Connecting the Dots: Guest Blogging and Leads
17-04-2017
What’s the correlation between guest blogging and leads? Do we think guest blogging will be helpful for our Affiliates? We break down that relationship below and look into the additional ways in which you can generate traffic.
Guest blogging is one of the top ways to gain authoritative backlinks for your website. All of the most successful bloggers you can think of have most likely guest posted for high-ranking blogs in their early days. People generally guest post for one of two reasons: build backlinks for their own websites or establish themselves as a thought leader in their field. If you can relate to either of these points, then guest posting should be at the forefront of your mind.
The problem is that guest posting isn’t an easy task to achieve. It takes an incredible amount of practice to perfect the art of pitching yourself. You see, it doesn’t matter how great your article sounds if your headline doesn’t even warrant an opened email. Luckily, there are tried-and-true steps for you to take to become a successful guest blogger. Let’s get to it!
Guest Blogging and Leads: Set Your Goals
Guest posting is extremely helpful for general exposure, but to become successful at it in a (relatively) short amount of time, you have to be as intentional with the planning process as possible. Draft out your exact goals for guest posting. Find out how many accepted posts you would like to gain within a designated amount of time. By giving yourself strict deadlines, you will be able to section out your priorities. While you design the numeric details of your campaign, find out why you want to guest post to begin with. We’re not talking about the vague answers here. At this point of the planning process, you have to take a good look at your current platform and pinpoint its lack. What are the areas you want the most growth in? By guest blogging, you will be able to build referral traffic, grow your email subscription list, improve your SEO rankings, establish a stronger brand presence, and build relationships with authoritative influencers. Once you realise your goals, you will finally be able to pursue them wholeheartedly.
Guest Blogging and Leads: Create a List of Opportunities
Spreadsheets are life savers when it comes to guest blogging. If you haven’t guest posted yet, there’s something you should know: out of your 30-40 pitches, you will most likely receive only one yes, and even that is a score. So, it’s clear that you will have to reach out to hundreds of top influencers if you want to reach your campaign goals. Start a spreadsheet and label your tabs with the blog name, niche, and guest contributor contact info. Then, start hunting for authority blogs that fall within your niche. An easy way to do this is to simply Google “contribute guest post” or “submit a post” + your industry keyword. For example, a Zero Parallel Affiliate would type, “submit a post finances.”
Guest Blogging and Leads: Interact with Your Prospects
This step is quite straightforward. By commenting on your prospects’ posts and interacting with them for a while, you will warm them up for your eventual pitch. A great way to go about this would be to have a friendly interaction with your prospect on Twitter, or to leave an insightful comment on their posts. You can even email a thoughtful letter to the editor, complimenting his or her insights.
Guest Blogging and Leads: Create Relevant Posts
Before you start writing your article, consider the types of articles that your prospects most frequently publish. We recommend that you write specifically for the platforms that you want to guest post for, rather than writing your own article and finding a platform that fits your post. By choosing the former, you will save yourself much time and effort pitching to the right blogs. So, do your research and figure out the style, tone, and topic that appeals most to your prospects.
Guest Blogging and Leads: Pitch, Pitch, Pitch!
Now, getting to the big stuff. Your sales pitch is the determining factor of your entire process prior to this step. All of the time you spent researching your prospects, warming them up and writing your article comes down to how well you pitch it. The editors of large platforms most likely receive dozens (even hundreds) of emails a day that demand their attention. The most considerate thing you can do is to keep your pitches concise and engaging. The best pitch would have these three characteristics: a straightforward headline, a brief credibility statement, and a pitching statement telling the editor about your proposed article.
It’s recommended that you stick to short, personalised, and specific pitch emails in order to get the results you want. Think of it as pleasing your English teacher, who has tons of papers to write. If the assigned word count is 500 words, writing 1,000 words will not get you a higher grade. If anything, it will tire and overwhelm your teacher. The stakes are even higher for email pitches because the editors aren’t even obliged to reply to your pitch, let alone accept it. So, earn yourself brownie points by saving them time.
If you have a financial blog and are interested in monetising it, sign up with T DOT UK today and become an Affiliate!
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