Guest blogging is a common content marketing technique. It allows you to get exposure to an audience that someone else has already assembled. That audience may overlap yours but include many others, offering an ideal target group.
“Even if you don’t get paid, posting on a blog with an established audience of people you want to reach is priceless,” states Belle Beth Cooper, co-founder of Exist, a personal analytics platform. Publishing multiple guest blogs that include a link back to your site (usually in the author’s biography, but sometimes in the body of the article) can help your site’s search results.
In his post for Quick Sprout, the highly regarded content marketing guru Neil Patel reveals lessons he learned from publishing 300 guest posts.
“My experience writing guest posts taught me a lot. And I can tell you that if you want to generate a positive ROI from guest-posting, you can actually do so as long as you learn from my mistakes,” he writes. These are some of his most insightful suggestions on guest blogging or posting.
Go broad. Your own blog will convert better if it has a narrow audience. But you should seek a broad audience when guest posting. There are relatively few guest post opportunities with small niche audiences, but there are many broad-based blogs. You’ll be in good shape if just a small percentage of their readers are interested in your post.
Consider industry blogs. But don’t post on them too often. Patel finds that guest posting on industry blogs like Search Engine Journal, Marketing Land, and Search Engine Land is good for his branding and will entice some readers to visit his own blog. After he posted multiple times a week, most readers became familiar with him. The ROI was low. The ideal posting frequency is one to three times per month.
List posts work. Posts of lists convert the best – if you include your company in the list. In a prime example of a successful list post, Leo Widrich of Buffer asked 10 marketers to name their favorite social media tool for a guest post in Social Media Today. Not surprisingly, someone named Buffer, since it’s a major tool. Place your company in the number two spot, Patel recommends. Naming yourself first is too aggressive, while placing yourself third decreases signups by over half.
Consider how people search. Take into consideration the way people use search engines. When people search, they seek solutions to problems. Someone is more likely to search for “how to convert visitors into customers” than for “boost conversion rates” or “heat map analytics.” Copy in the guest post, and preferably the headline, should include the phraseology people actually use to conduct searches. The Google drop down as you type in a search query provides solid clues on the most-used search terminologies people use on your topic.
Keep it simple. Many popular blogs prefer posts under 1,000 words. If you write longer, they may cut it down. In addition, articles that are more complicated take longer to write. Simpler content generates more shares, likes and clicks back to your site.
Finding Guest Blogging Opportunities
To find guest blogging opportunities, first try contacting established blogs in your niche that already have a following. Start with people you know. Ask people you know whom they might know. “Getting a warm intro is almost as good as knowing someone already,” Cooper advises.
Before proposing a guest post idea, become familiar with the blog. Read it to learn its topics, style and tone, and how it structures content. Is it informal or technical? It’s important to submit guest posts only to blogs you want to be associated with, regardless of their page rank.
“You wouldn’t pitch a journalist without reading past articles first – it’s equally important when approaching bloggers,” warns Mickie Kennedy, author of PR Fuel, in a guest post for Solo PR Pro.
Search the site for guest blogging guidelines to find information about word length, author bios, internal links and images. Search the blog’s previous posts to find if it recently covered your topic. If it has, consider a different perspective or writing about it in detail.
Submit a specific pitch to the blog. Explain the idea and why it’s a good fit. Bullet points can relay ideas quickly and clearly.
Bottom Line: While guest posts are a prevalent content marketing tactic, some posts are far more successful than others. Lessons that a top digital marketing expert learned from publishing 300 guest posts can help marketers create guest posts that increase their website visits and conversions.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
