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In the past few months, I’ve written posts for sites like TechCrunch, Kissmetrics, and HubSpot. Collectively, these have garnered over 5,000 shares so far.
Yet when our PR manager recently asked me how guest posting improved my blog KPIs, I thought about it, then admitted, “Well, it doesn’t.”
Despite reaching a huge audience, my guest posts had nearly no impact on improving a single one of my KPIs, which include increasing organic traffic to the blog, improving engagement metrics, and increasing our number of subscribers.
Sure, we became a blip on the radar of some influential people, we got 15 seconds of Internet buzz, and a whole lot of traffic – albeit, highly unqualified traffic.
Via Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com
Guest Posts and SEO Truth
"Why didn’t guest posting improve my KPIs?Wow, this is a great #mustread post by @aimeemillwood by way of @Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com (Brian Yanish a Scoop.it #mustfollow).
Love this quote:
The easy answer is, because guest posting for the sake of increasing marketing metrics doesn’t work.
My goal with guest posting has never been to improve SEO with link-backs and stealthily placed keywords, or seek to grow viral articles that would be forgotten just as soon as they were read."
and this
"Guest posting was once a very successful tactic, but it’s quickly becoming a cookie-cutter recipe, spiced up with varying degrees of growth hacky tricks (some of which, like the Skyscraper technique, are notably very good)."
Aimee is making a favorite point of ours - tactical web marketing is over! I said this to my friend Red Maxwell in a conference call the other day and he almost choked.
Look at guest posting as a tactic since it's history is every tactics evolution:
* Early Adopters pioneer and reap benefits.
* Early majority moves in and SCRUMS the tactic to death.
* Efficacy is reduced to zero.
The web is NOW and PUBLIC so any winning tactic will be copied and beaten to death FAST and then FASTER. Aimee hits the solution right on the head too with what Guillaume and the Scoop.it team call "lean content". Here is Aimee's insightful quote:
"With such a deluge of content, marketers are scrambling for ways to stand out.
Make content shorter! Bite-sized is the way to go! Time to bring in the long-form! Pack in the videos and photos!"
Preach sister, preach. In an era when SHARES trump all creating content that is more likely to be shared is key. Aimee also makes Scoop.it's point about content curation.
She doesn't call her solution "content curation" nor does she go into the tactic, but you are here reading this because I know and like Brian Yanish's content curation.
But isn't curation another "tactic"? Yes, and that is why the rest of Aimee's post is a must read. Aimee talks about passion, beliefs and LOVE. She writes for THOSE REASONS more than for any material rewards clearly seen and easy to recognize.
NOW we've left the land of tactics and entered Simon Sinek's Start With Why. Aimee is SO RIGHT. If you write for fame, money or glory good luck with that in a world where everyone is trying to pimp their English 101 class.
When the world is drowning in STUFF we read, buy and listen to those we trust and love. Interesting that Aimee's trust factors didn't rise with such branded supporters, but she DIDN'T guest post for Tech Crunch with an eye toward becoming famous.
She wrote because she is passionate and loves what she does and THAST IS WHY Aimee's web marketing future looks bright. Don't leave everything to chance. Read Mark Schaefer's Content Code book (yes Mark wrote the influential Content Shock post) and follow Amiee's suggestions and lead.
Lean, fun content about what we LOVE and those who love us in in all of our content marketing futures.