Why SMBs Should Get Serious About Guest Blogging

If you’ve been slow to adopt a guest blogging strategy for your small business, I can understand why. It’s hard enough to keep constant content on your site without dedicating time to creating content for someone else. But in this noisy content-eat-content world guest blogging on relevant third-party Web sites is a powerful way to grow your business and introduce your brand to new customers.

How exactly will guest blogging bring value to your business? Below you’ll find six potent side effects of a serious guest blogging strategy.

1. Increased Exposure

You know those people who appear to be everywhere all at once? Their content is always being tweeted and shared, and you hear their name from everyone in your contact list? This isn’t an accident. They’ve strategically increased their exposure by being a part of multiple conversations. Guest blogging can help you accomplish this. By contributing content to relevant blogs, sites and satellite communities you increase your exposure by introducing yourself to new audiences. You put your brand out and give people something to talk about and associate you with. With new content on multiple channels, you’re always part of the conversation.

2. Increase Your Community & Engagement

Guest blogging also gives you the opportunity to increase the size and engagement of your community. By posting on related blogs there’s a good chance you’ll have an overlapping audience of readers who know you, as well as the blog you’re writing for. By showing up in another one of their trusted networks, it raises the trust they have for your site and elevates your profile in their eyes. At the same time, you’ll also be introduced to an audience who may not have been familiar with you beforehand but who is interested in the material you’re talking about. Without your having to sell, they you and how your blog and/or Web site can help them reach their goals. Because they heard about you from a site they trust, now they’re more inclined to check you out.

3. You Can Attract Varying Audiences

By being strategic with the content you write and the sites you pitch it too, you can go after a variety of different audiences. For example, maybe you’re a local caterer trying to increase your customer-based in a certain area. Sure, you could write for other catering-related blogs and try to work up some partnerships or goodwill. Or you can get more creative and go after a completely different audience than the people already reading your blog.

You could write guest posts for:

• Recipe blogs.
• Wedding blogs.
• Raw cooking blogs.
• Travel blogs about local cuisines.
• Work at home moms in need of dinner or fun meal ideas.
• Corporate events blogs.

By going after completely different types of readers than your main blog, you can introduce yourself and your company to people who wouldn’t have found you otherwise.

4. Brands You With A Topic/Expertise

Consistent authoritative blogging about a topic or niche brands you in that area. Pretty soon you become the Go To source for social media. Or home repair. Or DIY designs. Or whatever else it is you want to be known for. By increasing your exposure around the Web for these topics, you leave behind a trail of helpfulness and expertise that will be tied back to you wherever you go. This can be a huge help if you’re trying to build your personal brand and authority.

5. Build Relationships

Let’s face it, we could all use a little help. By offering to guest blog for someone else, you’re making their load a little lighter and adding value to their community. That’s not something a small business owner is going to forget. By building that relationship now, it allows you to take advantage of it in the future. Maybe you’ll need them to “cover” for you on your blog during a really busy time or maybe you’ll need them to share an article you wrote or to make an introduction for you. A pre-existing relationship will help.

6. Take Advantage of SEO Benefits

Another powerful side effect of guest blogging is all the SEO benefits you get to take advantage of. Like having the ability to link to your own Web site via keyword-rich anchor text and driving traffic to important pages. Or varying your author bios on different sites you post on to go after different terms. Or building links to your site simply by creating a great post that everyone wants to link to and reference.

It may seem like guest blogging just equals more work for you to do, but if you take a look at all the benefits listed above its clear to see why so many SMBs have adopted aggressive guest blogging strategies.

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