When it's time to hire a link developer in-house, many companies have difficulty narrowing down what kind of person to look for. That's because link marketing requires a diverse skill set that combines multiple disciplines.
But there are certain skills that successful link marketers possess. Not every link marketer will excel at all five skills, but the more proficient they are in each area, the more likely they will be to succeed.
Whether it's for your own e-commerce site, or if you're an SEO company, here are five important qualities to look for in link marketing candidates.
1. Knowledge of a Variety of Topics
Look for job applicants with a wide array of knowledge about many topics. This is particularly important for SEO companies. After all, the person may spend the morning working on a skin care client and the afternoon on industrial equipment. It takes a particular kind of mental aptitude to effectively make that switch.
It's important even if the person will only work on one Web site/topic. Someone who is worldly will see marketing opportunities others overlook. Just because someone is knowledgeable about beauty products doesn't mean they understand working moms or stylish men.
2. Creativity
Link marketing is competitive and hard work. Often, you can overcome this by developing something creative to promote. Yet if you hire someone because they can send out a hundred e-mails a day and not be bored to death, then you're missing better opportunities.
Instead, hire someone to come up with creative ideas for tools, content, widgets, or even cartoons. Then the person can market those resources with much greater success.
The development can be outsourced if those skills don't exist in your company. The important thing is the imaginative idea and marketing.
3. Task-Oriented Behavior
Even with a creative idea, many tasks still must be completed. This includes everything from project management of the development of the creative idea to the actual marketing. They need the ability to start the project and follow through to completion.
If it's truly a remarkable idea, the marketing may never be complete. Then it becomes the task of finding new marketing avenues to constantly spread the word.
Some sites have promoted the same tools/resources for years. It should be every company's goal to always look for something that can produce long-lasting results.
4. Attention to Detail
Would you really want someone who ends up getting great links with the wrong anchor text? Or imagine the person contacting the same sites or bloggers every month? That's an easy way to get labeled as a spammer or, even worse, called out as a spammer in public by a popular blogger.
Hiring someone who is detail-oriented with make your job easier and help prevent problems.
5. Ability to Multi-task
Amazingly, companies still hire link marketers based on sending out large numbers of e-mails. Link marketing is much more than that. At its essence, link marketing is online public relations, with one of the end goals of gaining quality links.
There are many methods to reach the final goal of links. Make sure the person can manage many tasks at once, including e-mail, social media, instant messaging, telephone, and -- of course -- having at least a dozen tabs open in Firefox.
These are just a few important qualities to consider when hiring a link marketer. Every applicant will have positives and negatives.
Try to find the right balance to fit your company's needs. Then, as your company expands, find others to complement that person's skills. It's no different than building a successful team in any type of business.
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Biography
Justilien Gaspard is an independent consultant that provides custom link building, seo consulting and link training. His area of focus is organic search. He has spoken at Search Engine Strategies conference (SES), authored 3 advanced search optimization courses for Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization's (SEMPO) Learning Institute and runs a link building blog. He has worked and consulted on link development campaigns that included Fortune 500, top online retailers and small to medium size businesses in competitive fields.
Article Archives by Justilien Gaspard:
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