Marketing jobs have changed over the last couple of years. Content strategy is a key consideration for all websites, and marketers have had to hit the ground running and develop new skills to keep up with the ever-evolving world of SEO.
One way to improve your marketing campaigns is to enlist the help of a guest blogger. In fact, guest blogs have become a core part of many large organisations’ content marketing projects, and thousands of agencies now work with freelance writers that provide guest blogs in any given niche.
In this article, we’ll look at how guest blogging could help you in your job as a marketer, and how the risks of guest blogging can be avoided.
What is Guest Blogging?
Guest blogging is the process of supplying top quality content to other blogs on the web. In return for the content, that blog will post a link back to your website.
No marketing specialist would recommend using guest blogging as a standalone project; it has to be integrated with a wider marketing campaign, and it has to be used in an organic way – never forced, never contrived and never as part of a spammy link swap.
Benefits of Guest Blogging
Earning backlinks is great, but there are other benefits associated with guest blogging that will benefit your marketing campaign too. These could include:
- Brand awareness across the web
- New-found authority on a certain subject
- Building trust between consumers and the brand
- Associating the brand with quality information that nobody else can offer
- Promoting good vibes about the campaign through contests, promotions and other complementary initiatives
As you can see, guest blogging isn’t just about links: it can benefit the brand on lots of levels. Being sensitive to a more holistic approach will serve you well in any marketing job.
Risks of Guest Blogging
Google will continue to crack down on any marketing tactic that it feels is spammy or unnatural. That should always be at the back of your mind when you develop a guest blogging strategy. While the vast majority of guest blogs are of a high standard, there’s still a tendency for some guest bloggers to supply poor content. Quality costs more, but don’t compromise: if you do, it will be a detriment to your marketing plan since it’ll eventually lead to a penalty.
There are a few golden rules that will help you rise above poor quality guest blogs:
- Keep the quality high. Don’t give away any content that you wouldn’t publish yourself.
- Invest. Don’t cut corners by employing sub-standard writers. Go for the best writer you can afford. Cheaper is not better in guest blogging.
- Consider your audience. Is the guest blog going to reach the right people, attract shares and promote authority? If not, you’re not working with the right blog publishers.
- Are you trying to hit a target or fulfill a quota? Don’t. If it’s not natural, ditch it and start again.
But despite the risks, don’t shy away from guest blogging. In its purest and most genuine form, it’s a valuable tool for marketers. It offers benefits to blogger and publisher, it builds important networks and it provides Google with quality information and original thought on a given topic (which is what it really wants).
By far the most important outcome is the feedback you get from your analytics package. Be sure to track and measure each guest blog you put out there; learn what works, replicate your best efforts and ditch any tactics that aren’t working.
Sam Wright is a writer working with Brand Republic, a website listing hundreds of marketing jobs.
