Content Types
Humans are visual creatures. That could probably explain why guestographics have become one of the most effective, viral marketing techniques employed by digital marketers of late.
So, what’s a guestographic? Brian Dean of Backlinko defines guestographics as a combination of three powerful digital marketing tactics: infographics, guest posting and link-building. He even calls it one of his all-time “favorite” SEO strategies.
As an SEO strategy, using guestographics involves repurposing and republishing your infographic as a guest post on authoritative sites—hence, the term “guestographics.” And by simply writing unique intros to go along with your guestographics, you can get these visuals published on multiple sites with minimal effort.
Need some inspiration and tips for executing your own guestographics campaign? Here are five case studies of guestographics done right.
You can view the visual summary of this post below or click here to read a detailed explanation of each tip for promoting guestographics.
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<script src="//my.visme.co/visme.js"></script><div class="visme_d" data-url="pv0go3jo-10-small-things-that-can-make-a-big-difference" data-w="800" data-h="4615" data-domain="my"></div><p style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; color: #333333" >Created with <a href="http://www.visme.co/make-infographics" target="_blank" style="color: #30a0ea"><strong>Visme</strong></a></p>
You can imagine how challenging it is to generate buzz for a topic as boring as pest control. But SEO strategist Mike Bonadio did it via a cleverly strategized guestographic campaign, and his unlikely success was so interesting that it was published on Backlinko.
Below are the results of his campaign:
Here is a partial screenshot of the guestographic he used:
And here’s a brief overview of how Mike did it:
RELATED: 10 Traits Shared by Viral Infographics
When Mike launched his guestographics promotion, he tested two types of outreach. One was a soft-sell “feeler” outreach, in which he gauged the receiver’s interest before sending his infographic over.
The other was a more direct pitch, in which he immediately shared his infographic with the receiver.
The “feeler” email got a 40% response rate compared to the direct pitch email, which only got 16%, so it was good to know for future campaigns.
To prospects who responded favorably, Mike sent an email which contained a link to the guestographic and an offer to write a customized intro to go with it.
Here’s how Mike used branded anchor text for his guestographics intro:
Since then, Mike’s infographic has gone viral and shared on sites like Flipboard and Pinterest. Needless to say, his pest control company client definitely got their much-needed traffic boost, and all this from a well thought-out guestographics strategy!
When Perrin Carrell of HerePup decided to launch a pet blog, he knew he was entering a populated niche already dominated by blogs such as PetMD.com. Still, he persevered.
By executing a guestographics campaign, Perrin got a significant leg up, which led to the following results:
Below is a partial screenshot of the infographic:
And here’s how Perrin used guestographics to get ahead of his competitors:
In Perrin’s case, he identified that the top content could be much improved with a lot more research and design, so he set about creating even better content than the ones he found from more influential sources.
As a result of adding more engaging media in the form of a visually stunning infographic and promoting it to relevant sites, Perrin was able to break through and stand out from his more established competitors.
Controversy can be great publicity. Take this guestographic case study featured on the Ahrefs blog, for example.
The infographic, titled “What Happens One Hour After Drinking A Can Of Coke,” was originally published on The Renegade Pharmacist. It was based on an 11-year-old article by Wade Meredith about how Coke can wreak havoc on your system within an hour of drinking it.
Below is a screenshot of the infographic:
Here’s how well this infographic performed:
So, how did they do it?
Apparently, this infographic has the perfect combination of the following ingredients which resulted in it going viral according to Ahrefs:
Here’s how each attribute, in combination with others, influenced the results:
Wordstream has successfully launched several infographics, such as "Google's Biggest Flops & Failures" and their most recent infographic titled “Where's Google Making Its Money: Top 20 Most Expensive Keywords in Google Adwords Advertising.”
Wordstream wrote a case study which outlined how they were able to achieve success with their infographics. It is worth noting that this was made back in 2010, but there is a lot that you can learn from it. Here are the amazing results of their guestographic campaign:
RELATED: How to Use Infographics to Boost SEO and Build Links
Although Wordstream has admitted that infographics do not have the same viral effect as they did in 2010, a quick search of their latest blog post containing the “Where's Google Making Its Money” guestographic still displays these awesome results:
When known online marketers preach about an SEO strategy, you can bet that it works—most of the time.
In one case study, Neil published an infographic on his blog that, at first, barely received any attention.
Below is a screenshot of said graphic:
According to Neil, his infographic did not get much traffic when he first published it on his blog.
But when he contributed it to Entrepreneur Magazine, that’s when the magic happened. His guestographic ended up generating over 12K shares!
What Neil learned from reviving his underrated guestographic:
So there you have it: four great case studies that prove the power of guestographics.
As you can see, guestographics are one of the best strategies that you can execute to give your site a much-needed boost!
Anxious to get on the bandwagon, but don’t have the resources? Then, I recommend you to try out Visme which lets you make infographics in minutes and with no design skills required. Great, right?
Lack inspiration? Then go ahead and check this massive list of 101 best Infographic Examples on 19 Different Subjects.
So, how has guestographics helped your blog to grow? Let me know in the comments below!
And if you want to learn all our secrets on how to create an effective infographic (from how to write content for your visual to the design process), grab our free e-book below.
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About the Author
David Schneider is the co-founder and CEO of Ninja Outreach, an all-in-one influencer prospecting, outreach, and CRM software for marketers. Ninja Outreach also offers expert, Done-For-You outreach services for those who want to outsource their influencer marketing campaigns to professionals.