steve@reachcreator.com

​Every week Steve Brownlie joins Garrett Graff and Vincent D'Eletto on SEO Unmasked. We cover the latest SEO news and gossip as well as interviews with guests from the online marketing world.

​Then in January we go for a full 24 Hours in aid of charity in the 24 Hours of SEO. You can catch replays of last year's event at https://www.24hoursofseo.com

From Banking To Lead Generation

​I started out in the online marketing business after 5 years in banking and finance after reverse-engineering how online lead generators were generating business for mortgage brokers.

At the time none were providing quality commercial finance leads, so as a commercial finance broker, I couldn't just buy a few like the brokers ​making a killing by purchasing leads from the leader at the time in residential, LeadBay.

A mix of PPC and search traffic to relatively poorly designed landing pages was enough to start a steady stream of leads with an excellent ROI.

After the credit crunch, I was forced to go in a different direction and moved fully into online marketing and freelance work having got a taste for what could be achieved.

Early Freelancing and Consulting Work

​Initially I worked on my own poker affiliate businesses and started to learn some 'tricks' to win at search and siphoning traffic from sites that already had the audience to build a solid affiliate income.

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At the same time I started to offer my services to agencies who needed particular parts of their projects completing - including for a large NGO in North Carolina. That led to me starting to build a team and specialise more.

​Link Building Consulting

​As I became more specialised it became clear that focussing on outreach and the psychology used in advertising and public relations, and combining those into link building was the way to go based on my skills and what I enjoyed the most.

Initially the team I was putting together worked with agencies on improving their in-house linkbuilding as well as doing direct consultancy and more 'full service' SEO work directly with small businesses.​

​Reach Creator Born

​Eventually the growth in the pure linkbuilding business, rather than training and consulting, overtook everything else we were doing. In 2016 we rebranded as Reach Creator and started focusing on all parts of marketing that require outreach.

From linkbuilding, to influencer marketing and reputation management. While we still have ​some successful, original, full service clients, we no longer engage new business in those areas and focus on delivering our specialty: pitching content, stories and ideas to pick up links, coverage and influence.