Blog your way to your target audience

Are you looking for a little more exposure online? Hoping to get your name out there without spending advertising dollars? Why not be a guest blogger! Read on to see why being a guest blogger is a win-win for everyone involved, and how it can increase your online visibility.

It never fails. When I’m working with a client on a new website, and I ask the very important question, “Will you blog?” My question is usually met with silence, followed by groans, and then the question, “Do I have to?”

Blogging is important for a number of reasons, which we’ll save for another post. But Guest Blogging—writing a one-off blog post for another company’s website—is something most people don’t often think of doing, and yet, it’s easy to do, and not terribly time-consuming. Here’s why you should add it to your marketing plan…

Reach a whole new audience

All the content marketing you generally do is within your own channels. You may blog on your own website, post status updates on your own Facebook page, tweet on your own Twitter account. But being a guest blogger means your post (and hopefully a link to your website and social media accounts) will be viewed by a new audience—people you don’t reach on a daily basis. Your post will be on someone else’s website, and they also may push that post out to their social media as well. Besides the increased audience, it’s also a personal endorsement. If this company or digital magazine is putting up your blog post, the audience will see it as a testimonial to the fact that you are the expert on whatever topic you are writing about.

Increase your SEO

As long as your post is linking back to your website, you are increasing your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’s not going to drive thousands of new people to your site (unless you are guest blogging somewhere like The Huffington Post, which isn’t out of reach, by the way!), but any backlinks to your website from another trusted website increases your ranking on search engines.

Make new relationships

Take this as a chance to create new relationships and build your network. While reaching out to existing contacts about writing a guest blog is certainly the easiest route, why not reach out to people you don’t know yet. What blogs or companies do you follow? Why not reach out to them to ask about the possibility of writing a guest blog. Whether or not they agree, you are forging new relationships, and building relationships is networking!

If you’ve been looking for that next great new marketing idea, guest blogging may just be what you’ve been waiting for. Start reaching out to your favorite industry websites and blogs today!