Link Building Specialist

Hey there! We're a marketing agency focused on the accommodations & travel industry, looking for someone to come aboard and own link building for the companies we work with. Basically: we want to help our clients grow their revenue & online direct bookings, and we need your help! 
Ideal for someone who is eager to drive results, likes to OWN their work and has all the tools in their toolbelt to make that happen. We're looking for someone who wants to review and tweak everything about a digital strategy to improve results. We're not clock watchers: we're effectiveness maximizers.  Company = BuildUp Bookings, the digital marketing team that drives more bookings. More on us later down below.  Job Title = Link Building Specialist We work with brands in the travel, accommodations, vacation rental and tourism space (with some real estate clients as well).  Fully remote  Small team of ~20 full time team members + contractors that make our engines go!  Our website: You'll join our team where you will be client-facing and drive growth strategies. You should enjoy doing the work AND sharing those results with our clients on a call (zoom) AND writing it up for them to share with their team or leadership too in some cases.  Job role: You will create and execute on a link building strategy that will drive the ultimate goal for each client. For most of them, it's the same thing: they want to get more direct traffic to their website, and convert that traffic into bookings / leads for their properties. This means you know "what tactic does the job" depending on what the client is struggling with or wants to improve on. For example, you know which type of link to use depending on the client's goals.  Experience required: You know how to drive (actual, business-building, non-superficial) digital marketing results, but want to be more than that. Our clients come to us with problems: you have experience solving problems and can do it consistently. Your background is in link building. For this role, we're specifically looking for knowledge around link building, but always prefer team members who are "double" and "triple" threats. Meaning: you can execute on link building, technical SEO and keyword research.  Location: 100% remote = wherever you are, but US time zones working hours overlap. We focus on getting results, so while you do track time, we don't care too much about what time you start or end each day. You will have regular hours that clients want to meet/chat with you, and that mostly conforms to 9am EST to around 5pm EST.  Most of the team works around EST time zone, even our remote team members.  Work culture: A lot of ownership and accountability for your own results. But, we're here to help! You should strive using written communication and async video communication (we use async videos for training and detailed task feedback). We don't have a lot of internal meetings (typically 1-2 per week), and you'll have some calls with clients.  Our Compensation  Base and bonuses yearly.  Health and wellness stipend each quarter  Home office budget (we'll buy you a machine of your choice and setup your home office for comfort and productivity)  Vacation policy & paid time off  Interested?  Many job descriptions are quick and generic, leaving you with lots of questions. This is meant to be a more comprehensive look at the role, who it's a good fit for, and how we operate as a team. 
What's important to us

 
Win-win-win arrangements  The only way for long-term success is when everyone is winning. We need to win for our clients: they need to get results. You should enjoy and like the clients you get to work with: then you'll want to get them results. And, we need to promote markets and properties that guests love and enjoy spending time in. Then they win. There's a lot of stakeholders involved with our client work, and everyone needs to feel great about working together.  Deep domain knowledge  We're not chasing a fad: we aim to understand our clients' businesses deeply, even if it has (seemingly) nothing to do with digital marketing. Issues with cleaning fees and how they map to Airbnb? Our clients expect us to know it/talk about it.  Kaizen-style approach to marketing  Your first campaign won't be perfect, and that is OK. But it's important to us that you know how to evaluate results and work towards ongoing, continuous improvement. Stepping forward consistently will help us win for every client.  What it's like to work here  
You login to Basecamp and Gmail at 9am. You check any pending pings/client messages and respond. 
Your task list has a handful of items scheduled out in advance, sometimes by a day, sometimes by a week or month. You dive into your task list, sending messages to clients and our internal team along the way. 
A few times monthly, you have a meeting with a BuildUp Bookings client where you share results from a campaign, take notes on action items for the next few weeks and process those into Basecamp as new tasks. 
You may need to assign work out to our team: blog posts go to content writers, new ad creative tests go to design and you share specific feedback to allow for that team member to excel.  About the Role  
  The basics —> what the job consists of, and who we're looking for. 
  Responsibilities 
You'll be doing stuff like: 
Develop and implement link building strategies for client websites Conduct research to identify potential link building opportunities Collaborate with content creators to create link-worthy content Reach out to website owners and bloggers to secure backlinks Analyze and report on the effectiveness of link building campaigns Stay up-to-date with industry trends and best practices in link building Manage and maintain relationships with website owners and bloggers Monitor and ensure the quality of incoming links Work with other members of the SEO team to improve website ranking and visibility Who we're looking for (skills) 
  Digital Marketing Pros: At the end of the day, our main growth drivers are SEO, PPC, email and social. This role is for people who already consider themselves good at driving revenue growth via these channels. You can point to site after site that you've worked on that's grown traffic because of your efforts.  Deep Knowledge of SEO. You should have an in-depth knowledge of all standard SEO practices. This includes: technical SEO, Link Building, Content, Keyword Research. Strong writer This doesn't mean you've won multiple Pulitzer prizes; rather, writing coherently just comes naturally to you and you can learn a story framework and then apply it in different situations. At the end of the day, marketing is storytelling. Even short emails to a client should be flawless from start to finish  Know your way around Google Sheets Is there any job description involving a computer that doesn't say "Excel?" So redundant. More important than your current skills, you should have the capacity to think in spreadsheets and learn specifics.  Analytics-minded Practically speaking, it means experience in Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and any other analytics platforms  More importantly, you have to be genuinely interested in quantifying everything, learning to think in numbers, and be open to picking up new tools  Process-oriented + task specific. Basecamp experience helps too  We are big on building processes. You'll have a bunch of processes and onboarding materials that will guide you to do your job, and then be in a position to contribute to those very processes yourself.  Half the battle is mindset, but for this role, you should be able to speak to examples of programs you've launched and processes you've implemented on a team or with contractors.  Why you may NOT want to take this role  
  A good match for any role requires a great fit between team members and the company. There are amazing people who aren't in the right time/space in their careers to thrive and fit every role. 
  It might not be a good fit for you, IF: 

 
You want to be told exactly what to do  You'll definitely get strong direction and a lot of examples/processes . . . but ultimately, the right person for this role will add something unique and help us improve the way we do things. You'll have a lot of ownership and accountability, so if you're looking for more of a straightforward execution role, this is not it.  You want to stay in your comfort zone  You'll have the opportunity to solve new problems and help us evolve the way we think about working with our clients. We all solve new problems on a regular basis, which is exciting to some– but not what everyone is looking for.  You really want an office and are apprehensive of remote work. We're fully remote, and you may want an office full of people.  You just want a single channel to focus on SEO-only? Sorry, this isn't for you. While you can't be expected to be platinum-level experts in everything you do, we need a multi channel marketer  About Build Up Bookings
  Read on if you want more details on how we operate – and think about the work we do. 
  Our clients aren't locked into us  
  Our clients pay us each month and they can leave at any time. Yes, seriously. What does this mean? We have to EARN their fees each and every month. There's no coasting allowed here because of that. We slip, we go out of business. 
  How we think about digital marketing  
  If you've made it this far, you truly have an exceptional attention span. Oh, and to prove that, tell us what your favorite snack food is in the subject line or first line of your email. Congrats on that! Anyway, we want to share a bit about the actual work we do, and our philosophy. 
  SEO is just four areas: TLCK (tell us this during your first interview and you shoot to the top of the list)  Technical, links, content and keyword research.  Great marketing is holistic  It doesn't happen in arbitrary organizational bubbles (e.g. we have our Paid Team, SEO team, Email team)  It all works together, and we are constantly striving to master the intersection of all marketing disciplines.  Nothing is perfectly trackable  You have to show the client the numbers from Google Analytics, sure. But you also have to explain what's missing from Google Analytics data. Explain outside the spreadsheet and show value in our marketing efforts.  Focused on the nuances of communication and process  
  We're a remote company. This forces us to be mindful about all the small things around how we communicate — with each other (internally), and clients (externally). 
  We try to constantly evolve our communication policy so that we a) don't waste people's time, and; b) minimize misunderstandings that arise from not communicating effectively. 
  How We Hire: A Look Inside Our Hiring Process

 
Apply Online  Now that you have found a position that you have matched your skills and interests it's time to apply!  Application Review  Applications are read by our founder (yup, pretty small), if we find that you are a potential match, we will reach out by email to schedule a call with you to learn more about your skills and experience.  Two Interviews + A Test Project  One shorter conversation via zoom (cameras on) to see how you communicate and think on the spot with some marketing questions and scenarios.  Another follow up call that may involve a team member or two from BuildUp Bookings that looks to dig into the team aspect of how you work best  After your initial interviews, we will ask you to complete a small project prior to your final interview. This helps us understand how you think and approach problems. This is NEVER used in an actual client campaign (it's literally a fictional client) but we want to see how you think from start-to-finish when you have time. Some people talk about a good game, but then are sloppy executors.  You're in!- After the interview process, we will review everything and make a decision. We say "we" because we take into account various perspectives to reach a decision. If we decide to move forward with you, we'll send an offer letter via email. With your acceptance, your official written offer will be routed through Gusto and you can sign it (we hope you will).  Onboarding – Congrats on becoming a part of our team! We want to make sure there is no guesswork in the onboarding process. We will be working with you closely to make sure that you have everything you need to be successful in your new role.