There are many ways you can elevate your brand to meet the eyes you desire out there. Of these, one that will sure get you value for your money (and time) if you get it right is guest blogging. This isn’t without proof.
According to HubSpot, brands that go the guest blogging way happen to record 13 times more return on investment (ROI) than brands that don’t. If this is what you want for your business, then it might be time to get serious about partnering with relevant publishers to increase your brand awareness.
Strategically showcasing your expertise through high-quality industry guest blogging offers incredible brand-building, traffic, and lead-generation potential. But simply reaching out with bland pitches won’t cut it anymore. Standing out requires methodical relationship-building and consistently bringing insightful content to the table.
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Top Tips to Make the Most Out of Your Guest Blogging Strategies
Want to position your name as a leader through contributing guest posts that move the needle? Then, keep these guest blogging tips in mind.
#1 Define Your Goals
Start by getting clear on what you want to achieve. Do you need more people to know about your brand? Are you looking to drive more visitors to your website? Do you want to gain more Instagram followers? How about generating some solid leads or getting backlinks to boost your SEO?
Defining some specific goals will help shape an effective guest blogging strategy that moves the needle. For instance, if brand awareness is the goal, aim to guest post on industry sites with an engaged audience that represents your target customer.
If you’ve set your sights on conquering the local markets, then knowing how to strategically approach this goal can go a long way. One of the best approaches to this is by partnering with professionals in this field.
Tapping into expert services like those provided by NOBS Agency local SEO can significantly accelerate your success when guest blogging.
#2 Identify Relevant Blogs
When searching for the right blogs to contribute guest posts to, there are a few key things you’ll want to evaluate:
- Use Google and industry-specific sites to find blogs discussing topics related to your niche, products/services, and target customer profile. Pay attention to site authority metrics like domain authority/page authority scores.
- Assess the blog’s reach by looking at metrics like monthly visitors, social media followers, inbound links, and domain authority. Well-established sites with engaged audiences offer great partnership potential.
- Vet the site’s alignment with your brand values, areas of expertise, and audience demographic. Check for content themes, commenting activity, promotions, etc., that resonate.
- Use tools such as Alexa and SEMrush to estimate traffic stats. Plug blog URLs into a marketing insights tool of your choice to map out top-performing content by engagement. This way, you can find gaps and opportunities to add value.
- Explore competitor sites as they often accept contributors and guest blogging. But double-check if their domains/focus align to benefit your brand before pitching.
- Monitor forums, Facebook groups, and Reddit discussions around your focus area to discover influencer sites. Look for bloggers actively engaging with their niche.
- Keep a running list of your top 10-20 blog targets and stay on their radar before proposing guest articles. But ensure to provide value through comments, shares, and relationship-building with the bloggers behind each site before anything else.
#3 Build Relationships
Before you start guest blogging, focus on building real relationships with the bloggers first. Engage in their online communities by commenting on articles and sharing content socially. Also, provide thoughtful feedback and demonstrate you actually read and value their content.
Organic relationship-building lays the foundation for a successful guest post pitch down the road. And you might just find some blogger friends along the way.
#4 Craft High-Quality Content
Content is one of the tried and tested marketing means that has stood the test of time. A New York Times report estimates that content marketing is about 62% less costly than traditional marketing channels. It’s also six times more effective.
With that in mind, creating a compelling guest post that gets accepted and drives results takes strategic preparation.
- Perform in-depth research on the target blog’s niche, common reader questions, pain points, and gaps in existing content. This gives you insights to craft a truly unique value-adding article. Use social listening tools to analyze what resonates most with their audience.
- Interview people in your network, industry experts, customers, etc., to collect anecdotes, case studies, and actionable advice to incorporate. Original primary research always stands out.
- Tap into reputable studies, whitepapers, conferences, etc., related to your guest post topic to pull interesting stats and data to cite. Numeric evidence builds credibility.
- Organize insights and research into an actionable framework that resonates with the target reader and solves their pain points. Offer a step-by-step methodology, checklist, template, or guide they can instantly apply.
- Draft an outline hitting on core advice but also including well-placed stories, data points, imagery, etc., to reinforce ideas and keep readers interested from the intro to the conclusion.
- Translate tips into visuals like charts, graphs, and infographics whenever possible for higher engagement. Create supplemental images to embed in the post.
- Having an airtight structure showcasing your expertise via varied evidence sources can get your guest post published and shared.
#5 Optimize for SEO
Did you know that 53% of all web traffic comes from organic search? Yes. That means that if your SEO game is on point, you increase the odds of your guest post topping the search engine results pages (SERPS). If not, at least you’ll get pretty close to the top.
So, how do you give your article SEO superpowers to drive sustainable traffic without over-optimization? Here’s how:
- Perform keyword research to find relevant search terms people are using related to your guest post topic. Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner and SEMrush can help you identify low-competition, high-traffic targets.
- Organically work primary and secondary keywords into your post title, opening and closing paragraphs, section headers, image captions, etc. Avoid awkward repetitions.
- Make your H2 subheadings and opening paragraphs SEO-focused while keeping the body copy conversational. Address searcher intent in sections tailored around questions.
- Format your title and meta description for search snippets, but focus mainly on providing real value for the reader.
- Link out to authoritative resources like market research reports, academic studies, reputable news sites, etc., to build topical relevancy.
- Include related keywords naturally in image file names and alt text descriptions (e.g., health_benefits_exercise) before embedding visuals in your post copy.
The goal is to get your guest post found more easily in search engines, all while keeping the content easy to digest for the audience. It’s a balancing act but pays dividends if done right.
#6 Include a Compelling Call to Action
Guiding readers to take their next logical step is vital for guest post success. Here’s how to add an effective CTA:
- Strategically place your CTA two-thirds into the post as they’ll be engaged enough to take action by then.
- Make it a natural transition stemming from the advice shared rather than an abrupt sales pitch. For example: ‘If you found those productivity tips useful, explore more techniques in my new eBook.’
- Keep calls-to-action concise and actionable, like ‘Start your free trial,’ ‘Download our fact sheet guide,’ or ‘Follow me on Twitter for more insights.’
- Link the CTA text to corresponding landing pages that offer the lead magnet, next piece of content, social profiles, etc., they should access.
- Consider using software that allows you to A/B test wording variations, colors, and placement options to determine what drives the most clicks from readers.
Getting this right can increase the odds of your guest post’s success.
#7 Leverage Visuals
Including visuals for every major section can increase guest post engagement. For perspective, experts predicted that 82% of internet traffic would come from video content by 2022. This number hit highs of 92% in the third quarter of 2023 alone, as per Statista.
Here are impactful types to incorporate:
- Source free stock photos to illustrate concepts or pull from your own from your preferred design library. Ensure they’re clear, high-quality, and make the point visually.
- Design simple yet informative charts/graphs summarizing studies or exemplifying frameworks discussed.
- Embed overviews explaining key points in the form of professional infographics.
- Record bite-sized videos with summaries or how-to tips using tools like Loom to embed or link out to your YouTube channel/site.
Strong multimedia elements boost guest post performance and reader comprehension at a glance.
#8 Promote the Post
To maximize the impact of your guest post, be sure to spread the word far and wide! Promote it through:
- Your social media accounts,
- Email newsletter sent to your subscribers,
- Website banner linking to the post,
- Company intranet if it’s a thought leadership piece.
Encourage the blogger to share it, too. The further the guest post reaches, the more value it drives back to your brand and goals.
#9 Behavioral Analytics
Understanding the business impact of your guest blogging relies on tracking key metrics. Here’s how to monitor and learn from the data:
- Use Google Analytics (GA) to view traffic sources and identify spikes coming from the guest post URL. Assess session duration, bounce rates, and pages visited to gauge engagement.
- Track goal completions for site actions like newsletter sign-ups, downloads, and purchases set in GA. Review conversion reports to tally leads and sales from the referral traffic directly.
- Integrate UTMs into the guest post CTA links so you can filter performance by post within GA. Append ?utm_source=siteurl&utm_medium=guestpost before URLs to track over time.
- Monitor bookmarked traffic in GA to see if it drove recurring visitors as they save your advice to revisit. It’s a great indicator of long-term impact.
- Link GA to your CRM platform to match new contacts/leads back to the guest post. Review contact details of converted leads for qualitative insights, too.
- Compare top guest post articles by hard metrics like conversion rate and cost per lead. Refine your outreach and content strategy accordingly over time.
Consistent tracking provides tangible proof of guest blogging ROI and clues on how to optimize further. Monitor what works across venues to double down on those partnerships!
#10 Offer Guest Blogging Opportunities
Invite industry experts and rising stars to contribute posts to your own blog. Guest content adds diversity and authority to your site. It also allows you to tap into the networks of other brands and influencers by getting them to share your content with their audiences.
When vetting potential guest bloggers, focus on creating next-level content that your audience would value. Provide clear guidelines for contributors to follow in terms of topics, length, formats, and editorial calendar. Then, help amplify their posts through your social channels, too.
#11 Repurpose Content
Don’t let the hard work of creating an in-depth guest post go to waste. Find ways to give the content new life by reformatting the most valuable parts into:
- Short engaging social media videos and posts offering bite-sized insights,
- A blog article featuring selected key points,
- ·An eBook that compiles advice from all of your guest posts.
Repurposing helps extend the reach and impact. Just ensure you aren’t duplicating the same content verbatim or violating the original publisher’s guidelines when doing so.
#12 Be Patient and Consistent
Elevating brand awareness through guest blogging takes time and consistency before seeing significant results. But the compounding benefits are worth it. Stay patient even if initial posts aren’t home runs right away. Document your progress so you can see the incremental gains in website traffic, leads generated, followers gained, etc.
Each post and relationship built lays the foundation for future success. Eventually, you’ll gain momentum as your expertise becomes more widely known through consistent high-value contributions.
Bonus tip: In addition to guest blogging, consider getting yourself in front of new audiences by appearing as a guest on relevant podcasts and webinars in your space, too. Position yourself as a thought leader by sharing your insights as an interviewee or co-host. The added brand exposure and relationship-building offer more pros than cons if aligning with reputable shows.
FAQs
In this section, we’re going to answer some questions that might come to mind when considering guest blogging:
Q1. Do Guest Bloggers Get Paid?
Guest blogging typically involves a mutual exchange of value. While some platforms may offer compensation, the primary benefit for guest bloggers is the opportunity to showcase expertise, gain exposure, and reach a wider audience. The return on investment often comes in the form of increased brand awareness, traffic, and potential business opportunities.
Q2. Why Is Guest Blogging Important?
Guest blogging is important for several reasons:
- Increased Brand Exposure: By contributing to other platforms, you can reach new audiences and enhance your brand visibility.
- Builds Credibility: Sharing valuable insights establishes you as an authority in your field, building trust among your target audience.
- Boosts SEO: Quality guest posts with relevant links can positively impact your website’s search engine rankings.
- Networking Opportunities: Guest blogging allows you to connect with influencers and industry professionals, fostering valuable relationships.
- Diversified Content: It provides an opportunity to share diverse content formats, such as articles, infographics, and videos.
In Closing
There you have it – everything you need to craft a robust guest blogging game plan tailored to elevating your brand goals. By focusing on these aspects and building genuine relationships, you can leverage this powerful strategy to elevate your brand and achieve your marketing goals.
Commit to consistency, high-value contribution, and nurturing win-win partnerships with hosts. Stay patient through ongoing tweaking as you build momentum and awareness. Soon, you’ll reap the benefits through increased site traffic, leads, and authority.