Guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to attract traffic to your website and build brand awareness. Essentially, these two outcomes are the main benefits of guest blogging. A recent survey shows that 60% of respondent marketers write around 1-5 guest posts every month. If you’re still not employing this strategy for your business, you might get left behind by competitors who do.
This article deep dives into what guest blogging is and what guest blogging benefits you can look forward to when you employ this subtle but potent marketing tactic.
Let’s get started!
What is Guest Blog Marketing?
How it Works
Guest blog marketing or guest blogging falls under the umbrella of content marketing. However, instead of creating and publishing content on your own website, guest blogging involves writing content and publishing it on another website — known as a “guest posting site.”
Both the chosen guest posting site and the content to be published on that site need to tie back to the business. Each business has a different set of compatible guest posting sites, depending mainly on their industry and desired audience.
For example, a manufacturer/seller of furniture and rugs would be compatible with a guest posting site about home improvement, like MyFancyHouse.com. Meanwhile, a spa would be compatible with a guest posting site about beauty treatments, like BeLoveliness.com.
If you choose to create and submit a guest blog, it would typically include a byline which is highlighted to make it clear that the content was created by a contributor (i.e. your business or someone from your business.)
The content itself is usually more of informative than promotional, so it would be best to avoid hard-selling tonalities when writing a guest blog.
The Value Exchange in Guest Blogging
On the side of the contributor, publishing a guest blog is typically FREE. In some cases, contributors are even given compensation for their posts. However, this kind of arrangement isn’t always available.
It’s more common to have a value exchange, wherein the guest posting site gets content and the contributor gets exposure to the guest posting site’s audience.
We ask Google what skin treatment we need, what frame of glasses best suits our face shape, what home renovation we can get with an X amount Christmas bonus, why is our car making strange noises, how to tie a tie, and so on. All the digital information out there makes life easy. It is also an area of opportunity for your business.
And last but certainly not least, contributors are oftentimes allowed to include a certain number of links leading back to their company website. Remember this point in particular because this provides one of the biggest guest blogging benefits on the list.
The Benefits of Guest Blogging
1. Build Your Brand and Become an Industry Thought Leader
Whether one considers this the information age or the first years of the post-digital age, one thing remains the same: we are more reliant on digitally transmitted information than ever before. We ask Google questions way before we directly ask experts.
We ask Google what skin treatment we need, what frame of glasses best suits our face shape, what home renovation we can get with an X amount Christmas bonus, why is our car making strange noises, how to tie a tie, and so on. All the digital information out there makes life easy. It is also an area of opportunity for your business.
People are on their phones or laptops, speaking up about their wants, needs, concerns, and doubts.. Essentially, as they state their problems, you can position your business as the problem solver. Never has there been a point in history when this can be so easily executed.
So here’s how guest blogging fits into the equation.
Learn what your customers (or potential customers) are searching for. Then respond by sharing your expertise on a third-party site (the guest posting site) that many already trust. By doing so, you’ll be able to establish your business as a problem solver, an authority, and a thought leader.
As a final caveat for this section, remember to keep your content relevant, engaging, and supported by facts. Guest blogs are meant to represent your business, so put your best foot forward!
2. Get More Traffic to Your Website and/or Social Media Followers
Search engine optimization, content marketing, and guest blogging all go hand-in-hand. Ultimately, they aim to bring in high-quality traffic to your website, organically. And when we say “high-quality traffic,” we mean visitors that are likely to make a purchase from your website.
This is why choosing a compatible guest posting site is so important. Chances are, these sites already have an audience that’s interested in your content or what your business would have to offer. This is exactly the set of people that you want your business to be exposed to.
In addition, a guest posting site with (1) an optimized UX/UI on its site and (2) regularly published high-quality content is likely to rank well in terms of SEO - thereby boosting the potential search engine visibility of your guest blog. It’s like standing on the shoulder of a giant.
3. Expose Your Brand to a New Audience
When you submit a guest blog, you won’t just be exposed to a large audience that is likely to be interested in your content, you may also win over new customers.
Nowadays, it is sometimes debated whether the old adage, “it costs 5x more to acquire a new customer than to retain a new one,” is still true. In any case, submitting guest blogs to a guest posting site is generally FREE. So why not give it a shot and see how many new customers come in?
4. Grow Your Network
With a well-written piece published under a reputable guest posting site, your business could get the attention of businesses that would like to partner or collaborate with you. This will enrich your business while also giving you the potential for added profits.
5. Boost Your Business’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
So (1) your guest blog rides the wave of a guest posting site with great website SEO, and (2) your content is thus made visible to a large and valuable audience. These are valuable guest blogging benefits but the story doesn’t end here.
One of the biggest guest blogging benefits you can look forward to is being able to boost your website’s own SEO in the process. This happens through what’s known as “backlinks.” These are links on a third-party site (in this case, the guest posting site) which lead back to your website. Backlinks improve your search engine ranking and thus help you gain even more traffic to your website.
6. The Potential For Social Media Shares
If a post is really good, followers will share it, tweet it, like it, and comment on it. It will expose you to many people who don't follow you yet, so it's a great opportunity for your business. You can also share your guest blog on your own social media accounts. With a well-chosen guest posting site, the affiliation will positively impact your brand.
What’s not to love about these guest blogging benefits?
Become a Contributor for The Influence Agency
This wraps up our guide on guest blogging marketing and the benefits of guest blogging. If you’re interested in publishing a guest blog on digital marketing, social media, video marketing, and all things digital, we’re accepting submissions!
As a regular publisher of high-quality content on digital marketing trends and strategies, we’ve built up an audience over the years. And on top of having your blog featured on our site, we would also share and promote it on our network. Learn more about becoming a contributor here!