Any attempt at communication in the hopes of eliciting a response is referred to as outreach. Emails, online formats, social media, blog comments, phone calls, and other methods may be used. The perfect outreach would be something that the recipient would open, read, and respond to.
You will reach out to current, relevant audiences and introduce your brand to a large number of new readers through guest blogging. As a result, this strategy is a powerful and effective way to increase your online exposure.
To be effective, you must understand how to find and qualify the best guest posting sites, write content that is appropriate for the target site, and reach out to editors in a way that gets you noticed.
Initial Outreach
There are many different types of outreach, including fast, lengthy, direct, and rambling. Make sure the style you select is appropriate for the blog to which you’re reaching out. Examine the sound of the “about” and “write for us” sections, as well as recent posts, to determine this. Make it crystal clear what you’re giving the blogger. What is the benefit to them? Incentives may include the following:
- Using social media to share your post
- Great (free) content for their audience (explain why it is appropriate for their blog/audience) – articles responding to, expounding on, or discussing a recent post are ideal.
- New Traffic (describe how you plan to generate new traffic)
- Influencer traction (convey how you plan to mention influencers in the post and how they can help them gain traction with Twitter and LinkedIn sharing)
The Best Times to Outreach a Guest Blogging Post
You won’t always have a golden opportunity to pitch a guest post, but there are a few things you can do when one presents itself. The following are some of them.
- When a blog or social media account (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.) mentions you in one of their posts.
- when one of the blog’s posts mentions you, your business, or your product.
- When a blog clearly states that it is looking for guest posts, this is a good sign.
- When another guest post is published on the blog
- When it’s a new publication (new publications always need more content)
Pro tip: Be sure to check the domain authority and PageRank of the site you’re posting on. Besides that, analyze whether it’s a genuine site or has been set up to post thin content. Avoid contributing to the latter because that is likely to get you penalized in the future. For the best results, guest post on sites that post high-quality, long-form content or are respected names in the digital journalism industry.
Outreach Best Practices
1. Read the Instructions
The Most first thing you can do before contacting the blog owner is read and follow the guest posting rules if any exist. Is the blog owner looking for you to pitch an idea or write a complete post? In what format do they need it? Do they want you to build a WordPress account and log in? These are all things you should be aware of before contacting the blog’s creator.
2. Developing Relationships
Links on pages that are cared for by individual people, not only programmed, but also overlooked, and largely ignored by the human population, are worth pursuing. This implies that you must cater to people rather than websites. Make an offer that they would appreciate. Give them personality if you don’t have anything else to say. Make them want to be like you.
The trick to becoming a successful connection maker rather than just a guest poster or directory submitter is to create relationships.
3. Make Your Email More Personal
Nothing irritates me more as a blogger who receives regular guest post pitches than an email that begins with “Dear Sir or Madam,” “Dear (person name),” “To the owner of any company,” or you can simply write “Hi.”
The name and contact information for the owner of the blog you’re targeting for your guest post should be somewhere on the blog. You may have to look for it on the blog’s about page or one of the blog’s social media pages, but it’s almost certainly there. Locate it and use it to begin your email.
You can also use also use tools like rocketreach.co to find out editors’ email addresses. The benefit of using such tools is that they give you multiple email addresses associated with a individual in a company. So if the editor doesn’t respond to you via professional email, you could try reaching out to them on their personal address, but don’t hard-sell if you want them to read through your message.
4. Research the Site and Editor
To qualify a potential guest posting site, ask yourself the following questions:
- Is it possible to publish guest posts on the site? Take a look at the bylines on their posts. Guest posts may not be accepted if all of the posts are written by members of the brand’s team.
- Is there a set of criteria for guest posts on the site? Sites that accept submissions regularly normally have a connection to their submission guidelines in the footer of the page.
- Can you locate the managing editor’s contact information? Getting a guest post spot also hinges on getting in touch with the right person. Find the person in charge of managing guest posts by looking at the website’s staff, the masthead, or company profile on LinkedIn.
5. Keeping Track of Your Progress
When the aim is to increase traffic, the results of your guest blogging should be tracked. The easiest way to do this is to use Google Analytics to build an Advanced Segment.
Figure out which online marketing strategy drives the most traffic, you will learn how to set up an Advanced Segment. For each domain for which you have guest blogged, all you need is one section with multiple statements using the source dimension. It’s possible to have up to 20 Advanced Segments in a single Advanced Segment.
6. Invoking Emotions
There has to be something in order for them to get something out of it. Bloggers aren’t looking for high-quality material. Or, to put it another way, they want more than just great material. They want site traffic, social media posts, site feedback, and conversions. They want to see it from a different viewpoint. Determine what this site’s owner desires and persuade them that you will assist them in achieving it.
The aim of outreach is to receive feedback. You must appeal to what makes people human: their feelings since the emphasis is on people.
Write a Fantastic Guest Bio
Your guest post bio will most likely be the most critical aspect of guest blogging (for you). Self-promotional links to your website, blog, product, service, book, etc. can normally only be included here. What you write in this section will be determined by your goals for guest blogging.
Steps to Writing a Guest Bio
- Include a link to your website in your message-If you want to get good backlinks, make sure your bio contains a link to your website with your target anchor text, and you’re good to go.
- Create a unique landing page that reflects the target market-If you want to drive traffic back to your website, you should think about where you want the traffic to go. You may want to send traffic to a custom landing page or a page about a particular product/service depending on the topic of your guest post and the audience of the blog where it is published.
- Have your social media profiles-Add a line to the end of your bio that says something like, “Join me on (insert your top social network and connect here)” if you want to maximize the number of people who follow your social accounts.
- Make a profile that is succinct and informative-Have some personal information and experience to demonstrate why you are eligible to write a guest post. Include your current job or any projects you’re working on that readers may be interested in.
Summing Up
Guest blogging outreach is a smart way to reach out to your target audience on other pages they frequent. It broadens your audience and promotes your business. However, you can only use blogger outreach to its full potential if you get noticed by editors and published on the right platforms.
Guest blogging on well-known websites is a great way to capitalize on the popularity of bloggers that are already well-known in your field. To be considered for a guest blog, you must submit compelling pitches that demonstrate your value. Guest blogging is only one of the many tactics you can use to boost your content marketing efforts. If you need assistance in shaping or monitoring your content marketing strategies you can contact outreaching and marketing companies also.