Should Your Business Hire A Guest Post Service? 5 Questions To Ask Yourself

One thing you never stop asking yourself as an entrepreneur is “What’s next for my business?” I’m sure that you’ve had your fair share of sleepless nights, racing thoughts of what could and what should be, and an overly active imagination that simply refuses to put your mind to rest. So, you lay there, eyes closed but your head running rampant thinking about your next big move. Such is the reality of being an entrepreneur; you’re just never really off the clock.

We can’t blame you though. We know exactly how it feels to always want to move the needle forward in your business. That stubborn desire to keep your foot on the gas pedal and propel your business forward. After all, momentum is crucial to a business’s success. No matter how good a product or service you have, you still need to hit the right timing for it to successfully take off.

Now, here’s a bigger question: Does timing simply come or is it something created? Let’s find out.

If you want to know the answer to this question, you have to look at the big brands – those that have already established themselves as household names. All these market giants started from humble beginnings. Like any other business, they started out as nobodies. Companies no one took much notice of, much less purchased from regularly.

The reason why they became the household names that we know of today is because they’ve successfully established brand awareness in their respective markets. Consumers have become so aware of their brand that they’ve become synonymous to the item they represent (read more).

For example, a Ziploc bag is not the generic name of a resealable plastic bag — “Ziploc” is simply the most widely known brand manufacturer of the item. In the same way Windex is also a brand name, but we use it interchangeably with the product it represents which are window cleaners.

These brands only achieved household name status because of one thing: Brand Awareness. The way to achieve it? Effective marketing.

Content Marketing As Your Branding Strategy

Every brand has a story to tell. In fact, the most successful ones are those that know how to tell the story well. In order to create a lasting impact in your market, you need to be able to create a genuine connection with them and connections are created with communication. It’s arguably next to impossible to communicate with all of your customers on a personal level. Thus, you have to settle for the next best thing: Content Marketing.

As the incredible Seth Godin once said, “Content Marketing is the only real marketing left.” It’s not to dismiss every other marketing strategy out there, but to help other businesses and entrepreneurs come to the realization that in every marketing campaign they implement, the goal should always be to provide value, speak to your audience, and create a relationship with them. More content marketing tips here: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/7-content-marketing-best-practices-in-2023/477344/.

When it comes to speaking to your audience, there’s no better strategy than creating good, quality content. No fancy-schmancy stuff, just good writing and a genuine desire to connect. If you can do that, you’re already halfway done with your new branding campaign. The next step is finding the right platforms to reach a bigger audience. 

Well, the very first thing that you would want to work on is developing your own platforms and creating a content schedule for them. This includes your website, social media pages, and possibly your own business blog as well. Developing these platforms will give your brand a good foundation and can help introduce your business’s identity to the market. But you can’t just stop there.

The thing is, given how vast and congested the internet is, no one is going to take notice of the content you put out unless you learn how to leverage other brands’ influence to boost yours. No matter how good your offer is, be it a product or a service, and how actively you put out incredible content to boost your branding efforts, it will create little to no progress if you are not reaching the right audience – that is, if you’re reaching anyone at all. This is why networking is a must even in the world of content marketing.

In fact, there is one specific strategy that leverages other brands’ network and influences to boost yours. It is what we call guest posting.

Guest Posting – Explained

If you create content and post it up on your own website, it will classify as a personal blog. You’re basically using your own platform to share your thoughts and personal take on whatever topic of interest you have in mind. But as mentioned earlier, the only people who will really get to read your blog are those that frequent your website. If you’re just starting out, that could possibly mean just you and a couple more people you know. And sadly, your reach won’t significantly grow by relying on organic clicks alone.

So, you need to think outside of the box. How can you get people who are totally unfamiliar with your website to take notice of your content? Simple. You have got to get your content to where these people are.

Instead of posting on your website, you should get your content published on other websites that have already built considerable influence online – aka guest posting. This means that they’ve already established their site as a resource hub where people check-in to gather information or just virtually “hangout.” And it’s not just online readers who recognize them, even search engines do too which is why they rank high in the SERPs.

By partnering with such websites and getting your content featured in theirs, you are tapping into a new audience that was once outside your scope of reach. It’s your chance to get your product, service, or website under their radar and convert them into a follower or a paying customer. Furthermore, by establishing a connection with such reputable websites, you boost your credibility of your own. The way search engines’ algorithms work is that they categorize, and gauge website authority based on user activity and its relationship with other websites. Getting associated with websites that have good or superior authority will evidently raise your own standing in the SERPs.

To publish a guest post, you need to create content to contribute to these websites. These pieces of content need to pass the site’s content standards as well as drop significant value to their respective audience. Now, if this is not your area of expertise or you just haven’t got the time or the energy to do this yourself as you’re already wearing too many hats in your biz, you can always hire a guest posting service.

But only do so once you’ve asked yourself the following questions below:

5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Hire For Your Guest Posting Campaign

Do I Have My Business Website and/or Social Media Pages Set Up?

The very first question you should ask yourself before hiring a guest post service, or starting a guest posting campaign in general, is if you already have your own online platforms set up to maximize the campaign’s efficiency. In exchange for quality content, authoritative websites often allow you to insert your own website link within the article or in post-article credits as a way for you to feature your brand and/or product. If you do not have your website or social pages set up strategically, you would be leaving a lot of new opportunities on the table, and it’ll be harder for you to convert new business visitors into interested buyers.

So before running a guest posting campaign, make sure that you’ve got all your online business essentials set up strategically. This way, you can effectively capture the interest of your newfound audience and later on convert them to now buyers.

What Campaigns Do I Currently Have Running?

Next, assess what you currently have going on as far as digital marketing is concerned. You may have already been told this countless times and we’ll say it again: you can’t have too many campaigns running at the same time – especially when they serve different purposes. The reason for this is because you’d be spread too thin over too many campaigns and you’d end up with mediocre results at best. It’s better to have only a couple campaigns running at any given time and put your best foot forward at which one.

But what if you have different people managing different campaigns at the same time? Well, that could work if you have an infinitely huge marketing budget. Otherwise, running too many campaigns will not only deplete your energy but also financial resources so you won’t be able to maximize each campaign to its full potential. Reassess what you currently have running, shut down any poor or mediocre performing campaigns, then proceed with your guest posting strategy.

What Do I Want To Achieve With A Guest Posting Campaign?

It’s also important that you’re clear on what your objective is for running a guest posting campaign from the get-go. It will help you set the right expectations with the guest post service you will hire for the task. Is your objective to get wider reach, to get more click throughs, or increase buy-ins? Do you want the physical location of your business more well-known? Do you want more inquiries coming in your business lines?

Your guest posts can be written more strategically when you’re clear on what type of results you are looking for from the very start. Depending on your goals, the focus of the content can vary so make sure that you have all this figured out before you approach a premium guest posting company. Better yet, you can also ask your guest post provider what they think is a good objective to start with based on where your business is at.

How Soon Do I Expect Results To Show?

Talking about setting the right expectations, you should also be clear on how soon you need results to start showing. Your entire campaign can change based on how long or short of a time period you have for the campaign to take off. For instance, if you want maximum results in a shorter period of time, then going for a high-volume approach is the best way to go. In other words, publishing as many guest post articles as possible, across several websites, within a short period of time. On the other hand, if you are looking for gradual but stable results, then posting regularly at a reasonable pace and focusing on quality to maximize efficiency might be a better strategy.

Again, it all depends on the timetable you have for the campaign to start reaping results.

Do I Have The Right Product Or Service For This?

We know that we are stating the obvious here but in order for any marketing campaign to be effective, you first need to make sure that you have a good offer. Your marketing efforts will only get potential customers through the door, your offer is what seals the deal. No matter how much customer traffic your business receives, if your product or service does not offer the value customers are looking for, it will all be for naught. It will be like water passing through a sieve. Regardless of how much attention you garner, without the right product or service, you’ll simply end up wasting precious opportunity.

Before you start funding any marketing campaign, make sure that you have already developed your offers to the best they can be. Your offer needs to be clear, unique, valuable, or all of the above. It doesn’t have to be completely new to the market or a “never before seen” type of product, it just needs to solve a problem none of its counterparts have been able to solve before.

A product or service like this combined with a relationship-focused marketing strategy like guest posting is the ultimate recipe for success.