There are many benefits to writing a guest blog post, which include exposing yourself to a new audience and becoming an industry thought leader. Guest blogging may be intimidating to some marketers, but its rewards far outweigh the time put in. If you’re convinced that guest blogging is important but you’re not sure where to start, keep reading to discover how to write an amazing guest post.
Establish a Strong Presence
Before you can begin to reach out to other bloggers and pitch a guest post, you must first establish your own strong online presence. It’s extremely rare for a writer to guest post without having some sort of credibility to back them up. Establishing a strong online presence not only shows that you have the writing skills and outlook necessary to be successful in content marketing. It also shows your ability to build a strong and loyal audience. Guest blogging is a mutually beneficial relationship and not a transaction that only benefits you. Yes, posting a guest blog exposes you to a new audience you didn’t have access to before. Guest blogging also allows the site owner to gain more leads for him or herself. By establishing your own strong online presence, you’re showing the site owner that your post will be beneficial to them as well.
Know What You Want
For every guest post you write, you should always have an intended outcome in mind. Without knowing exactly what you want from each post, you won’t be able to hone in on anything specific that your audience wants. Sending the audience of a guest post straight to your homepage won’t do much for generating leads or creating customers. For example, at the end of your guest post, you could create a CTA (call to action) that brings readers to a landing page. This page could include a free podcast that goes into further detail about the topic in your guest post. You can then target those readers who took the next step and followed your CTA to the podcast. In the future, you’ll be able to identify these readers and provide them with more content that will keep them interested in your business.
Maintain Relevancy
Always keep your target audience in mind when writing any piece of content, especially for a guest post. Remember that the audience for the site you are guest posting on may just be a small segment of your initial target audience. Cater your guest post to this audience’s specific needs and interests to attract the most attention. Don’t try to use fancy vocabulary or industry jargon just to show off what you know. Rather, remain relevant to your audience by making your post easy to understand and digest.
Continue the Relationship
Once you’ve written and published the guest post, don’t check it off your to-do list just yet. Go back and look at who has interacted with your post – maybe readers have left comments or posted the article to social media. Follow-up with these readers and reply to their comments; be sure to continue the conversation and recognize those who have engaged in your content. This is such a great way to really build those long-lasting relationships that you want to form with your content marketing efforts. Showing that you’re interested in what your audience has to say is the first step in developing these relationships.
Don’t just write one guest post! Continue to find new avenues to reach your target audience and post to other sites. Guest blogging allows you to speak with potential customers and establish your credibility in your industry. What other tips do you have for writing an amazing guest blog post?