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Have you ever thought about having an article of yours published on a well-known website? Think about the traction it could get you, especially if it’s well written, and contains material that people find useful.

Now, imagine that you’re doing this for your business. How much interest in your brand do you think you can arouse from readers of that post? Would this be worth your time, if you decided to give it a try?

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Anecdotal evidence suggests that it already works for many businesses. Guest posting, as this practice is called, has helped both small and large scale enterprises get in front of new potential customers, and rake in a large number of fresh leads. You could benefit from this tactic too if you’re smart at deploying it.

What Exactly is Guest Posting?

Guest posts are best understood when they are contrasted with regular posts. They aren’t created by people working within (or for) the publication on which they appear. They are usually part of their author’s strategy to get more traction for themselves, their business, an event, or a topic or cause that they are concerned about.

Ideally, these posts don’t disrupt the regular content of the publication on which they appear. They tend to stick with the style of the media they’re featured in. For instance, if it’s a website with a bias for how-to articles, the guest posts will probably take a similar shape.

If they’re going to attract the attention of the audience, your guest post will have to meet the following criteria:

•Contain useful information, e.g. answer people’s pressing questions, or show them how to do something.

•Be easy to read, and written in a tone that’s suitable for the publication and its target audience.

•Cast you as an expert on the subject matter you’re tackling.

How to Write a Guest Post

Here’s how to write a guest post and get it to the audience you want to reach.

1. Decide Where You Want Your Post Published

Remember, the ultimate goal of guest posting is to get people interested in someone or something. As a business, you want to attract as much interest as possible, so that more prospects come to you.

You should be looking for media outlets that have a large readership or are well known by the sort of people you want to reach. For instance, if you’re targeting business people, you could go with a widely-read business blog.

Be sure that your chosen site has good traffic coming to it on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. One way of ascertaining this is by checking its ranking on web traffic ranking indexes.

Note that some websites may charge you for your guest post. They may also have other requirements that you need to reach. Find out what the conditions are before pitching your post idea to them. 

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2. Come Up with a Topic

Next, come up with a topic you want to write about. Recall that you’re writing to answer your readers’ questions, show them how to get something done, or persuade them about an important issue. This should inform your choice.

Your article should also be about something related to your business niche. For instance, if you run a car dealership, you may write something like ’10 Affordable Cars You Probably Never Heard About’.

3. Write

Again, be sure that your writing style fits with the tone of the outlet on which you intend to get it published. It’s usually better if it’s written in language that’s easy-to-understand. Unless you’re creating something for a specialized publication, try not to use a lot of technical jargon.

Don’t hesitate to refer to the experiences you’ve had. If you have helped anyone in ways relevant to the article topic, you may want to mention that as well. These references will cast you as an expert in the matter being talked about.

If you can’t write an article yourself, you can always hire someone to do it on your behalf. Furnish them with the information they need, and they should be able to deliver a fine piece if they’re a good writer.

You will have to provide a bio, which is a short note about you and what you do. Make sure you mention your business and include links to your website and social media pages (if the site you’re guest posting on allows this).

4. Have Your Post Published

Pitch your article to the editors at the website via email. You may have to do this before submitting the actual article to them. You should be able to obtain the editors’ email by looking around their site.

Some outlets are more receptive to such pitches and may put up your post after you’ve met a few simple conditions. Others are more rigorous and may not always accept your pitch at the first go.

When they do publish the article, be sure to share it on your online channels. Encourage others to share it as well.

A good article published on a high traffic website should attract a fair amount of views from the public over time. Some of those readers may be so impressed that they’ll get in touch with you through the contact details you dropped in your bio.

Final Words

Guest posting has helped numerous businesses win customers and grow their following. The steps we have shared here should help you achieve similar levels of success.

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This article was first published on 7th January 2020

ikenna-nwachukwu

Ikenna Nwachukwu holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He loves to look at the world through multiple lenses- economic, political, religious and philosophical- and to write about what he observes in a witty, yet reflective style.

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