How To Get The Best From Guest Blogging

It may feel like every other blog you read is written by some sort of ‘influencer’. It’s true that affiliate marketing is on the rise – more brands are partnering together to increase exposure for both their businesses through guest blogging.

As well as giving you the opportunity to tap into a whole new audience, it adds value to your own. Readers can gain relevant insights into areas beyond your expertise, showing that you care about giving them all the information they need.

Every business has some kind of influence on their market, but partnerships don’t automatically turn victorious. You’ll need to take numerous factors into consideration before collaboration commences.

Ensure it’s relevant

The products or services that partners provide need to complement what you supply. You can only tap into one another’s markets if there’s the potential to do so, otherwise the content will be irrelevant. Think about what your audiences have in common and find an angle.

But don’t be too broad. An accountancy firm joining forces with an Italian restaurant would doubtfully work. That is, unless a huge amount of business owners desperately need to cook linguine, or Italian food lovers happen to all be business owners needing their accounts sorting!

Be picky about partners

You can’t choose just anyone to collaborate with. They need to be an expert in their area. An intern at a law firm, for example, probably wouldn’t have much credibility offering legal advice to an audience that’s accustomed to hearing from qualified professionals.

The brand or individual appearing as a guest on your blog will need to be respected. LinkedIn can be a fantastic tool to research whether a potential partner has already gained authority within their industry.

Understand your audience

Your audiences will likely be similar, but they won’t be the same. There will be distinction in terms of interests, as well differences in levels of understanding. For example, a mortgage firm directed at those climbing the property ladder may find that their partner’s audience of first-time buyers struggle to understand certain terminology.

On top of this, consider the way you write your guest blog. Perhaps your partner has a characteristic tone of voice, or uses more simplified language. Although the content should still feel like it’s written by your brand, the expert, the readers will be used to a particular style.

Add value

The guest blogs you produce should add value for the intended audience. It shouldn’t be something they can read anywhere – think about the information you could provide that would really benefit them.

Also, ensure that it’s not too heavily sales-orientated. This is likely the first time the audience will have heard of you, so it needs to be a gentle introduction. If either you or your partner come across as simply wanting their money, they’ll be repelled, and this will negatively affect both brands.

Promote it on your platforms

With your own brand’s content, it’s likely you’re promoting it on your social media platforms. This should also be the case for the guest blogging content – it can’t be a one-sided partnership, after all.

So ensure you make the effort – tag them where possible, and share where you can. You could even include their blog in your email marketing, as valuable content is certain to secure subscribers.

Follow these tips and you’re sure to get the best from guest blogging. However, it may be that when partnering with a brand you find that blog content writing isn’t for you. Or perhaps proofreading and editing is proving difficult.

Our content agency would be more than happy to assist. Get in touch with us to discuss how we can produce the best content for your partnerships.