If you are using content marketing, a guest blogging strategy is an essential tactic to increase your traffic and return on investment in content marketing.
Guest blogging is a great way to build brand awareness because the content you post on other blogs informs new readers about you. Those new audiences may visit your blog. This means that guest blogging can help you attract new subscribers and increase lead generation.
In fact, guest blogging also helps you build trust because when a trusted and authoritative site publishes your content, some trust will rub off on you. And regular guest blogging can help others see you as an expert, which is great for your business.
But have you put everything you had into creating guest posts, only to have them fail? You look at the analytics and wait for visitors and subscribers to arrive. Months later, and your guest blogging efforts haven’t gained traction.
Sounds familiar?
Here are three tips to help you create a profitable guest blogging strategy.
1. Contribute to sites that are not a waste of time
Most of the blogs you can contribute to are not worth it because they lack an engaged audience. So, start by finding blogs worth contributing to. Take a look at each blog, and before pitching a guest post idea to them, ask yourself these questions:
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Do they have engaged readers? Pay close attention to quality comments because many spam comments are a red flag.
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Do they respond to comments? This is a sign that the blogger is engaging with his readers and the blog is active.
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Do they regularly promote their content? If they don’t go out of their way to share and market their own content, they won’t promote yours.
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Does your target audience align with this blog? You need to have a “target audience” that you want to reach, and the blogs you contribute should target the same audience.
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Do they give the writers credit or a link to their blog / landing page in the author bio? You will put a lot of effort into content creation, so you should at least get a signature with a link to your blog.
2. Reply to all comments
This is second nature to most bloggers now. And it’s crucial because when a reader takes the time to leave a meaningful comment, it’s sensible to respond, if only to thank you. Even better; Add to the discussion and keep it moving.
Even if the blog owner doesn’t respond to comments, they should. Blog comments help you learn from your readers, get feedback, and get to know them better.
3. Promote your guests’ posts
Don’t just rely on the blogger to drive all the traffic to your post or share it on social media, because this is not enough to get the results you want.
Some bloggers have a great opportunity to guest blog and never promote their post at all. Yes, guest blogging helps you reach a wider audience. But when you guest post on a popular blog, your regular promotional efforts will have more of an impact.
So, use as many promotional strategies as you can, including your personal network, influencer marketing, specialized bookmarking sites, social media, and email outreach.