Content engagement, content management, content-driven results
You’ve seen or heard one of these or the dozens of other similar phrases recently. But when your Internet marketing agency proclaims, “Content is King!” during a conference call, what does it really mean? Why is it so important, and what happens if you ignore it?
First, let’s define content marketing, according to the Content Marketing Institute:
Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.
In other words, you want to pinpoint your target audience and share compelling and useful information with them so that even if they don’t need your goods or services at that time, they will view you as a reputable option in the future for themselves or to recommend to someone else. The key is that you are not selling, you’re informing. It’s non-interruptive marketing at its core.
Content marketing comes in many forms such as social content, video, blog commenting, posting on guest blogs, etc. In this article we will mainly focus on the importance of guest blogging in Internet marketing and website design in Philadelphia and surrounding areas.
What is Guest Blogging?
Guest blogging is a form of Internet marketing that has rapidly grown in popularity. Through guest blog posting you are signaling to search engines and potential clients that your content is valuable, popular, and useful to those who read it.
It’s also crucial to understand that guest blogging is completely different from article submissions. When signals from article directory submissions started becoming obsolete, many SEOs turned to guest blogging. If guest blog posts are done correctly, they can garner amazing links to your website from very credible sources. If the process is done sloppily, it can end up costing you hours of work and potentially appear as spam or black-hat SEO.
What are the Benefits of Guest Blogging?
The obvious answer is link-juice to your website, but so much lies beyond that small piece of the puzzle (“think beyond the link!”). There are several benefits of guest blogging when it’s done correctly:
- Build Professional Relationships – this takes time, and as long as you are consistent in your efforts you will see professional relationships easily expand by interacting with others in the field through blog commenting and sharing. You may be asked to guest post again in the future or even build a partnership through this outlet.
- Develop Leads – by posting submissions on guest blogs, you are presenting yourself as an expert in your field and setting yourself up to be contacted by people who want more of that expertise and insight! Make sure to respond to reader comments and keep the conversation going (forming a relationship and nurturing the lead).
- Gain Authority on Your Subject Matter – guest posting allows you to become an expert on the topic you are covering. The further you push yourself to post comprehensive, well-supported submissions, the more likely you are to start conversations with others and appear as an authority figure. Not only are you benefitting your business, you’re also facilitating personal growth.
- Expand Your Audience – like any form of Internet marketing, guest blogging is all about targeting the right audience. Once you discover who that audience is and in which outlets they are interacting, your conversion rate is more likely to be higher. A guest post can also reel in more blog and social followers, if that is your goal.
The Two Pieces of Guest Blogging
Whether the process is brand new or you’ve been doing it for years, don’t be scared by the unfamiliar. It’s actually easier than you think if you follow a few simple guidelines. Guest blog posting is comprised of two parts:
**”High Quality” being the operative phrase!
Outreach
Fostering a relationship with those you want to connect with is the bread and butter of guest blogging and internet marketing as a whole. Outreach is like sales; you are going to pitch to a lot of blog owners and maybe only get 1 response in 50 emails sent. This is totally normal—stay positive and keep searching for opportunities! Efficiency is key in this step. You want to make sure to use your own insight when considering whether or not to guest post on a blog. If the blog seems suspicious (has a manipulated high Page Rank, seems to be part of a network, or some other factor that seems off), it probably is. If it’s unrelated to any aspect of your business whatsoever or contains poorly written posts, forgo it. Also like sales, you want responses from “qualified leads,” or websites that have actual value in relation to your goals. An Internet marketing company can help you identify valuable sites for guest posting and arrange a process to streamline outreach.
Content
After establishing a relationship with a potential site, make sure that you offer them indispensable, well-written content that people will want to read. It can be easy to get caught up in the number of links you receive, but remember it is quality not quantity. The content you are putting out there is essentially marketing collateral that potential clients may come across at any time. Blog owners are more likely to post your submission if it contains interesting content they can’t find anywhere else. Whatever content you provide, also ensure that the owner is willing to link back to your website through a keyword phrase for which you’d like to rank, whether it’s in the post somewhere or an author bio.
Still not convinced?
A little healthy peer pressure is never a bad thing—check out these 8 brands that are guest blogging and getting crazy good results!