In this exclusive interview during SiGMA Americas, we sat down with Nicolai Klausen, COO & Co-founder at Bazoom Group, as we discussed link-building SEO and opportunities specifically tailored for the iGaming and crypto market

A company from Denmark that eventually started out in Aarhus and is currently working with link building, Bazoom, started out its journey by just covering the Danish market. The brand went on to create a hassle-free experience for its clients globally.

“Right from the start we focused on Denmark and then we expanded to cover the Scandinavian markets; Sweden, Norway, Finland and later moving to Germany. The good thing about this is that in the affiliate world, it’s pretty easy to scale to other markets. We could do this all from Denmark. So time went by and we opened an office in, Malaga helping us cover more markets, an office in Copenhagen, and one in Serbia as well. We are opening up in Malta, as well later on this year.”?

Having just relocated to Miami, Klausen could see that, the trend within the iGaming and the crypto world, is going towards the Americas and, the markets over there due to the regulations put in place. The brand has expanded drastically and is currently covering, most of Europe, the States, and Canada, and also focusing a little bit on LatAm, but the main focus is on, the US and the European market at the moment.

Interviewer Mike Prasad asked how the brand has gone from a very local Danish company and scaled up globally to Europe and the Americas. “How has that journey impacted you in terms of the ability to be able to scale from small to large clients? What are some of the challenges in scaling out what you guys have overcome faced and really developed solutions for?”?

The answer is language. Having gone from only having Danish employees to having the first international employees Bazoom learned that adapting is key.

One of the first struggles the brand faced was having offices all around, but Klausen emphasises the fact that you have to dip your toes into a new market, open that new office, and go internationally and globally, as in this industry the pace is fast and you have to adapt really quickly. Going international at an early stage helped the brand as they looked across the Danish borders. Even though the Danish market is big, when you are in the market at some point you need to go outside of your comfort zone.

One of the difficulties of scaling up is the fact that you need to know, the environment and the culture you have in your company, and spread it out. Speaking about his early ventures Nicolai says that in the beginning, it was easy because you could have easily handled it all yourself. You have to let the idea of being the Jack of all trades go when your company starts getting bigger as it’s essential to divide the company into different divisions.

Taking a fragmented market and migrating it into one platform is not an easy task, and Bazoomo aims to make this process as hassle-free in general as it can get for the clients. An increase in demand undoubtedly puts pressure on the back end.

“We’re spending a lot of time on increasing the capacity on the back end because we, do have a good income and influx of new clients, which is good.

From what we experienced having big clients is better but big clients come with bigger demands. That puts a lot of pressure but that also helps you grow in the business as it makes you experience that leap of growth.”

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From small clients to reaching a global clientele

Interviewer Mike Prasad goes on to say that technology, has helped in terms of expanding and, building more capability aiding the brand’s ability to service larger clients and service global environments.?

“Yes, you have to start somewhere, we went from Google sheets to going on online, and looking into the software as a service so we did the same going from a pure sales organization to more or less pivoting into an assessment solution.

The transformation has been really good because now we, as a company can scale, not by hands, but by technology, which is far more effective, both on the cost side and, and on the scalability side. We went from being sales orientated to looking into, the client’s needs. Working with people, from Spain, Serbia, the United States, and Denmark, you have to make sure to adapt to their different mindsets and cultures.

When we figure out the client’s needs we then try to develop that into the software or the platform as best as we can” says Nicolai.?

Strategy, client management, and automation through technology, have allowed Bazoom to scale.?

Although Bazoom is not a tech company yet, this is what they are moving towards as it will surely leave a? bigger impact on the brand. “It’s harder to scale on technology in the pace. It’s easier to, scale fast when you’re doing sales.”

Work hard and smart

All the things that are being developed by Bazoom are bringing so much value to the clients and that is the reason for the success of the company. “We are bringing something new to the table that hasn’t been there before, at least for the niche that we are working with.”

“Your ability, technology, and augmented service allow your company, to scale and have more efficiency, adding more benefits to your clients” expands Prasad.?

Let’s talk about your clients for a bit. Tell me more about the type of clients that hire you and that work with you. And also some of the verticals and specialisations that the company has.?

Everyone working with SEO knows that at some point they need to look into link building, especially in today’s markets where you have the affiliates and the operators within the iGaming and crypto scene, being highly competitive, especially on organic search.? Nicolai says this is where the brand brings in real value.

“In this market, it’s easy to scale to other markets and that’s where we can really bring in value. Before tech, you had to go knock door by door, on media companies worldwide, and handle all kinds of contacts and now you have one point of contact for doing link building, which is time-demanding work so you can outsource it. So the clients we work with are looking for SEO and we are all SEO.”

SEO link building is as much of an art as it is a science and having specialisation in different verticals, especially iGaming here at SiGMA Americas puts Bazoom at an advantage with the delegates present.?

When speaking about the process and how they approach link building for iGaming clients, Klausen states that they are primarily targeting the professionals who know what they are looking for, and their job is to make a solution for those guys. By continuously, putting more and more demands on our own shoulders we are automatically bringing in the bigger clients, he goes on to further say.?

“What we provide is a better infrastructure into a formula that is already there and make it in a nontransparent world. Then, the way that we approach companies is that we go to conferences like this one, which is really good because we get to meet people. You can do so much behind the screen but we love to go out and, and talk to people and that’s where we learn how we can bring even more value into the system that we are working on.”?

Nicolai explains that having many ideas is not enough as at the end of the day it’s the client who decides. The brand looks into what the client’s needs are and if some clients are looking for certain tools and feature the company looks into this he goes on to further say that this is the reason that Bazoom is growing at the pace that it is.?

Link building as a changing space

Link building is a changing space, the rankings, placements, and details are evolutionary. This is not a static market as one needs to experiment and learn and then programmatically address that in your solution. This is a differentiated approach and capability that most service companies don’t have. This is why adapting is key.

?“Sometimes you need to do something that wasn’t in the initial plan, but you can see from the movements and the regulations where to go from there as both cryptos, and iGaming have different regulations and different metrics, in a different market,” says Nicolai.?

“We are always behind the affiliates and operators, so whenever new markets open up the affiliates and operators, tend to go there, so we go there as well. When a new market opens up comes new possibilities within SEO. So, that’s kind of the reason why we are here.”

Of course, all the markets started opening up and COVID, really pushed that, in a forward direction. With newly regulated markets heading online, it’s a good place for us to be where we are now.”

Speaking about the crypto market in Florida and the US marking in specific to visibility in link building, Klausen says that moving to Florida made him realise that crypto’s all over the place, clients even have the option to pay with cryptos everywhere. The market is huge at the moment and we can see that it’s evolving at a pace that we, were not used to in Europe and this is something we are adapting to as well. “This is another world we are digging into, although crypto is not that far off from what we’ve been doing with FinTech and other companies we’ve been helping, in the first place.”

Closing off the interview with some comments about the SiGMA Summit Klausen says “We’ve been to Sigma Malta as well and SiGMA is always really good. We love to come to SiGMA because you get to meet a lot of interesting people within the same market that you’re in so it’s good to be here!”

Join us in Belgrade, Serbia from the 22-25th August: