Perhaps you are already working hard at growing your blog and wish to let the world know about your services or products. Or maybe you are heading a company’s marketing division and want to bring in more clients. In both these cases, as in many others, guest blogging can help. In this article, we are going to learn about the importance of guest blogging.
Yes, guest blogging seems to be in the rage these days. But believe it or not, there was indeed a time when almost no one knew of the power of this marketing strategy.
For instance, in 2006, when Brian Clark was laying the foundations of the now-famous Copyblogger.com, he experimented with guest blogging as a marketing strategy. He began writing for other websites. In the beginning, he took whatever guest blogging opportunity came his way, but soon he was writing for some of the best web portals having some of the highest footfalls on the web. In time, he got insane amounts of organic traffic from his efforts.
Or take the example of Gregory Ciotti, who used this strategy to get more than 36,000 new email subscribers.
Or consider Brian Harris, who uses just one guest post to kick-start a business that now earns him a recurring $15k a month.
Today, the strategy is used by bloggers, website owners, companies, freelancers and content marketers.
So why is guest posting so effective? We’ll find out in this article. Read on!
11 Benefits of Guest Blogging
You get instant exposure
Whether or not you get a link back to your website, the guest post should always be interesting and informative to readers. It should have something which is not yet there in other sources on the internet. If the post is of high quality, organic traffic will start pouring in soon. Traffic is essential for any business on the web, as it is for blogs. Writing a guest post is a one-time thing, but its benefits are forever as long as the post stays up. And the longer it stays up, the more traffic you continue to get. So look at it as a one-time investment! To boost traffic conversion, optimize your landing pages, your CTAs, and the other elements on your site.
It increases your network
Guest blogging has made it easy and more streamlined to connect to top influencers. It was not like this all the time. Today, many websites accept posts from both new and experienced bloggers and even have a community of dedicated writers in their chosen niches. Other sites have email discussions where post ideas are brainstormed. You can even plan to co-author posts with others. Whatever the structure is, you can always leverage your authority to seek out partnerships with top influencers. To do this, you need to be active in the community. Provide help and valuable comments. Additionally, you can also invite your chosen influencers to contribute to your blog.
Get social media shares
One of the top and proven ways to extend your reach on the web is by generating social media shares. It would help if you stimulated social media shares since the more shared your content is, the more it will be shared and seen as valuable. Guest blogging is helpful for this. For instance, if the blogging site is like Entrepreneur.com, you won’t need to lift a finger most likely to stimulate social media shares. But for smaller portals, you may have to make some effort. Consider incorporating infographics and videos with your content to get 3x engagement.
Nurture and grow your social media following
Guest blogging even helps you grow the existing list of your followers’ count and accelerate lead generation. When you write for an authoritative blog like Huffington Post, you get readers to see your brand as trustworthy. Thus, you get the trust of your readers, which you can turn into social media followers. To nurture them, give regular updates and helpful information.
Guest posting boosts your online authority
You may not be getting many organic leads and social media followers if your online authority is not strong enough. If people don’t trust you, it won’t make a difference if you write the best content on the web. One way to strengthen authority is through guest blogging. You can do this by regularly contributing to authoritative sites.
Guest blogging strengthens your backlink profile
Most blogs won’t give you a monetary reward for contributing, but they allow you to give at least one link back to your website. You need to mention a bit about your brand and provide an SEO keyword-optimized link. This aids search engines in discovering and indexing your website.
It builds your brand awareness
There have been many success stories of people hitting it rich with just guest blogging, even though they were virtually unknown before. Guest posting, if done right, establishes you as an authority in your niche. When that happens, people flock to you for advice and more awareness about your brand, products and services.
Guest blogging gives you qualified leads
This is one of the most significant benefits of this marketing strategy. The leads you get from guest blogging are already qualified beforehand. When you post on niche websites, you ensure that only interested parties will be reading and then reaching out to you. Thus, you connect with only qualified leads, which increases the chances of a sale.
It shortens the sales cycle
With a guest post, you introduce your brand to readers directly. It familiarizes them with your brand and makes them more receptive to your offers.
You get valuable feedback from readers
Feedback is always important, especially when it comes to running a business. You need to know what your readers and customers are thinking about your products and services. Guest posting gives you this benefit. With their feedback and comments, you can refine your marketing strategy for more leads and sales.
Guest blogging strengthens your skills in content marketing
To be successful, guest blogging requires you to research, use the ideal writing voice, write for a particular audience, do influencer outreach, and more. By using guest blogging, you learn more about content marketing.
To sum up
Guest blogging is undoubtedly beneficial. It comes with a slew of benefits that are hard to ignore. If you are taking your business online, you cannot overlook the importance of guest blogging.
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