Fashionable takeovers: your guide to stylish guest posting
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Australian consumers love their fashion blogs. From reality TV series that follow the glamourous lives of our coveted sweethearts, to branded content courtesy of household names themselves, fashion blogging is showing no signs of slowing down. Why?
64% of social shoppers turn to social media and blogs for inspiration before making a fashion-related purchase decision. Beauty and fashion advice seekers are turning to each other for direction. Whether it’s to discover chic products or learn how to create the perfect cat eye, consumers trust social media and blogs the most for their answers. (Source)
But if you’re a new style-minded business, you might be thinking:
What is the secret is to a successful blogging strategy for my brand?
And the answer is this: there are many secrets (please, refrain from hate mail). But for the sake of not overwhelming you – which is not what this blog is about at all – I’m going to go over just one secret today.
Whether you’re a stylist, own an ecommerce boutique or are a burgeoning fashion blogger, this post is for you.
Stylish takeovers – my guest blogging tips for fashion-forward businesses
It’s fairly common to believe that in order to drive more customers to your website, you should keep all the content on your domain (your own blog). But it’s this exact thinking that I’ve seen hold so many brands back from achieving their business goals: more website traffic and conversions.
Guest posting is the missing piece of your content marketing puzzle.
As the Content Marketing institute puts it:
“[Guest posting is] content authored by experts within your company published by third-party media already consumed by your target audience.”
Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’ve read somewhere on the internet that guest posting is a dead SEO technique, and if you start guest posting you’re going to be banished from the internet FOREVER.
Take heed, because that’s not true.
Yes: spammy, short-form articles created by content factories that serve no value to customers are worthless and will do nothing to improve your ROI.
But a considered, thoughtful, in-depth, and well-written guest post? The kind that gets clicks, Likes, shares and fondled in all sorts of digital ways?
It’s gold for your business in acquiring new qualified leads.
The value of guest blogging
When you create a guest post for another website, you tap into their audiences. And when these audiences are engaged and listening to what you have to say, you introduce them to the top of a sales funnel, with your guest content positioned at the top.
Allow me to illustrate:
Guest posting is at the top of this sales funnel, as a guest post may often be the first point of contact that a potential lead has with your brand.
As your reader embarks upon their sales journey, they’re then introduced to authority-building content on your website via a link in your author credit, or a link within the body of the post itself. If you have a sales funnel set up on your website that captures emails (think pop-ups, content upgrades, etc) these readers are then introduced to gated content that increases engagement. From there, and in an ideal scenario, you’ll build brand loyalty, and eventually, increase sales.
Why is guest blogging important?
Your guest post achieves a few things for your brand:
- Allows you to tap into a new audience.
- Can help boost your Google ranking with more backlinks (links from other websites pointing to your website).
- Positions you as the authority in your niche.
- Builds trust and credibility for your brand.
- Allows you to create relationships with third party publishers.
Get your high-heeled foot in the door: my technique for a fashionable guest blog
1. Find guest posting opportunities
First thing's first: where to guest blog? It's time to find a publisher for your literary masterpiece. Backlinko calls these publishers “linkreators”, because they consistently generate backlinks for other businesses. They could be fashion bloggers, influencers, other businesses, or an association for those within your industry.
Backlinks are imperative for a successful SEO strategy, as the number of links, as well as the quality of links, that you have pointing back to your domain, the more likely you’ll be able to boost your SEO ranking. For example, if you were to pen a guest post for The Daily Life on wireless bras, such a reputable domain would generate amazing traffic for your website. As a high quality website, they’d also pass on their magic “link juice”, which is their authority. You’re cool by association.
You can begin finding an appropriate publisher by determining what blogs your ideal audience is reading. If you’re an interior decorator, you might want to contact an interior styling blog. If you own a luggage company, you might want to get in touch with a travel blog to write a post about packing tips.
The best place to start? I like to search Instagram for potential publishers. If you search for niche hashtags in your industry, you can find accounts that might have a similar audience to yours. You can also expand your search by looking for similar account suggestions.
Important: Read a publisher’s media kit first. Sometimes guest posts are called sponsored posts, and you might have to pay a fee in order to be featured on their website.
2. Form relationships first
I’m going to write an entire blog post about this soon, but it’s crucial that you treat each publisher and editor as a person. Many of my guest posts have come to fruition after a period of authentic, consistent engagement. For example, Instagram Marketing queen Mackayla of Social Stylings recently penned a piece for me on Instagram captions. This post came about after almost a year of messaging each other on Instagram, expressing mutual respect and admiration for each other’s work. I wanted to have Mackayla on my blog because she's a valuable source of marketing knowledge, uses an accessible approach to social media marketing, and we share a similar audience. It’s the perfect partnership!
Do your research on what types of content your chosen publication will publish, and create exclusive content for them. Never spam multiple outlets with the same pitch.
3. Allocate marketing resources to, you know, actually write the darned thing
Who will be authoring the guest post? Yourself? Another writer? Many copywriters (ahem) will ghost write for you, offering you full attribution.
Ideally, your guest post should be written for those brand new to your brand, services and products. Keep technical terms to a minimum, and treat each guest post as a virtual handshake, introducing yourself to new, qualified prospects.
4. Update your content calendar
As part of my own content marketing efforts, I like to schedule a guest post for once a month. This is in addition to my twice-monthly blogging and of course, sending out Communique to my valued subscribers.
Still not sure if you need outside help with your content marketing?
Let’s get to the bottom of it.
