Link Building Outreach: Ultimate Beginner’s Guide [Updated 2024]

Any link building specialist knows that the success of your link building campaign is closely tied to the effectiveness of your email outreach campaign. After all, the outreach helps build relationships, establish connections, and convince others to link to your content.

How to create quality emails? From personalization to compelling subject lines to clear value preposition to follow-ups, it’s a tough game to play but the rewards are so amazing!

Here is a complete link building outreach guide for you to try in 2024.

What Does Link Building Outreach Mean?

If you have some idea about link building, you know that once you list down the most relevant and credible websites in your niche, you then have to reach out and convince them to partner up with you.

This is where link building outreach comes into play. You can call it an art more than science because it’s all about persuasion.

Remember that there’s no automated bot sitting on the other side to receive your offers. It’s going to be a real person. They probably get dozens of outreach emails per day and so they’re not really dying for your offer. On top of that, if you have targeted a high-authority site then this is probably not even their top priority.

So, you need to be confident and compelling enough to make it a success. Don’t just write another email that will end up in their spam box.

The secret is to stand out with your offer and be impressive enough to get noticed. How to do that? This is what we will talk about today.

Skills Needed for Link Building Outreach

It may seem like a highly convincing pitch will make your outreach campaign successful. But there are more factors to consider, such as:

1. Technical skills

If you have some working knowledge of link building and SEO in general, you will be able to make the best of it. Being familiar with the top outreach tools also matters here (we will talk about them in detail below).

2. Personal skills

Patience is always mandatory in this game. You can send 100 emails to prospects and get only five replies; all of which are rejections. This is the reality that you should accept as the norm.

What’s more, be persistent. Don’t give up after a few tries. Prepare for your 101^st e-mail. Your creativity needs to be present in your effort as well.

3. Interpersonal skills

Never think about spamming. In fact, if you send a huge number of mails, that won’t cut it. Focus on empathizing with the prospect. Make them see reason. Let them realize why they should get back to you. Be more social and engaging to be adept at negotiations.

4. Social media skills

Not ‘skills’ per se; you’ll need to be familiar with the different social media platforms and how they work to figure out the contact information of your prospects. Social media is also a quick and easy way to connect with your potential partners or influencers before the formal outreach takes place.

Link Building Outreach: Step-by-Step

1. Find Good Prospects

The very first step to take is to identify your targets – websites, blogs, influencers, and so on for your link building outreach campaign.

The choice depends on how you’ve decided to reach out:

• Manual Search

You can simply Google with your topic in mind and find websites relevant to your niche on the SERP. Research further to select a prospect of your preference.

You can also grab the opportunity to guest blog on high-authority sites and gain a couple of links in this process. This is a surefire way to earn dofollow links and higher referral traffic to the site. The quality of your content matters most here.

Just Google the keyword and add an extra string like “write for us” or “guest posting” and see if there are any opportunities. They might be your prospects of the day!

This is also possible if you use SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush or Moz. For each keyword in the search box, they return a list of websites that you can download in a CSV format and check out individually. They provide you with data and metrics on each site that may help you with the search.

Let’s use SEMRush for the same topic:

• Competitor Backlink Analysis

Competitor analysis reveals how your niche competitors are building links. Using this information, you can sort out some referring domains that can give you backlinks.

You can easily do your competitor analysis with the SEO tools mentioned above. In this case, let’s use SEMRush’s Backlinks Analytics.

First, type in your domain and figure out the list of competitors in your niche.

Now individually analyze each competitor and the referring domains they got their backlinks from.

These domains might be your prospects since they are already interested in your niche. All you have to do is List down and reach them out one by one!

Competitor backlinks open up more opportunities for prospects like broken link building.

If you do the backlink analysis well enough, you should be able to list out the sites with dead links in your niche. If allowed, you can then approach them with the relevant and active links of your own.

• Networking

It doesn’t always have to be an in-depth research session to find your prospects online.

The healthy SEO practice is to build genuine relationships with varied businesses, bloggers, and influencers. The better you network with different types of people, the more your chances of getting organic backlinks.

You can just think of a friend who might help you out with a link and approach him when the time comes for the link. So, invest more in personal and professional relationships.

Influencer marketing is so popular now. Try to find some influencers in your niche whose target audience suits yours.

You can use their popularity to your advantage and promote your product through their relevant and quality content. Before reaching out to them, make sure they have a decent following on their platforms and the follower engagement rate is high.

2. Organize the Prospect’s Data

Now that you have listed all the prospects for your outreach campaign, it’s time to organize them with key information.

Note down the essentials for each prospect like its –

• Domain URL
• E-mail address
• Info on the person in charge e.g. webmasters and content managers
• Important metrics like domain authority score (DA) and traffic data
• Niche information
• Primary keywords you are hoping to target

Use an Excel file or a spreadsheet for this job.

Start segmenting your list based on different criteria e.g. the DA value or traffic. List segmentation is important to your campaign because it helps you strategize smartly.

So, you can take care of the high-DA prospects by investing more time and effort in content marketing. For low DA sites with less traffic, you shouldn’t put that much effort into customization.

3. Get their Contact Info

Making contact is the most essential part of an outreach program. But figuring out “how” is just as important.

Since the outreach usually takes place through email, note down the email address of your prospect.

It is not as easy as it sounds.

You may have to manually search through the website. In that case, we recommend that you look into the pages where contact information is usually on, for example, the ‘Contact us’ or the ‘About us’ page. Sometimes, you may find the email address on the homepage as well.

If not found, check their social media profiles like Facebook and LinkedIn for any contact information since they opened these accounts with their email IDs. The ‘About’ section of both social media pages usually has an email address.

You can also use Email finder tools like Hunter.io, GetProspect or Tomba to quickly fetch you the mail address. In fact, this is the easiest way to get your desired email or contact info.

Let’s take the GetProspect tool for example.

Say you want to reach out to the online marketplace Etsy and so you want to know about their contact information.

Just search the company and click on View.

The next window will give you a brief contact information of the company. If you want to reach out to someone specific, navigate to View Company and find a list of employees.

You can also filter out the search result with the position of the person you want to work with. Usually, you need to get in touch with their webmaster or content manager. So, find them and click View Mail to get their email IDs.

Link building outreach tools like Buzzstream or Pitchbox also work.

If you can give a personal touch, that’s even better! Get hold of the individuals in charge of partnerships or content management in the target sites. They can be content managers, editors, or webmasters. You can also connect with them on social media and exchange informal introductions before approaching them for any official deal.

4. Send a Customized Email

Your email is your pitch. If you send a generic, boring and uninspiring email, don’t expect any good news in return.

Craft a convincing mail in your own words. Ask yourself this – “why should they care about me?”

Tell them right off the bat what your content is all about. Share your idea in detail and help them see why it’s going to work. Finally, outline the process you’re expecting to build your links through (e.g. external linking in their existing blogs, guest posting, sponsored posting and so on). All in all, give them a whole picture so they feel interested in your proposal.

You’ll get hundreds of email outreach templates online. Our suggestion is – don’t use any of them. You can follow the structure of the templates but the words have to be of your own.

Research your prospects and their content to know them better. Point out the strengths you appreciate and highlight their business goals that align with yours. Be genuine in your outreach. Don’t write all of this just for the sake of building links.

The webmasters are experienced and may have gone through thousands of emails like this. They’ll smell from miles away if you’re being inauthentic in your approach.

This may be your only chance to strike a deal. So, pull out all the tricks from your bag when writing the mail –

• Generate unique ideas
• Figure out gaps in their information and promise to cover them through your content
• Pitch multiple ideas to prove your topical authority on the subject matter
• Use ego-baits i.e., showcase your prospect in a positive light in your content
• Add a little bit of humor in the text
• Appeal emotionally if possible

Whatever your content may be, clearly state its nature to ensure the webmasters it will satisfy their users. They may be –

• Long-form content
• Research-based content
• Data-heavy case studies
• In-depth analysis with infographics and visualization
• News
• Controversial issues

If your content doesn’t fit into any of them, figure out what’s unique about it and address it creatively.

Here’s a sample template you can follow-

Hi there,

It’s [Your Name] from [Your Website URL or Company Name]. I was surfing the web when I landed on this page: [Blog Title or Page URL]. I liked it since it’s very informative and full of interesting content. I browsed it for almost 10 minutes before I decided to write to you.

I wanted to get in touch to see if you would be interested in posting an article on your blog for us. I really love your voice and content – you have truly defined yourself as an influencer in the blogging world!

I already have a few interesting and engaging pre-written articles on [Your Topic or Niche] that are sure to be appreciated by your readers. Alternatively, if you have any topic ideas, you may share that with us too.

Beyond that, you have creative freedom to edit our article wherever you want – the only thing that we require is that we approve the post before you publish it (In case you do any editing on your end), and that you link to [Your Website URL].

Please don’t hesitate to knock us should you have any queries.

Thanks & Regards

Name:

Designation:

Website or Company Name:

5. Follow Up Effectively

A Backlinko study found that while around 8.5% outreach emails get a response, follow-ups work like magic with twice the success rate. That means you should never just sit back after sending your first draft.

If you own a website, you know how hard it is to maintain. You will rarely find the time to check out every mail stuffing your inbox. So, if you don’t receive any response in due time, there is a possibility that they didn’t notice your offering (this usually happens when the subject is not catchy) or the mail ended up in the trash folder.

Send in the same mail thread as the first email so the webmaster finds it easier to access both emails if they hadn’t noticed earlier. Seems trivial from your perspective but this little gesture can take you a long way.

As far as what you should write in the mail body, keep it nice and short. Be polite and remind the person in charge how you had sent a prior email.

You can send more emails if there’s still no response of any kind. However, we advise against that since that might lead to the impression that you’re spamming their mailbox.

You can reach out to them personally or through social media to prove how serious you are about this opportunity.

You can use a spreadsheet to record all the emails that need follow-up. This is recommended to avoid any sort of awkwardness and lack of professionalism on your part i.e., sending a follow-up mail to someone who is already linked to you or mixing up websites when sending customized emails.

Try outreach management tools like Buzzstream to automate the process. A free Gmail plugin called Boomerang can help as well. If you set a time period in Boomerang, it will notify you whether your email has been replied within that period.

Finally, be prepared to be rejected. SEO is not everyone’s cup of tea. It takes time and effort to build your reputation. So, accept that and take every negative reply as a lesson.

In fact, we want you to reply to this type of email with a smile. This may sound outrageous but it’s important for long-term SEO.

Ignoring the mail simply means you don’t care about that prospect anymore. But this is not the end of the world. The webmaster may not have liked this idea but what about the next? Don’t throw away this opportunity to collaborate in future.

What’s more, by continuing this thread, you may get honest feedback from a professional that will help make the campaign more efficient.

Remind yourself that outreach is not all about building links. Try to form meaningful relationships that will help sustain your digital presence in the long run.

6. Establish Partnership

Well, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. With persistence, you’re sure to secure collaborations with some of your much-desired prospects.

In case they like your pitches, they’ll get back to you sooner or later and discuss further how you can go about it.

Thank them cordially and try to make the best out of this opportunity. The only way to do so is to develop exceptional content worth linking.

When they’re providing you links from their own blogs, make sure the link is properly placed with the right anchor text and your content is topically relevant.

If you’re guest posting on highly popular sites, you should be more careful since you’re representing your whole business here. Adjust relevant links within the post and receive more brand exposure. Don’t forget to assure them that they have complete creative control over your content and can change or fix things wherever they want. However, ask for a final review before you publish.

In the case of influencers, you have to be 100% sure whether your link is reaching the right audience or not. Influencers usually have a wide range of audiences. So, cater to your target audience through specific branding techniques.

Always be aware of spammy links. If you go for any back hat SEO strategy here e.g., paid link building, excessive link exchange, or link farming, your outreach attempts are useless. If you can’t keep them under wraps, which is not even possible considering the latest Google link spam updates, not only will your links bring no value to your SEO but your whole site can get penalized.

The goal is to foster a long-term partnership with your prospect. Meet in the middle and show how mutually beneficial this collaboration is. This will help you secure more such opportunities in the future and most of all, pave the way for gaining quality backlinks naturally.

Professional Tips

Polish your outreach skills and boost your chances to get noticed. Try some of these hacks here and see if they work for you-

• Maintain a High Standard

Be strict about choosing authoritative sites for outreach. A single link from a high-end website has far more weight than several links from low-quality sites.

• Try Cold Emails

Although cold emails (sending unsolicited emails to prospects) are discouraged when it comes to urgent outreach, they can still be effective if you play your cards right. Research the prospect and its target audience. Write your mail – short and simple and detailed ideas for valuable content with your unique spin on them.

• Pick the Right Man for the Job

Contact with the individual responsible for outreach management if you don’t want to take risks with cold emailing. Find out their specific preferences and appeal to their emotional side with your links.

• Personalize Your Emails

Get closer to your target by tailoring your mail to a specific style. Address them by name, give them a reminder about a past transaction or interaction between you two, and refer to one of their works that inspired you. Getresponse.com suggests that personalized mails have about 30% open rate.

• Hook with the Subject Line

Your subject line in the outreach email should be direct and catchy. Whoever you’re writing to should realize what you’re up to just by reading that single line. So, if you’re going for broken link building, simply put “Broken Link” in that section to grab attention.

• Stay On-topic 

Don’t divert from the ideas you’re trying to convey. Keep your content relevant.

• Mingle Socially First

Said it before, saying it again – build a real relationship with your prospect even before sending a mail. Use social media for this purpose.

• Use Outreach Tools

Tools like BuzzSumo and others are excellent for outreach management.

How Much Does Link Building Outreach Cost?

The expense of link building outreach depends on the strategy you have chosen. Surely, manual outreach link building is a cheaper option. However, that’s too time consuming and so not recommended except as a last resort.

Instead, you’ll have to invest in specific tools and services.

As we’ve explained above, there are two classes of tools you may have to use when reaching for links.

You can use generic SEO tools like Moz, SEMRush, and so on to check your DA/PA of your prospect. If you have a decent enough SEO going on for your business, you might have purchased these tools already. So, we don’t need to take them into account for our outreach budget.

Then there are tools for outreach only – BuzzSumo, BuzzStream, Pitchbox, and the likes. We’ve already mentioned how Pitchbox is the most expensive of the bunch. The pricing can go up to $6,000/year whereas BuzzStream costs only $264/year.

Ultimately, it goes back to why and how you want to conduct your outreach. If your focus is only email marketing, then BuzzStream alone will do. However, if you want a more holistic performance with high-quality link opportunities, Pitchbox has little to no competition for that.

Pitfalls to Avoid in Outreach Link Building

• Generic emails

An email without personalization is like forwarding a readymade template. Imagine your email contains “INSERT NAME HERE” in the text. Such a lack of professionalism won’t definitely be rewarded. So, always write your own emails and make them speak to the reader on a personal and emotional level.

• Over-personalization

The flip side of the same coin is where you personalize too much and make it seem like a template all the same. Try to be genuinely involved in the process.

• Blanket Outreach

Don’t start sending the same mail to everyone. If you indiscriminately forward the same message, you know you have a problem, right? Fix it and get personal.

• Mass Emailing Software

One of the extremes you could reach while automating your SEO. Mass emailing software sends emails to many recipients at the same time. Of course, if that’s a normal course of business in your niche, it’s perfectly okay to send emails like this.

However, for outreach, that’s a risky step. You can get spammed for sending the same emails in bulk. Also, if you make an error in the text, you upset everybody with a terrible impression. More importantly, there’s no way to personalize your message anymore. So, why sacrifice reputation for cheap comfort?

• Too Many Details

Don’t overanalyze your content in a single mail. Entice them with a hook or an interesting bit of information so they write back to you for more.

Launch Your Link Building Outreach Campaign with LinkBuilderPros

LinkBuilderPros has been a reliable link building agency for over a decade now. We can make your campaign a success with our deep industry knowledge and top-of-the-line resources. Over the years, we have built organic relationships with some of the most trusted and reputable industries in the world.

If you need help with your link building outreach campaigns, contact us. We are always ready to take care of any type of link building issues with our customized solutions.

Final Thoughts

Google prefers link building by natural means but outreach isn’t actually artificial either.

You can always reach out to other blogs and influencers and inform them of your content. But focus more on telling them how it helps them rather than how good your blog is.

This way, you get a backlink in exchange for valuable content and everyone is happy.

Communication is key here and that’s what we covered in detail in this post.

Follow the guide for link building outreach and make your mark.

Be patient, don’t get frustrated and keep going until the next mail says, “congratulations!”

FAQs

Q. What’s the reply rate in email outreach for link building?

Ans. There is no telling when you are going to get a reply for your outreach mail. However, the standard rate varies between 5%-20% depending on a lot of factors like prospects, the email body, content requirements, and so on.

Q. How many follow-up emails should I send for outreach?

Ans. You should strike a balance between persistence and respect. So, there is no definite number although you should write comprehensive follow up emails to ensure a reply at the earliest. Maximum SEO experts recommend up to 3 follow up mails to be sent after the first.

mothasim

SEO & Growth Manager

A distinguished SEO and Business Development Consultant with a proven track record of helping businesses achieve outstanding results in the digital landscape. Throughout his career, Mothasim has worked with a diverse range of businesses, from startups to Fortune 500 companies.

His strategies are characterized by his meticulous attention to detail, data-driven decision-making, and a deep understanding of search engine algorithms. In his personal life, Mothasim enjoys hiking, photography, and volunteering in his community. He believes in giving back and is actively involved in mentoring aspiring SEO professionals. LinkedIn .