Today, people distrust aggressive sales tactics more than ever. In fact, intrusive advertising triggers a reaction of strong dislike. In response, business owners and marketers have devised strategies for getting their target customers to make a purchase without being pushed. The goal is now to understand the audience better and gently nudge them toward the desired action. That’s what we call an inbound marketing strategy and it’s where guest posting can help.
Yet, the approach also comes with its own unique set of challenges. Though effective, inbound marketing tactics like creating quality guest posts can be both labor and time-intensive. What is worse? It’s too easy to put in so much effort and see it all go down the drain. You must know what you are doing to get the right results. Keep reading to learn how to avoid the pitfalls of inbound marketing.
Why Are Inbound Marketing Strategy Activities Crucial for Business Growth?
Marketing today is a continuous fight to get the attention of your target audience and drive them to choose you rather than the competitors. Well, inbound marketing is how you get customers while saving money. You can reduce the cost of lead acquisition by 80% in just five months with strategic inbound marketing. If you do everything right, you will be able to:
- Understand your customers’ pain points and discover some ways to create quality content or personalize your messages to provide the solutions they need.
- Get the social proof your brand needs to gain a competitive edge.
- Build content and relationships within your niche.
- Form and nurture better relationships with new and existing customers to foster brand loyalty.
- Align and adjust your approach to get more leads. A good digital inbound marketing strategy is crucial for success as it’s an effective way to study and analyze customer behavior.
- Decide whether you want to do your inbound marketing
What Are the Benefits of Guest Blogging for Inbound Marketing?
Blogging is as old as digital marketing. Even as far back as 2013, 82% of marketers indicated they were able to acquire customers just from blogging alone. But does it still work today? Well, guest blogging is the preferred method for many marketers when you publish your content on other blog sites. How does this help?
Today, more than half of marketing leads and sales happen due to referrals. This is one of the main benefits of guest blogging for inbound marketing. You are able to expand your brand reach to a new audience. If you are getting published on quality popular sites, that’s like being endorsed by them, and you get referred to so many people at once. Thus, you create more awareness of your products or services. You get to nurture this new relationship and boost engagement that will eventually lead to conversions.
Still, if you are new to guest posting, it might be quite complicated to make it an effective inbound marketing strategy. So, you will need to either hire an in-house team of professionals (outreachers, copywriters, and SEO strategists) or outsource the whole process. One of the most efficient ways to do that is by using a guest posting service (aka directory). What is it? It’s a platform with a huge selection of web pages ready to publish your guest posts. Now, imagine how many hours of work such a database can save you.
Guest Posting Strategy: Common Challenges for Digital Marketers
By now, you are probably hyped about the many ways you can implement guest posting strategy best practices that empower you to win all digital marketing competitions. But before you do anything, let’s look at some of the common challenges that might come up with your guest posting strategy. Knowledge is protection, so having these insights can help you make plans that minimize risks. And on this note, the four common hurdles are:
- So many tools and software options. When it comes to getting more link mentions and even better opportunities for guest posts, you will find so many tools. For a pro, this might not be much of an issue, but it can become overwhelming for a newbie. It can get more challenging to try everything and see what works best for you, not to mention the time and costs you spend too.
- Budget issues. Ok, guest posting these days is more expensive than before. In theory, you are supposed to do everything (research, pitch, content creation, etc.) and then find a site to publish your work for free. In reality, though, you will have to spend some serious bucks, especially if you want quick results. This means getting experienced writers and even a white hat agency to take some stress off you.
- Measuring effectiveness and tracking results. People make the same mistake: they think that just because their guest posting strategy works so well, they will be able to see results almost instantly. Instead, they may be unsure of how well their efforts are paying off. Plus, how can you optimize for better results if you can’t even track accurately? Sometimes, it may take months before you finally see the desired growth. The good news is once the results become visible, they’ll be getting better over time.
- Changing search engine policies and updates. You wouldn’t know how often the algorithms change. This can impact the effectiveness of your strategies as it means that some things may need to be adjusted; otherwise, your website’s organic traffic may drop, resulting in a loss of potential revenue.
Best Practices for Creating Quality Guest Posts
Beyond increasing brand awareness, quality guest posts are great for enhancing your domain authority and showing your expertise. The more people think of you as an up-to-date source of insights in your industry, the more credibility and trust you get. Here are some tips to help you make the kind of guest posts that drive results:
#1 It All Starts With the Right Research
Quality research is the root of all quality guest posts. It starts from digging up all you can about your target audience. Thus, you have a chance to learn about the topics they like, the content format they prefer, their pain points, etc. If you know who your customers are, you’ll be able to provide them with the right value and win them over.
#2 Know What You Want to Achieve With Your Post
Yes, a consistent guest posting strategy is a great technique for skyrocketing your business success, but there’s a nuance. For example, if you want to build your brand authority, your topics and style will likely differ from those you use when working on a promotional guest post. One post will not magically hit every single goal you have. So be sure to know what you want before you even kickstart your campaign.
#3 Be Strategic About the Platform You Choose
You can have the best quality content, but if you do not publish it on an equally high-quality site, you might end up disappointed. At this point, you are probably thinking of high-domain sites like USAToday, Forbes, etc. They are great, but ensure that any blog you choose is also niche-relevant, has the right audience, a natural backlink profile, and values that align with yours.
#4 Value Is Your Password
This applies to your pitch and the content itself. Just like you would want the subject line in your pitch to be snappy and intriguing, your title should be the same. Don’t sound robotic; instead, be engaging and use words that paint mental pictures and draw your readers in. Don’t be afraid to share relevant personal experiences where appropriate. But don’t rely on just anecdotal evidence; instead, use verifiable facts and data to hammer in your points. Thus, you’ll make your content even more authentic, authoritative, and valuable. Thankfully, there are lots of ways today to bring the power of AI automation to your content writing, which can make a lot of difference.
#5 The Rules of SEO Content Writing Still Apply
Your content still needs to have the right keywords and proper formatting. Error-free, readable content is always a win. What should you do then? Be sure to review and edit it until you get that balance you’re looking for. Also, a couple of quality pictures and maybe even a video or infographics can elevate your article.
#6 Encourage Action and Feedback Without Being Too Salesy
Your guest post should inspire some sort of action, even if it just gets the reader clicking on the link in your bio or the social media buttons. Encourage people to leave their own opinions or feedback. This lets you get the pulse of your audience and can be crucial for crafting your following guest posts.
Conclusion
There are many benefits of guest blogging. Yet, the main perk of guest posting for marketers is the opportunity to appeal to the right customers and boost leads while saving funds. If you take the time to create quality guest posts, you can expect a big difference in your inbound marketing results.