Guest posting is a great way to market your product or service, reach new audiences and build the authority of your domain. And whilst many people enjoy writing, not everyone enjoys the outreach part. And let’s be honest, if you are doing it wrong, you are going to get a good number of rejections.
And that can wear an individual down. But with a plan and a few best practices, you’ll quickly get past that and be building great links to build your position in the serps.
Be Organised
It’s important to be organised about your outreach campaign. Regardless of whether you are using a bespoke platform or a good old excel spreadsheet. Plan out each follow up email and mark it on your calendar.
Do Your Research
Take some time to look through the site, read a few of the posts. Read the comments, try to understand the audience and what the attraction of the site is. Does it do something unique that people can’t find elsewhere? Is it a good fit for you? Remember if you are doing this for SEO that the site should thematically match yours.
Make sure you can write a suitable piece of content that will appeal to the audience. After doing your research, you should have an idea what topics you can write about that will appeal to the site owner and the audience.
Engage on Social Media
Whilst this might seem a little like stalking, it does go a long way to preparing your target, for the email. By reaching out on social media or in the comments section, you increase the chance of your name being recognised and your email being taken note of.
Personalise Your Outreach
Try and put yourself in the editor’s shoes. How many emails do they get every day and what kind of email would get a response? The site editors you are contacting probably get hundreds of emails a week requesting guest posts. The first thing you can do is to include their name if possible. And remember to be concise. A simple well stated message is far more likely to get a response than a long winded essay.
If you have previously published work, be sure to include the links and state your qualification to write about the proposed subject showing your expertise.
The Follow-Up
No response? Yeah, well that’s life. Now on to the next opportunity. Not so fast buddy, no response isn’t a flat out no. You should continue to send follow up emails until you get that unequivocal denial. And even after you get a ‘no’, remember that this may mean not right now. So try and touch base with these editors every now and again.
Everyone’s A Winner
If possible, try to make your proposal mutually beneficial. Remember that a part of human nature is the question ‘What’s in it for me?’. If you are doing outreach on behalf of a company, think of a suitable gift. If it’s yourself, do you have an engaged audience on social media you can share the post with?
And if all this doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, you can always outsource it to an seo services company that will take care of all the nitty gritty for you.
So to wrap up, the key things are to be yourself, have a schedule, be clear and concise about your proposal and offer something in return if possible.
