In addition to social media and PPC, Content Marketing and Guest Blogging can be the key to becoming a household name.
Think about the biggest blogs you know—have you ever clicked on a product recommendation link because someone like Martha Stewart [insert alternative influencer here] offered a convincing write up?
This is the power of guest blogging in action. This post will explain why guest posting has to be a part of your marketing strategy and how you can get started with your guest blogging strategy.
Social proof is a crucial driver of sales. Every savvy shopper checks out reviews before parting with their money. The more comments you have, the more legitimacy you build.
Guest blogging encourages people to check out your site and write their own reviews. However, content that encourages real engagement can be hard to come by.
Something that companies get wrong all the time, but bloggers usually get right, is creating inspiring copy.
Obvious sales messages are highly transparent in guest posts. The best blogs offer a personalized, story-telling angle at all times. They aim to help the reader by giving them a piece of information that enhances their lives, completely free of charge. This is not the place for a thinly-veiled advertorial or product pitch.
Think about the best review you could ever receive from a customer. What unique problem does your service ‘solve’ in a way that enhances your customers' lives? Create a guest post that answers key customer ‘pain points’ and include interviews, testimonials, and the facts you need to tempt that dream review out of someone. Do it all in a ‘classy’ way that’s focused on telling a story, instead of pushing a product.
In order to create brand visibility amongst your core audience, you will need to seek out the blogs that will attract the most views from qualified leads. Sites like Buzzsumo can help you find the most shared content formats and blogs based on your core keyword terms. You should also use a site like Followerwonk to find the top social media influencers in your chosen area.
Most sites accepting guest blogs can be found by searching “(subject keyword) +'write for us.'” Check the domain authority of the sites you find with a free DA checker. You want them to have a DA score of at least 30-40 to be authoritative enough to warrant your time. Quite often, the ‘best’ blogs that drive the most amount of traffic to your site won’t be the most popular—look beyond site metrics to audience, traffic, and engagement. Look at their typical reader profiles. Some sites will include a media kit for advertisers, and you can usually find primary demographic information in here.
In many cases, you will have to follow the blog for a few weeks to get a feel for their posting style. You should also be prepared to exchange a few emails back and forth with the site’s editorial team. Be ready to pitch some suitable titles and share rough drafts of posts and outlines. Work together with the editors to create a piece that meets both their needs and yours.
Telling the world what your business is all about doesn’t end with your About Us page. You will need a to carry your core values throughout everything you do online, including guest blogging.
Many high profile sites accepting guest posts ask for your personal stories and insights. This is your chance to let your experiences ‘shine’ and prove yourself as an expert in your chosen industry.
Most importantly, your experience doesn’t have to be perfect. Mistakes can make for more exciting content, especially if you want to impart advice to others. Be open and transparent about your successes and failings in guest blogging.
Your best hope for driving people to your site is to create something memorable and valuable. A few years ago, guest blogging picked up a tarnished reputation, and so Google cracked down on this by penalizing sites that posed spammy, overly salesy links.
Nowadays, meaningful guest blogging efforts hinge on your ability to intrigue. You need to inspire readers to engage with your content and entice them to check out your blog.
Your blog bio is an opportunity to attract new followers and clicks to your blog’s homepage. Once they are there, use some lead generation plugins to help you capture new subscribers to your email list directly from your website. Explore emotionally persuasive marketing as a way to entice readers forward.
The idea is to get your readers to follow and trust you in the first instance. Once you have piqued their interest, you can then start to target social your readers with retargeting campaigns, special money-off discounts, video tutorials, etc.
If you work hard and achieve an excellent feature, make sure you do all you can to promote it on social media. Find social media influencers and share your link with them in the hopes they repost it (but only if the post is highly relevant to them, too).
You can also take the permalink of the post and email this to your contacts to get them to like and share the post. A high-profile guest post may be something to celebrate in an eshot.
You can also spend some time searching online for similar content and consider writing an in-depth response to the comments with a link to your guest post. This has to be SUPER non-spammy, though, as this tactic was largely overrun by unethical link builders.
Guest posting has transformed into a credible and highly-effective inbound marketing practice that can bring in amazing results for brands ‘on the up.' The most important aspect of the game is to bring your best writing and advice to your new potential customers, without coming across as ‘salesy’ in any way. Provide all the answers to the hesitations they never knew they had, and always kept readers’ interests at the forefront.