In case you have been dazzled by recent star gazing opportunities, there is a new client servicing strategy in town for search engine optimization and Web marketing experts. Over at SEO Theory I have published “A Multivariate Experiment with OfficeZilla”.
There’s a lot to take in from that post, not the least of which is that I have leveraged my business Website to announce a joint blogging initiative with a client. When OfficeZilla invited me to write some guest articles for their blog (starting with this one) I realized I had an opportunity to practice some reflective marketing in a special way.
As I point out in my SEO Theory article, Matt Cutts has recently gone on record as suggesting that there is a difference between accepting a guest post from a well-known writer and accepting a guest post from a random stranger. If the writer is just contributing content to enhance the value of your Website then that is good; if the random stranger is just looking to obtain links from your site, then that is bad.
This is a very fundamental principle: only accept content that creates value for your Website. But when you combine that principle with a reflective marketing strategy, suddenly the value flows in the opposite direction. In other words, we marketers can use our own sites to promote clients if we engage in joint ventures with them (of course, the Federal Trade Commission and other government bodies around the world may require disclosure of the business relationship).
Except for the fear that someone may poach your clients, you have no reason not to help them directly (in some cases, at least). After all, if you have an audience and that audience understands that you are engaged in marketing, then sharing the guest posts you write for a client with your own audience is not exactly trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes.
We have an opportunity here as a marketing community to explore the potential for a new kind of channel. We can turn our Websites into announcement platforms for content that we produce in cooperation with others. In fact, we already do this for business partners — but why not do it for clients? They come to us for help in creating visibility and exposure.
So this experiment will go forward and I look forward to seeing others try it out. Reflective Marketing is about finding alternative ways to build interest and traffic in a Website or brand from the mainstream channels. The reflective traffic flows from other sources. Reflective channels come in all shapes and sizes and we need to be constantly tuned in to new opportunities.
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