In this day and age where almost every kind of human endeavor is digitized, every brand has to position itself for visibility on the digital space. There are many ways in which a business can become visible online but the most powerful tool is content creation.

The concept of content creation describes the process of putting out information or media content for a particular group of people on any digital platform. There are so many of these platforms that a lot of people cannot even keep up.

However, the most popular as of today include FaceBook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and Twitter (now X), Reddit, Pinterest, Snapchat and YouTube. You can visit this site: https://www.makeuseof.com/ for more information on some of these sites.

There are many ways that online visibility can be achieved with or without the input of experts. However, in this article, our focus will be on the use of guest posts. We will explore the concept of guest posts, its importance and how it can be harnessed to grow a brand and achieve the ultimate online visibility that will help the business stand out in a saturated niche.

What is a Guest Post?

A guest post is a digital marketing tool that is used to drive engagement and expand the reach of a brand or website. It is a piece of content which is most often a blog post or an article that is written by a content marketer or expert in a particular industry and posted on another person or company’s website.  The person that wrote the article is often referred to as a guest blogger or contributor since they are not the owner of the site that publishes the content.

Key Features of a Guest Post

The major characteristics of guest posts in digital marketing include the following:

1. Authorship/Source – The article or content originates from an external source that is considered an expert in the industry of the host or about a particular subject that they want to address.
2. Host Website – This refers to the website on which guest post is published.
3.  Mutual Benefit – The contributor and host stand to gain a whole lot from the collaborative effort involved in guest blogging because the host site gets fresh perspectives for their audience while the contributor gains exposure and recognition as an authority in that niche in addition to backlinks to their own site.
4. Wider Reach – Guest Blogging helps the contributor to reach a wider audience and increase their visibility while increasing their credibility as an authority in the niche or subject in question.
5. Backlinks – Every contributor’s content includes backlinks to their content online or their website. This helps the contributor’s site to rank better through search engine optimization.
6. Quality Content – Every contributor post must align with the quality of the content of the host website. That is the only way that it will be of use to the host and also enrich the target audience.
7. Relevance – The article or content put forth by the contributor must be highly relevant to the industry or niche of the host’s site. This must be done by providing information and valuable insight that is of interest to the target audience of the host.
8. Promotion – Any guest blogger that wants their posts to do well must of necessity promote them on their own social media platforms.  You do this by posting your guest post links on comments that you make on articles on similar topics. You can also create an email list where you update your friends and contacts about your work and brand.

Benefits of Guest Posting

There is no doubt that guest posting offers a lot of benefit to both the contributor and the host. Below, we will discuss some of these benefits:

Builds Awareness about your Brand

When you contribute content to another brand, you include backlinks to your own site. This draws audience from the host site to your site. This creates greater awareness of both your site and the host’s to audience from both sites and even a wider audience.

This means that the more sites you contribute to, the higher the likelihood of creating greater awareness among a wider range of people than you would have reached with only your site.

Increases Traffic to your Website

Following from the above point, the more backlinks you have, the higher the likelihood that traffic to your website will increase.  When readers find your content engaging and useful, they will be drawn to more of your content which means the will follow your backlinks. Some people even go as far as looking up interesting authors on a website.

Additionally, the ranking of your website on search engine result pages rises significantly when many people view your content and find it useful. This is a huge deal as we know that the greater traffic you have on your website, the greater your chance of conversion and the higher the conversion rates.

Establishes you as an Authority in your Field

The more content you put out there through guest posting and the more people connect with them, the higher your credibility rises.  When visitors to credible websites find your article and gain valuable information and insight from it, it builds their trust and confidence in you as a voice to be reckoned with in the industry, niche or specialization.

With the rise in recognition as a credible source and authority in any particular subject/field, comes greater awareness for your brand which leads to greater visibility. This in turn translates to more customers that trust your brand.

It is a Cheaper Means of Marketing

Contributing to a well-established website helps to advertise and market your brand without much hassle. Additionally, you do not have to develop any marketing campaign or pay for any adverts; all you need to do is ensure that your contents are highly relevant with hard-to-ignore information.  With such contents that leave an unforgettable imprint upon readers, they will naturally gravitate towards your brand.

Creates Massive Networking Opportunities

When you contribute to other sites in your industry and niche, you get the opportunity to network with them. The relevant and highly informative and useful information can also catch the eye of leaders in your industry thus creating room for you among the thought leaders in your niche.

With such recognition, your chances of potential collaborations and partnerships are higher. This in turn enables you to grow exponentially and increases your business opportunities. Most industry leaders and influencers are usually proud to say they were responsible for the growth of a great brand because this also serves as great PR for them.  Click here for more insight on the benefits of networking for any brand

Finding the Right Guest Posting Opportunities

Now that you have seen the importance and benefits of guest posting, we know that your interest has been aroused and you will want to dive right in. Well, you have to get the opportunities first before you can contribute to any host site. Therefore we will share some tips that will help you get the right websites to contribute to.

Identify the Relevant Websites to Write for

This process entails looking for the websites that are relevant to your industry or the niche you specialize in.  When searching for these sites, the following are questions to ask and factors to consider:

1. Is their content focused on your industry or relevant to it?
2. Will the audience of the site be interested in your industry?
3. Are the posts of the blog shared socially and commented on?
4. Is the host active on social media?

Use Google Searches

Google is one of the best places to start searching for the right guest blogging opportunities. You can use different keywords to identify websites that accept contributions from guests.

The following are examples to guide you; remember that the keyword has to be relevant to your industry or niche. So using the example of the cake decoration products, the keywords will be geared to cake bloggers:

1. Write for us
2. Submit a blog post
3. Contribute to our site
4. Guest post by
5. Guest post guidelines
6. Guest author
7. Send a tip
8. Contributor guidelines

Contact Reputable and Renowned Guest Bloggers

First of all, you need to read plenty of blogs in your niche so that you can get to know many writers in your industry. As you read blog posts, you will get acquainted with some names that show up constantly as contributors. Note those names and contact them to help introduce you to website owners that can accept your content.

Similarly, you can find out the websites that they post on and pitch to them. Getting your content on such sites will be great for your brand.

Reverse Search

Look at the websites of your competitors and find out the backlinks on their pages. This will show you the sites that they have contributed to. From there you can find out the top quality sites they have written for. You can also use online tools to find different backlinks that will lead to sites that your competitors have written for.

Search on Social Media Platforms

Like we mentioned earlier, one way of ensuring successful guest blogging is to promote blog posts on socials. This therefore means that you can get guest blogging opportunities from social media platforms.

One of the easiest platforms to search is X formerly known as Twitter. Run a search on X with the keyword ‘guest post’; you will get many tweets about guest blogging in the industry that you are interested in.

Follow the links that are posted in the tweets and you will see sites/blogs that are accepting content from contributors. Visit https://business.twitter.com/: for information on how to run a search on twitter.

Preparing for Guest Blogging Pitch

After you have identified the right websites to approach, the next step is to prepare your pitch for the host blogs. The following are tips to help you prepare an irresistible pitch:

1. Know the Content of the Host Blogs – Take out time to study the blogs that you have selected and go through all of them. Ensure that you understand the style of the blog, their content and the tone in which their content is delivered. This will enable you customize your content to align with their format.
2. Check out other Guest Posts – Look at other guest posts on the sites and evaluate how they are doing. Find out whether they generate a lot of engagements such as shares and comments and also how popular they are with the audience. A good understanding of this will help you know what works and what doesn’t which will help you in coming up with a winning article.
3. Find out Who the Guest Writers are – Finding out who the blog takes in contributions from will help you have an idea of their requirements and what their audience expects.
4. Check out their Best Performing Posts- This will give you an idea of the type of subjects that catches the fancy of the audience and keeps them engaged.
5. Join Blog Communities – Get active in the blog community of your industry; interact by dropping comments and also reposting stuff from the blog on your socials. If you build a good rapport and relationship, you increase your chances of acceptance when you pitch to members of the blog community.

How to Pitch for Guest Blogging

After you have prepares, go ahead and follow these steps:

1. Read guest post guidelines
2. Personalize the email you send out
3. Introduce yourself and put out your credentials
4. Show proof of expertise by your previous posts
5. Include multiple ideas in your pitch

Conclusion

We have discussed many important factors about guest posts. And from all the above, you can deduce that successful guest posting requires time and effort. It is not something that just happens but when you put in the required time and effort, you will reap the benefits.  So start engaging this digital marketing strategy and watch your site grow.