Good websites are always on the lookout for talented, reliable guest bloggers. Filling up their creative pipelines with strong content is a win-win, expanding their audience, increasing traffic and engaging readers. Opportunities to guest blog are plentiful, but as with everything, there’s a right way and a wrong way to write a guest blog pitch.
Do it right and you’re on your way to reaping the rewards—higher inbound traffic to your own blog or site, increased visibility, networking opportunities and improved credibility—but do it wrong, and you’ve may burn your bridges with blog managers who will likely ignore future pitches from you.
1) Do your homework. Nothing is more frustrating to a blog manager than a blog pitch that completely misses its mark with its intended audience. Take the time to read the blog’s current content to get a sense of who is reading it and the topics of interest to them.
2) Be a rule follower. This is the easiest one. Before you send a pitch, read the blog’s guest post submission guidelines. Blog managers use these guidelines to weed out some of the lesser quality and spam blog pitches they get. Follow the rules so your pitch doesn't fall into the loser “rule-breaker” pile.
3) Court them on social media. Might sound creepy, but before you pitch blog managers, get to know them by reading their content, commenting on their blog posts, following them on Twitter and other social media platforms and sharing their content with your readers. This way, when your pitch hits their inboxes, your name will ring a bell.
4) Address them by name. Once you’ve developed somewhat of a relationship with the blog managers via your social media courting efforts described above, don’t waste those efforts. Personalize your pitches by using the blog managers' names in the message greeting and within the body of the email.
5) Pick a fresh topic. Once you’ve picked a website and chosen a topic, do your due diligence. Conduct a Google site search to determine if that specific topic has been covered there. Blog managers will be much more interested in topics that relevant, timely and new to their audiences.
6) Carefully craft your subject line. A bad subject line will most likely lead to a swift “delete” of your email by its recipient. Keep it simple and to the point; be descriptive and honest and include a possible working title so blog managers will know exactly what they can expect in the email.
7) Be specific. Don’t pitch very general topics because blog managers are busy and don’t want to have to brainstorm and whittle down topics with you. The less work they have to do, the better. Pick a topic and then find a very specific and unique angle from which to cover it, so blog managers will know exactly what you’re proposing in order to determine if it's a good fit.
8) Start strong. Be sure the opening of your pitch message packs a punch to ensure you don’t lose blog managers' attention. Quickly introduce yourself and explain as succinctly as possible why this topic would be of interest to their readers and how you’re going to spin it in an informative, engaging and entertaining way.
9) Proofread your pitch. Sounds obvious, but your pitch is actually the first thing in most cases that the blog manager has read that you have written so a pitch littered with typos will surely meet its end prematurely. Read it aloud or have a co-worker or friend read it to make sure it’s free of mistakes and well written.
10) Mind your manners. Remember your mother always reminding you to say “please” and “thank you?” Well, this is a terrible time to forget social basic etiquette. Take the time to thank blog managers for considering your guest blog post.
Guest blogging can provide tremendous benefits to those looking to increase their visibility, position themselves as industry experts, network with others, promote their content and drive traffic to their websites and/or blogs. The key to obtaining these guest blog opportunities is to craft compelling pitches that grab the attention of blog managers and convince them that you can help them out by producing and delivering engaging content for their readers.
Are you interested in submitting a guest blog post to Kuno Creative? See our guest blog guidelines here!
Photo Credit: streamishmc
Barb Schmitz is professional writer with more than 20 years of experience writing for B2B and B2C publications and web sites. She served as an editor on Computer-Aided Engineering magazine for more than 10 years before starting her own PR/freelance writing business in 2000. Her expertise includes interviewing, researching and writing whitepapers, blogs, eBooks, case studies, and feature articles.
