Guest blogging is a powerful and low-cost content marketing tool that over 60% of bloggers use more than five times a month. It’s no secret that landing your guest post on a top-tier publication will benefit you and the brand you represent.
From boosting referral traffic to raising brand awareness, guest blogging is a one-stop strategy for success.
Guest Blogging Should be an SEO and Marketing Priority
Once you’ve established yourself as a keen blogger within the realms of your own brand. It could be time to start taking your content marketing strategy one step further. Guest posting allows you to start publishing your blog posts on other publications as well as your own website. Not only does this improve your backlinking success, but this is also a great way to raise brand awareness industry-wide.
If you’re trying to land a guest post on a top-tier publication, then you probably already know the benefits of a guest blogging strategy, but let’s take a quick look anyway:
- Backlinks within your guest post will drive referral traffic to your website.
- Backlinks can also improve your SEO rankings as search engines like Google see them as a vote of confidence from the website that published your guest post.
- By sharing your guest post on a new platform, your content will reach new audiences and drive them towards your website.
- Quality content helps you position yourself as a thought leader within that niche or industry.
- If your content is of value, other bloggers may link to it in their work, which creates a train of links and will eventually bring readers to your website.
- Following this, the more backlinks you receive within your niche, the more credibility your brand will gain.
Top-Tips for Landing Guest Post Spots
We’ve covered the benefits of guest blogging, but it’s time to learn how you can start outreaching your own content as an online brand. Here are five simple steps to follow if you want to get your guest blog posted on a top-tier publication:
1. Research
Having one or more top-tier publications in mind would be an excellent place to start. Traditionally, top-tier media outlets are those with national or global reach and a significant number of consumers.
Firstly, double-check that these publications are within your niche. For example, Entrepreneur Europe strictly publishes business content, so if you’re trying to establish yourself as a thought leader in the travel industry, this publication wouldn’t be a good fit.
Additionally, once you have chosen a suitable publication, find out the standards and guidelines of the guest posts they usually publish. Some websites may even state they are not accepting guest posts at all.
Researching popular topics within the niche of your target publication will see you on your way to success. Better still, if you’re worried about the timeliness of your piece, why not start mind-mapping some evergreen content ideas?
2. Target Titles and Topics
After doing your research, it is time to come up with titles for your pitch. 56% of editors say content is not suited for their readership, so please come up with titles that match the topics and readership on the site you’re pitching to. Impressing the editors is super important.
Suppose your chosen publication favours guest posts that start with ‘how to’ or ‘six steps to’, then follow this approach. Also, remember to search their entire website and ensure not to pitch something they have published before.
You could come up with one solid title you are set on writing, or you could pitch some ideas with working titles. Just make sure your title(s) include SEO-friendly keywords.
3. Find The Right Point of Contact
Firstly, you must find the right person to pitch to. There might be a contact online for a team member who deals explicitly with guest posts, or you might have to look a little harder.
If you are pitching a business topic, try to find the email of the publication’s business editor. If the website doesn’t have a contacts list, you could explore Linkedin or use the likes of Hunter and Rocketreach to find email addresses.
4. Personalise Outreach
Once you’ve found a suitable email address, write the pitch. Make sure to personalise it with their name and include details on the article and sources you will be linking to.
Editors publish guest posts mainly to share new ideas and expertise with their audience. So, ensure your email pitch includes links to your previously published work and social links such as Linkedin, Twitter or Gravatar to show who you are and your expertise in the industry.
Follow up on your email if they haven’t replied in over a week. Be polite and explain again why your pitch would work for their publication.
5. Send a Draft
Firstly, well done for getting a reply. Remember to keep in touch with your new contact, thank them for their response and acknowledge any feedback they have given. Also, give them a rough idea of when your draft will be ready for review.
As you begin writing your article, follow the publication’s guidelines on images, word count, no-follow and do-follow links, and paragraph structure. This part is super important to show you have paid attention!
Finally, before sending your final draft to the editor, use a grammar checker like Grammarly to review your work. 71% of editors say editing is the most time-consuming task when reviewing guest post content.
Final Note
It is essential to remember that these publications receive hundreds, if not thousands, of emails a day, so outreach emails may get lost or ignored by busy editors. To be successful with your outreach campaign, it’s necessary to keep trying, remain positive and stand out from the crowd.
