What's next? - Link Building Agency on Last Leg

[SteveW]

I have been in this IM field for more than 5 years now, enjoyed a good life working with different set of clients and helping them in brand marketing and ORM projects. But my graph is going upside down for the past one year due to all the restrictions posed in the link building field which affected my business.

Before everyone jump in with their neg comments, I would like to clear one thing that I am always a guy looking to boost my client website with high quality links rather than stealing money from them by giving crappy links. People who worked with me will testify the same.

I have a team of 7 guys who are still doing the same job of outreaching/pitching stories to bloggers and authors but we are not getting enough success in doing that. I know the rules of the game have changed and we need to look for alternative options.

I did a mistake of putting all my eggs in one basket (which is selling) and didn't have a backup plan which I'm regretting now. But still, its not the end of everything. I would like to bounce back and achieve something fruitful which will put me in a good position and also to help my team in all ways possible.

I'm posting here to get some insights about what I should learn next to become more successful? Should I focus on new ways to help clients (or) start affiliate marketing where we work for our website and earn?

 

[Ryuzaki]

You have a list of current and past clients. Customer acquisition is far more costly than retaining customers. Why don't you add another service to your agency and start pitching it to your past and current clients?

I'm sure they could use content, or perhaps an all encompassing campaign such as infographic design and pitching that out for links. Or even going the extra mile and creating interactive charts, tables, graphs, and making a monster of a post for them, which will be far easier to get links to than a pure text post.

You can get into speed optimization, website redesigns or new designs, custom graphics, creating Pinterest profiles and boards... pretty much any SEO stuff, you can offer. On-page analysis and re-optimization.

That's all with what you currently have built.

In the meantime there's no reason you shouldn't build at least one property of your own with your internal resources as some form of backup. It can be liquidated at any time you need or held on to.

 

[Calamari]

Definitly use the resources at your disposal to build your own affiliate site.

Have you tried offering other services directly related to outreach link building? @Ryuzaki mentioned a couple

"infographic design and pitching that out for links. Or even going the extra mile and creating interactive charts, tables, graphs, and making a monster of a post for them, which will be far easier to get links to than a pure text post"

I think this is your best bet. Make upgraded/premium services available to what you're already selling.

 

[illmasterj]

SteveW, have you considered turning the agency model on its head? Right now you have a team who I assume can build sites, produce content, get links, etc.

Why not do that and sell advertising (rather than a service) for your clients?

It's the exact same process of doing the work, just the sales process is selling "guaranteed impressions/leads/however you price it" instead of "theoretically we will get you more impressions/leads/etc".

 

[SteveW]

Thank you so much for the advice guys, I have been working so hard on all the possibilities shared here. I will update you when I'm back at the same level.

I have already started offering infographics as a service to my existing clients and its working well, @Ryuzaki should be credited for this!