As the managing editor of a big blog, nearly every day, I wake up to guest post pitches.
Most are okay. Few are outstanding.
So when I received this one, I wanted to share it as a great example of breaking through the clutter and getting a good response.
First, I’ll let you read it yourself. Then I’ll tell you how you can write one that goes over as well as this one did.
The perfect guest post pitch
Hi Kathryn,
My name is Pravin Daryani, a startup founder from New Zealand. I’d like to contribute a guest post to The Daily Egg. Here are my previous writing samples, for your reference:
5 Tech companies who are killing it with content marketing:
http://blog.contentforest.com/steal-these-ideas-5-tech-companies-who-are-killing-it-with-content-marketing/How to hire the right developer for your startup:
http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2012/12/02/how-to-hire-the-right-developer-for-your-tech-startup/?fromcat=allCan’t keep up with content marketing? Stop doing everything yourself.
http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/cant-keep-up-with-your-content-marketing-stop-doing-everything-yourself-0535941Here are some guest post ideas I had in mind:
Topic #1 – The Influencer Factor: How to Grow Your Audience Using Top Influencers
– Rather than solely depend on growing your audience organically, you can jumpstart your efforts by leveraging the popularity of influencers in your industry (or at least people whom your audience follow).
– There are many ways to do this, from interviewing influencers, to writing a post that deconstructs their success, to featuring a list of several influencers in your niche and encouraging them to share this list to their readers.
– Will be citing specific examples of blog posts, websites, businesses, etc. that have successfully done this. (With screenshots.)
– At the end there will be a to-do list so that the reader can start researching and planning their own “influencer” post.Topic #2 – Similar But Different: How These Similar Companies Differentiate Their Offers
– I’ll show examples of 3 sets of competing products (Freshbooks vs. Less Accounting, Basecamp vs. Teamwork PM, WooThemes vs. Elegant Themes) and use these examples to demonstrate the following concepts to the reader: positioning, how to craft an offer, using design elements to reinforce your positioning/offer
– For example, based on their headline and design, Basecamp emphasizes social proof to sell, while Teamwork PM emphasizes features and the many things you can do with their app)
– Just goes to show that just because your business idea or product is not unique, it doesn’t mean your positioning can’t be unique.
– There would be a lot of screenshots demonstrating these pointsIf you like any of the above ideas, I’ll write up everything and send it according to The Daily Egg’s guidelines, paying special attention to the tone of the blog in general (shouldn’t be too hard, I’ve been a reader for over a year now).
What do you think? Will your other readers find these topics interesting?
Thanks for your time,
What he did right
Let’s review Pravin’s approach point by point:
Pravin doesn’t waste time. He gets right to the point. The first sentence tells me who he is and the second tells me why he’s contacting me.
He gives three links to samples of his work. This works for me on a couple of levels. First, on the blog, I tell guest writers to do that. (You have no idea how many people ignore the instructions I’ve posted on the blog.) Just doing what I’ve asked makes him stand out.
But that’s not all. He sends links to articles that are similar to ones I use on the blog. So I can honestly evaluate whether he can produce the kind of content I’m looking for. That’s two points in his favor, and we’ve just begun.
He gives me two potential article ideas. Both are ideal for my blog, which means he’s done his homework. As I read the first one, here’s my thought process…
Topic #1 – The Influencer Factor: How to Grow Your Audience Using Top Influencers
The title is good. Check.
– Rather than solely depend on growing your audience organically, you can jumpstart your efforts by leveraging the popularity of influencers in your industry (or at least people whom your audience follow).
Here he gives me the overall concept: jumpstarting your audience by leveraging influencers. It’s interesting. I don’t have an article on this, and it’s a timely, relevant topic for my audience.
– There are many ways to do this, from interviewing influencers, to writing a post that deconstructs their success, to featuring a list of several influencers in your niche and encouraging them to share this list to their readers.
This tells me how he plans to develop it, sort of an outline. He could also have given the outline in bullet points, but format isn’t as important as the information. It looks like he will list four ways to get the job done, so I’m relatively confident that the article will go deep.
– Will be citing specific examples of blog posts, websites, businesses, etc. that have successfully done this. (With screenshots.)
Believe it or not, this is where I got excited. On the Crazy Egg blog, we want actionable, useful content that’s based on real case studies, not opinions. “Specific examples” and “with screenshots” tells me he knows what I’m looking for. This is the point at which I decided I wanted to try him out.
– At the end there will be a to-do list so that the reader can start researching and planning their own “influencer” post.
More evidence that he knows the blog and can be trusted to give me content I can really use. I’m sold already.
The basic formula and what you MUST include
When you pitch a guest post to a blog editor, there’s no real formula. But there are a few things you need to include. These are the basics:
Introduce yourself and tell me what you do.
Don’t tell the editor that you’re the greatest writer ever. Just a simple “this is what I do” is fine.
In this case, Pravin lives on the other side of the world from me. That’s useful information because it clues me in that back-and-forth emails won’t happen. You don’t have to mention where you’re from, but do include anything that helps communication.
Give links to previously published work.
This can be from your blog or other sites. Select posts that are similar to the articles regularly published on the blog you’re targeting.
If you don’t have anything that’s appropriate, write something and publish it on your own blog. Seriously, an editor needs to see samples. So create some.
Clearly explain your article idea.
Include a good working title (not just the topic) and the bottom-line point you want to make in the article. Then give a short outline of the major points you intend to make.
The editor needs to know what you plan to submit and how unique it is. Personally, I don’t want to reproduce the same general content that people can find elsewhere on the internet, and I don’t want a repeat of an article I just published last week.
With that in mind, make sure you come up with something unique.
Proof that you know what the blog needs.
You don’t have to be didactic. Don’t create a separate paragraph telling the editor that you’ve studied the blog.
Pravin does it well here. When he tells me how he’ll develop the article, he mentions screenshots and examples from around the Web. All our articles include examples and screenshots, so mentioning it tells me he’s paying attention.
Be yourself.
Don’t… I repeat, don’t… use a template. I got one pitch that used a template I had written. For the first half of the email, I was trying to figure out why the email sounded so familiar. Then I remembered.
You won’t stand out if you use a template that 1000s of other people are using, so just be yourself. Talk to the editor as a real person. After all, he or she is a real person.
Now you
Other blogs and editors have different processes, but they all want the same thing: well-written, useful, original content that adds value to their readers. When you pitch a guest blog post, you’re offering to help that blog fulfill this mission.
When pitching your idea, keep that in mind. If your only goal is to get published, that will eventually show. Help the editor succeed, and by default, you’ll succeed too.
Questions? Additional thoughts? Write them in the comments below.
