Patrick Holford shares some compelling evidence

Using guest blogging TO REACH NEW AUDIENCES

Ran Janda shares her approach to building an audience through guest blogging…

GUEST blogging is writing content for other people’s blogs or online publications in your niche. It’s a great way of promoting your services to a completely new audience, and since the publication is in your niche, the audience should already be interested in what you’re offering. It’s the online equivalent of another therapist or organisation telling their clients about you.

The goal of guest blogging is to grow your practice, so you need to ensure there is a way for the readers to connect with you once they have finished reading your article. The key to success with guest blogging is to always provide value, as you will gain readers’ trust this way. As with all goals, you should have a way of measuring the results in place. This will probably be shown using your website analytics, showing people coming from the sites you have blogged on. Monitoring is important as it will show you which topics and which blogs generate the most response, allowing you to maximise your rate of return.

Begin by knowing your audience

You need to be clear on who your audience is and what they are reading before you start writing any content. Start to understand your audience by seeing them as real people. When you work out what they need and want, and you understand what their pain points are, you’re ready to start creating content for them. Define the problems you solve and what benefits you provide to your clients. For example, if you’re an acupuncturist who specialises in treating pain syndromes from sports injuries, then you could start your search by looking for sports related blogs, or ones around chronic pain. If you’re a nutritionist who supports your clients with losing weight, then you could start your search by looking for diet, fitness and weight loss blogs.

Research your ideal publications

Now you know your audience and what other blogs they might be following; you can start researching what online publications and blogs they might read and subscribe to. Some ideas may already have come to you when you were defining your audience in the previous step.

Start by doing a simple Google search and see what comes up. For example, type

“best acupuncture blogs” if you are an acupuncturist. If you practice a touchbased therapy, be mindful of the country and location of publication. There is no point writing content for a US blog if you practice in the UK for example.

Be specific, but also be creative and try various search terms, such as “acupuncture for pain relief blogs” “acupuncture for sports injuries”. As you scroll the pages, be mindful of sites you think you could contribute to that would have a larger audience than you do, or if they have an audience that would otherwise be unreachable to you. Make a list of all the sites you want to reach out to.

Some sites don’t advertise that they accept guest contributions, if it is not clear to you, reach out to them with a pitch to see. It might not have occurred to them, but they might think it’s a great idea!

If they are complementary to the therapies you practice and not directly in competition with you, you could offer to do a blog post swap. You get to reach their audience and in turn they get to reach yours. So our sports acupuncture specialist might reach out to a local physiotherapist, write an article for them with a link back to your website. The physiotherapist would also write an article for your blog, with a link back to their website. This allows you to reach a new audience who could also be open to trying acupuncture alongside physiotherapy. Part of your content could be about how both therapies complement each other so the readers can visualise how acupuncture may benefit them too.

Some online publications rely on guest posts and will display this somewhere on the site. Look for the “contributor guidelines page” and ensure you follow the submission guidelines exactly, to ensure you are giving yourself the best chance of being published. Some publications will want you to send a pitch of your idea first, before agreeing and asking for the full article. Others will want to review a complete article before they decide on publishing it or not. Each will have their own set of rules to follow.

Some sites don’t advertise that they accept guest contributions, if it is not clear to you, reach out to them with a pitch to see.

Crafting the perfect pitch

If you are asked to send a pitch first, follow the guidelines provided and consider these suggestions too.

Keep it short, simple and to the point. Start with a paragraph explaining who you are and why you’re an expert in your field. Mention also how your article will benefit their readers. Next, pitch your article. Provide an outline of your introduction, the main points of the body of the article and how you will summarise. Bullet points work well when making your points. Be clear in the subject line about why you are reaching out to them for a greater chance of getting your email opened. “Pitch idea: title of article goes here” is an example of a clear subject line. If you get a positive response from the blog owner or editor, congratulations! It’s time to write your article for their blog!

Structuring your blog

Now that you’ve found outlets for your blogs, the trick is to write something that not only engages the audience but also spurs them into action. I’ve found that the following structure works well for guest posts.

A great headline - Write this last so you can ensure it encapsulates the content of the article. A striking image - An image is a good way to break up the content. Make sure to check the copyrights of any images or pictures that you use.

Introduction (around 25% of article

length) - This should hook the reader in and explain why they should read the rest of the blog post. Define the problem that they want to solve.

Main teaching points (around 50% of

article length) - You can use bullet points or use headings over paragraphs. Don’t forget to write for your reader and provide value. This is vital as few blogs will want to carry a blatant advertisement for your services that fails to benefit the blog owner or their audience.

Summary (around 25% of article length)

- Wrap up your post and make your main points again. Bio – Who are you? What do you do? What makes the service you offer unique? Link your website, blog or social media here so people know how to find more information on you and get in touch.

Targeted guest blogging will allow you to generate greater awareness of your brand and the services you offer, leading to greater website traffic, social followers and more clients if done consistently and regularly. n

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RAN JANDA is the founder of

Holistic Room a platform that

matches people to the most relevant holistic health practitioner for their

needs. Visit www.holisticroom.com to

download your free guide to learn 7 easy

ways to grow your practice.