If you want to increase exposure and grow your website, guest post outreach is an avenue that you may need to explore. Check out our post here to find out how you can find the right websites you should guest post and how to form your winning pitches.
Looking for ways to build backlinks?
Regardless of what people at Google say, your website’s backlink quality still plays a pretty important factor in getting your brand to appear on the front page of Google.
In which case, securing guest posting opportunities through outreach can be a good tactic.
Why is Guest Post Outreach useful?
You know how it goes. Google, and all other search engines for that matter, like high-quality content and backlinks.
And the best way you can fill your website with both awesome content and backlinks at once is through collaborating with other websites, or in other words: guest posting.
Guest posting or blogging, as you might understand, refers to the technique of creating content for other websites in a related niche in exchange for a series of benefits.
Through guest blogging outreach, you can tap into the website’s existing audiences and introduce your brand directly to a big batch of new readers, on top of getting backlinks that point back to your website.
Usually, the guest post you create has your byline on it, and this will also add a credit back to your social profile or website.
Of course, though guest blogging benefits may sound super attractive, it can only work if you do it right. So, the next question is how? Here we have a 4-step guest blogging outreach plan that will help you get it done.
How to Create Guest Post Opportunities through outreach?
1. Find the best sites for guest posting
The first step to any effective guest blogging strategy is to find suitable websites you can guest post.
At this stage, you would want to open a spreadsheet and start listing out websites that can help you connect with your target audiences. In this list, you want to filter out blog sites that are relevant to your niche but not directly in competition with you.
You can do this by just Googling it but what search queries you type matters and some of the search terms you can use is:
- “Write For Us” + [niche/ topic/ industry]
- “disclosure policy” blog + [niche/ topic/ industry]
- “guest post” + [niche/ topic/ industry]
These keywords can help you find blogs and sites that welcome guest post opportunities.
On the other hand, a great place to explore suitable websites is to use blogger outreach tools like Alexa Audience Overlap Tool. The tool is simple to use and you can just enter a website domain name to produce a list of similar sites.
You can enter your own website or your competitors’ to get your websites, and also take note of the overlap score that lets you know on a scale from 1 to 100, how similar your audiences are with the website.
The higher the score, the more likely the website shares similar target audiences with you.
Once you have your list of websites ready, you can move onto the second stage of your blogger outreach strategy which is to research their guest post guidelines.
2. Explore the website and check for guest post guidelines
Next, it’s time to do some quick research on these websites.
Visit the websites on your list and start exploring around. You want to check out if this blog is a good fit by asking these questions:
- Does the blog accept guest posts? Navigate the site to look for any message stating that the site is accepting guest posts. If it’s nowhere to be found, you can check the posts and see if they are all written by the brand’s own content marketers. If that’s the case, the website may not be accepting guest posts.
- Can you find the right person to contact? Sometimes, securing a guest post is about getting the right contacts. Research the website’s team structure, their social media accounts and find the person responsible for managing guest posts.
- What are the blog’s domain and page authority? Check the website’s domain authority, this would help you evaluate if the website is a low-tier or high-tier site. This however doesn’t mean the higher the better, rather you need to compare the site to your own and see if it is in your range so it’s more likely to appreciate the collaboration.
- How much traffic does the website get? Take a closer look at the website traffic stats, search it through sites like SimilarWeb to see how many visitors are reading their articles monthly and where their traffic source is from. After all, you want to make sure you are guest posting on a site with a high reader engagement.
- How is their social media reach? Some guest posting sites now include social media as part of their traffic sources, so take those into consideration as well because your submitted guest post might not only benefit from being posted on their website, but there’s a chance it will be shared on their social network as well.
Thus, based on this research, rearrange your list of potential guest blogging websites and prioritize contacting the more promising blogs that would most likely accept your guest post outreach and which sites that would bring you the most benefits.
With this new list, now it’s time to develop a winning pitch and desirable content idea for your top 5 to 10 potential guest blogging websites.
3. Develop winning topic and content ideas
You need to have something in it for them. Bloggers don’t just want content but they want high-quality content that is capable of driving traffic, social media shares, conversions, and comments to their website.
To come up with a list of potential content topics that will appeal to each website, we suggest you use our BiQ’s Rank Intelligence.
By simply entering your potential guest posting website’s domain, you can immediately access their ranking keywords and positions. Next, we suggest that you uncover their keyword rankings from #5 to #20 with a minimum search volume of 100.
Note that these are keywords that the website would most likely want to rank higher for, and you can identify if there are any content gaps you can fulfill.
Or simply run these keywords through the BiQ Keyword Intelligence to discover other related keywords you can target for a potential guest post. Do a site search for the new keyword and check if it has been previously covered before.
Even if the keyword has been previously created before, you can always see if you can spin a new and better perspective on it to convince them.
4. Craft a compelling pitch for your guest post
Now that you have found the right websites, contact, and also your topic/ content to offer, it’s time to reach out to the website, and here are some quick tips:
a. Contact the right person where they frequent.
Outreach is, first and foremost, an attempt at contact in the hopes of evoking a response. This can mean reaching out not only through emails, but also through web forms, social media, blog comments, calls, and more.
Ideally, you want to reach out to the person at the platforms where they frequent. Do you see him or her tweeting often or posting on Instagram? The higher chance for your outreach is to be where the recipient will most likely open, read and respond to.
b. Create a guest post pitch that speaks to the editor
Your email should speak directly to the person you are contacting. Include the name of the person you’re emailing and make sure you draft a message that does not read like a template.
For starters, you can always mention one of their recent blog posts or share what you like about their website. However, be genuine. Make sure your compliment is specific and comes from the heart, otherwise, it can simply drive them away once detected.
Now with the content pitch, it pays to be direct with the editor and to include a sentence or two that convinces him or her why the topic would be a good fit for their website and its readers.
Explain the benefits of collaborating and let the editor know how your guest post can strengthen their existing content and further play into their authority as a whole.
If applicable, share examples and demonstrate your own website authority.
Include samples of content you have published on your website or through other guest posts. This would be helpful to let the editor gauge the quality of your work and see if you are a right fit for their blog.
Most importantly, end it with a call-to-action, question, or even deadline to increase the chance of eliciting a response to your email.
Note: Read and edit your email to make sure there’s no bad formatting or grammatical mistakes, otherwise it would negatively impact your chances.
c. Use a stand out email subject line
Blogger’s inboxes are always full of junk. So with your email competing with another hundred emails for attention, you need to use a compelling subject line to ensure your email gets noticed.
One trick that often works is to call out the person’s name directly in the subject line to make it seem personal. But otherwise, you can also try interjecting humor, curiosity, or simply make it interesting to stand out.
Especially, if they have a “write for us” page, the term “guest post” probably shows up in their inbox all the time, so be sure to experiment using something more creative.
d. Follow up on your guest post outreach
Sometimes including too many links or attachments might send your email to spam, but take this as a chance to follow up the very next day.
Just drop another simple email to follow up — “Hey, just making sure I didn’t get thrown into spam”
It’s a harsh reality but your guest post outreach is not always going to be greeted immediately. So always follow up and try experimenting with different approaches. Were you kind of long-winded in your last message? Then, make sure your next one is short and sweet.
Remember, it’s not the website that gives out links but people.
That’s why above all, make sure you are building a relationship first and connect with the author or editor managing the website and make them know and like you.
Follow them on social media by liking, sharing, and commenting on their posts before you approach them and send them your pitch.
If the blogger recognizes your name, they’re more likely to open your email or respond to you. And this will increase your odds of guest posting.
Bonus: Approach with Confidence
Confidence is key to successful outreach. Hence, make sure you approach the outreach with confidence. Know that you will be able to provide value to the blogger and their website and that this would be a win-win situation.
Guest Post Outreach Email Templates
Last but not least, here’re some email templates and examples you can use to get started.
Template #1: I love your writing style
| Hello {first name}, {Your name} here with {your blog name}. I’ve been following your blog for a while now and just want to say that I really love your blog and the work you put out. I especially like the part where you said, {Insert excerpt here} Since we are both in the same industry, I thought it would be lovely to connect. Here are some of my works you may be interested in. Thanks, {Your Name} |
Template #2: What do you think about {Blog Idea}?
| Hello {first name}, This is {your name} here from {your blog name}. I have an idea for a blog idea about {content} that I think would be a perfect fit for your blog post. Would you be interested in taking a look at it? Here’s a quick snippet for you to preview. {Insert preview here} And if you would like to read the rest of it, just ping me back. Regards,{Your Name} |
Template #3: Interested in a collaboration?
| Hello {first name}, {Your name} here from {your blog name}. I was reading your post on {Topic} and I really like how you said that {Insert Excerpt} I was thinking that since we’re targeting the same audience, a collaboration would make perfect sense. What do you think? Is that something you’d like to discuss? Let me know and we can always work something out. Thanks, {Your Name} |
Conclusion
When it comes to guest blogging outreach, it’s important to keep in mind that if you don’t succeed, try and try again. Often, guest post outreach may end up lost in a sea of email or overlooked by busy website owners.
However, if your outreach does warrant a successful guest post, the benefits can be endless. It will expand your reach and promote your brand to relevant target audience.
Most importantly, make sure you apply these tips and tools to make sure you are not wasting time with uneventful blogger outreach. The first step to a successful guest post outreach strategy is to make sure you contact the right websites with the best pitches.
