Crowd-Marketing Strategies: How to Amplify Your Brand’s Reach Effectively

Benefits of Crowd-Marketing

Crowd marketing offers a myriad of benefits that can significantly enhance a brand’s online presence. Here is a detailed list of the advantages crowd-marketing offers.

Boosts User Engagement

• Interactive Community Building: Actively participating in discussions and engaging with your audience fosters a strong sense of community.
• Encouraging Brand Advocacy: By nurturing relationships with your customers, you encourage them to become brand advocates.
• Personalized Interactions: Direct engagement allows for personalized interactions, making customers feel valued and heard.

Facilitates Valuable Feedback and Insights

• Direct Customer Feedback: Engaging with communities provides direct access to customer feedback, opinions, and suggestions.
• Product Improvement and Innovation: Insights gathered from community interactions can inform product development and improvement.
• Market Trends Understanding: Discussions within communities can reveal emerging trends and customer preferences.

Improves SEO and Online Presence

• Natural Link Building: Engaging content shared by users can generate natural backlinks to your website, improving SEO.
• Enhanced Online Footprint: Active participation and mentions across various platforms enhance your brand’s online footprint.
• Keyword-Rich Content: Discussions often include relevant keywords, helping to improve your site’s search engine rankings.

Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy

Unlocking Maximum ROI: Say goodbye to hefty ad spends and hello to crowd-marketing – your ticket to stretching those marketing dollars further while reaping big rewards. Compared to old-school advertising methods, crowd-marketing is like hitting the jackpot, offering a sweet spot for ROI that’s hard to beat.

Harnessing the Power of Communities: Why start from square one when you can dive right into existing communities? By tapping into established groups, you’re not just saving time – you’re turbocharging your reach from day one. It’s all about leveraging those ready-made audiences to skyrocket your brand’s visibility and drive revenue like never before.

Strengthens Customer Retention

You’re not just selling a product or service – you’re creating moments that resonate, forging bonds that last a lifetime.

Why does it matter? Engaged customers aren’t just customers: they’re your biggest fans, your brand evangelists, and most importantly, your revenue boosters. They keep coming back for more, singing your praises to anyone who will listen, and driving sales through the roof.

But here’s the kicker: it’s not just warm fuzzies we’re after—it’s cold, hard cash. Yep, engaged customers spend more, buy more often, and stick around longer. So, if you’re serious about boosting your bottom line, it’s time to start building those emotional connections and turning customers into raving fans.

Drives Conversion Rates

Let’s talk about the ultimate sales booster: social proof. It’s like having a virtual cheer squad rooting for your brand, nudging those fence-sitters toward conversion.

Picture this: you’re eyeing a new gadget, but you’re not quite sold yet. Then bam! Your buddy raves about how it changed their life – suddenly, that purchase feels like a no-brainer. That’s the power of peer recommendations and positive chatter. You can’t just sit back and hope for the best. You’ve gotta roll up your sleeves and get strategic. That’s where crowd-marketing comes in.

First up, influencer partnerships. These aren’t your average Joe Schmoes – we’re talking about digital rockstars who command attention and trust from their followers. By teaming up with influencers who vibe with your brand, you’re tapping into their loyal fan base and turbocharging your reach.

Next on the list? User-generated content (UGC). It’s like word-of-mouth on steroids – except instead of whispers, it’s a chorus of satisfied customers singing your praises. Encourage folks to share their experiences with your brand, whether it’s through reviews, testimonials, or jaw-dropping pics of your products in action.

Last but not least, is community engagement. Think of it as mingling at a killer networking event – except it’s all happening online. Jump into those forums, dive into those social media groups, and start rubbing elbows with your target audience. By joining the conversation and adding value, you’re not just building relationships – you’re laying the groundwork for those sweet, sweet conversions.

So there you have it, folks – the secret sauce to turning heads, winning hearts, and raking in those sweet, sweet profits. Dive into the world of crowd-marketing, and watch your brand soar to new heights! 🚀

Challenges and Solutions in Crowd-Marketing

Crowd-marketing is like wielding a double-edged sword; it’s potent, but it comes with its share of hurdles.

1. Keeping it Real: Authenticity is the name of the game. You want your crowd-marketing efforts to feel like genuine interactions, not sales pitches. Keep that promotional content in check, especially in community spaces where folks are looking for real connections, not ads.

2. Quality Check: Ah, the joys of user-generated content (UGC). It’s a mixed bag—some gems, some duds. To keep your brand shining bright, set up some guardrails. Establish guidelines and keep a watchful eye on what’s being shared. Make sure it’s on-brand and up to snuff.

3. Show Me the Money: Tracking the impact of crowd-marketing can feel like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands. But fear not! While direct ROI might be elusive, there are ways to measure success. Dive into engagement metrics like comments, shares, and likes. And don’t forget sentiment analysis—it’s like peeking into your audience’s soul.

But hey, every challenge is just an opportunity in disguise, right? By tackling these obstacles head-on, you’ll unlock the true power of crowd-marketing. So buckle up, folks—it’s time to harness the crowd and ride the wave of digital dominance.

Challenge 1: Maintaining Authenticity

Problem: The essence of crowd marketing lies in authentic and organic interactions. However, steering these discussions too heavily or making them overly promotional can detract from their genuineness, potentially alienating the very communities you aim to engage.

Solution: Foster environments where users feel free to share honest opinions and experiences without heavy moderation or brand interference. Instead of pushing sales, focus on contributing valuable information, insights, and support to discussions, promoting your brand.

Challenge 2: Quality Control of User-Generated Content (UGC)

Problem: UGC is a double-edged sword; while it can greatly enhance your brand’s visibility and credibility, it can also vary in quality, sometimes misaligning with your brand values or messaging.

Solution: Establish and communicate clear guidelines for community conduct and the type of content that is encouraged. Employ a moderation strategy that includes reviewing content for alignment with brand values while ensuring the process doesn’t stifle the community’s voice.

Challenge 3: Measuring Impact

Problem: Quantifying the success of crowd-marketing efforts can be challenging due to its indirect nature. Traditional metrics might not fully capture the value and impact of engagement and community sentiment.

Solution: Track engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and mentions, as they are indicative of community involvement and interest. Employ tools that analyze the sentiment of comments and discussions to gauge public perception and the effectiveness of your engagement strategies. Use advanced analytics tools designed for social media and community platforms to monitor traffic sources, conversion rates, and other relevant metrics that can be attributed to your crowd-marketing efforts.

Challenge 4: Sustaining Engagement

Problem: Keeping the community engaged over time can be difficult, especially as the novelty of new campaigns wanes or market dynamics shift.

Solution: Keep the community engaged with regular updates, including new and relevant content that encourages continued discussion and interaction. Involve the community in decision-making processes or product development initiatives, making them feel valued and part of the brand’s journey.

Challenge 5: Navigating Platform Algorithms

Problem: The algorithms of social media and forum platforms can unpredictably affect the visibility of discussions and content, potentially limiting the reach of crowd-marketing efforts.

Solution: Don’t rely on a single platform for engagement. Diversify your presence across multiple forums and social media platforms to mitigate the impact of algorithm changes. Stay informed about how different platform algorithms work and optimize your content accordingly, using keywords, hashtags, and engagement tactics that increase visibility.

Challenge 6: Dealing with Negative Feedback

Problem: Negative comments or feedback can spread quickly in online communities, potentially harming your brand’s reputation.

Solution: Develop a strategy for responding constructively to negative feedback, addressing concerns transparently, and offering solutions when possible. Implement proactive monitoring to quickly identify and address negative sentiment, turning potential challenges into opportunities for demonstrating excellent customer service.

Are you in need of cost-effective Crowd Marketing? Let’s discuss your opportunities

Measuring Success

Here’s a detailed list of key metrics and methods for measuring the success of crowd-marketing efforts:

1. Engagement Rates

• Likes, Comments, and Shares: These are direct indicators of how compelling your content is and how it resonates with your audience. High engagement rates suggest strong audience interest and a positive reception to your brand’s presence in community discussions.
• Forum Interactions: Participation levels in forums, including thread starts, replies, and mentions, can indicate the level of community involvement and interest in your brand or products.
• Engagement Over Time: Monitoring changes in engagement over time can help identify trends and the long-term impact of your crowd-marketing strategies.

2. Conversion Rates

• Direct Conversions: Track conversions directly attributed to crowd-marketing efforts, such as sales or sign-ups, from links shared in community posts or discussions.
• Conversion Rate Increase: Compare conversion rates before and after implementing crowd-marketing campaigns to assess their direct impact on customer acquisition.
• Conversion Paths: Use analytics tools to track the conversion paths and identify how crowd-marketing interactions contribute to the customer journey.

3. Return on Investment (ROI)

• Cost vs. Revenue: Calculate the total cost of your crowd-marketing campaigns, including time and resources spent on content creation, community management, and monitoring tools, and compare this against the revenue generated from conversions attributable to these efforts.
• ROI Formula — (Revenue from Crowd-Marketing−Cost of Crowd-Marketing)/Cost of Crowd-Marketing — or —  (Revenue from Crowd-Marketing−Cost of Crowd-Marketing)/Cost of Crowd-Marketing to determine the ROI. A positive ROI indicates cost-effectiveness.
• Qualitative ROI: Consider qualitative outcomes, such as brand sentiment improvement and increased brand loyalty, as part of your ROI calculation. These factors, while harder to quantify, are vital indicators of long-term brand health.

4. Audience Growth

Track growth in your brand’s followers or subscribers on social media platforms and forums as a result of crowd-marketing activities. Successful entry and engagement in new online communities can be a valuable metric for measuring reach and influence.

5. Brand Sentiment

Utilize tools to analyze the sentiment of mentions and discussions about your brand. An increase in positive sentiment can be a strong indicator of successful crowd-marketing. Collect and assess customer feedback, reviews, and testimonials generated through crowd-marketing channels.

6. Content Reach and Visibility

Monitor how many times your content has been viewed or appeared in users’ feeds. Increased impressions indicate higher visibility. The rate at which your content is shared across platforms can indicate its appeal and the effectiveness of your messaging.

7. Competitor Comparison

Compare your engagement rates, audience growth, and sentiment against competitors to gauge your relative success and market position. By systematically measuring these aspects of your crowd-marketing campaigns, you can obtain a comprehensive view of their effectiveness. This data-driven approach enables you to make informed decisions, optimize your strategies, and demonstrate the value of engaging directly with your audience through crowd-marketing.

Conclusion

Crowd-marketing is not just a trend; it’s a strategic approach that taps into the fundamental human desire for authentic connection and community. By leveraging the collective power of your audience, you can amplify your brand’s reach and engagement in ways traditional marketing cannot match. Start exploring crowd-marketing strategies today to unlock the potential of your brand’s online presence.

There are many myths and misconceptions about Crowd Marketing. This is what can stop decision-makers from applying effective strategies, thereby depriving their businesses of many advantages.

Therefore, we decided to dispel all doubts, work out objections, and ask Erik Ivanov, the co-founder of Natural Links, to tell us more about it.

Concern 1. Crowd marketing is something new to me, does anyone use it at all?

Yes, indeed, this method of link building may be new to you, and you may not know what to expect from it! For many clients, just like you, it was at first an experiment that turned out to be successful when they started working with us from scratch and grew up to 100K+ traffic per month.

Or there was a traffic plateau and SEO techniques did not give results, but by complementing them with crowd marketing, we literally made a quantum leap in traffic in 1-2 months! In any case, without trying, you won’t know!

We make natural links — these are external links to the site, left by its visitors on other resources in the context of a recommendation, example, or question answer.

That is, for Google, they will never be sponsored, сheated, or spammed… with the right approach, of course.

Concern 2. Crowd is unknown. Maybe it’s better to use guest posting, outreach, and PBNs?

Here at Natural Links, we believe that getting started with crowd marketing should in no way prevent you from performing other actions using other means, both on page and off-page. Why not use other types of links, such as guest posts, PBN, and outreach, in synergy with crowd links!?

We also believe that for success and TOPs in the search results, the link profile should be as diversified as possible and have as many different types of links as possible! In addition, you can focus on large outreach articles on direct/commercial anchors and dilute them with general, branded, and URL anchors using crowd links!

Such an approach also works for guest posts, outreach, and so on. Crowd links can strengthen your tier-linking strategy, here’s an article, where you can read about it: https://naturallinks.net/blog/tiered-link-building-strategy

Of course, this is all theory, but here’s a living example for you: We have a large enterprise client, which is the second most popular job search engine in the world. They have an in-house SEO Department that handles guest posting, outreach, and PBNs on a full-time basis. Their traffic has been on a plateau, having between 6 and 8 mln of traffic during a year.

After applying crowd marketing to their strategy, in synergy with other SEO activities starting in November 2020, the traffic has gotten off the plateau and started showing a positive dynamic. The site now has an average of 10 million unique visitors per month.

Concern 3. I use only outreach links and do not wish to change my strategy.

Crowd marketing is not a competitor to the outreach links. It does not require you to give up everything you have done before – it works in synergy with outreach links and makes them run faster. For example, if your usual monthly batch of outreach articles gives your website a 10% growth in traffic every month, with crowd marketing, it will not add much effort to turn 10% into 30%. Plus, when outreach articles are posted, you are promoting the commercial anchors.

With crowd marketing, you are naturally distributing the backlink profile between commercial and non-commercial, branded anchors.

As an example: in October 2020 we started working with a consumer electronics client with the goal of uplifting the regions that had been minor for their business before. One such minor region was the UK – at the moment of the start, the product had just 215 monthly visitors on average. At that moment, the internal SEO Department has been working on more traditional SEO techniques like press releases. In a combination with crowd marketing, the growth dynamics became upward in just 3 months. Traffic has grown by 3 and is still counting.

Concern 4. Crowd links transfer little weight to the donor and don’t seem to affect anything.

Crowd links really transfer less weight than a link from a guest article. However, their roles in the link profile are different. Crowd marketing performs its role, which is forming the anchor text list, better than others. Since links are placed from resources with solid metrics and traffic, and we have the opportunity to mix do-follow and no-follow links, crowd marketing has a very positive effect on the naturalness of backlink profiles.

Concern 5. Links from forums will not lead to a rapid growth of positions

Well, nothing happens quickly in SEO, as they say, slow and steady wins the race!

Experience has shown that with the right approach, good pitch, and of course everything depends on the site itself, the first results can be seen in a month or two. It is also worth remembering that crowd marketing, like any off-site SEO activity, works only in sync with regular work on the site, on-page SEO, valuable content, and stuff like that.

Concern 6. As for me, Crowd marketing will not work.

Forum links like any other type of link work. You need to get a picture of how you want to use it.

If in order to become at the top, then it is advisable to understand the reference competitors at this top. The combination of crowd marketing and outreach shows excellent results. There are 2 guaranteed cases when the crowd will work effectively:

1) Non-anchor and brand on the site – crowd links;

Anchor on the site – guest posts (outreach). Links to outreach articles in order to increase the weight (Tier linking) – crowd links.

2) Placing only crowd links to landing pages using the anchor strategy that we offer in Natural Links.

Namely 15-20% of commercial anchors, and the rest is brand and non-anchor and generic anchors. Works great for link profile growth.

Concern 7. Such links will mostly be no-follow – and what’s in it for me?

Many webmasters have such prejudice or opinion that ONLY do-follow links work in link building! That’s how it was a few years ago. But as practice shows, for Google robots, if a site has 100% do-follow links, it looks unnatural and increases the risk of sanctions from search engines. At the same time, if your site has 100% no-follow links, it will not give any boost for promotion.

We believe that a healthy link profile should have around 70% do-follow links and 30% no-follow links! Therefore, we adhere to the 50/50 rule in our reports! An additional 20% of Do-follow links can be “picked up” from outreach, guest posts, and so on! You can research this on your own with this top-notch article.

Concern 8. I’m not sure if it is safe to be promoted by the crowd. Can I get banned from Google using your links?

Getting banned for building up your natural link mass is almost impossible. After all, these are links created by people and for people. They are placed in the context of the discussion and do not contain “business anchors” such as “buy a refrigerator inexpensively only today”, and interested users follow them.

If search engines impose sanctions for the presence of external links, then no site will remain in organic search results. It is important to remember that links are the backbone of the Internet, people share a million links every day and will continue to do so in the future, in one form or another, even if the search engines themselves go down in history.

For sure, at least once in your life, such platforms as Quora or Reddit were included in the search results for your query. In fact, millions of people from India, the USA, the UK, Pakistan, Australia, and Canada actively use such services to find answers to their questions, bypassing the search giant Google. Why? What is special about them, and how can Q&A websites benefit your business? Let’s figure it out!

Why Social and Q&A Platforms are Useful for SEO

Online visibility

Getting links from Quora answers or from comments on Reddit increases the credibility of the site and it looks more organic to search engine robots. For example, 100% of links to a site from guest articles and sites look much more suspicious if, at the same time, no one has ever mentioned this site on social networks and platforms.

Q&A websites are 100% informative, and all messages are strictly moderated to ensure that no spam is spread by users. Search engines take into account that if people in social networks refer to any external resource, then it is of interest to them, and may also be useful to others. Therefore, if you get backlinks from these quality sites, the search engines will be happy to reward you with higher search rankings.

Brand mentions

Links placed with accurate anchors that match the related content and the context of discussions on the platform generate high-quality brand mentions otherwise referred to as social signals.

Profit your site gets from social signals:

• accelerated indexing of the site by search engines;
• the link profile becomes more diverse;
• the total number of links to the site is growing;
• your site gets additional traffic from social platforms, and your business will benefit from more social media mentions.

Personal and brand awareness

According to BrightLocal’s Consumer Survey featured by Forbes, 84% of people trust online talks of peer users as much as personal recommendations. It is important to complete your profile to show that you are an expert in certain areas. Make it sound natural and professional. Do not lie. Just talk about your business and what you trust.

In addition, decent behavior on the platform itself, involving active participation in discussions, as well as providing helpful and informative answers will also increase user confidence in your brand, which will lead to an improved business profile.

Links and anchors

Social platforms can be used not only to promote with their help but also to receive backlinks from them. Of course, you need to have skills in how to correctly use links, which anchors to choose so that they do not look commercial, and what keywords to use in your responses. This is a whole science, and an inexperienced person may not be able to do it.

And here you can use the Natural Links service. Such links are nofollow and do not transfer as much weight as outreach placement, but help build a good and safe link profile for the long term.

Quora promotion strategy

Platform review

Quora is one of the leading Q&A sites. About 300 million users from all over the world visit it every month. On the interactive platform, you can answer questions, comment, and vote up or against what you dislike.

You also have the opportunity to receive relevant and unique answers to your questions from millions of users who are willing to share different points of view. If you answer user questions well and provide valuable content, then your answer is guaranteed to be viewed by millions of users across the digital space. Among other things, Quora can be a great tool for promoting your business, whether it’s a branded product or unique content. However, in order for the tool to be of maximum benefit, you need to learn how to use it.

How to gain maximum value from Quora

In order for Quora to work for your business, you need to make the most of its capabilities. Answering questions that are relevant to your business plays a key role in this. Your answer should give a certain value to readers: a clear answer to the question posed, well-structured and collected information from various sources, relevance, etc.

Remember that your answer can either appeal to the reader or cause a backlash, it can both attract the reader to your brand and reject it. Therefore, knowing and using the following techniques when giving answers will save you from failure, but will bring you benefits instead.

To find a 5:1 ratio

For high visibility of your answers, try to choose questions where the number of subscribers to the answers is in a ratio of 5 to 1. Thus, you give an answer to a hot question that is interesting to people and it will bring you visibility and the traffic in it.

To use pictures

The platform loves diagrams, infographics, and pictures, and if they are also unique, then your answer will be seen by a larger audience (you can use pictures from your own blog or create simple illustrations yourself in graphic editors). Even a funny picture or GIF animation on the topic will do – anything that will support the answer or make it stand out visually.

To add useful links

Provide useful links in the response. That is, not only a link to your own site, but also embed a few more in the context of the response. By adding links to other useful sources, even if they are not yours, you will show the platform audience that it is important for you to answer the question in a quality manner, and not only engage in self-promotion.

Try not to use commercial anchors, but branded or informational ones. For example, “article about fintech trends”, and “graphic editor for SMM”.

To promote own articles

On Quora, you can and should promote your own content. There are 2 ways to do it:

1) to look for relevant questions and use the already collected article material to answer them, by giving a teaser in the answer and offering to read more on the site’s blog;

2) to create a topic for your company and repost blog articles there with an indication of the source.

Do not spam

Quora mercilessly suppresses any spammy behavior and blocks spammer accounts. Therefore, your answer should always be detailed, using lists, structuring paragraphs, and short, clear sentences. Just remember that 80% of the audience reads your texts using a mobile phone, and long complex sentences and canvases of text are much more likely to be ignored than clearly structured info. Spamming the same answer to a large number of questions will also result in blocking.

Personal branding

If you are promoting your own personal brand as an expert, or as a representative of a brand on Quora, it is very convenient to do this by simply creating an account with a photo of you, your real name, and links to other social networks. You can increase trust in your personality and brand by linking your account on the Q&A platform with accounts on other social networks, for example, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others.

When users see that you are just as common as they are, they tend to be more attracted to you and rely on your experience. This means that they will listen to your opinion and trust your offers. It is also recommended that you take your interest graph seriously. If there are discussions that only fit your niche, it will make users hesitate.

Questions and their creation

The last life hack. If you think that some issue has not yet been disclosed in detail, or there are no keywords you need. Ask the question yourself, you can do it anonymously, and then answer it yourself. Or create a question and send a request for an answer to other specific members of the community if you are interested in their opinion. Quora is the perfect platform to promote your brand and business by posting quality content to your target audience.

If you act correctly in promoting and distributing links to your resources, then Quora will reward you with thousands of views, which in the future will grow into a large number of potential customers. If you find this promotion method incomprehensible or too complicated, then we at Natural Links are ready to help with our service.

Reddit promotion strategy

Platform review

The main difference between Reddit and Quora is that Reddit is completely user-generated. The main goal of Reddit.com is to create subreddits, that is, categories with their own targeted focus, where people from all over the world can share their content and comments.

The platform’s fan statistics are impressive: it has grown by 30.1% compared to last year and now stands at 430 million monthly active users. It’s worth saying that Reddit is one of the freest and most tolerant discussion platforms where almost anyone can find interesting topics and like-minded people.

Therefore, any niche can be represented here, discussions of disapproved or controversial topics, for example, cryptos or CBD (Cannabidiol), are especially vivid, and therefore those products and companies that find it difficult to promote themselves using traditional methods (for example, due to a ban on advertising) should consider Reddit. So now let’s take a closer look at working with Reddit.

Reddit promo features

Everything is tied to the karma of the Reddit account. Karma is the number of votes you receive that can increase or decrease depending on whether your posts or comments get upvoted, and vice versa. With high karma, the likelihood that your words will be trusted is higher; with a low one, respectively less.

If you spammed or tried to directly sell your own product, it will reflect badly on your karma. Before you start promoting your brand on Reddit, you need to earn at least 500 karma points. To do this, by creating an account, you should not indicate your involvement in the brand – just communicate, comment on publications, vote, and so on.

The platform works on the principle of good advice and recommendations (preferably unselfish). Alternatively, for example, you can ask for advice on a difficult issue and people are actively involved in the discussion. No need to rush to recommend your product. In some subreddits, it is impossible to post materials and comment until a certain level of karma is reached, but in general, karma does not give anything other than trust.

Promotion strategy for Reddit

Account creation.

You will need to enter your username and password.

Earn karma.

Reddit uses an algorithm to calculate karma and does not reveal exactly how it works. As with any community, building a reputation on Reddit boils down to posting good stuff. The following two steps will help you with this.

Joining thematic subreddits according to your interest or profile.

Each subreddit has its own moderators, they can have their own rules and their own design. You need to find out which subreddits your target audience is participating in. To do this, go to the search bar and start typing keywords that are relevant to your niche. And don’t neglect carefully studying the rules of each chosen subreddit.

Posting useful information or entertainment.

It sounds pretty obvious, but your post needs to be visible to get noticed. Memes with viral potential are probably the best choice, as are unusual, engaging photos and videos. For a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t on Reddit, check out the top-rated posts of all time. This will give you an idea of what the community as a whole really values and what you can work with. Sometimes it is better to ask the moderators if it is possible to post this or that material. This will allow you to build relationships with them. Sometimes they even help edit the text to receive a better audience reaction.

Comments on hot topics.

You need to track messages that are relevant to your business (category, brand, competitors). You can use the search engine of Reddit. There are always a lot of hot topics for discussion on Reddit. If you want to give your opinion on the side effects of the coronavirus vaccine, or the fact that a Tesla car hit a police car, go ahead.

Answer first in popular topics or choose old ones with a small number of answers – so there is a chance to get more votes. Write a lot, competently and consistently. Monitor the selected topic of questions on Reddit daily for promotion.

When it’s time to post something of your own, make sure it’s something awesome. In order for the promotion, with the help of Reddit, to go as smoothly as possible and with the best result, you can use the help of experts in this area.

The experts from Natural Links know how to get the highest karma on Reddit and how to make the best post with attractive anchors and links to your website or blog.

Lacking a clear understanding of what Crowd Marketing is, many entrepreneurs deprive themselves of the opportunity to expand their business and increase their income without making an incredible effort. Therefore, we decided to tell you what the point of crowd marketing is and how it can be useful to your business. The main benefit comes from:

• Links from forums and platforms that help to expand the anchor profile of the site, transfer links from trustworthy resources, and links with relevant post content, show Google that the site is popular in the local community, thus raise it higher in organic search results.
• Social buzz – social signals from forums and platforms, participation in thematic and relevant discussions, increasing brand mentions for the audience that discusses the problems that this brand solves.
• Articles on news and thematic platforms – most often, there is an opportunity to comment on a published article or news, start a discussion of the event with other users, and this is an excellent opportunity for placing crowd marketing links.

Benefits of crowd marketing for businesses

Crowd marketing brings two key values to your business:

• Boost organic traffic. Your business gets revenue from the targeted traffic that comes to your website from search engines. Crowd marketing can help you boost this traffic by x10 or even x15 over a year with minimal effort.
• Increase in brand awareness. Crowd marketing promotes a brand through active, lively discussions on online resources. This helps those who hesitate to make a decision in your favor. Currently, 60% of users claim to believe real user reviews more than official ads. Crowd marketing creates user-generated content that helps you engage those 60%.

How the growth in mentions increases sales to business

Well, there is a direct interrelation:

The growth of mention (links) = growth in visibility = growth in traffic. 

Organic growth = lead growth.

Growth in mentions is an indicator of market interest in your product. The more people talk about your brand – the more likely they are to buy your product. Here is how this can influence your sales:

• On the technical side – an increase in the number of mentions grows the brand’s visibility to search engines, which leads to an increase in organic traffic. And more traffic leads to more sales from your site.

• On the user’s side. When people want to buy something and hesitate about what to choose, they search for opinions and reviews online. The more positive mentions they see online – the more likely they are to buy. Our practice shows that after growing the volume of mentions by 400 mentions a month, a consumer electronics brand that we worked with increased the sales in the promoted markets by 20%, which has boosted their revenue by extra $5 million after spending of $10K per month on mentions.

Is it safe to use forum links

It is hardly possible to be banned for building up your natural link mass. After all, these are links designed by the people and for the people. They are naturally placed in the context of the chat, do not contain commercial anchors such as “urgently buy a car at half price”, and interested users follow them. If search engines penalize only for placing external links, there will be no sites left in organic search results. It is essential to remember that links are a fundamental part of the Internet. People distribute dozens of links every day and they will keep on doing so even if the search engines themselves will cease to exist.

Could links from forums lead to a rapid increase in positions?

It has been proven that with the right approach, thorough knowledge of how everything works, and, of course, everything also depends on the quality of the site itself, the first fruits can be seen in several months or even less.

Here is a case of the result that the site with a zero web presence (drop domain) got in just a month after using the crowd marketing methods:

But for an existing site with a history, the first results should be tracked in 5-6 months, as is the case with this client:

Also, it is worth noting that crowd marketing, like any off-site SEO activity, works only together with regular work on the website, on-page SEO, stuffing with relevant, interesting content, and so on.

The hard facts above don’t lie, which means that promoting a business with crowd marketing is a great solution in terms of efficiency and return on investment.

Sharing content is the leading communication method nowadays. People share texts, images, and videos, mostly for emotional reasons. However, we can make the shareable content work for us and make it a part of the crowd-marketing strategy.

Crowd Marketing: Basic Definitions

Crowd marketing  —this is what I have done for many years. If you read this blog from time, you know something about it, but let me briefly describe what crowd marketing is for newcomers.

Imagine that you want to buy any product on the Internet. You type the search query in your browser and click a button. A search engine — Google, as a rule — provides a list of relevant sites where you can purchase the product. Stats say, 70% of users do not go on the second page of Google’s top, and only 5% check the third page further.

Thus, most of the orders go to the sites in Google’s top-10. All commercial websites want to appear in Google’s top-10 search results for relevant search queries.

Starting with SEO – search engine optimization – we face the necessity of creating, nurturing, and developing a link profile for the site. As you know, the link profile is a combination of the outbound and inbound links on the website.

The number of inbound links and their quality is not the only factor that defines site ranking in search engines, but it is essential. Placing the outbound links on the site is easy. A more complex task is to convince other webmasters to add your link and increase the number of inbound links for you.

We know and successfully use several methods of link profile development. For example, in some previous articles, we discussed outreach marketing — guest articles or paid posts on popular blogs and pages. Also, I described Private Blog Networks, their benefits, and their advantages.

And, of course, pure crowd marketing — inbound links from the forums, review sites, and other popular resources.

How to build a crowd marketing strategy

I sincerely believe in balance — say, a balance between work and personal life can make your life better. A well-balanced crowd-marketing strategy can also add some happiness to your life.

If you use various internet resources, check the site’s quality, and make regular audits and profile updates, your site’s link profile will improve day by day. Earlier, I mentioned the popular link-building techniques. My experience tells me that no method is perfect enough for solo performance. Buying links from popular blogs and sites will cost you a fortune. The blog author can also add a “nofollow” attribute to the link and cut traffic.

Purchasing links from PBNs is too risky: when search engines find such a network, they ban it with all the links. Placing natural links on the forums and sites is the safest option, but it works better with other techniques.

So, to build a well-balanced crowd-marketing strategy, you should follow these steps:

• Make an audit of your link profile;
• Evaluate the balance and diversity;
• Plan the number of links you need to add in this iteration.

At last, I can move on to the main idea of this article. Shareable content can be a good source of inbound links for your site. If you are lucky enough to create a viral video, catchy text, or funny image, add the link to your site and let people do the rest. Let’s discuss.

What Shareable Content is

Shareable content is content people want and can share. Thanks, Captain Obvious. People dispense useful and interesting information that can be helpful or funny for others. We are social beings, and sharing content is the most natural thing for us. The psychologists defined four main features of shareable content. It should be:

• Trendy. The content should be related to a hot or popular topic.
• Emotional. Each piece of shareable content makes people feel something.
• Useful. It can provide a portion of helpful advice or contain valuable information.
• Tied to identity. People should feel like they belong to a specific social group.

The shareable content speaks to people’s interest in the same language. A bright and attractive image or even video increases the chance of sharing. You probably know that the proportion of video on the Internet continually grows.

By the way, have you already created an account on TikTok? However, do not disregard the good old texts. The reading audience is smaller than the watching audience, but the number of decision-makers is higher in the first group.

For example, at the end of 2020, all the most popular social media posts will discuss the COVID-19 vaccination. Topics related to the most dangerous virus of the сentury arouse the strongest feeling: fear.

People feel their involvement in the global community of people who want to stop the pandemic. It is worth saying that people share both useful information and fake information. When it comes to a fair, emotions dominate over common sense.

So, if you want to get a number of good crown links, write a text for social media about COVID-19, add some facts about vaccination, a good supporting image, and do not forget to put the link.

If you do everything right, people will share your post and increase the number of incoming links for your site.

How to collect shares of the content

When almost all companies try to launch shareable content, you have to invest some effort to get your portion of links. Among the numerous ways of getting shares, I prefer four.

1. Create viral content. People do not like advertising, but they share content when they feel strong emotions. For example, this nice video can get thousands of reposts, and people even do not notice they share the VW leasing ad.
2. Offer something valuable. I mean a coupon, gift, a prize for the contest, anything. It is unnecessary to use expensive products – many people love the chance to win more than the prize. I am not a fan of giveaways; the lovers of free staff rarely convert to your clients. However, it does not mean you should offer nothing for free.
3. Collaborate with the influencers. People are more willing to buy the products after the recommendations of their favorite bloggers. Find some media people who can create a piece of unique shareable content, and add the link to your site. Don’t be surprised by the costs: in times of pandemic influence, marketing is at the peak of demand.
4. Open the discussions on the forums. Do not be afraid to start topics but make sure the topic is relevant to the forum theme, otherwise, you can face a ban.

A hint: motivate your users to generate content. Of course, user-generated content is not always of perfect quality, but it is unique, and people value it.

How to Track Mentions of Your Brand or Content

To evaluate the work, you should see the results. Investigate if people mention your brand more frequently after your viral content campaign. Tracking of the brand mentions on the Internet is called social listening. The market offers various social listening tools, and I’d recommend trying several solutions before sticking with the chosen one.

The first useful tool is Google service Google Alerts. It creates a specialized news feed containing all mentions of your brand online. It helps to find new backlinks, notice black SEO attacks, track competitors, and always stay in touch with your brand.

Mention is one more useful tool. It is paid, but you can start with a free trial. Mention started as a tool for social listening, but now it offers a wide range of functions.

You can generate reports and share alerts. For me, the most exciting feature in Mention is the influencer rating. You do not want to miss the comment from Elon Musk, don’t you?

Mention shows you the rating of the commenter to help you notice the famous names. Hootsuite is a multifunctional solution for social media marketing. Among all, it offers the simple multichannel method of social listening. The basic account is free. Hootsuite allows teamwork, so I’d recommend it for corporate use. Awario is a new tool for social media and web monitoring. Free trials and an affordable monthly plan make it suitable for most businesses. Of course, it can monitor the web for brand mentions. However, this new generation tool can find you new leads, predicting which people will look for a product like yours.

This is how an artificial intellect works for marketing. This list can be endless. The market is full of fantastic monitoring solutions; pick up one, and start.

Most of them are worth buying. Manual brand monitoring is a time-consuming process. This time costs more than $30 per month.

Conclusive thought

A good deal is a win-win deal. In the crowd-marketing, increasing the link profile with shareable content is a perfect win-win. People get something useful they can dispense, and your site gets an improved link profile.

However, remember the balance and combine these techniques with other crowd marketing tools available in Natural Links.

I need to mention that I don’t want to discuss whether private blog networks are a black-hat tactic or not. It exists and is rather popular nowadays, so let’s just analyze its effectiveness and reliability in modern SEO. (more…)