Thread by @AlanGGorilla

A lot of SaaS companies struggle to make the case for link building.

Here's how to get traffic and signups from just one campaign:

Your goal:

To get a mention/link on pages that are ranking and actually getting traffic for your "money keywords".

What are "money keywords"?

I divide them into 3 types:

1. Competitor KWs = "X alternative", "alternatives to X".
2. Comparison KWs = "Best tools/software/apps for X", "List of X tools/software/apps".
3. Feature KWs = "{feature X} software/tool/app"

1. Prepare your "Competitor" keyword list

Let's use @podia as an example 😄

As with most SaaS companies, you can easily get Competitor keyword ideas just by looking at their site:

We created a simple sheet that automatically spits out a few keyword combinations:

The more competitors you add to your list, the more opportunities you will find.

Here's more on Podia's site:

Remember:
A) The competitor products you choose here must be very similar and relevant to your product.
B) Your product should have a unique spin angle or feature that you can use as your pitch.

The finished list will look like this:

2. Prepare your "Comparison" keyword list

You should know your product well enough to be able to come up with this list, but here are a few ideas...

Ask yourself:
A) What does my product/software do?

For Podia this is pretty clear:

Here's how this looks like in our spreadsheet:

B) Who is my product for (niche, group)?

Podia is a tool for:
- Marketers
- Creators
- Entrepreneurs
- Online educators
- Affiliate marketers
- Online coaches

3. Prepare your "Features" keyword list

Ask yourself:

A) What is my product designed for (features, needs)?

Some of Podia's features:
- Email marketing
- Email broadcasting
- Email segmentation
- Email analytics

And more...
- Customer messaging
- Live chat
- No code website editor
- Affiliate marketing
- Online checkout

Your spreadsheet is now complete with a ton of keyword variations for each of the 3 types:

4. Get the data from @ahrefs

A) Copy/paste all the keywords into Ahrefs Keyword Explorer.
B) Some of them won’t have enough data and Ahrefs will remove them, that’s ok.

We are only interested in keywords that have some search volume and traffic potential.

C) Export the results as a .csv file and tick the "Include SERPs" option:

D) Add it to your spreadsheet or import it in a tool like @PitchboxApp.

This is a list of the exact pages that are ranking and getting traffic for your "money keywords":

Using a tool like @PitchboxApp is very useful now because it allows you to set filters for specific metrics (DR, traffic) as well as to create a "blacklist"

A blacklist is a list of all the websites you don't want to reach out to.

These could be:

- Wrong site types (directories, forums, social media)
- Sites you have already reached out to (existing relationships)
- Sites that you already have backlinks from (so you only focus on new referring domains = higher SEO benefit)

If you are just using the spreadsheet, you can still use Ahrefs' metrics to do a preliminary clean up:

Example:
- DR: only see pages from sites DR20 to DR60
- Traffic: only see pages from sites with traffic > X
- Position: only see pages ranking position 1-10 (higher traffic)

5. Inspect each page for quality and relevance

Manually check all pages to make sure that:

A) It is an article > no listings, directories, review sites, or web2.0.
B) It is a list of products or an article where your product can be mentioned as a solution to a problem.

Avoid pages where:

A) Direct competitors are mentioned and there's no room for an alternative being added.
B) Your product is already mentioned (duh!)

To recap:

1. Prepare your "Competitor" keyword list
2. Prepare your "Comparison" keyword list
3. Prepare your "Features" keyword list
4. Get the data from Ahrefs
5. Inspect each page for quality and relevance

Now comes the hard part 😄

A) Find the right contact email for each website/page
B) Reach out to them and pitch your placement

How to find the "hook" for your pitch:

1. Look for the author, editor, or marketing people.

This needs to be someone who can actually go in and edit the article.

2. Go to their Twitter profile and look for something funny, quirky, interesting they have posted in the last week or so.
3. Use that in your email subject line and copy

How I got a placement on saleshacker.com:

- The person I was reaching out to tweeted about an older song that he couldn’t get out of his head.

- This was the song:

- I referenced the song name in the subject line:

- I referenced the song and used a funny GIF in the email copy:

And here's what he replied:

Here's what I did well in my email:
- Use humour and make a connection to something they posted (and like).
- Grab their attention and get them to open and read the email.
- Keep the pitch is short and to the point.

- Be very specific in describing which page you're reaching out for, while still keeping it short.
- Let them know why your product deserves to be included.
- Don't mention "links". Kept it simple, they will decide how to include you if they want to.

Footnote:

Some of these sites will ask for money to include you in their list.

At that point, it's up to you.

But definitely do this:

1. Ask them for Google Analytics data to prove that the page is actually getting traffic and clicks
2. Decide if the potential signups/customers you may get from this, justify the placement fee.