I know that any team I have been a part of has had an exceptional strength in strategizing for a link building campaign. Why? Because we have excellent brainstorm sessions. So I’m going to share our secrets on how to have a great brainstorm session for laying out link building strategies.

So here we go. Without knowing what you’re getting into when you call link building brainstorm session, you could be in for some trouble. Here are my top tips for having an outstanding session.

Lots of people set goals when it comes to brainstorm sessions. But those goals aren’t necessarily good ones. Goals like “I want 10 new ideas for links” don’t really help. Set definable, measurable goals that are well thought out. For instance, set a goal like “come up with 3 solid ideas to pitch to the client surrounding increased brand awareness” or “let’s brainstorm ways that we can reach (fill in the blank) target market with high-quality content” or “we’re going to brainstorm link bait concepts based on these demographics to push the client’s tagline and business philosophy.”

Bottom line, you should always have some sort of idea of what you’re looking for before you stick a bunch of people in a room together.

Never go into a brainstorm session blind. Research the client or the site that you want to build links to. Research the competition and what they’re doing. Know the target market. Where do they hang out online? What type of content are they most likely to be reading? Research everything you need to know before you step foot into your brainstorming session. Trust me. It will make things go much easier.

Brainstorming should never be a one-person show. While some people are very knowledgeable about one particular topic, no one is the end-all-be-all. If you’re having a brainstorm session with your team, dig a little deeper and find out who you have access to that has knowledge or just a general interest or passion in the particular topic you’re going to be talking about. One of my favorite sessions I ever held was a discussion about a camping supply company. We had everyone who was on the project in the room plus a couple of people who weren’t on that team but that just loved the outdoors. The output from that session was phenomenal.

Tool are also important. And they’re basic. Things like having food, coffee, or water for everyone taking part, a white board (anyone who knows me will tell you have an unhealthy obsession with white boards), markers that work, research findings, any creative briefs already pitched and documented goals should all be in the room when people walk in. Plus, I find that if you have snacks it becomes more casual and the atmosphere will allow the creativity to flow much easier.

This is where I see most brainstorm sessions fall apart. Someone throws out an idea and it’s immediately shut down. Never do that. Even if you can tell from the get-go that it won’t work, throw it into the mix anyway. It could lead down a whole avenue that no one considered and be your most stellar idea.

No brainer? Maybe. But I can’t tell you how often I’ve been in a recap session of what was brainstormed and someone will say “What was the idea that involved…” and we all know what they’re talking about, but no one can remember the specifics. Keep detailed notes including the overarching concept, design elements, target markets, and any other items you discuss. One person should be nominated the secretary to follow the conversation closely while someone else is writing on your whiteboard or whatever else you have for the creative portion.

Brainstorm sessions should have two parts at a minimum. Inevitably, two days after your group pow-wow, someone comes up with someone else, so having a “Session Part 2″ will be extremely beneficial. Plus, if the session just isn’t flowing, walk away and try again another time. Forced sessions never work.

You have your ideas and you’ve selected the best ones. Now what? Make sure you have action lists created at the end of each session. Things like who is going to put together the presentation to get client buy in, further research on a particular topic, the creative brief, strategy bullet points, final reports, etc. should all be included. Each item should have an owner, a deadline for completion, and follow up notes if there are any issues that need to be resolved before someone can finish their task.

Whether this process works for you or if you have to tweak a few things, find something that works for you and keep doing it. This type of a creative approach to link building strategies should be an intregal part of your team’s efforts. Without it, you may regularly struggle to find success in your campaigns.

“How much is a link worth?”

Boy, do I hate trying to explain that one. Not because I don’t know the answer, but because there are so many factors in trying to get a comprehensive overview of it all. Not to mention the questions that accompany the concept throughout the entire conversation. Questions like…

How many conversions did that link drive?

How do you know that increase in links is the reason I’m making more money?

Why do I want that link if it’s most likely not going to drive any traffic?

You got me 100 links. Great. How much is each one worth?

Why is that link more valuable than this one? What’s the difference?

Ok, I’m going to do my best to explain how we try to answer the overall question of the ROI of the link. Keep in mind that this generally involves white boards, several colored markers and lots of talking with my hands to the point where the white board looks like the latest game winning play from the Super Bowl. But here it goes.

The ROI of a link (depending on your pre-assigned conversion points) can be directly measured by:

• Referrals – how many times someone followed that link into the site
• Conversions – how many times referring traffic completes a conversion

Sounds pretty simple, right? And it would be if that were the only factors to consider. But there are more and some of which are pretty intangible.

1. Rankings

Link popularity is (contrary to popular belief) built up to drive rankings. Traffic is secondary. Granted, some tactics are executed for the sake of driving traffic, but rankings will be your best indicator of the strength of your link development efforts. Keep in mind that links can take anywhere from 30 – 90 days to be recognized and indexed by the search engines, mature and then actually count toward your rankings. Watch your visibility trends (or the actual number of keywords that you are ranking for in the top 30 and top 10 search results).

Hunt for correlations and draw reasonable conclusions keeping in mind things like other optimization efforts, recent press releases or news coverage, search engine algorithm changes, and other factors that could also have affected the rankings. Narrow it down to the keywords you have been focusing on in your link development efforts as well as the specific pages you’ve been building links to to get a better feel on how your efforts are impacting the rankings.

2. Type-In Traffic

Check out your analytics and hunt for the metrics on direct traffic. Is there an increase in direct type-in traffic that is otherwise unexplained? With some well placed links in high traffic areas, the brand name can resonate with users to the point where they just type in the home page URL rather than using a search engine. If you’ve recently embarked on a link development or social media campaign, this can contribute (although most likely it can’t take all the credit) for the increase in direct traffic.

3. Branded searches

Similar to type-in traffic, checking your analytics to see if this metric has fluctuated. Again, there are several factors on this one including offline promotions, media buy, and more. So keep it realistic but hunt for those clues that tell you whether or not your efforts are working.

If none of these factors are working, it’s time to re-evaluate your tactics. When it comes to search engine optimization, the number of links isn’t nearly as important as what’s happening after those are live. Anyone can build links, but only true link builders can build an entire offsite marketing and optimization campaign where the dividends are felt long after the link appears.