Brainstorming is a popular tactic to inspire creativity and it’s one I enjoy when I’m working with teams. But, I’m a solopreneur often working on my own so the traditional way of brainstorming doesn’t work.
And that’s where Majestic comes in – I use the tool as a brainstorming ‘partner’ and it can produce some great creative ideas. And unlike brainstorming in a group situation, Majestic gives a lot of context and opportunity.
And the new layout in the backlinks tab that shows separate columns for the ‘Source URL’ and the ‘Target URL’, makes this even easier.
Here’s the new layout:
Now I can clearly see information on the source URL on the left column, and the target URL on the right.
I’ve also highlighted the link summary in green – this tells me how many links are on the source URL – a source with just a few links on the page will probably be worth more than a page that has a hundred links.
This opens up a simple brainstorming process
For any link on the source URL, I can look at the page and understand why the link was given: and I can visit the target URL to see if there any clear strategy involved in earning the link.
Let’s look at this with a real example.
I was researching retail brands and came across this article on Bloomberg.com, Maiden Home Aims to Disrupt Custom Furniture With $1,000 Chairs:
The article looks at a retail startup, MaidenHome.com that aims to disrupt the custom furniture market by dealing direct with the customer and offer chairs that might cost $6000 for a mere $1000.
The Bloomberg articles draw comparisons with other disruptive retail brands such as WarbyParker.com, Everlane.com and Casper.com.
If business comparisons can be drawn from the business models of different disruptive retailers, it seems reasonable to think that valid comparisons can also be drawn from their link profiles.
So I grabbed the root domains of each disruptive company and entered them into Bulk Backlinks to see how they compared:
The tool showed that the established retailers have between 6,000 and 11,800 referring domains each. Whereas MaidenHome.com, the new startup had just 54 referring domains.
The site has certainly got a lot of work to do to come close to its older rivals. While these sites are not in the same industry, they are disruptive brands and so their link profiles will suggest many ideas to Maiden Home.
So let’s start with Casper.com
I’ve entered Casper.com into Search Explorer and then opened the backlinks tab. Then it’s simply a matter of browsing through the results until I find something interesting. I’ve picked out this one sitting on PR Daily:
Clicking on the source URL takes me to this article:
This mentions Casper’s innovative ‘pop-up Snooze Bars and then links through to a page on Casper.com:
This is a nicely designed page and graphic and invites browsers to ‘reserve a nap’ in a snooze room.
What Majestic does is allow you not just to brainstorm, but to explore the detail of how Casper approached the task – and this suggests how you could do the same.
Brainstorming idea: Pop-ups of all kinds are popular promotional devices and get a lot of publicity and visitors. Is there a way this popup idea could be adapted for your client?
Dig further into the backlinks and you’ll find lots more inspiration. Like Casper sponsoring this podcast:
Brainstorming idea: What events either online or physical could offer your client sponsorship opportunities?
And so on…
Everlane make a powerful statement
The next example I’ll use is from Everlane:
This source URL had a title that puzzled me, “the best travel clothes for travelling”.
But by clicking through I can see that the articles is about choosing clothes that are easy to pack and that you can wear in layers – so you can keep yourself warm or cool depending on the weather.
Perhaps it’s me, but I would never have brainstormed such an idea – Majestic is giving me inspiration that I just wouldn’t get on my own!
Brainstorming idea: Are there unusual ways that your client’s products might be used? Can you create content around that? Can you interest bloggers in writing about it?
And here’s another great example. Everlane were featured on HubSpot because they made a bold claim:
“Snapchat is going to become the de-facto social channel for Everlane.”
Such a bold statement is likely to attract the attention of both bloggers and journalists as well as inspiring customers.
Brainstorming idea: Does your client have bold ideas or strong opinions that they not stated overtly? Can you create content that will do this job for them? Can you place the idea with influential blogs or news sites?
Warby Parker and the solar eclipse
Piggybacking on events that you know are going to attract a lot of media attention is a difficult thing to do. However, pull if off and you can create amazing results.
Warby Parker got some great PR and many editorial links because they saw the potential of the solar eclipse in August of this year. One of the major pieces of advice was not to look directly at the sun because of the damage they could do.
But rather than just offering advice, they gave away free eye protection kits from all their retail stores. They also created a musical parody of the song, “Total eclipse of the heart”.
Again, the source and target URLs explain what they were up to.
They got a lot of media coverage including this one from PBS News Hour:
And this article linked to Warby Parker’s solar eclipse page:
Brainstorming idea: What future events could be relevant to your client? How could you do something creative that would allow they to piggyback?
Final words
Brainstorming is a creative and collaborative process. But dig into Majestic results, looking at both the source and the target URLs. Draw up lists of great ideas from the results and see what you can adapt to your own clients. Your next great idea could be waiting there for you!
