One of my favorite quotes is “experts become experts by sharing expert resources.” I would add on to the end of that quote by saying “and those resources don’t all have to come from you.” Look at many mega-popular article platforms like Medium, Huffington Post, and other industry resource platforms. Many of them house articles from countless professionals who are experts in their field, not just a select few.
Why Guest Posting is so Valuable
Your blog is also a fantastic place to attract not only clients and followers, but other professionals (experts) within your market or “neighboring market” who could be excellent networking and collaborative opportunities for you to expand your audience.
Especially if you are a new business, reaching out to other professionals, bloggers, and publications, you can create opportunities to reach beyond your own site’s limitations and engage with a much larger amount of people, drawing attention to yourself, your brand, and your credibility.
Allowing guest bloggers or writers on your own site is another excellent opportunity to bring in new engagement and strengthen your own blog’s credibility by providing more expert opinions and resources. This also alleviates some of the stress of having to constantly create new fresh content on a regular basis. Everyone thinks differently and digests content differently, so by collaborating with other individuals who complement your brand and skillsets only makes the content you create together that much more valuable and engaging.
How to Pitch Your Guest Post
One of the scariest things about guest posting is often the “big pitch,” especially while we are smaller brands that don’t yet have the major traffic and attention that other bigger brands generally search out in their guest bloggers.
But they were once our size too and remember what it was like to have a bigger brand welcome them to their creative space and open up the chance to show the world wide web the expertise you have to offer.
When deciding what brands to pitch to, a little pre-research goes a LONG way.
- First, make a list of all the brands with blogs that you admire most and directly relate to your target audience. What is it about those brands that would benefit you by contributing your content there and what would they gain by bringing you on as a featured guest?
- Next, go through their past posts and see if they even allow guest authors to contribute content to their sites. Not everyone does, but also don’t let that stop you from trying. If you have a piece you’ve written that would be PERFECT for a specific brand, but they rarely let guest authors on their site, I say go forth and ask! The worst thing they could say is no, but the best thing they could say is YES! Plus, even if they say no, you’ve shown your cards and introduced yourself personally acknowledging your recognition of their content and they’ll remember that. They might even hop on over to your site to check out your content further. And now, if in the future they ever decide to potentially welcome guest authors to their blog, chances are your name will be on their mind.
- While you are pursuing through their old posts, take note of what content they’ve already shared and what content they haven’t. What new idea can you present that hasn’t been covered already by that brand that could open up a chance for you to spark a new conversation for their community?
- If they clearly allow guest posters, check their site for any rules or guidelines for how they want guest posts submitted. Some sites have this and some don’t but showing that you looked just in case demonstrates how serious you are about collaborating with that brand.
- Personally engage the brand. Directly address the main brand owner (or specifically designated individual if that is established). I recommend emailing them directly v.s. an open post on social media calling them out on whether or not they’ll let you post to their blog. Keep it private and keep it professional. Introduce yourself, give a little background to who you are, how you found them, maybe a past post that resonated with you, why you want to collaborate and what you’re ideas are. Remember that this post should be valuable for both parties so outlining what this collaboration will do not only for you, but for them and their creative community will really enhance the sincerity and seriousness of your post proposal.
For myself, when an interested brand approaches me to collaborate on a guest post and they’ve done a little research into my audience and what content I generally address, that speaks volumes to me! I’m like yes, this person is serious, and chances are I’ll be totally open to the collaboration.
I never recommend just throwing out there into the interwebs that you want to guest post. Have some post topics in mind and be ready to outline a potential post option for someone if they reach out in return. Never show up empty-handed and expect the other blogger to provide the content for you. If they have to do that then they mine as well just write the post themselves.
