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Are You Making These Mistakes with Guest Post Outreach? 

Are you making these guest post outreach mistakes

In the digital age, guest posting is still the best way to build authority, get in front of new audiences, and drive relevant traffic back to your site. But, for the positives guest posting can provide, many professionals and businesses still fail to take full advantage of guest post outreach. This could actually have nothing to do with the content you are sending to the bloggers to evaluate—it has more to do with the way you are trying to outreach to them.

It is so easy to fall into some things that are simple to avoid that have a negative relationship with response generated, terrible trust and authority, and ultimately, very little scalable and sustainable growth.

If you have been completely executing a strategy for outreach and not getting the results you wanted, now may be the time to take a second look at your outreach. Below I outline a few of the most common mistakes you could be making in your guest post outreach—unsure what to do regarding the mistakes I mention. 


Generic, One-Size-Fits-All Emails 


Receiving an impersonal and generic pitch for a guest post is one of the most frustrating things for a blogger or website owner. Generic or impersonal emails suggest to the recipient that you have not done any research, and in fact could damage your professional reputation with a blogger or website owner before you even start the conversation. 

Solution: Take a few extra minutes to personalize the email. Refer to articles that are similar to your proposal, and name specific audience members who you admire and why you think your article could help them. Again, feel free to use guest post email templates so that the tone and approach are similar, but the key is that you have customized it to convey you did your homework or understands the blog/website’s voice and objectives. 


Failing to Identify the Target Audience


Another mistake that often happens is failing to identify the target audience of the site you are pitching. You could have a 2000-word well-structured article but if there is nothing to connect it to the audience of the site, the odds of it getting accepted are limited. 

Solution: In this case, the best way to alleviate this issue is to visit the site and read their most popular content. Try to identify gaps that you can provide your opinion. An educated pitch is always compelling, and again use the commonalities and similarities of the audience you want to connect with as the basis of your pitch. 


Pushing Out Content That Is Too Promotional


 Many professionals tend to think of the guest post as a means to increase traffic, push their solutions. In most cases, they do not get published. Editors do not want to see any pitches, they want content that is high quality and benefits their reader. 

Solution: Add-value first. You can reference your expertise or your company, but most of the content will have to be from the reader’s perspective. You want the guest post to educate, inform, entertain, etc. When executed properly, this builds credibility and trust, both of which are effective over the long haul. 


Disregarding the Follow-Up 


While persistence is very much a part of the outreach process, professionals often send one follow-up message and don’t message the editor again. Of course, it isn’t effective to only reach out to the editors in your outreach email series. 

Solution: Think through thoughtful follow-up emails. Wait an appropriate amount of time to send your first follow-up email, typically a week or so, say 5-7 days is appropriate time.

In your follow-up email, provide value to the editor and their audience. For example, you could share an article you just recently read that is relevant to what you pitched, gives the editorial team value, and indicates your pitch has changed slightly. Well structured guest post email templates often have spaces for follow-up messages anywhere you send outreach email, and you can show professionalism while not being pushy.


Lack of Authority 


Editors and authors receive a large volume of inquiries each day. If you fail to establish your authority, your email will be automatically dismissed. 

Strategy: Provide information about your qualifications or ways you’ve published and/or shared relevant insights in the past, which can establish credentials. You may also include links to your work and/or case studies to build credibility by demonstrating that you provide work that is valuable. 


Subject Lines Being Ignored 


A major area of missed opportunity in your outreach can be found in the email subject line. And in many cases, a boring or misleading subject line will prevent your email from ever getting opened. 

Strategy: Your subject lines must clearly demonstrate either relevance or (at least) curiosity, and be put forward in a concise way. Think of the subject line as a sort of preview to your pitch and the email body as the “long version,” with the subject line being your “short version.” A great deal of information can be learned from testing subject lines and watching and waiting on the response over time before getting into a flow. 


Not Mobile Optimized 


In a company of professionals that are inundated by email from either your laptops or your phones, you can lose your opportunity due to poorly formatting even before what you are sending gets read. 

Strategy: Make your email mobile optimized! Short paragraphs, bullet points, and action requests are easier for the recipient to take in on a mobile device. Many, if not most, guest post email templates are made mobile optimized, but it could be worth your time to check. 


Not Building Relationships Through Outreach 


Guest post outreach should be more than simply publishing an article, it should be about relationship building with influencers and thought leaders in your niche. If you send a great pitch to an editor, and your only thinking about managed care in a transactional way, you are missing a much bigger opportunity to integrate long term with the magazine and/or the editor. 

Recommendation: Build relationships through outreach. Engage with potential sites by commenting on their posts, sharing their content or connecting with them on Twitter. When it’s time to pitch, the editor is much more likely to know your name and be inclined to pursue your expertise. 


Conclusion: Improving Your Guest Posting Strategy 


Guest post outreach is both an art and a science. Beyond avoiding the common pitfalls, such as sending a standard email, as well as not building relationships will take you to a greater level of success. It’s fine to use templates to help you stay organized and professional with your outreach, but your work will be most effective when you create relevant, customized and value-adding content for your prospective sites. 

If you are mindful, intentional and committed to guest posting it can be a fantastic means to build authority, grow your audience and generate business. The difference between a mediocre guest post strategy and one that is productive is in the execution. Put in the time to think through the details of your guest post outreach and you will likely see differences in measurable engagement and impact. 

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