Creating a platform to reach out to your audience takes time and effort. Your website, a blog, gift content – all play a role in creating your brand and establishing you as the go-to person for your area of expertise. And you can do it!
But you can also leverage other platforms to accomplish the same thing. It’s a good strategy at any time, but especially in the early phases of your business, it can give your reach a real boost.
Is your message important? Do you have something valuable to offer? Of course you do! And the world needs to hear about it. This is another way to do so.
Guest blog posts and articles are both a good way to get the word out about what you do to a bigger audience.
When you’re thinking of guest blogging, do some research first. Read the host’s bog posts. See what their audience says in response. Check out their social media presence, and their engagement with their audience. Is this audience a good fit for you?
If it is, then consider what you might offer. As with your paid offerings, it’s about value. What value can you offer to this audience?
Think collaboratively. It’s a short-term partnership, in a way. If you’re offering the same service or product as your prospective host, is there a way to position what you do in a different way that complements what your host is doing? You need to be offering something unique for their audience.
The other thing to consider is, how do you want to be seen by this audience? This guest post is an opportunity to present your brand. Make sure what you are presenting is consistent with your branding message, so that when they go to your website or look at your offerings, it reinforces and strengthens what you want to communicate.
Articles in print magazines are another route to go. Even though so much of what we see is online, print isn’t dead, not by a long shot. Many publications have both print and online versions, so that opens things up for you even more.
The same preparation applies here: research, find out whether the audience resonates with you. If it does, reach out to the publication. More research: find out who the decision-maker is. The information you need might be in the publication itself, or you might have to make a phone call to find out.
If it’s a well-known publication, they likely have a process already in place for guest writers to apply. Go online and find out. Take the time to really understand the publication’s point of view, and word your responses to their application accordingly. There are a lot of ways to say something: make what you say communicate that you understand them and their audience.
Having a presence on other platforms benefits everyone.
Your host gets new content, enlivening and energizing their presence with new ideas. Their audience gets new perspectives without ever leaving the host’s branding world, so it keeps them engaged.
You get an instant audience, and broader reach than you had before. Without all the effort of marketing. Your host does that for you. Energy and time saved!
Your guest appearance also can give you a chance to try out new areas. You can explore how what you offer might fly with an audience similar to your own. Their responses through comments can inform your development process.
When you approach someone to guest post or write an article, think about the terms. What would you like out of this guest spot? Will they be promoting it in some way outside of their usual process? How can you help in getting the word out? Include these topics in your agreement.
If your host is willing, ask them to provide the analytics for your post. Did it resonate with their audience? How many people read it or opened it? You yourself can check on engagement via the comments on your post or article.
Leveraging other platforms is a smart way to reach a bigger audience. When you guest post or write guest articles, you, your host, and their audience all win. It’s a great way to expand your world!
Have you tried guest posting? What was your experience? Let us know in the comments below!
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Here’s your Alchemy Assignment, your chance to transform what you learned in this article into awareness and action for you and your business:
Decide what audiences you would like to reach. Do you follow anyone already whose audience would be a good fit? Add in some online research of your own to understand who is already reaching out to the people you’d like to connect with. When you have a list of 5 good possibilities, follow the steps in the article. Soon, you’ll be expanding your audience!