How We Grew BrainStation From 11,065 traffic to 242,130 monthly Traffic in 2 Years

Educational technology, or the use of software and educational theory to facilitate learning and prepare people for careers in the tech industry, has risen in popularity over the last few years.

EdTech has become an entire industry of its own where companies provide ‘bootcamps’ or training courses to students to help prepare them for careers in different tech industries. 

EdTech can be used to either supplement traditional college or university courses, or otherwise be used as a complete alternative for new professionals seeking to start their careers in different industries. Between 2017 and 2021, US-based venture funding for EdTech companies increased from $1 billion to $8 billion, illustrating how much more successful and notable EdTech has become. 

Brainstation is an example of an EdTech company offering industry-leading tech bootcamps to help new professionals launch their careers.

These bootcamps are offered in several categories, designed to help students increase their knowledge in coding, data science, digital marketing, software engineering, web development, and UX design.

In 2021, Brainstation approached us with the intention of running a digital PR campaign, with the objective of drawing more traffic to their website and spreading awareness about their training courses via digital PR mentions in some of the most well-read and popular tech websites online. 

The campaign revolved around targeting BrainStation’s Digital Skills Survey page. This page outlined the results of an extensive Digital Skills survey BrainStation conducted with thousands of professionals and business leaders across digital industries, with the goal of identifying the most in-demand digital skills and trends. 

Our campaign start date. Screenshots from stats at the start date. Traffic and ranking KWs at the time.

How We Did It

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To execute the campaign and secure mentions to the Brainstation Digital Skills Survey page, we followed a simple and yet highly effective procedure:

1. We compiled a list of relevant tech sites to reach out to, while also including tech sites we already had a working relationship with 
2. We reached out to each of these sites with a formal, cold pitch offering to write an article for them
3. The site editors agreed that we could pitch them topics or assist with topic ideation, and our pitching team brainstormed and suggested 2-3 topic ideas per site 
4. After getting a topic formally approved, our team of professional writers got to work writing and submitting the pieces to each site 
5. Our writers and editors ensured that there was a natural placement to the Brainstation Digital Survey Skills page in the content of each piece 
6. Rinse and repeat 

We doubled down on the above strategy, and ended up pitching over 1,000 publications. 

To accomplish this, we tested fifteen different campaigns that revolved around fifteen different cold pitches, before settling on the pitches that were performing the best in regards to reply rates from site editors.

We also employed over ten reliable and quality tech writers who targeted the same keywords and ensured the fulfillment of the articles, many of which had to be delivered on tight deadlines or adhere to strict guidelines depending on the editorial process of each site. 

Link Building Strategy 

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A major part of the campaign’s success came down to ensuring link relevancy in the material of each of the articles. Blue Tree offers link-building services for businesses of various sizes and industries.

All of our links are editorially received, meaning that after the articles have been written and submitted.

These links are in the hands of the site editors and we have little to no control over the actual production of the article following submission (as in we don’t control when the articles are published or which links will make it to the final publication). 

Thus, it was of the utmost importance to ensure that each placement to the Brainstation Digital Skills Survey page was as relevant and natural in each piece of content as possible. 

To ensure links to the Brainstation Digital Skills Survey page were as relevant as possible in each of the articles, we:

• Ensured that the article is topically relevant when we pitched topic ideas to the site editors (the idea is to write the article around the Digital Skills Survey page, rather than writing the article and then forcing the link to the survey page in) 
• Included context surrounding the link that also pertained to the topic, thus ensuring relevance of the link in the content rather than simply jamming the link in randomly
• For anchors, we cited specific facts (such as figures or statistics) or quotes from the Digital Skills Survey page and used these as anchors so they would flow naturally into the content (and thus not stick out like a sore thumb) 

When the articles started getting published, the links started coming in. 

Want The Same Results?

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We work with a team of 15+ B2B writers, writing for over 350+ publications regularly. You can check out our current inventory here. 

All of our backlinks are editorially received – as discussed above this means that we get topics approved with site editors and then create the content, but then after the content has been submitted it’s in the hands of the respective site editors. 

It’s our job to ensure 100% natural placement by making sure that the topic of the article will be relevant to the link that we place in, as well as to ensure that the link itself and the surrounding text are fully contextual to the topic at hand as well. 

These editorially-received backlinks to new articles on high-authority websites are counted very favorably by Google.

The quality of backlinks also stands in stark contrast to most other agencies, many of whom offer link insertions (meaning that links are included in existing articles, some of which are already several months or years old and thus are not always relevant to the topic) OR submissions to ‘guest farm’ sites.

Guest farm sites allow you to buy backlinks or articles and will link to nearly anything under the sun. and thus are not held in as high of value by Google). 

Brainstation understood that for their investment to pay off, they would need to invest in link assets rather than liabilities. That’s why they trusted us to execute and crush the campaign for their Digital Skills Survey page. 

Additionally, each link we secure meets the following criteria:

• Do-Follow
• DR65+
• 5k/mo search traffic minimum 
• Topically relevant 

If you’re looking for more consistent traffic and mentions, Blue Tree can help! We’re results-focused, you can cancel at any time, and you only pay for live links that meet the above criteria. 

Feel free to reach out so we can see if you’ll be a good fit. We look forward to hearing from you.