Speaking at BoF West, the entrepreneurs behind All Birds, Hims and Hers, and Good American define the keys to their manufacturers’ fulfillment. Subscribe to BoF Professional for limitless access to BoF articles, plus unique benefits for members. For a limited time, enjoy a 25% discount on the first year of an annual club, completely for podcast listeners. Click here: http://bit.Ly/2KoRRBH, choose the Annual Package, and use code PODCAST2019 at the checkout.
LOS ANGELES, California — What are the links among sustainable footwear, men’s hair loss treatment, and denim made in an inclusive length range? , The panel of marketers, Hims and her Co-Founder Hilary Coles, All Birds co-founder and Co-Chief Executive Tim Brown, and Emma Grede, co-founder and leader of the government of Good American, define factors of emblem-constructing, which include adapting to converting social systems, patron acquisition, and their selective techniques to brick-and-mortar retail. They are the hero merchandise of three direct-to-consumer manufacturers: All Birds, Hims, and Good American, respectively. They are also the result of marketers discerning a marketplace possibility that bypassed conventional retail channels and disrupted their selected zone, coupled with a DTC business version.
The DTC recreation, however, is a double-edged sword. Having an instantaneous line to the patron permits corporations to foster a feeling of network, reason, and real-time feedback — as Brown places it, product development for All Birds is “in the direction of software than it miles traditional footwear production” way to its capability for a quick turnaround in reaction to feedback — but the vocal nature of many DTC brand customers creates a brand new tradition of responsibility. “If you ask clients for comments.
Says Grade, “My god, you’re going to get it — good or bad or unsightly.” Perhaps you’ve read an article or two by search engine optimization (“SEO”) experts stressing the importance of link building to the visibility of your website on the major search engines. If, for example, you happen to navigate the Google online documentation to the “Webmaster Help Center,” you will see the Google response to the question “How can I improve my site’s ranking?” The Google response includes the statement, “In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.2
Link building, then, is the process of developing “inbound” links to your web pages to drive traffic to your site and improve your search engine ranking. It sounds simple, but there are so many different complex online link-building programs and strategies that it’s mind-boggling! And some techniques, even legitimate techniques implemented incorrectly, may actually render inbound links completely useless.
I started this article to cover the 5 W’s – who, what, when, where, and why. But, at the risk of detracting from the clever title, I felt the need to add “How?” to make it more useful. So, this article is designed to provide insight into the following questions:
1. Who should link to my web pages?
2. What should the link entail?
3. When should I add a link to my site?
4. Where should a link appear?
5. Why should you care?
6. How can businesses develop their inbound links?
Reasonable minds can undoubtedly disagree with some of the opinions and strategies in this article. I direct your attention to footnote references to several helpful online articles. I encourage you to review these articles so you can draw your conclusions. I do hope you conclude that there are several legitimate link-building strategies that you can tackle!
Why Should You Care?
Sorry, I have skipped over who, what, when, and where to begin instead with “Why?” After all, if I cannot make the case that link-building is important, you certainly will not read the rest of this article! It is believed that, in the eyes of the major search engines, the number and quality of the incoming links that point to your site indicate your site’s worthiness. I know it sounds like a popularity contest – perhaps this stirs up memories of your disdain for your high school prom king/queen election process. Popularity and Page Rank aside, you are interested in driving qualified traffic to your website and developing relationships with businesses that offer complementary products and services. Link-building techniques are designed to accomplish this.
