Paddy Moogan discusses the importance of maintaining clarity in ideas, operational capabilities, and objectives during link building and digital PR campaigns. He emphasizes that clear communication and understanding business goals are critical to successful execution and avoiding common pitfalls. The presentation encourages digital marketers to focus on delivering real business value rather than just pursuing accolades.

1. The Best Execution for your Link
Building and Digital PR Campaigns
PADDY MOOGAN
Aira Digital
@paddymoogan

2. #BrightonSEO
We all follow a very similar process.

3. It usually looks like this.
#BrightonSEO

4. #BrightonSEO
One part of it breaks very easily.

5. #BrightonSEO
Partly because we underestimate it.

6. #BrightonSEO
And partly because we overthink it.

7. I want to focus here today.
#BrightonSEO

8. Specifically, this bit.
#BrightonSEO

9. #BrightonSEO
It can lead to problems.

10. #BrightonSEO
We all love seeing our
ideas come to life.

11. #BrightonSEO
We can take the
path of least resistance.

12. We’ve all done one of these.

13. Along with these.

14. Don’t forget this one.

15. Lest we forget.

16. #BrightonSEO
We’ve all done it.

17. #BrightonSEO
It’s about the links, right?

18. This connection is fragile.
#BrightonSEO

19. #BrightonSEO
Three things can be lost here.

20. 1. The idea

21. #BrightonSEO
Lose sight of the idea and outreach
is 100x harder.

22. 2. Your operational capabilities

23. #BrightonSEO
Lack of understanding leads to
scope, budget and time creep.

24. 3. Your objectives

25. #BrightonSEO
It’s all for nothing if we forget these.

26. #BrightonSEO
The best executions don’t lose sight
of any of these.

27. How to avoid these problems.

28. 1. The idea

29. #BrightonSEO
The idea needs to be
clear and concise to begin with.

30. #BrightonSEO
It needs to be easily explained.

31. You need a strong design brief.

32. #BrightonSEO
Put checkpoints in the process and
check back on the idea.

33. Check back in on these.

34. 2. Your operational capabilities

35. What is possible to execute?
#BrightonSEO

36. What restrictions do you have?
#BrightonSEO

37. External Organisational Capacity

38. YMYL Topics.
#BrightonSEO

39. Regulatory guidelines.
#BrightonSEO

40. Brand positioning.
#BrightonSEO

41. Getting permission from PR.
#BrightonSEO

42. UX and design.
#BrightonSEO

43. Approval times.
#BrightonSEO

44. Budget.
#BrightonSEO

45. Development capability.
#BrightonSEO

46. Communication solves
much of this.
#BrightonSEO

47. Ask questions up front and keep
checking throughout the process.
#BrightonSEO

48. Take ownership of the critical path
to success
#BrightonSEO

49. Don’t pursue an idea
that can’t be executed.
#BrightonSEO

50. Or it could end up like this.
#BrightonSEO

51. 3. Your objectives

52. Links
#BrightonSEO

53. Traffic
#BrightonSEO

54. Leads
#BrightonSEO

55. Revenue
#BrightonSEO

56. Brand awareness
#BrightonSEO

57. All of the above?
#BrightonSEO

58. What the industry says.
Source: Aira State of Link Building Report 2021

59. #BrightonSEO
We don’t talk about
business goals enough.

60. Our job is to win customers,
not awards.
#BrightonSEO

61. Push really hard to know the
business outcome of your work.
#BrightonSEO

63. Think about lead and lag measures.
#BrightonSEO

64. Lead Lag
Quantity and quality of links Organic search clicks (traffic)
Organic keyword rankings Organic search conversions
Organic search impressions Organic search revenue
Referral traffic
Think about lead vs. lag measures.
#BrightonSEO

65. Lead Lag
Quantity and quality of links Organic search clicks (traffic)
Organic keyword rankings Organic search conversions
Organic search impressions Organic search revenue
Referral traffic
Think about lead vs. lag measures.
#BrightonSEO

66. Our job is to optimise
for business outcomes.
#BrightonSEO

67. We need to understand how their
business works.
#BrightonSEO

68. It doesn’t mean that we all need to
have an MBA!
#BrightonSEO

69. But we should all know why we are
doing what we’re doing.
#BrightonSEO

70. This applies across all of digital.
#BrightonSEO

71. To wrap up...

72. Don’t let your idea get lost in the
midst of a cool execution.
#BrightonSEO

73. Don’t let process blockers get in
the way of execution.
#BrightonSEO

74. If we’re not adding real business
value, we’re dispensable.
#BrightonSEO

75. paddy@aira.net
aira.net
@paddymoogan
PS - We’re hiring