Give Me A Reason To Link To Youfeatured

As a money saving blogger, I regularly receive outreach emails from brands looking to promote their websites and services on Can’t Swing a Cat.

Whether a business is inviting me to an event or offering me money in return for some promotion, I LOVE receiving these emails. Sometimes though, I receive emails that offer me nothing but a lesson in how to be better at digital marketing.

I’ve worked in online marketing for the last 3 years and I’ve sent hundreds and hundreds of outreach emails in a bid to promote clients and attract links to their websites. Looking back, I’ve sent some pretty poor emails in my time. Emails that make me cringe. So I’m certainly not going to pretend to be some outreach/link building master. I’ve made tons of mistakes. I’ve probably made mistakes in the last couple of months! However, I recently opened an email that highlighted the importance of giving bloggers a reason to link to you.

I received an email from a woman we’ll call Lucy. Lucy works for a company that recently created an eBook to help young people boost their careers. The message was your typical run-of-the-mill link building email and, after explaining the idea behind her eBook, Lucy ended her email with the following: “If you believe this eBook could be of value to your audience, I’d love for you to share it on your blog. We have no budget set aside for this, but are relying on the value it could bring your audience!”

It’s certainly not unusual for businesses to have ‘no budget’ when it comes to link building. Sometimes it’s because they’re link building evangelists and refuse to pay for links because they don’t want to break Google guidelines. Sometimes they’re a small business. Sometimes they’re just tight. Although I love being paid to promote brands on my blog, there have been numerous occasions where I’ve willingly worked with companies for free.

So I emailed Lucy back and said: “Great to hear from you and thanks for getting in touch. I’m afraid things are a bit hectic at the moment and I’m having to prioritise paid opportunities. However, I definitely want to feature more career-related content on my blog and so if you’d like to create a guest post for Can’t Swing a Cat, I’d be more than happy to take a look!”

At the time I was drowning under a hectic workload and felt annoyed with myself for failing to keep my blog as up-to-date as I’d have liked. So the thought of receiving some well-written and relevant content for my blog felt like a mini weight off my shoulders. Imagine my surprise when Lucy replied: “Unfortunately I do not have time right now to write unique content for your blog about the eBook. How about you let me know when you have more time available and I’ll fill you in on current projects then?”

So the company in question has no budget and no time but it expects bloggers to promote its eBook for no reward whatsoever? Most bloggers are keen to bring value to their audience, yes, but they probably don’t like being used to make companies money either.

I know it’s not Lucy’s fault. I’ve been in her shoes before and building high quality and relevant links with no budget can be really difficult. However, it’s certainly not impossible. It can often be overcome by making bloggers’ lives easier and providing them with everything they need. You’ve got to be willing to do the legwork for them. You’ve got to give them a reason to link to you.

If you’re a digital marketer, you’re probably sat there thinking “That’s why she created the eBook. It’s quality content and worth sharing!” And I won’t pretend that the eBook Lucy sent me wasn’t good quality. It was well written, informative, interesting, and under different circumstances I probably would have happily promoted it. But as soon as her company made it clear that their time is more valuable than mine and their search rankings are more important than my bank balance, I lost interest.

Lucy might not have time to write unique content for other people’s websites but I bet her boss gives her plenty of time to send out dozens and dozens of emails to bloggers. This in itself takes time and it costs money, the very things this company claims to have none of.

I recently heard a fellow SEO say: “Bloggers should be doing it for the love of it rather than to make money.” As someone who has experience as both a digital marketer and a blogger, I have to say that’s an incredibly foolish approach to take.

Bloggers aren’t stupid. They’re well aware just how valuable a link can be to a business and they certainly didn’t start their blog with dreams of making business owners richer.

They are doing it for the love of it but considering the amount of time and effort they pour into their websites, why would they go out of their way to promote you if they’re receiving nothing whatsoever in return?

If you’re a digital marketer looking to build links and have your content promoted on other websites, the least you could do is provide bloggers with everything they need. You’ve got to do the work yourself. Lucy might work for you, but I certainly don’t!