While it’s been many years since guest blog posting went mainstream, we still feel that not that many businesses are fully capitalising on it or even benefitting from it like they truly should.
Strategic guest posting on an authoritative site or blog brings a number of benefits to the table, including:
- Driving more traffic to your site
- Helping you generating a tonne more leads
- Attracting high quality backlinks
- Building brand authority
- And, boosting your business brand image and appeal as a whole
However, even though many businesses have woken up to the idea that guest posting is a must to help grow and boost their brand, they are not quite going about it the right way.
Authoritative site owners, for one, are being bombarded with pitches left and right, and so they don’t even know which posters to allow posting on their blog. Not only that but it’s now getting more and more challenging to get guest post articles published, though there are many around. Take a look at the ZandaX blog to see a publisher that’s fair, and quality-based.
Anyway, whether you’re new to guest posts or do it regularly, here are four big secrets uncovered to help you get the most out of guest blogging to boost your business brand:
Big Secret #1: Choose Your Target Sites Very Carefully
We’ve heard many business brand owners and marketers come up to us and tell us that guest blogging either isn’t for them or it isn’t working.
Did you know that the very reason they’re getting average to poor to abysmal results is that they are actually targeting the wrong sites?
Unless you do a little bit of research and understand what kind of sites you should be targeting, your guest blogging efforts are going to fall flat. Therefore, when choosing blogs, think about those that fit into your brand profile, goals, business culture, greater mission, etc.
If you’re still not sure where to start, consider the following:
- Shoot for popular sites in your sector or industry, but only as long as they are frequently visited by the audience you are targeting.
- All the while, seek out general sites which may be interested in the subject matter you want to discuss; if you’re a web developer, you can pitch to a marketing site and talk about how you can write blogs on creating a killer web design to help businesses further their marketing reach.
- Do a Google search for the top 100 or even the top 500 highest-ranking sites that publish guest posts according to niche. So, for example: 100 best guest posting sites “web development”.
Big Secret #2: Learn To Pitch Like A Pro
Your guest post campaign isn’t going anywhere without a great pitch, believe us when we tell you that!
For starters, here are some rookie mistakes to avoid:
- Forgetting to include links to your past work. At least three links to past posts is a good start. It helps to showcase what your writing talent entails.
- Failing to include the site’s host’s name or referring to them by an incorrect name. Double check the target site’s “about” page to make sure that you get their name down correctly!
- Carelessly making grammar and/or spelling mistakes. If spelling and grammar isn’t your strong suite (although it should be), then perhaps use a tool like Grammarly to polish up your post and ensure it doesn’t have any glaring spelling and grammar errors.
- Pitching topics that are not at all related to the site. Come on! Your topic needs to fit the blog like a glove!
- Neglecting to read and follow the writers’ or posters’ guidelines. The writers’ guidelines can be typically found on the sidebar, footer, or main menu. Common phrases site owners use to describe these guidelines may include: write for us, contribute, writers’ guidelines, and so on.
Big Secret #3: Develop Relationships With Relevant Influencers
Many guest posters tend to do this afterwards, once their blog is published (if it gets published at all, that is). This is a mistake – you need to develop relationships with influencers in your niche or space beforehand, because in doing so, you have a technical advantage over others who are also pitching to the same blog.
Understand this: most leading blog sites have to sift through thousands of pitches. However, if a host blogger knows you beforehand, the likelihood of your email being opened and your pitch being read increases by nearly a tenfold.
Nowadays, most site owners will not look at a pitch from an unknown blogger or poster. So, to get the desired attention through influencers, here’s what you can do:
- Start commenting on their posts. Add something valuable that they and their audience might benefit from.
- Get in the habit of writing them thank you notes – no matter how big or small, if you benefitted from their expertise, always extend gratitude.
- Don’t hesitate to share their posts. When you have enough shares, they’ll know, and would want to reach out to you at some point.
- Reach out to your target influencer on social media. It could be challenging, sure, but keep trying. Eventually, you’ll succeed.
If you do the above, you’ll be instantly recognisable by the time you pitch, not to mention the fact that you’ll have a good headstart on competing bloggers.
Ultimately, helping influencers in their mission will trigger reciprocity, which will encourage them to build goodwill towards you.
Big Secret #4: Don’t Always Link To The Homepage…
Instead, for maybe two out of three links, link to a dedicated landing page. By doing this, you’ll be maximising the ‘warm’ traffic you attract. Here’s how it’s done:
- Design a landing page which targets your host site’s visitors, as opposed to sending them to a generic page.
- Include a relevant giveaway in your guest post, naturally, keeping your campaign goals in view.
- Have a dedicated author bio page and use the same language on the author bio and landing page so that readers can easily link these two pages.
- Scan the page and get rid of anything that might cause readers to leave without taking the desired call to action – so, that means resist the urge to include links to other pages.
Closing Thought
Well, the secrets are out! It’s up to you to make them part of your strategy – and reap the benefits they bring.