Blogging is a fantastic marketing tool, it can help boost your online presence and let people see how knowledgeable you are in your industry, helping build trust.

In our very first blog, we tell you why businesses should blog and in another one of our handy blogs, we discuss three great alternatives to written blogs, but what happens when you don’t have time to keep up a regular blog but still want to produce great content? Well, then there’s guest blogging!

So, what is guest blogging?

In the simplest explanation, guesting blogging is when an individual creates content and features it on another person’s website.

How is it beneficial for you?

Guest blogging is a great marketing tool that has many benefits, and below are a few of them:

1. Wider Audience: By guest blogging, you open yourself up to a brand new audience, targeting new people who may not have heard of you before.
2. Better SEO: Guest blogging can help with your rankings on search engines like Google and Bing. Search engines will see your website as popular or knowledgeable, and can adjust the rankings.
3. More Traffic: Leading on from the first point, by targeting a new audience, this could lead to more traffic to your website. By associating yourself with a blog that has a loyal audience, you can set yourself up as someone the audience can trust already, putting you in a better position than if you didn’t guest blog.

Now where to start with guest blogging?  

1. Research – first and foremost, you need to research what blogs are out there and whether or not they are suited for your brand. Don’t just accept any guest blog as this can do more harm than good in terms of search rankings. There are many websites that list good blogs that accept guest blogs, this list for example, has an extensive list.
2. Build a Relationship – while there are blogs that accept guest blogs without question, these are unlikely going to be ones of value for you, and while some accept something in return, it is always good to build a relationship with that blog. Having a relationship could lead to further guest blogs or them helping you with something else.
3. Pitch Perfect – once you have found the right blog and built a relationship, the next thing to do would be to write a pitch for your guest blog. Much like sending a press release (previous blog) this needs to stand out. You need to imagine they receive hundreds of emails every day, so how can you make it standout? Mention something personal, reference a previous blog and then sell your blog to them.

Once the blog has been picked and the pitch has been accepted, the next step is to write your content for the blog, and much like the pitch, it should stand out. You need to position yourself as a knowledgeable individual but also set yourself apart from other guest bloggers. How can you provide an experience for the readers and get them to click to your website? Read competitors blogs and see what they are doing and then think outside the box and make yours better.

It doesn’t end there though. Once you have published a guest blog, the best thing you can do is go back and keep the relationship going. Make sure you keep an eye on the comments, if someone asks for help, make sure you reply to them or just say thank-you if they leave a compliment.

While it may seem a lot of effort is required to be successful with guest blogging, the same can be said for a lot of marketing tools. However, with regular blogging and valuable content, guest blogging can do wonders in the long-term and help towards building a knowledgeable and trusting brand.