Sup, crew! We know, you read the words “link building” and are ready to tune out. But don’t. For real. Link building is crazy important in digital marketing. But so few marketers do it.

That’s why our dude, Brian Dean, put together a video of backlink techniques that actually work. There’s a lot to cover here so we’re getting into it…

• (01:17) Strategy #1: Link Roundups. You know all those blog posts that publish ‘best of…’ posts? You can land links from those.
• (01:59) To do that, go to Google and type in “Keyword” + “Link Roundup” or “Keyword” + roundup or “Keyword” + “Best of” etc. etc.
• (02:12) The email script Brian uses to pitch his content for roundups.
• (02:36) Strategy #2: Broken Link Building. This is a complex topic so we can’t really fit it all in here. But, it really works. Ahrefs has a good guide to broken link building if you want to learn more about it.
• (04:25) Strategy #3: Build Links from Podcasts. We listen to a ton of podcasts, and one thing podcasts always do is linking to their guests’ websites. This requires a lot of pitching on your part, but it’s possible and worth it.
• (04:54) Strategy #4: Create Branded Strategies. Are you familiar with the Skyscraper Technique? That’s a term Brian Dean made up to describe amazing content. His post on that topic has gotten 9,000 backlinks. So come up with a strategy, give it a unique name, and then promote it in your industry.
• (07:13) Strategy #7: .edu Resource Page Link Building. Links from .edu websites are the holy grail of backlinks. But they’re tough to get.
• (08:36) To get them, find resource pages on .edu websites that your content would be a great fit on. Use these search strings: site:.edu “keyword” or site:.edu “your keyword” + “resources” etc. etc.
• (08:55) This strategy has a really low success rate, but keep at it!

Ahhh, we’re outta room and there’s still 5-minutes to go! Smash the button below to learn all of Brian’s techniques ↓

You know the shivers that run down your spine when someone says, “moist?” Yeah, super sorry if we just made it happen to you.

Anyway, some marketers get those cringeworthy feels about content marketing related things. Content Marketing Institute asked a few presenter folks from Content Marketing World these two questions:

1. If you could pick one thing in content marketing to go away today, what would it be?
2. What’s one thing you expect to be going strong in 12 months?

And here’s what they said.

Jason Schemmel, Social Media Manager

• Go Away: The term “best practice” is a shortcut state of mind. What worked for someone else doesn’t guarantee results for you.
• Going Strong: 30 sec or shorter video with captions.

Karl Sakas, Agency Advisor

• Go Away: Sleazy webinar promotion. Time to end overpromising educational webinar content and then delivering thinly veiled sales pitches. (Yasss, Puhh-leazz)
• Going Strong: Podcasting and audio marketing.

Margaret Magnarelli, Vice President of Marketing

• Go Away: The hype around AI in marketing. There certainly is a time and place but if you want to connect with your customer, employ as much of a human touch as possible.

Michael Brenner, CEO

• Go Away: Needing less content is the biggest lie in our biz.
• Going Strong: Content will continue to strive toward being more human, more visual, and more personalized.

John Hall, Co-Founder

• Go Away: Complaining about not seeing ROI in the short term. Success is seen through a combination of qualitative and quantitative measurements in the long term with some smaller wins up front.
• Going Strong: Combo of PR and influencer marketing.

Leslie Carruthers, President, and Owner

• Go Away: Writing for the sake of having more content.
• Going Strong: Content based on research.

Chuck Hester, VP of Marketing

• Go Away: Vanity metrics such as “likes” and follower emphasis.

Amanda Changuris, Associate Director of Corp. Comm.

• Go Away: Artificial paid influencers engagement

Do you agree, disagree, or maybe you thought of another marketing thing that needs to hit the road? Let us know in the FB group!

Car insurance companies are becoming self-aware! Well, Esurance is at least. They blew through the fourth wall (Kool–Aid Man style) in their latest ad featuring everyone’s favorite actor…Dennis Quaid.

They chose D-Quaid (Is that his nickname? It should be) because he’s highly likable, or at least that’s what he says in the commercial. But hey, even an extra on set agrees that he is a likable guy.

The ad features Denny (can we call him that?) walking through various scenes showing how painless it is to use Esurance, which ties into their new tagline, “Surpsingly Painless.”

One part goofy, one part self-aware, it’s everything we like to see in a commercial. Nothing else to say here, just watch it.