soft drink manufacturer in the world uses different sales channels with franchisers, distributors, and retailers.
For example, soft drinks get to different retailers thanks to distributors.
This includes bars, restaurants, and supermarkets, who sell directly to final consumers.
Natura’s Distribution Channels
Cosmetics brand Natura basically uses catalog distribution, though today there are sales outlets as well.
The company has a network of consultants that sell to consumers using magazines showing the products.
Distribution Channels Conclusion
Are you ready to define and manage distribution channels for your company?
Follow the steps I mentioned in this article, from benchmarking to sales outlet analysis.
As marketers and brands, many of you use PPC ads to drive traffic to your brand or a client’s website. There’s nothing wrong with that approach. After all, PPC ads have obvious advantages. You can reach new customers, track your results, and manage your budget. However, for all their benefits, these ads can sometimes lack …
As marketers and brands, many of you use PPC ads to drive traffic to your brand or a client’s website.
There’s nothing wrong with that approach.
After all, PPC ads have obvious advantages. You can reach new customers, track your results, and manage your budget. However, for all their benefits, these ads can sometimes lack something.
Has anyone guessed what I’m talking about? It’s the human touch.
By humanizing your PPC ads, you can stand apart from your competitors.
Before I go on, what do I mean by humanizing your PPC ads? It means creating ads that provoke a response or an emotion. It can help your ads build connections and trust with your market and ultimately increase your business.
It also takes you away from the nameless, faceless, robotic approach that can be digital marketing at its worst.
Aside from those I’ve already listed, there are a few other essential reasons to humanize your PPC ads and your brand in general. Let’s dive in, and then we’ll discuss different ways you can humanize your PPC ads.
Why Should You Humanize Your PPC Ads?
Humanizing your brand can give you a competitive edge and improve customer retention. It shows you’re taking a customer-centric approach, and you understand your buyers.
However, humanizing your brand also builds customer trust, which is vital these days. Communications company Edelman says, “Trust has never been more important for companies to develop and maintain.”
Further, they found that 75 percent of people actively recommend businesses they trust.
That’s not the only benefit, though; according to Edelman: “Customers who trust you are more likely to engage with, buy from, advocate for, and defend you.”
Now, let’s go into detail about some positives you could gain from humanizing your brand.
Humanizing Your Brand Gives You a Competitive Edge
You might already know one of the advantages of humanizing your digital marketing: the competitive edge.
This humanized approach takes the focus away from you as a marketer or business owner. Instead, it concentrates on your customer’s wants and considers your prospects:
individual needs
goals and ambitions
challenges and pain points
Further, the customer-centric approach shows you understand your customers’ unique problems and can offer them solutions.
You Benefit From Customer Advocacy and Retainment
Once you’ve sold successfully to a consumer, there are two things you want to do: retain them and turn them into advocates.
By humanizing your marketing, your customers may be more likely to become those advocates and recommend your brand to others.
Then there’s customer retention. You’re more likely to retain your customer by:
Now you understand the benefits, how do you humanize your PPC ads? Outlined below are 10 easy-to-implement measures you can start using today.
1. Understand Your Audience by Creating Personas
You’ve got a product or service to promote, but who’s your target market, and how do you humanize your PPC ads to suit them?
With buyer personas. Buyer personas are a valuable asset because not every would-be customer responds to your PPC ad in the same way.
To attract your ideal customer, you’ll want to appeal to them by speaking their language, understanding their pain points, and offering them a solution.
Why are personas so effective? Because they allow the personalized approach. Get this part right, and you can humanize your PPC ads and reach your target market.
2. Create Relevant Ads
Yes, we’re back to personas again. Your buyer personas let you create relevant ads by giving you a clearer idea of your potential customers’ search terms.
Humanize your PPC ads with images. They don’t need to be staff images. Just include something that represents your business, what it offers, and what it stands for.
Google offers different ways of adding images to PPC ads through Discovery ads or its image extensions option, or you could use Facebook’s carousel ads.
However, plenty of other platforms allow image-rich advertising and storytelling, like Instagram, Pinterest, or YouTube.
4. Use Social Media
Your buyer personas are also good for shaping your social media strategy.
Use your personas to humanize your PPC ads by understanding where your ideal buyers hang out. Then you can target them on their platform of choice.
Sites like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram allow you to personalize your PPC ads for better results.
5. Keep Testing
Constant testing may mean avoiding getting stuck in your usual advertising patterns. How do you put this into practice?
By varying your PPC campaigns. You can do this through regular A/B testing to see which elements work best for your audience.
For instance, you could test:
long-form keywords
colors
calls to action (CTAs)
Keep testing and optimizing the results as you go until you know you’re getting the right balance.
6. Go Beyond Keywords
Keywords can only do so much. Yes, they can help get your ads in front of the right people, but they lack personalization.
To further humanize your PPC ads, consider four other critical areas of your marketing:
demographics
motivation
challenges
goals
Simpleview recommends applying these qualities to travel persons to optimize your PPC results. However, these attributes work just as well for just about any other niche.
Take demographics, for instance.
Depending on the age group of the audience you’re targeting, you’re going to want to change your advertisements so they “speak” to that particular group.
Likewise, the motivations, challenges, and goals are likely to be different for each group.
7. Use Storytelling
I’ve already mentioned the value of consumer trust, and there’s an easy way to build on it: with storytelling.
Successful ads often use storytelling at the heart of their ads, and the likes of Instagram Stories have made it accessible.
However, Instagram isn’t the only way. For a similar approach, you could test out Facebook’s carousel ads or maybe a Twitter followers’ campaign.
Here are some ideas if you’re new to storytelling:
staff profiles or a day-in-the-life article so your audience can get to know you better
customer success stories
highlights of a product or service
reviews or explainer videos
8. Inject Some Personality
Think about it: Are your potential customers more likely to click on an ad that sounds like everyone else’s?
Or will they choose a PPC ad that stands out and speaks for itself?
The first impression many customers get of your business is through online ads, so they must reflect your brand.
Use the same tone for your ads as you would for the rest of your marketing to give your customers greater consistency and familiarity.
9. Don’t Use the Direct Sales Approach
The direct sales approach can be a turn-off for consumers. Instead, you could concentrate on getting the prospect to click through to your website, give you their details, and then gently steer them towards the sale.
You may find that customer mapping is helpful with this approach. When you use customer journey mapping, you can:
understand the customer’s key touchpoints
identify your customer’s goals
nurture your leads by tailoring ads to encourage them to make a purchase
10. Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)
Finally, keep it simple, stupid (no offense). It’s believed Kelly Johnson first used the phrase in the 1960s when it was originally applied to design concepts. However, it applies just as much to content creation.
There’s a reason why the term is still used today: Sometimes marketers like to complicate things, but there’s no need to.
If you want to humanize your PPC ads more, remember you’ve got a limited amount of time and characters. Make every word count by:
keeping your language plain and uncomplicated
spelling out the benefits
writing with your ideal buyer in mind and using keywords
finishing with a CTA
Examples of Great Humanized PPC Ads
There’s plenty the big brands can teach us about making greater connections with our perfect consumers. Here are three of the best.
Snickers
Remember the Snickers “You’re not you when you’re hungry” PPC campaign?
The Snickers advert used a series of deliberate spelling mistakes in its online advertising. More than ten years later, the advert is still delivering results.
Why did it work so well? Because consumers can relate to it. Everyone recognizes that “hangry” feeling.
The Snickers advert is also novel, shareable, and memorable—all things every advertiser can apply to their marketing.
Converse
Rather than going for the full sale straight off, Converse used “Converse-ations” to reach its younger audience.
Working with the ad agency, Anomoly, Converse included keywords teenagers might use when searching online, like “spelling bee” or “how to talk to girls.”
Converse’s campaign allowed it to launch a dialogue with shoppers and used ad copy and microsites to engage consumers, rather than going with the traditional advertising approach.
The “Domaination” campaign proved effective because it provided helpful, relevant content to potential buyers and built connections with them.
Alec Brownstein
Search for “best PPC adverts” online, and the name “Alec Brownstein” is commonly featured in the top five.
Who is he? He was a job hunter who hit upon the idea of bidding on the names of five creative directors.
Brownstein’s ad looked like this:
When the creative directors googled their names, they found Brownstein’s advert and his website too. As a result, Brownstein was offered the dream job by one of the creative directors he’d targeted.
Brownstein’s advert was successful because he used initiative by thinking in the same way he thought the creative directors would. Many of us Google our names, and Brownstein figured the creative directors would do the same.
There’s a lesson here for every advertiser: Think like your ideal audience and create innovative new ways to reach them.
Conclusion
With the surge towards digital, your marketing may sometimes lack the personal touch. However, consumers want to know who they’re buying from, and they want to build relationships with brands to enhance trust.
Further, when you humanize your PPC ads and other forms of your digital marketing, you open up a line of communication that invites consumers to find out more about your brand.
Snickers and Converse are two brands that have done this well, and you can learn from and apply them to your marketing.
Creating ads that evoke emotion and build relationships is straightforward. Just follow the tips in this article, and you’ll be on your way to humanizing your advertising and building lasting relationships with satisfied customers.
Link building used to be simple: you would write a bunch of articles, submit them to an article submission site, and get an external link back to your site.
That doesn’t work in the post-Penguin era. While the right backlinks can grow your Google rankings, revenue, and brand, the wrong ones can get your site penalized. You need to learn how to build a high-quality backlink portfolio the right way if you want to see success.
In this in-depth post, I will show you a strategic link building technique that works. It is scalable, and when you apply it to your site, your rankings should improve. You may even improve your conversion rate because you are working as the high authority on the topic to search engines.
In this post I’m going to cover:
Understanding what Google wants
How to scale your link building efforts
Keyword research and targeting
How to earn editorial links
Why is an Effective Backlink Portfolio Important?
Backlinks remain a vital Google ranking factor. These days, an effective link building strategy is about trust and popularity.
According to Quick Sprout, domain trust/authority represents 30% of Google’s ranking algorithm.
If you’re making that kind of investment, you need to have accurate information on how to build links that Google will trust.
Step #1: Understanding What Google Wants Helps You Get Backlinks
When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing, Google dictates what works. By creating content that aligns with Google’s mission, you’re more likely to rank higher in the SERPs.
Google also believes that there’s always more information out there. With external link building, organizing information (to help your reader) becomes your mission, too. When you pay close attention to what your readers and ideal buyers want, you don’t have to use hype to sell your products.
If you want to get backlinks without getting penalized, you must understand and work closely with Google’s mission statement. If you fail to do that, the technique won’t work.
Before you start building a website link to your web page, ask yourself these questions relating to Google’s mission:
Is my content well-organized?
Do I provide useful information to the sites that will link to mine?
Let’s talk about the first question because for effective link building, site organization matters.
When people come to your site, do you leave them wondering what else to do (especially the first timers)? Make sure that your site is easy to navigate. Here’s a great example:
Here’s another site with disorganized navigation:
Getting the navigation right is the first step in organizing your content so that people and search engines can find information that’s useful and relevant. The second step is to build a foundation that will make other sites want to create an external link to yours.
How to Develop a Strong Backlink Foundation
Let’s say that you have written and published a useful post and want to get it ranked on Google. You may assume the best way to accomplish this is by gaining lots of backlinks.
This isn’t correct. If you generate links to new content too quickly, it looks manipulative and that can be a red flag for Google.
Many people find link building and link acquisition stressful. One reason is they are not producing great content that people will gladly share.
In Moz’s classic book “How to Rank,” Cyrus Shepard recommends that “90% of your effort should go into creating great content, and 10% into link building.” This is the 90/10 rule of link building.
As harsh as it sounds, Shepard says that if you are struggling to generate a high-quality backlink to your site, it’s likely that you have reversed the rule.
Link building is all about positioning your content and getting more people to link to you. In other words, a single post can be used to gain many quality links to your site.
A high-quality external link has two key advantages over traditional links: relevance and trust. Here’s the difference:
Let’s say that you have a dog training site and you get an inbound link from an article directory. Google won’t see that website link as relevant to the subject of your site.
However, if that link acquisition is from a site that’s related to dog training, like a dog food store or a discussion board that’s centered around dogs, you will not only improve your rankings, but your site will be relevant and valuable to those who visit it – and, that will help you get with more link acquisition and achieve a high PR.
How do you find authority sites where you can build relationships and start the process of gaining relevant backlinks?
The simplest way is to google keywords that bring up sites that are relevant to your field. You can filter out the ones from your competitors.
Once you have identified some sites, then you need to research them further to figure out which ones will help most in your link building efforts. You should take the following factors into consideration.
1. Domain Authority
It’s important to know the domain authority of the sites that you consider for link acquisition. A great tool for this is the Moz Bar, which shows the authority status of any domain or keyword in the search results.
2. Domain Relevancy
As I said above, getting links from relevant domains is a key part of scalable link building. Domain relevancy is also a key Google ranking factor and is especially important if you want to escape the impact of Google Penguin on your search engine rank.
3. Anchor Text
According to a study, “every single site that they looked at that got negatively hit by the Penguin Update had a “money” keyword as its anchor text for over 60% of its incoming links.”
That tells you that if you want to scale your external backlink efforts, you must combine domain relevancy with the right anchor text.
Anchor text is important when assessing the quality of a site. In the image above, 704 sites are linking to Nerd Fitness through branded anchor text (nerd fitness).
When you are building an external link, you should use your brand name with other keyword variations. You could call this branded hybrid anchor text.
For instance, if your site is reiv.com.au, a real estate training site, you can use any of these anchor text variations to generate backlinks:
reiv real estate training
reiv realtors
reiv training for beginners
You could also vary the anchor text by using URLs with your target keywords:
http://reiv.com.au real estate
http://reiv.com.au estate training
real estate training at www.reiv.com.au
With the right approach to quality content, domain relevancy, trust flow, and anchor text, you will enjoy the benefits of real traffic and external links to your site.
Two-Tier Strategy for Backlinks
A two-tier linking structure will help you increase the strength, juice, and potential of your inbound links.
Tier 1 backlinks are links you earn/build directly to your site.
Tier 2 backlinks are links that directly pass the ranking value to tier-one links.
If you get a link to your ‘money page’ from a new post on someone else’s blog, that website link may not add much value to your site ranking.
Most of the time, direct backlinks to your site can take a while to have an effect. However, when you strengthen those backlinks, you will see a bump in organic traffic and rankings.
One way to strengthen those links is with social signals. When you pass social signals to your tier 1 backlinks (i.e. sites that linked to you), you will ultimately boost their effectiveness and this will improve your overall Google rankings and get you that high PR you desire.
As for tier 2 backlinks, there are 3 simple steps that you need to follow:
Step #1: Write valuable articles and post them on web 2.0 sites, like Tumblr, Web Node, and Blogger.
Let’s use Tumblr as an example.
First, create and publish your blog.
Next, click “Add Text”:
Next, add your post title and content, then publish.
Step #2: Get your Tumblr page indexed by sharing the post URL on Google+ and Facebook and pinging it at Pingomatic. Pingomatic will syndicate your URL to major content aggregators.
Wait for the site to get crawled and indexed. This should take less than 6 hours. To check, go to the Google search engine and paste your Tumblr URL into the search box.
Step #3: Once indexed, use a branded keyword on the Tumblr page to link back to your site:
This backlink should point directly to your site, but it may not have a strong impact on your rankings. Not everything you do will be like a press release covered by the nightly news. There is still value, however.
In that case, create a tier 2 structure for this Tumblr page. Remember that your link is already there, so all you have to do now is build more authoritative links to your Tumblr page.
Caution: when you’re using a tier 2 link building structure to strengthen your tier 1 backlinks, avoid anchor text over-optimization. Make sure that you aren’t just using this tactic for link acquisition. The new page or site that you create on platforms like Tumblr should be valuable and beneficial to users. From there, you can add a website link.
Use generic anchor text. For example, if the keyword you’re targeting is ‘UK military base,’ your anchor could be:
Learn more about military bases in the UK
Visit this UK military base
In other words, don’t link to your web 2.0 site with an exact match keyword/anchor text combination. This will actually hurt your site’s rank.
Step #3. Keyword Research and Targeting to Improve Your Backlink Portfolio
When building links that scale, it’s all about providing relevant content, so that people will keep linking to it. Keyword targeting is an important aspect of that.
How relevant are your keywords to the prospects’ needs? If you want to make your site more powerful through external link building, you can’t afford to ignore keyword research.
Keyword research helps you to dig into the minds of your target audience.
For example, what happens when you conduct a keyword search in your industry for something like “best social media strategist in NY.”
First, the people searching for that long-tail keyword are interested in talking/working with a professional who understands social media marketing. They don’t want a newbie writing a boring press release, but a strategist; someone with a proven track record.
Second, they are only interested in social media strategists who live in New York, which means that they might be a local business owner wanting a face-to-face meeting.
If you were in that niche, let’s see how you could find suitable keywords to focus your content in the search engine and attract small business owners who need help with social media marketing.
Step #1: Log into your account and select “Start Now.” Once you’re logged in, you answer a series of questions so Google can better understand your business and which keywords you should target.
After you complete the questions, Google will show you keyword themes that may be relevant for your business. You can click the ones that you want to target.
Step 2: You can use some of the themes for your keywords, or you can use tools like Ubersuggest to find additional keywords that relate to the themes Google showed you.
Take care to only include keywords that appeal to your target audience.
For example, if your target audience is a business that is looking for a social media strategist, you can use keywords such as:
social media strategist
social media marketing strategist
social media marketing company
social media consultant
The people searching for the two keyword phrases above are probably freelancers looking to make extra money through social media marketing. Your target audience is the business looking to hire the strategist, not the freelancer.
Never target keywords that are off-topic or unrelated to your core message, products or services. They are not your ideal target audience, so those aren’t the right keywords for you in link acquisition.
When you build a website link, you don’t want to use anchor text that will make site visitors bounce. Remember that scalable link building is concerned with the relevancy of the linking domain.
Targeting Consumer Demographics
This is another essential targeting element for link building. When you know your audience’s demographics (age, gender, education, and so on), you can get inside their heads. When you do, you’ll be able to create useful content that helps them solve their problems. That’s a key component in building organic links that gets you positive results with a high PR.
To find out the audience demographics for your site, visit Quantcast, sign up, and input your site URL in the search bar. Scroll down to see the demographics:
This image shows the demographics at Metacafe. It clearly shows that most of the site’s target audience (readers) are male and aged 35 – 44. It also has many readers in the 25-34 age group.
If you’re going to build social signals, you need to leverage automation with tools like Social Pilot.
If you want to get social signals to scale link acquisition and achieve great results, you need to create them continuously by sharing your content.
Manual syndication can be time-consuming though. Imagine how long it would take for you to share your latest post on the top 20 social media networks.
Other Link Building Tools
Here are some more external link building tools that you can use to analyze keywords, referring domain names, anchor text and so on:
Open Link Profiler: a powerful tool for link diagnosis and industry checks.
Open Site Explorer: use this tool from Moz to determine the number of backlinks and the domain authority of referring domain names.
nTopic: a simple tool for topic analysis. It helps you plan content creation from scratch so that you can effectively target the right keywords and improve your rankings.
Step #4: Earn Editorial Backlinks
Earning editorial backlinks from authority sites will really skyrocket your external link-building strategy. To earn those links, you have to provide immense value. You can’t just put some text together and pray for miracles. Here are some techniques to help you gain quality backlinks.
1: Skyscraper Technique
After several years of struggling to get traffic, Brian Dean cracked the external link building code. Once he implemented it, hundreds of people started linking to his first-ever infographic and he received a little above 50,000 unique visitors with tremendously high PR:
The first tool I recommend is Moz’s link explorer. Visit the site and input your competitor’s blog URL. Let’s see which of their posts got the most shares and comments (engagement).
First, enter the URL in the search bar.
Next, log in by providing some basic information. Once you’re logged in, Moz will display detailed information about URL provided. Scroll down the page to see the top websites linking to the domain you entered.
Next, you can click on “Top followed links to this site” to see more information.
Look for the URLs that have high domain authority and are on the topic of your post. These are the URLs you should be targeting for backlinks.
3: Write a Better Headline & Title
In order to grow your business, you need to take actionable steps that will get you results. One such action is to write better headlines than your competitors.
Here are three examples of good headlines:
How You Can Grow Your Email List Through Content Marketing
6 Steps To Attract More Customers To Your Store Through Content Marketing
How a Simple Content Marketing Strategy Improved My Google Rankings by 110%
Adding numbers in titles works. I’ve seen a lot of articles go viral because the headline has a number.
Mention power users, experts, and popular bloggers.
End with a call-to-action (you can include a giveaway of a checklist related to your topic).
If you follow this proven checklist, you’ll be able to write more thorough, useful, and data-driven blog posts that will stand the test of time. This is how you get a high PR.
5. Send a Thank You Email
Send thank you messages when you mention authors and site owners in your post. They might be more willing to give you a backlink if you send a thank you.
The email template below was introduced to Backlinko’s founder by Peep Laja of ConversionXL.com. It may be brief, but it helped Laja to grow his blog to 100,000 visitors in less than 12 months:
6. Guest Blogging
Guest blogging used to be very powerful, but you need to do it the right way.
For your guest blog to be successful, you must provide useful content.
If you produce helpful and sharable posts, people will naturally want to add a website link to you.
You can use commenting to gain authoritative links.
Links from comments may not have much SEO value, but they can be natural and relevant, which are among the key factors that Google values. Here’s how you get backlinks from comments:
Search for blogs with the dofollow CommentLuv plugin installed.
Subscribe to post updates for at least 5 blogs.
Speed matters. Once you get an alert that a new post has been published, quickly read the post (if it’s a long one, read the first two paragraphs and then the last part to get the main points).
Write a valuable comment. Avoid comments like, ‘nice post’, ‘awesome write up,’ or ‘this post helped me.’
Here’s the kind of comment that can generate traffic and links back to your site:
This comment is rich, helpful, and well written, so readers can benefit not just from the blog post, but from the comment, too. And, of course, the commenter has linked back to his site in the URL field.
Here’s another example, from a guy at Moz who left a wonderful comment and then linked to his blog post:
Conclusion
These days, you need to come at your website from all angles if you want to create a successful and scalable backlink strategy. You should consider things like quality content, easy site navigation, effective CTAs, etc.
By taking a holistic approach to improving your website and marketing strategies, you are more likely to earn backlinks from authoritative sources, which, in turn, can improve your
Link building has been an effective strategy for achieving high PR with Google rankings, even before the first Panda update. I believe it still is, as long as you do it right.
If you want help creating a backlink portfolio or assistance with digital marketing strategy and management in general, reach out for a consultation. We’re here to help!
Have you experimented with scalable external link building?
Why aren’t more companies using marketing automation?
A recent survey from Liana Technologies found that 60 percent of respondents said they didn’t know how to use marketing automation. They listed a lack of know-how as the main reason they weren’t adopting marketing automation campaigns.
Half of those surveyed also listed a lack of strategy or personnel as yet another reason they weren’t moving forward with marketing automation.
As you can see from the research, these companies need marketing automation consulting.
10 Ways a Marketing Automation Consultant Can Help Grow Your Business
Marketing automation is often viewed as a nice-to-have option, something that could be helpful but really isn’t all that necessary for companies looking to grow. Marketing automation isn’t an extra; it’s a component that’s an essential part of your marketing.
This isn’t always as clear until you breakdown the benefits that come with marketing automation.
Here are ten ways a marketing automation consultant can help you grow your business.
More targeted marketing: Many companies force their customers into the same marketing funnel. They’re not focused on optimizing their funnel based on the buyer’s journey, so most of their prospects fall out of their marketing funnel. A marketing automation consultant helps you segment and target your customers properly. A good consultant will help you identify customers who are ready to buy, leads that need to be nurtured, and leads you can disqualify.
Improve customer experiences: According to Salesforce, 76 percent of consumers expect you to understand their needs and expectations. Another 84 percent said, “being treated like a person, not a number” is essential to earning their business. Marketing automation helps you achieve this at scale, so you’re able to provide the one-on-one attention and personalization customers expect.
Increased traffic: Big companies have embraced analytics, but most don’t know how to use their data. Most don’t have a data-driven culture, so it’s difficult for many organizations to have confidence in their marketing decisions. This isn’t just big companies, though; it’s most companies in general. This means it’s harder for companies to identify the traffic sources working well versus those that aren’t. With marketing automation tools like lead scoring and lead nurturing, you can identify your best performing traffic sources.
Higher quality leads: When customers go through the same funnels, without segmentation, lead quality suffers. Your marketing automation consultant should help you outline the buyer’s journey and segment customers based on their place in the funnel. Doing this increases lead quality as customers are pre-qualified before and after they convert. This keeps the quality of the leads sent to sales high.
More leads: Once you’ve identified the list of marketing automation tools and workflows you need to generate high-quality leads, you can use those same automation tools to scale your lead generation campaigns. Your marketing automation consultant will help you increase lead production, using the lessons learned from your smaller campaigns. You’ll know which traffic sources perform best, how to improve lead quality,
Increased conversion rates: One of the hidden benefits of marketing automation is that the benefits are cumulative. Your marketing automation consultant will show you how to combine the strategy, tactics, workflows, and tools you’ve put together into a single system. Each component, when optimized, should produce increased conversion rates consistently in your campaigns over time.
Increased ROI: As your conversion rates increase, your ROI will continue to grow. A great marketing automation consultant will show you how to maintain your ROI as you continue to scale. You should see more revenue with less spend consistently over time.
Reduced expenses: As metrics like your return on ad spend (ROAS) and your conversion rate improves, you should see a decrease in costs (e.g., cost per lead, cost per action, customer acquisition costs). Your marketing automation consultant should monitor your returns and expenses, ensuring that both are moving in the right direction.
Data sharing between marketing channels: Your marketing automation stack should provide your team with the right data analysis tools. If you use analysis tools like Cyfe or Power BI, you’ll want to make sure that your team has access to data across marketing channels; your consultant should help you set this up, so your team has need-to-know access to data. Doing this will reduce operational silos, keeping everyone in your team on the same page; no more fights between sales and marketing for control.
Shorter sales cycles: Let’s say you’ve received two sets of leads. Set A has customers who are ready to buy now. They’ve done their homework, and they’ve decided your company is the best fit. Set B has interested customers; they won’t be ready to decide for another three to six months. Set A has a shorter sales cycle — your consultant helps you find and segment these customers as they come into your funnel.
These benefits aren’t random one-offs; they’re outcomes your business needs to grow. The problem with growth is scaling. As you grow, it gets harder to manage all of this manually.
How to Get Started With a Marketing Automation Consultant
Your marketing automation consultant should be a specialist with deep expertise in automation. They should also have experience across a broad range of marketing disciplines and channels, including:
If you’re ready to get started with a marketing automation consultant, there are a few things you’ll need to prepare ahead of time. Upfront preparation makes it easier to get started; your consultant doesn’t have to waste a lot of time (and your money) getting you up to speed.
Both of you will be able to jump in right away.
You’ll want to make sure that you have a list of:
Goals, KPIs, and objectives: For example, this could include a list of tools you’d like to integrate in your technology stack, as well as how you’d like these tools to perform. This could also provide your consultant with information on the specific outcomes you’d like to see due to automation (e.g., a 7 percent increase in productivity, shorter sales cycles, less double entry, improved utilization rates, etc.).
The tools and resources you’re using: You’ll want to make a list of the tools and resources you’re already using. Collect additional information on the number of users for each software, tool, or subscription. Make note of any API keys and special instructions. Also include a list of the software, tools, and resources you’d like to use.
Decision-makers and influencers: If you’re part of a team, you may find that some people aren’t all that excited to share their data. Others are interested in working with your consultant to automate essential marketing tasks. Sharing a list of decision-makers and influencers with your consultant makes their job easier. Right from the beginning, they know where everyone stands and who to talk to if they need help getting everyone on the same page.
Obstacles and challenges: You’ll want to outline the list of barriers and challenges that may prevent you from achieving the goals and objectives you’ve listed above. Maybe some of the services you use don’t offer an API or integrate with third-party services like Zapier. Maybe some of the tools in your list are outdated, or they’re unsupported legacy options (i.e., legacy software running on Windows XP).
Policies and procedures: If your company has specific policies, procedures, or guidelines for software purchases, you’ll want to share that with your consultant as well. You want to let your consultant know what’s allowed, required, forbidden, and unacceptable. You want to set your consultant up for success by giving them a clear set of guidelines to follow; this helps your company grow.
Strengths and weaknesses: This step is uncomfortable but it’s also important; if your team, division, or company has problems in a specific area, spell that out for your consultant as clearly as possible. Does it take your company a long time to make important decisions? Is your organization good at finding great employees and contractors? Give your consultant a brief overview of your strengths and weaknesses. Getting people on board is easier when you know what you’re working with.
Sharing this information upfront makes automation smooth and efficient.
If you’ve already answered these questions for your consultant, they’re able to focus their attention on helping you automate your marketing campaigns, projects, and tasks.
Measuring the ROI of Marketing Automation Consulting Services
In general, consultants aren’t big on measuring ROI, but they should be. It’s reasonable to expect the same from your marketing automation consultant. If you’ve done the upfront work I’ve mentioned already, you should have everything you need to measure the ROI ahead of time.
Remember the list ofgoals, KPIs, and objectives you wrote down earlier?
Your consultant should be able to help you refine your goals and objectives. If you haven’t already, you want to add some specificity to these goals. You’ll want to add specific numbers, facts. or figures to these goals. Use these figures as a general guide — you want to discuss these with your consultant making sure they’re realistic and achievable.
Improve lead quality becomes — Use lead scoring to achieve a 6 percent lift in marketing qualified lead volume
Identify top-performing marketing channels becomes — Identify top performing marketing channels by automating URL tagging for all current and future marketing campaigns
decrease customer acquisition costs becomes — Reduce customer acquisition costs on Google ads by a minimum of 11 percent
Measuring your ROI is pretty straightforward if you have a clear idea of your campaign goals and objectives. The easier it is for you to list a starting point, the easier it will be for your consultant to help you reach your goals and objectives.
4 Point Checklist For Finding the Right Marketing Automation Consultant
Choosing the right marketing automation consultant is simple if you’ve prepared ahead of time. From there, you can screen consultants the same way you would for any other consultant or professional. First, you outline your process, listing your goals and objectives, your current technology stack, decision-makers, influencers, etc. Second, you filter your providers through your process, ensuring each candidate meets the criteria you’ve set.
Here’s a shortlist of the criteria you can use to evaluate your consultants.
They understand digital marketing. The best marketing automation consultants are marketers themselves. The ideal candidate is a marketing veteran who’s managed marketing campaigns from beginning to end throughout their career. You’re looking for someone who got their start as a marketer.
They understand your business. Your marketing automation consultant should have an in-depth knowledge of your business — how it works, what you need, mistakes to avoid, etc. If you’re managing a retail or ecommerce company, your consultant should have experience managing marketing campaigns for retail or e-commerce companies. You’re looking for someone who has a native understanding of your business.
They’re data-driven. Marketing automation requires a mix of art and science. You’ll need someone who loves to read through data but is skilled enough to explain it to the people on your team who aren’t data-driven. The ideal consultant can tell stories with data and helping your team make important decisions.
They’re proactive and knowledgeable. When it comes to automation, you shouldn’t be as knowledgeable as your consultant. They should be able to make recommendations and connections you weren’t even thinking of. They should be able to help you automate your campaigns in new ways; to increase your productivity by customizing your marketing stack.
This checklist is pretty simple.
A great marketing automation consultant should be able to handle everything we’ve covered so far comfortably. They should be able to break things down for you, showing you how to improve your plan, refine your goals and objectives, and add to your technology stack.
They should be asking questions.
If they’re good at what they do, they’ll have some questions and requirements of their own.
Conclusion
While many organizations are switching to marketing automation, most don’t have a clear plan they can follow. Companies list a lack of know-how, strategy, or personnel as the reasons why they weren’t completely on board with marketing automation.
That’s changing fast, though.
More companies are investing in marketing automation. They’re taking the time to implement a strategy for their business. Marketing automation isn’t an extra; it’s a component that’s an essential part of your marketing, especially as your company grows.
With the right consultant and a clear strategy, you’ll have the people, process, and technology you need to grow your business quickly.
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