Here’s a list of tactics we’ve used at Ahrefs to grow +65% year-on-year. They’re mostly free. You can use them to promote your business too.
Google isn’t the only way people find businesses online. Many people prefer to search trusted industry directories.
For example, you might use TripAdvisor to find a local restaurant, Avvo to find a lawyer, or HomeAdvisor to find a plumber. Many people use these sites directly, but they also rank high in Google for local searches.
Being on these sites is important for people to discover your business, and most offer profiles for free.
But how do you find them?
One method is to search Google for “[type of business] near me.” Look for directories in the search results.
Another method is to use Ahrefs’ Link Intersect. Link Intersect shows you who’s linking to multiple competitors, but not you. This can help surface directories where your competitors are already listed, and you’re not.
To do this, enter a few of your competitors’ homepages into Link Intersect.
Then, hit “Show link opportunities.”
Look through the list and see if there are any directories. For example, this site looks like it’s a directory and it’s also linking to all three competitors’ sites.
If you’re a cafe in the UK, and you’re not listed here, you should correct that.
The Ahrefs blog gets ~397,000 search visits a month.
Bear in mind that this is traffic only from Google. Include other channels and we get way more.
At any given time, there are only so many people who are ready and willing to purchase. Target only them and you miss out on a big chunk of your market. But, with blogging, you can reach the rest who aren’t ready to buy today.
For example, we rank #1 for “blogger outreach.”
People searching for this know they have a problem: they want to reach out to influential bloggers, but don’t know how. However, they’re not aware of our business or how our toolset can help. After all, if they did, they would have searched for our brand directly.
By ranking for terms like this with blog posts, we’re able to promote our business by explaining how searchers can use Ahrefs to solve the problem they’re facing. And that’s exactly what we do in this post.
To create a successful business blog, there are two ingredients. You need to target topics that have:
- Search traffic potential. People are looking for these topics in Google.
- Business potential. The topic allows you to pitch your product or service.
To find topics with search traffic potential, the easiest way to start is to use a free keyword research tool like Keyword Generator. Enter a relevant keyword and it’ll show you up to 150 topics.
Look through the list and rank them based on business potential. Here’s the chart we use at Ahrefs:
Recommended reading:How to Conduct a Competitive Analysis Template Included
Written content isn’t the only type of content you can produce. There’s video content too. YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world (excluding Google Images.)
Since 2018, we’ve put in a lot of resources creating YouTube content. And it has paid off tremendously. Today, we have ~217,000 subscribers and get ~500,000 views per month.
It has also brought us tons of customers.
For video marketing, follow the same content marketing strategy you used for blogging—target video topics that have both search traffic and business potential.
You can find YouTube topics by using a keyword research tool like YouTube Keyword Tool. Similarly, enter a relevant keyword and you’ll see 150 different topics you could potentially target.
Look through the list, note down any relevant topics and rank them by business potential.
You don’t always have to create content from scratch. Turn content you’ve created in one format (e.g. YouTube video) and change it into another (blog post.)
For example, our video about affiliate marketing received over 74,000 views:
We repurposed it into an article, which gets ~34,000 search visits per month:
We even managed to occupy two positions in the SERPs, generating more passive organic traffic over time:
One piece of content is no longer just one piece of content. It’s more than that. And it’s not just video to text either. You can:
- Turn a blog post into a popular tweet;
- Turn a YouTube video into multiple bite-sized versions;
- Turn infographics into popular LinkedIn posts;
- And more.
Think of it like a pyramid. Start with one version, then gradually break it down into smaller versions for other channels.
Recommended reading: 16 Marketing Tactics That Work
Every week, we send a newsletter to ~120,000 people with all the content we’ve published that week.
These are not 120,000 random people. They are people who have explicitly told us they want our content.
Our secret? We built an email list.
Building an email list means you own the communication channel. Anytime you want, you can communicate with your fans. You can send offers, content, etc.—anything you want.
So, how do you build an email list?
The easiest way is to offer something in return for subscribing. At Ahrefs, we keep it simple by offering to deliver more of the content they enjoyed directly to their inbox.