2 min reading timeOk, it’s not exactly “my” Forbes article.
In fact, I barely show up in it.
But it helped me solidify my lead as the #1 medical device marketing result on Google and land a new client to boot.
The article, How to Build a 500K+ Member LinkedIn Group, went online on January 4 and garnered thousands of views. It was submitted by Forbes contributor Dan Schwabel, recognized as a “personal branding guru” by The New York Times.
Dan emailed my business associate Olivier Taupin, the owner of Linked:HR (the largest professional group on LinkedIn), some questions. Olivier wrote the answers and sent them to me for editing. I spent a few hours on it.
Olivier wanted to mention his business associates in the article and I asked if he’d include me in it. He was happy to do it.
Of course, the article had nothing to do with medical device marketing. I proposed the following attribution:
(And Marketing Communication is not my first language. Thanks to my medical device marketing buddy Joe Hage for his editing help.)
I chose the relatively lame noun “buddy” to downplay my mini-advertisement.
Dan reviewed the article and it met his quality standards; it was something he could put his name to. He published the article verbatim.
Why this rocked for me – and the lesson for you
I could have just hyperlinked my name to send visitors to my Medical Marcom website – and that would have been a bonehead move.
As we covered in I asked 4 SEO experts and this is what they said, it’s important to use “backlinks” with strategic “anchor text.”
That is, when someone links to your site, it is best to put the hyperlink under the specific “anchor text” (the words you want to rank for), whenever possible.
“Medical device marketing” is the most important Google term for me. That’s why I linked to it like this: medical device marketing.
As of this writing, I rank first for the term on Google. Winning on Google makes a big difference for my business as, I suspect, it would for yours.
I recently read somewhere that 40 percent of all clicks for a search term go to the first result. It drops to 12 percent for second place. And Google definitely gives more credibility to a “medical device marketing” backlink from Forbes than to anywhere else I’ve ever been published.
About that new client …
I added an “urchin tracking code” (fodder for another day) to the link to let me know when someone came to my site from that Forbes article. Honestly, I didn’t get the traffic I expected … but it only takes one conversion to make it all worthwhile.
A visitor came to my site from the article. My SnapEngage conversion tool (which I ABSOLUTELY LOVE) was online and three things happened:
• SnapEngage showed me (in real-time) that he came from Forbes;
• My automated welcome message popped up 15 seconds into the visit; and,
• He engaged me in a short conversation. I asked him to email me with times we could talk.
We talked and 30 minutes later I had a five-figure client.
I hope this article inspires you to go out and do the same! Good luck, and let me know if I can help.
