If Dwight Schrute was a marketer, his interests would probably be:

• Bears
• Beets
• Backlinks

(Sidenote: we need shows like The Office to come back. The world seemed so much more innocent back then)

Anyway, backlinks are an essential piece of content marketing. They’re still the number one ranking factor for Google. So Databox asked a ton of marketers what they’re doing to get backlinks.

Here are 3 of the 7 top answers:

1) Create Great Content
But, more than “great,” it’s gotta be unique. Plenty of ways to go about this:

• Conduct original research.
• Go through public data and find stats relevant to your work.
• Create a linkable “tool” like a mortgage calculator, website analyzer, or even a Chrome extension.
• Develop content that is way, way, way better than anything else out there on the topic.

Whatever you choose, always plan ahead and make sure that you have a promotion strategy in place before publishing your linkable content.

2) Fix Bad (or Non-Existent) Links
The internet is full of broken links and unlinked mentions of your brand. Find them. Fix them.

For unlinked mentions, you can set up a simple Google alert for your brand name and trademarked words. When Google finds one, hit up the original source with a link request.

For broken links, use a tool like Ahrefs. You can find 404 error links to your competitors’ websites. From there, reach out to the original source and offer your content as a replacement for the 404 page that they’re currently linking to. (This is a complex tactic so read this blog from Ahrefs if you wanna learn more.)

3) Try Guest Blogging
This one is simple, but overlooked. Reach out to websites with higher domain authority than yours and offer to write a blog for them. All they have to do in return is offer a backlink. This tactic is one of our fav’s.

There’s so, so, so much more to learn from this post…

The holidays are coming in hot, which means the advertising game will soon turn into one intense brawl for consumer attention.

So how in the world do you set yourself apart? Well, AdEspresso is giving us 10 strategies to boost those holiday efforts. Let’s get right to it.

Use additional placements. Because of the sudden boom in ads during this time, a good strategy would be to go where others aren’t. Facebook has 14 different ad placements. Play around to see which works best for you.

Pro tip: Instagram Stories can be an easy win during the Holidays

Only run FB ads during the 4th quarter? AdEspresso recommends prepping a test campaign a week prior to your actual campaign. Just to get into the swing of things. You’ll want to keep an eye out for:

• Making sure payment is up-to-date
• Accept all Terms of Service updates
• Give required access and permission to the necessary team members

Use custom audiences. During the holiday season, your goal should be to target warm audiences. Why waste time and budget on a cold audience that might not be interested in your brand. But you have to watch out for ad fatigue. Pay attention to ad frequency. Depending on your campaign, going above a 5 is usually a no-no.

Pro tip: Combat ad fatigue with evergreen retargeting strategies.

Design a Compelling Offer. Everyone will have a “Holiday Sale.” Do yourself a favor and name your campaign literally anything else. Also, to even be in the Black Friday/Cyber Monday ball game you gotta go more than 20% off.

Alternatives to discounts include freebies and add-ons. And take advantage of those last minute shoppers. Expedited shipped can become your greatest weapon.

Be aware of how you’re spending. Understand exactly how much you need to spend to get the results you want. AdEspresso has a tool for that, of course. The Facebook Ads Budget Calculator will help you find that best budget for your goals.

We covered the first five, now we’re handing off the last five 👇👇👇

Have you heard of the Dream Gap? Maybe you can relate to it one way or another. Like it’s explained in the commercial, the Dream Gap is the wedge between young girls and their full potential.

Barbie is launching a campaign to address the Dream Gap. And they’re putting the spotlight on the girls it affects most…5-year-olds. And believe us, they have something important to say.

Let’s just say we won’t be surprised when this campaign catches like wildfire. #closethedreamgap