Guest blogging remains a great way to increase awareness for your brand.
For awhile, guest blogging became a tactic to help with SEO. That led to some abuse where some people would do as much guest blogging as possible, without concern for quality, just to get links.
Google has since gotten very good with their algorithm. Links are still important, but Google can tell when links are associated with good intent vs. short cutting intent. So that form of guest blogging has gone to the wayside.
But if you approach guest blogging as a way to reach new people, earn their trust and to build your reputation, it’s a great strategy. And those things also lead to better SEO over the long-term.
Imagine the actor that goes on late night TV to tell stories and share news about their new movie. They’re guesting. They’re providing content (entertaining stories) in return for access to an audience. That’s really what guest blogging is.
Anyway, one of the most important aspects of guest blogging is the pitch.
Here is the pitching strategy that will help you get more opportunities to write…
Step #1. Topic Research
This is the step most miss.
Think about your perspective if you owned a successful blog with lots of readers and lots of writers to manage. Your goal is to provide the best content that brings in more readers and keeps current readers around. Just like the producer and host of a late night show.
If you’re pitching an idea to a successful blog take the time to look through their previous posts. Look for the most successful posts. Sometimes the blog will provide a nice list for you. Other times you’ll have to look for things like most comments or most shares.
Identify the titles that are popular and also the categories that are popular. From that, look for gaps in the categories.
For example, maybe you’re a mechanic. You see that a popular auto blog has lots of popular posts on the air conditioner category, but no posts on replacing an air conditioner in a car.
Now you have a title to send to the blog editor that you propose to write…
Step #2. Message or Email
Come up with about 3-5 titles to send to the blog or the blog editor. That is your big selling point. These give the editor something to see and to think, “I would love to have that on my site…”
Don’t write the post ahead of time. It’s better to spend your time researching for titles than writing posts.
Once you have your titles, keep the message simple. Introduce yourself. Say what you would like to do. Present the titles. Ask the call-to-action question.
That’s it.
Something like this:
Hi,
My name is Joe Smith. I’m a mechanic for ABC Auto. We love doing guest blogging and wanted to reach out.
After looking through your blog we thought these titles might be of interest for your readers:
- How To Install A New Air Conditioner In Your Car
- X Things That Can Go Wrong With Your Car Air Conditioner
- How Much A Vehicle Air Conditioner Replacement Costs
Would you be interested in having us write one of those posts for your blog?
That’s easy for the editor to read. It shows commitment from you. If they’re interested, they’ll likely reply and ask you to write one of the posts.
The blog will likely either have a form or an email. They may also have requirements. These are very important. Follow any and all instructions. It’s a test to see if you’re competent and usually the first step to getting approved.
Step #3. Followup
I like to followup on these messages 2-3 times after the first message. Just a quick followup to ask if they received the message.
Hi – just wanted to see if you received my message about a post?
Hi – just wanted to check one more time to see if you might be interested in having us write a post for you.
Just a simple followup to see. Maybe two days later and then one week later. It’s easy to do and often the editor may have forgotten. But after a few followups you can move on knowing that you gave it your best effort.
And who knows, try again next year with new titles and you might find success.
Conclusion
Guest blogging remains a great way to brand your business. It’s about reaching an audience, providing value and letting that lead to long-term and often indirect sales. Commit to the process and over time you should see the benefits. But don’t overlook the pitch and don’t cut corners. Follow this process and you’ll land more successful guest blogging opportunities.