How Guest Blogging Enriches Content Calendar on your SMB Website

The jig is up. Actually, it’s been up for quite some time now. If you weren’t too busy living under a gigantic rock for the past decade you are probably well aware that content marketing is the vital part of your online presence and the secret behind the success of many. No matter the industry, the niche, the audience – if your consumers are online they want to absorb the content and you have to deliver it if you want any conversions whatsoever. Your blog is the ultimate machine for driving leads, boosting sales and building brand awareness.

We are all well aware that search engines love content and the more published posts you have the more indexed pages you get. Once your website becomes an established authority within your niche, it is not too hard to push great content through a clever keyword and content strategy. At one point those metrics of your website will start showing results and you realize that you have thousands of visitors reading your content on a daily basis. Remember that those visitors are not just stopping by randomly. In fact, they are actual leads.

Believe it or not, 70% of content marketers lack consistency and are pushing underdeveloped strategies that are probably not driving any traffic at all. In spite of that, 77% of business owners are planning on increasing content production within the next twelve months. Why? Because they are on a dedicated mission of increasing conversions. So once you are faced with the fact that you have to post original, unique content on a daily basis just to compete with your rivals, plus in all probability you want to set certain standards with cool, clever and hip posts that get shares – there is a matter of staying diligent.

Do you know how a content calendar looks like? Let’s build an example:

Seems pretty easy, right? Now repeat that process for at least 300 times, research all keywords and then start thinking about the social engagement of those same 300 posts. Let’s not forget seasonal keywords, infographics, white papers, etc. Believe it or not, that’s just a start and the very basics of a productive content marketing strategy. With that amount of work you will hardly have any time to actually lead a business. Even if you decide to hire an in-house Chief Content Officer that person won’t be able to produce high-quality content on a daily basis every day of the year. Most of them consider two posts per week to be a daunting task so try telling them that they have to do it in this volume and you will have to start looking for a new content marketer.

So what’s the solution? What should you do to keep your audience engaged and deliver original posts on almost a daily basis? You’ve probably guessed it already. Enter the Guest Blogger.

The Awesomeness of Having a Guest Blogger

Your average guest blogger is probably just looking for an opportunity to share his/her experience and establish him/herself as a professional in a certain field. They need to publish content to get exposure and they have to produce high-quality posts to promote themselves in the best way possible. The good news is – they absolutely need your blog for that sort of exposure. In all probability, they will keep a record of published posts and share them with their friends, coworkers and future clients on a regular basis and you should know by now that organic traffic can’t be bought. So welcome all guest bloggers. Well, maybe not all of them but the great majority.

Sometimes your guest bloggers will want that exposure in a more direct way and will insist on having their own blog/business/website mentioned within the body of the post or in the biography section. If they deliver you high-quality content then just grant them their wish, keep those outgoing links on your page and invite them to stop by and post whenever they can. Let’s be honest, that’s a minimum price for a decent writer and amount of shares that they will get you for your own business.

Attracting guest writers is relatively easy. Just make your invitation transparent and put a link for your Write for Us/Contribute page in your main menu or in the footer section. If a guest blogger is interested in your niche, and in all probability there are hundreds of them who are, they will come looking for you. Once they reach your invitation page you should make clear what types of posts you want on your SMB blog.

Types of Posts You Want

The best thing that you can do is to include keywords/topics/types of posts that you want published right there on the Write for Us/Contribute page. Not just because you will spare both yours and your potential guest blogger’s time, but also because those guidelines will help you keep producing converting traffic. You don’t want an article about cute puppies on your main page if you are providing car waxing services. Although everybody wants to read about cute puppies, your audience won’t visit your blog to look for those furry little devils, they are looking for car waxing services and you should provide them with posts about cars. Remember to keep your content within your niche. That sort of policy is beneficial for both search engines and your audience.

One type of posts that you can’t get enough of are pillar posts. You’ve probably stumbled upon quite a few posts talking about The 5 most expensive ways to spend a night in the NYC, or How to read a book upside down, etc. The reason why businesses publish this type of blog entries is simple – people constantly search and read those posts. While your trending topics come and go, people will always want to know which 5 cars are the most budget-friendly picks and you should know that that sort of traffic will constantly bring new leads to your business.

So if you get a guest blogger to follow your guidelines, deliver an awesome entry for your blog and even shares that post on his social media account afterwards – what’s not to love about guest bloggers? It may seem peculiar, letting people post on your SMB blog just to show everyone how awesome they are. However, they can help you fill in the gaps of your content calendar, keep the converting traffic on a steady flow and promote your business at the same time. When you put it that way, you have to agree – guest bloggers are utterly awesome.