Link building and crowd marketing

Crowd marketing is a technology that helps to promote a company’s products on the Internet. The promotion is carried out with the help of links, which are inserted into comments, content of websites, posts of news portals and forums, i.e. where they can be seen by potential consumers. The placement of advertising links is handled by a specialist – a marketer who knows how to do it, so that crowd links are not intrusive, but are presented as a recommendation.

Crowd marketing services are carried out as follows:

• The marketer finds thematic online portals with a high number of visits to the customer’s target audience; 
• selects relevant topics on these web resources; 
• writes a post or review of the customer’s products or company, adding a crowd link to the conten. 

At the same time, the marketer, in order not to waste away the client’s budget, carefully monitors the quality of the online sites. 

Example of crowd marketing

Let’s consider a simple example of crowd marketing. On a social media site, a woman asks for reviews of a certain moisturizer. The crowd marketer writes to her: “This cream isn’t bad, but there is a cheaper alternative. The product is just as good, but there is a discount on the product right now. Check it out…”, and shares a link to the cream

What the client gets: 

• Increased traffic due to clicks on links; 
• Increased conversion and the search engine ranking; 
• Improved company reputation and brand recognition. 

This type of unobtrusive advertising is suitable for almost all entrepreneurs. However, there are exceptions. If its main purpose is PR, crowdfunding is not applicable to these types of businesses: 

1. Small offline businesses. A narrow customer base reduces the likelihood that the consumer will see the link. 
2. Online retailers with a large checkout line. A big purchase is unlikely to be made based on an online review you read. 
3. B2B sales. Here the sales rules are different. 

What is the difference between link building and crowd marketing?

Link building is the building of a link mass on a client’s website through donor websites. Crowd marketing is only one part of link building. Its functions also include:

• link acquisition from third-party backlinks; 
• Content marketing which is placing useful content on the websites with a potential client in order to raise the company’s profile. 

Link building and crowd marketing are thus two different tools: the first is to increase the link impact of a customer’s website, while the second is to build PR and brand awareness.

Types of crowd marketing

 Crowd marketing can be ordered of the following types:

• comments and reviews with an active link; 
• a mention of the brand without clickable links; 
• posts on the feedback sites. 

Depending on the advertising goals, you can choose between a promotional or reputational strategy and link building. Regardless of the type of crowd marketing chosen, the marketer studies the target customer in order to select the websites with the highest number of interested potential buyers/customers.