"... acheieve backlinks and ultimately more conversions ..."

I can see that you are off on the wrong track already.

You'll gain more conversions by attracting qualified Internet visitors from the search engine results pages (SERPs). You'll attract qualified visitors to your web site by positioning your web pages at the top of the SERPs.

The trendy way to place web pages at the top of the SERPs is usually with a combination of developing optimized web content and then manipulating that content's importance using a variety of link building schemes.

The alternative to this trendy method will require that you to stay completely focused on working your own web page components, crafting your own well-optimized web content, deploying your own internal linking structure and not seeking externally for help in increasing your web content importance. This path will not be easy. There are no short-cuts here and this direction will demand the most of your innovativeness, creativity and endurance.

"manipulating that content's importance using a variety of link building schemes."

So like I said backlinks have some importance.

We have the content online. I was simply asking what else can be done with it.

Backlinks are all important.

The best backlinks are those you don't even know you're getting- given for free and unsolicited by people who really appreciate your content.

There are a few short-cuts. Primarily:
- RSS
- Check Google news requirements (sitemaps and article number for eg), and submit
- Asking sites for links (phone or email- always emphasising why THEY would benefit from linking to you, normally focussing on their users' experience)

There are any number of actual maniplution techniques, including buying links and link exchange. These are higher risk, might be counter productive, and probably should be avoided.

Conversion rates are down to your content- how well do you capture traffic and lead it towards your defined goal?

Our content is always quite strong. We drive people directly from the content to specific products, or groups of products, but crucially only where the products are relevant, not simply throwing links at them in articles.

I have submitted our news channel to Google news. We are just working on an RSS feed now, so hopefully should be able to get that up and running pretty soon.

Yes, it's those backlinks that I really want - the ones based on content. I suppose if I follow your tips these should be acheieved.

Thankyou for your help :)