Writing content for a boring niche can be a chore, turning your skill for capturing imagination and creating an article that will serve as a conversation piece into a droning voice that only the most focused of readers will want to spend time with.
Enter link baiting, the art of constructing headlines, link anchors and visual content that people will have no choice but to click and consume. This can involve everything from provocative language and rhetorical questions to stimulating multimedia, giving your content an extra edge in drawing both attention and backlinks.
Niche blogging is tough!
With the web full of writers looking to get their content seen, it takes an extra effort for any new blogger to draw attention their way; using provocative methods that touch on human interest and emotion is the answer. Whether you have an established business or starting an online boutique, these will inspire some great content ideas!
Ready to get started? Here are four prime examples of link baiting in boring niches:
1. Fun Linkbait: Compare the Meerkat
Adding a little fun to an otherwise boring task, the “Compare the Meerkat” campaign was launched by comparative shopping website ComparetheMarket.com, a place for consumers to compare pricing on everything from credit cards to insurance policies.With a natural linguistic progression from markets to meerkats, the website has found great success with its campaign that aims to make even boring shopping a bit more exciting.
While the comparative aspects of the process remain the same, the presence of cute meerkats as you work your way through endless credit card rates and other boring details has proven to be enough to keep visitors where they are.Like many link bait marketing campaigns gone right, Compare the Meerkat has gone very viral, even inspiring a line of plush toys that bring to mind the success of Geico’s gecko mascot a few years back.
2. Product Linkbait: Fun Instagram Printing Service
The easiest way to attract media attention in a tough niche is to follow the trend! We’ve seen this a lot and here’s a great example: Let your customers turn their Instagram wall into beautiful posters!
I am not sure why there aren’t more companies that do that: Makes perfect sense!
3. Video Linkbait: Google Nexus Ninja Unboxing
The live unboxing of the latest gadgets has become something of a mainstay on the internet, allowing early adopters to provide a show to those waiting in in the wings to get their hands on a given piece of electronics. The trend remained largely with users and review websites until Google took it on.Remember the Google Nexus smartphone?
Released among stiff competition and representing Google’s first attempt at releasing its own branded hardware, the marketing team behind the Nexus decided to whip up a very special unboxing video in their attempt to capture the imaginations of potential buyers, eventually settling on a stop-motion video that features a ninja-style opening and inspection of the Nexus and its accessories.The video has gone on to reach millions of visitors, mainly via Google’s own YouTube.
Megaphone Marketing claims that video is the future of any digital marketing campaign, so learn your lesson and come up with a video campaign!
3. Provocative Linkbait: OfficeMax Elf Yourself Campaign
Humorous and only slightly edgy, the provocative “elf yourself” campaign launched by office supply outlet OfficeMax has proven to be a big hit with consumers online and off, drawing them to a company that they may never have heard of otherwise.
Proving also that a click isn’t enough, OfficeMax’s elf campaign provides a fun and interactive landing page for users during the holiday season, allowing them to literally “elf” themselves by creating a video that superimposes a photo of their face over an elf’s dancing body.
While entirely unrelated to their business model, this successful act of link baiting has made OfficeMax a household name in many parts of the world – even those parts where the company does not operate.
4. Infographic Linkbait: CMO.com
If digital graphics are your website’s hook, you’ve set yourself apart from many websites, but taking things to the next level requires a bit in ingenuity and CMO.com provides an excellent example with its social media infographic release policy.
Using the website’s “Social Media Landscape” infographic as an example, the team behind the image has gotten things started by whipping up something both informative and fun to look at, but CMO.com takes things a step further by allowing visitors to download the infographic locally with only a single click, encouraging re-posting online, emailing to friends and even office printouts to help spread the word.
Any more examples of creative link baiting?
