Are you considering whether to take guest posting seriously in 2015 as you roll out your content marketing plan for the year? If your thinking is that guest blogging is now a thing of the past, I recommend reading this blog post to the end.
Perhaps you would like to have an answer to this question before laying a concrete plan for your next marketing campaign.
Before I go in to depths on my blog post today, I’ll like to clarify some misconceptions about guest blogging with you. A couple of years back, guest blogging used to be every SEO company’s signature link building tactic. And customers relied on it so well. Even Google at some point encouraged the act. But the downside was that it soon got abused as spammers got their way around it.
As a result Google’s no-spam evangelist soon called it out and said to put a stop to guest blogging as an SEO method. With the announcement, guest blogging came to a screeching halt as webmasters got scared of accepting any article contributions of sort from other bloggers.
However, as thought leaders and experts started weighing in on the relevance of guest blogging in a content-driven environment, guest blogging soon picked up again.
Now, let’s look at why you should take guest blogging seriously in 2015.
Guest Blogging is Content Marketing
If you’re looking to start using content marketing as a means to boost website traffic or would love to augment your existing content marketing strategy, adding guest blogging to your marketing arsenal is more than necessary.
For a lot of reasons, you will need to employ guest blogging in order to start seeing results from your content marketing efforts. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits guest blogging can help you achieve:
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- Gain Traffic: the essence of content marketing is to share something with your readers. Either through your blog or your social media channels. This means your content marketing efforts are defeated if no one is listening. Guest blogging on other sites allows you to invite their readers to see your blog and become part of your readers, and ultimately potential customers.
- Build Email List: if gaining customers is the end goal of your content marketing efforts, then building and email list is a must. Guest blogging is very essential in gaining new subscribers.
- Connect With Influencers: trust me on this, guest blogging will help you boost your profile and gain new connections. Brands with a blog run by a well-known individual is more trusted by its consumers than brands without an identifiable persona.
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Use Guest Blogging to Build Authority
When Neil Patel said writing long form content will help websites rank better, nobody was willing to debate it.
Its true that a thorough long-form content, with images and links to resources would rank better than a quick 500 words blog post. Experts have said it long before, no one paid attention to it. What’s the difference? Authority. Neil has written a guest post for almost all the marketing blogs you read. If he could get published on all these blogs, then he knows what he’s saying!
You can also become an expert by sharing your best content on other blogs. Use guest blogging to build your authority and be respected by your audience for what you do.
When asked to comment on the importance of guest blogging in 2015, Gabriella Sannino says “when we discuss guest posting with our clients most of the time the intent and goal boils down to creating and achieving three things: Authority, Reputation, Relationships.”
When your articles have been featured on a lot of major sites, here’s how it will help you to quickly build your authority:
- Request for Interviews: as soon as people start noticing your blog posts on a certain subject on other blogs, especially if your posts are high quality content, you will start getting invitation for interviews on other blogs and websites. This will help boost your reputation and also help you attract quality inbound links to your website.
- Get Featured in Expert Round Ups: as you use guest blogging to build your authority people will soon recognize you as the go-to expert they will call on when seeking opinions and advice on powerful round-up posts.
Gain High Quality Leads Through Guest Blogging
Guest blogging can be compared to free advertising. You get to showcase your expertise before an engaged audience that has already been prepared by the host. All you have to do is position your content with such expertise that demonstrates the kind of credibility that your borrowed audience is looking forward to.
Anyone running a small business knows how difficult it is to generate new qualified leads. Guest blogging will not only expose your brand to these leads but will also take away the question of “can this professional be trusted with my business?”
Unlike other methods of lead acquisitions that takes you through a long cycle of lead-nurturing before your leads mature into customers, leads acquired through guest blogging are closer to the purchasing phase. High quality leads need little to no warm-up before converting into paying customers.
Here are some qualities of high quality leads which guest blogging will help you attract:
- Leads are already familiar with your brand. Marketing takes advantage of the tool of familiarity to increase likeness for a brand. Exposure to your content on other sites will increase familiarity and increase the likeness these leads will have for your brand. This type of leads are closer to making a purchase.
- Leads trust your professionalism. People can only trust their business with a professional. By guest blogging, you’re boosting the confidence your leads have in your brand as a professional. Hiring you shouldn’t be a hard decision once leads have enough trust in your brand.
- Leads are willing to pay the right amount for your product. When you’re associated with high quality content, convincing your customers to pay high enough for your products or service (which they already have enough trust in) won’t be a big deal.
On a final note, creating high quality guest posts that will yield results will take time and efforts but the result is worth it. Forget guest blogging for SEO, as doing this is purely a waste of effort. Target your guest blogging efforts towards gaining exposure and improving awareness for your brand.
Let me know if you will be taking guest blogging more seriously in 2015 in the comment section.
