The Best Guide to Develop A Fruitful Guest Blogging Strategy You’ll Find

If you’re reading this post, you’re probably well aware of the many benefits that content marketing can bring to your business, mainly when it comes to attracting, engaging, and retaining prospects while building a strong relationship with them. For this piece, though, I want to focus specifically on what a guest blogging strategy is and what role it plays in content marketing.

In this guide, you’ll find the definition of guest blogging —also known as guest posting— along with a list of its benefits and an explanation of why your business can’t afford to ignore it To wrap it all up, I’ve included a detailed list of steps to develop your own strategy, so you can start working on it as soon as possible 😄.

Let’s get started, shall we?

 

What Is Guest Posting?

Writing a guest post is just like writing a regular post for your own business blog, but in this case, you’re doing it for another person’s website.

The rules for contributing with a guest post will vary from site to site, but you’ll usually be expected to match the brand’s voice and level of (in)formality, respect a word count limit, and include links to other articles in their blog.

Additionally, you may be allowed to include a certain number of backlinks to your page. In my personal experience, I find that it tends to be around two or three backlinks per post. It may seem very little, but they’re a very powerful tool! I’ll go over this in more depth later on, don’t worry 😉.

Now, to write a guest post, you’ll need to get in contact with the business or brand you want to write for, so they can give you the specifics regarding topics, word count, do’s and don’ts, and any other guidelines they may have. After you’ve finished writing, the post is reviewed by their team and it’s up to them to accept it or not, or to make any changes they deem necessary.

Why You Need a Guest Blogging Strategy

I know you may be thinking “Is guest posting really worth the extra effort when I can write for my own blog without following any third-party guidelines?”, and while I know it may seem a bit of a nuisance, I promise it’s worth it.

Of course, don’t just take my word for it! Check out some of the many benefits guest blogging can bring to your marketing efforts:

 

Enhance Your SEO Efforts

If you know anything about SEO, then you’re probably aware that high-quality backlinks are an essential part of it… and one of the most difficult to obtain! Luckily, implementing a guest blogging strategy is one effective way to get those coveted backlinks and ultimately rank higher in the SERPs.

Being mentioned on reputable sites with high traffic not only gives your site credibility, something that crawlers take into account when ranking it, but it can also drive organic traffic to it. The key is to choose host sites with a good Domain Authority score to get those high-quality backlinks that will actually boost your rankings and vouch for your reputation as a credible source of information.

 

Nurture Business Relationships

If you’re launching a guest blogging strategy, you’ll need to keep in touch with the brands that host your content regularly, making it the perfect opportunity to connect with peers from your industry and develop meaningful working relationships with them!

By taking the chance to talk with the people working for the businesses you contact beyond the guest post, you both might gain some fantastic collaborations, partnerships, and growth opportunities.

 

Become an Expert Industry Voice

If you want to become a reputable and trusted voice in your niche, you need to share your knowledge and expertise with the world. However, it isn’t enough to do so only on your website —other people in the industry need to vouch for your credibility too, so potential customers can see for themselves that you’re not the only one saying “Hey! I swear you can trust me!”

Guest posting works as a vote of confidence from your hosts, certifying that you’re reliable and that the knowledge you’re sharing has been approved by them, so you can be considered a serious thought leader.

 

Expand Your Reach to A Wider Audience

When you launch a guest blogging strategy, you’re effectively spreading the word about your brand and your work to an audience that goes beyond the people you’ve already been targeting.

The host website you’re contributing to has its own readers and clients who might have never come across your content if it wasn’t for a guest post. The demographics their site reaches are bound to be somewhat different from yours, so there’s a great chance of capturing new leads and potential customers who wouldn’t have heard of your business otherwise.

 

How to Develop a Guest Blogging Strategy in 6 Steps

I’m sure you’ve been waiting for this part, so I won’t keep you waiting! Let’s go over the steps needed to be a successful guest blogger:

 

1. Find Guest Posting Opportunities

The first step is doing some thorough research to find reputable and authoritative websites that accept guest content. To do so, I suggest you search for keywords related to your niche + “write for us”, “guest post”, “submit content”, and other similar search strings to discover sites from your industry that are open to contributions.

Once you have your list of opportunities ready, check their DA using an online tool to ensure the websites you’ve chosen are trusted and represent good value for your effort. Additionally, you can take a look at their following and their blog’s comment section to see if their audience is asking for certain topics you can tackle in your guest blogging strategy.

 

2. Develop Unique Content Ideas

After you’ve done your research, it’s time to take a deep dive into each website’s blog to see what topics they’re interested in publishing and come up with a guest posting pitch that’s unique for every site you want to write for.

It’s usually a bad idea to follow the same script or use a similar template with all of them and hope it works. Chances are the team behind guest blogs often reads the same pitches and is looking for a custom one that will actually bring value to their readers. So, you should work on crafting tailored pitches for every website you’re interested in partnering with to increase your chances of being accepted.

To help you brainstorm ideas, try to develop pitches focusing on a topic that follows these three tips:

• It hasn’t been covered extensively on the site already;
• It’s relevant for your brand; and
• It’s interesting and valuable for the host’s audience.

 

3. Submit Your Pitch

After all’s said and done, and your guest posting pitch is ready, you can finally submit it. How you do this will depend on the website itself: maybe there’s a form you can fill out or an email address you can reach out to.

If it’s the latter, make sure to customize your email according to its recipient, and don’t forget to introduce yourself with a brief description of your work and the reasons you think you’d be a good match for the brand. In addition to the pitch, you should include the reasons why you think readers will find your content valuable. This is why it’s crucial to do thorough research during the early stages of your guest blogging strategy.

Last but not least, try to keep it short! The person reading your email probably has dozens of other similar ones waiting in their inbox, so try to grab their attention quickly and effectively.

 

4. Write Your Guest Post!

If your idea is accepted, it’s time to get to work! Besides following the site’s guidelines to a T, there’s something else you’ll want to focus on: writing interesting and informative content, always.

So, brainstorm headline ideas and use an online tool, such as Headline Studio, to see if they comply with the most popular best practices. Afterward, if the host asks you to, research the keywords you’ll want to include in your write-up that are beneficial for both your brand and them. In my experience, they’ll usually optimize the piece after you send it, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared!

Make sure to include any links the host website asks you to, as well as backlinks to your page (if you’re allowed to!). Lastly, format your text and any images you included correctly, so they fit the brand’s standards.

 

5. Work On Your Bio

The last step before submitting your post is to write a guest bio to go along with it. This is where you can include some information about you and your business, and maybe some fun facts to connect with the audience. What’s more, you’re also usually allowed to add one or two links to your main website or social media pages.

Some websites also ask for a picture of you to add to the bio, so make sure to choose a high-quality one that makes your company look good 😎.

 

6. Wait Patiently!

After you’re done sending everything, the only thing left to do —and the hardest, in my opinion— is waiting. The website owners or blog editors might take a while to revise your post, ask for changes or rewrites, and determine when it’ll be published. If they decide to publish it!

Yes, even if they approve your write-up, they might never put it up on their page. This happens to all of us at least once, and it shouldn’t discourage you or make you feel there’s something wrong with your guest blogging strategy. It just means you’ll have to try again with another site!

 

How Yum Yum Digital Can Help Your Efforts

I know, singing our praises might seem obvious. However, I want to emphasize why choosing Yum Yum Digital can be what truly makes a difference for the better in your guest blogging strategy.

If I had to choose just one word to describe us as a team, it would be passionate. We love what we do, and we love to see how much it helps the brands we partner with. Content marketing isn’t the only thing we’re experts at —if you team up with Yum Yum, you’ll find a solution to all your marketing needs, from video content to website design, SEO, and everything in between.

We can promise full customization and transparency every step of the way. Moreover, we strive to make our projects more than a simple business transaction: we want to build a meaningful connection with each of our clients, so we make them a part of the process from the very beginning, ensuring that every little detail matches their expectations and goals.

Our blogging team boasts years of experience writing SEO-friendly content, both for Yum Yum’s blog and for several websites that have partnered with us for guest posting. Just check out our other posts to see our quality for yourself! If you like what you find, don’t hesitate to contact us for a winning guest blogging strategy 😉.

 

Wrapping Up

Well, that’s it for this guide! I hope you found it useful.

As you’ve learned, guest posting isn’t a strategy that can be ignored if you want to expand your reach and get a better ranking in the SERPs, just to name a few benefits. Of course, it’s not the only content marketing example you can adopt or the most crucial, but it’s still very important!

Now it’s time to do some research to find brands that would be happy to publish your guest blogs, open up a word processor, and start creating your next amazing piece! I, for one, would be thrilled to read it 😃.