Outreach is at the heart of what we do at Seeker. Working in an agency, we use a variety of different tools, tactics, and strategies to help our diverse client base soar in the SERPs. As such, every day presents new challenges and tasks—but what does that actually involve?
We spoke to our Head of Outreach, Laura Slingo, to discover more about her experience in Seeker Digital’s amazing outreach team.
Introduce us! Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Laura, Head of Outreach here at Seeker. Right now the team comprises myself, our wonderful Campaign Manager Jas, and our Campaign Executives Sinead, Tilly, and our newest recruit, Amy—but we’re still growing!
What does your role involve?
Anything and everything! As well as researching and planning creative digital PR campaigns or link building strategies, I’m often in the trenches, negotiating with prospects to land placements and running an eye over our content.
I also work closely with our clients, creating bespoke strategies tailored to their brand and website. Different clients require different tactics and techniques, which means I need to take a nuanced approach, and have a discerning eye. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
What does a typical day look like for you and your team?
It’s hard to say exactly what a typical day looks like in our team because the work we do is so varied! One of the great things about working in an agency like Seeker is the sheer variety—the different clients, tactics, strategies, and campaigns that help us win those links.
Everyone in the team has different skill sets and talents, and we use this in all sorts of ways to be both creative and technical in the work that we do. When I say no two days are the same, I mean it!
What is the proudest moment of your career?
Running a successful reactive PR campaign for our client, The Independent Pharmacy—it’s been shortlisted in the Best Use of PR in a Search Campaign at the Global Search Awards! Getting those big links through crazy hard tactics gives me such a buzz.
What’s the best link you’ve ever landed?
That’s a toughie! Obviously the big links are often our proudest moments. Getting my first link on Reader’s Digest through reactive PR was a winner, not just because it was a huge link, but because it did wonders for the page’s keyword rankings. In turn, this helped fuel the client’s revenue, which was so satisfying to see.
Why did you pursue a career in digital marketing?
By accident, really. I love writing and always thought journalism or the publishing industry were my only options—turns out there’s this whole world of written content online and an industry calling my name! I realised there was so much more to writing content, and learnt more about content marketing—and that’s how I fell into outreach.
What advice would you give to someone trying to get into digital marketing?
The best piece of advice I can give is to remember the value of self-empowerment and solo learning. I’m not professionally trained in marketing at all! Everything I’ve picked up is from reading, talking to people, doing free short courses, and tinkering around with things. The SEO and outreach Twitter community is also a great source of ideas and knowledge, so I’d recommend following a few experts too.
How did you get your break into digital marketing?
Looking for a summer job while at uni, I found a recruitment company down the road that was hiring copywriters for their marketing department. Since I only needed a job for three months and they really needed the staff, they gave me a shot.
Once I’d graduated, I went back to work for them full-time. I was with them for a year, managing blog content, social media, and outreach strategy for three of their websites. Naturally, this put me in good stead for the varied demands of outreach.
Why would you recommend working at Seeker?
Seeker is one of the most human and empathetic places I’ve ever worked at. Its core values create a really nurturing culture with lots of room for career growth—they genuinely care about your development, both personal and at work!
What excites you the most about your work?
I’m a problem solver, and a pretty good one at that. Outreach lets me exercise and grow this skill every day.
From strategy work and data analysis, to arranging partnerships and negotiating, every day is a challenge. There is no greater feeling than when you see the rewards of your work come through—which is ultimately making your clients that little bit more famous and successful.
What’s the coolest thing you’ve learnt while working at Seeker?
Literally anything Ahrefs has to offer. We use a variety of tools at Seeker, but this is one of my favourites.
I love getting nerdy with backlink profiles, analysing the impact of the links, and how they were built in the first place. It’s amazing that I can look at a backlink, the referring page, and the anchor text, and pretty much tell you exactly how a link was built before I’ve even seen the content
There are also lots of opportunities for inter-team learning. Between our SEO team, outreach, the content team, and our support staff, there is so much knowledge sharing every day!
What was your background before working at Seeker?
Writing, editing, outreach, social media, emails, videography, display ads, case studies, whitepapers… I was basically a full-on digital marketing nerd.
What is the hardest part of your job?
Managing a team—being responsible for their welfare, development and essentially their careers is a big task. I think it’s the hardest because I care so much though.
It can also get pretty full-on at times! With lots of different clients and campaigns to juggle, things can get very busy, but that’s just agency life, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
What projects are you working on right now?
I’ve got lots of exciting projects under my belt at the moment! I’m building out some outreach strategies for an animal charity’s online store and a big fashion brand.
I’m also running a few other campaigns in the health and edupreneur space. I’m managing several of Seeker’s clients directly, and all of its outreach clients. These are all so varied and challenging, and it’s so refreshing to have something new on my plate everyday!
What’s the biggest draw for anyone thinking about working at Seeker?
Not many agencies specialise in link building to the extent that Seeker does.
At Seeker, if a brand came to us and said I want 30 DA 50+ links, we’d probably say: “no way, tell us what keyword you want to rank #1 for and we’ll tell you what link building strategy you need”.
If you’re a content marketer looking for a new challenge or an SEO that’s curious about how the specialists do link building, we’ve got the secret sauce.
As a result, there is a huge opportunity to learn more about link building and its role within outreach and digital PR. You’re immersed in the scene, learning and developing at a rapid pace—fantastic for furthering your own personal and career development!
Sound like your kind of thing? We’re hiring! Get in touch if you want to get ahead in your outreach career—we want to hear from you!
