Note from Prerna: This is a lovely guest post by Caylie Price.

 

You started out with social media to promote your business.

You diligently posted to Facebook, Google+, Instagram, tweeted and pinned the posts from your blog.

You mixed those updates with quotes, personal posts and the odd promotion. You were relieved when your mailing list started growing, even if it felt a little snail paced.

Later you heard about guest blogging as a strategy to grow your list. You were attracted not only because of the list growth but also the credibility and social proof it offered. Best of all, the only cost was your time. No need to be paying for Facebook Ads just so the people who already liked your page got to see your updates!

Of course, there was a momentary blip on the radar when it seemed like Google planned to punish you for guest blogging but that all turned out to be a farce. As long as you weren’t being spammy, all was ok. If you wanted to be extra cautious you could always make any links ‘no follow.’

Experienced Guest Bloggers Hold Tight

Given you are reading Social Media Direct, there’s a pretty good chance you’re very familiar with social media and how it works. If not, Prerna has a tonne of brilliant content you can dive into.

Not everyone is so familiar with guest blogging. If you are, skip down to ‘A Rocket Fueled Combo.’ If not, keep reading.

Guest blogging is a fantastic way to network with leaders in your industry and expose your knowledge to new audiences. It enables you to leverage someone else’s audience to grow your list while at the same time providing valuable content for the host’s readers. Talk about a win-win-win!

To successfully grow your list through guest blogging you’ll need:

• A pitch
• A guest post
• A bio
• A landing page
• A opt in incentive

You’ll start by pitching the owner of the website where you would love to be published. If accepted, you need to send your guest post. Within your guest post and your bio be sure to include calls to action offering relevant opt in incentives.

You’ll need to hyperlink the calls to action back to a dedicated landing page where your new audience can subscribe.

The beauty of guest blogging is each post can continue to drive new subscribers over a long period of time. Compared with individual social updates that are there one second and gone the next, individual guest posts provide a sustained presence and opportunity for long term list growth.

A Rocket Fueled Combo

Both social media and guest blogging strategies offer many benefits, but when used collectively you can seriously amplify the results. When you guest post the article reaches one new audience, but motivate those readers to share your post and you explode your potential reach. Your work reaches the audience’s audience. Not too shabby.

Let’s look at two strategies that offer great rewards for little extra effort.

Guest Blogging And Click To Tweet

An effective tool that is underutilised by the blogging community, Click To Tweet is a free tool that enables you to guide the message your readers share.

Start by asking your host for the URL where your guest post will be published. All you then need to do is visit Click To Tweet, write out the message and post link you want shared, generate the click to tweet link then come back your post to hyperlink.

Five easy steps just like this…

Rocket Fuel Your List Growth. Amplify Guest Blogging With Click To Tweet! v/ @cayliebbbl @socmediadirect

The other benefit of creating the click to tweet is you can ensure your twitter handle is within the tweet. Many social sharing buttons are pre-programmed to share a particular tweet format (usually the post title and host’s twitter handle). By including your twitter handle you have the chance to pick up new followers in addition to subscribers.

Guest Blogging And Pinnables

Ask any host and they will openly declare they love guest bloggers who supply images to publish with the post, especially if they match the host’s branding.

Attractive images are also loved by readers and industry pundits alike.

Quoteables in particular have a virality that text based content cannot replicate. Readers will happily pin an image that grabs attention and summarises their learning while industry members will love the easy content they can share with their audience, save them creating as much content of their own.

Better still many host websites will have a Pinterest plugin installed meaning readers don’t have to leave the site to share the image. This level of convenience increased the probability of your guest post being shared and drawing more readers back to the post. The larger your guest post’s audience, the more new subscribers you will gain.

Ready For List Building Lift Off?

Have you got guest posts ready to submit or will you starting pitching? Before sending those through to your host incorporate the two ideas above. You’ll be enjoying accelerated list growth in no time.

Want extra help growing your list? Pop over for the 3-part Guest Blogging video series. It’s completely free and just think; the better your guest posts are, the greater the sharing you’ll benefit from!

Caylie Price is the List Building and Client Attraction Mentor. She teaches business owners how to create lead generation strategies that result in a steady flow of subscribers and red hot prospects. Creator of Seductive Guest Blogging and the GO BIG List Building Mastermind, you’ll find her hanging out at her website, betterbusinessbetterlife.com.au.