What is Ego Bait?
Ego bait is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on creating content intended to capture the attention and engagement of influential individuals or experts in a specific field. The main purpose of this tactic is to secure high-quality backlinks or social shares.
This approach typically involves recognising or praising individuals, companies, or brands, appealing to their sense of pride. The ultimate goal is to encourage them to share the content with their wider audience, increasing its reach and impact.
The Importance of Ego Bait
Firstly, ego bait helps build relationships with influencers and industry leaders. Acknowledging their contributions or achievements establishes a positive connection that could lead to future collaborations or endorsements.
Secondly, it boosts content visibility and reach. When the individuals or brands featured share your high-quality content with their audience, it drives more traffic and enhances your content’s credibility and trustworthiness.
Lastly, ego bait can significantly benefit SEO – Earning backlinks from high-authority sites, which may result from ego bait tactics, is a crucial ranking factor for search engines.
Examples of Ego-Bait Content
- Awards or Top Lists: Creating lists like the ‘Top 10 Digital Marketing Agencies for [Niche]’ or ‘Best [Industry] Tools of the Year’ is an effective way to capture the attention of those mentioned.
- Expert Roundups: These posts compile insights from various industry experts on a specific topic. By featuring their opinions, you give them a compelling reason to share the content with their audience – for example, you can add a quote from an industry leader to your blog article.
- Mentions/ Acknowledgements: Recognizing someone’s work, such as referencing a blogger’s post in your article, can motivate them to share your content.
- Interviews: Interviewing industry influencers or thought leaders not only produces valuable content but also encourages the interviewees to share the results with their followers.
- Collaborative Content: Inviting influencers or industry experts to co-create content can be mutually beneficial, leading to shared audiences.
Creating Ego Bait Content: Best Practices
- Choose the Best Targets: Not everyone featured will engage or share your content. Focus on individuals or brands likely to appreciate being featured.
- Provide Value: Your content should go beyond flattery. It needs to offer genuine value to your audience and those you’re highlighting.
- Quality Content: Creating high-quality, well-researched content less frequently is better than producing low-quality ego bait.
- Follow Up: After publishing, reach out to those featured respectfully and non-intrusively. A simple notification is often enough. An example of this could be sharing your ego-bait blog post on LinkedIn and tagging your targets. This way, it would be easy for them to react or reshare.
- Monitor & Analyze: Track the performance of your ego bait content. Understanding what works and what doesn’t will help refine your strategy.
- Integrate with a Broader Strategy: Ego bait should complement your overall content and SEO strategy, not function as a standalone tactic or be your only link-building strategy.
- Mindfulness: Be mindful of others’ privacy and preferences. Not everyone appreciates public recognition or inclusion in such content; be sure to ask permission or remove mentions if requested.
Ego bait is about finding the right balance between flattering others and providing genuine value. Ethically and strategically, using this tactic can build meaningful relationships, extend your content’s reach, and enhance your brand’s visibility and authority within your industry.
