We live in a very spammy time, possible even more spammy than the 1940’s. In order to get through all the noise and get your business noticed you have to STAND OUT. Email link acquisition can be effective – but for the big guys, the high authority guys, you need to think on a grander scale.

Creativity is often lacking. We live in the world of “get link rich quick schemes” and shot-gun “throw something on the wall and hope it sticks” approaches. I hope I can give you some inspiration with this post – whether you use these specific examples or not, I want to get you thinking outside of the box. Here are a few unique ways to get links and get noticed rather than the same old templated email requests.

1)      Personalized Wrapping Paper

As I’m sure most of you have read: as an alternative to sending link request emails a hand written letter can help you stand out from the crowd. Well, that is very true. However, improve upon that. Create a roll of personalized wrapping paper using your logo and the logo of the website/media outlet that you are pitching to. Send THAT along with your hand written note and you are absolutely assured of getting a response for your proposal – every single time. Which leads me to the next point…what do you wrap up with your incredibly unique paper?

2)      Customized Candy Bars

So you have a nice hand-written note and a roll of personalized branded gift wrap. You now need an incredibly creative gift to secure snuggly inside of your awesome idea. How about a personalized candy bar wrapped in more branded goodness?

3)      Take the Hand Written Note Further…

While a hand written note on professional stationery is a killer idea, in order to take full advantage of your Picasso like creativity, you need to take this a step further. Using image personalization you can brand your stationery with the name of the business and/or the contact you are sending your package to…IN THE GRAPHICS. Designed for direct mail, taking full advantage of this attention grabber can be the difference between a successful outreach and one that gets…well…ignored.

 The applications of this method are numerous. No matter the pitch, you can use personalized products for:

• Requesting links
• Submitting a guest post at a high authority site
• Pitching the press for an editorial link or write-up
• Social media contests (search tweet wrap to see what I mean)
• Prospecting and follow ups for your business
• Thanking current and past customers
• Trade show promotions
• Local outreach

And depending on your business, a whole bunch of other opportunities that can help you stand out and get noticed