You have spent so much time and energy finding link opportunity within your niche and analysing your competitors.
And now, you have a spreadsheet - full of potential link building opportunities.
With so much time and energy you've put in, you rolled out your messages, but no one is reading and replying to them.
You've got some fantastic content to offer in return for the links.
But, no matter how valuable your content is, your outreach email is the key to earning that link.
That's because no one is going to read through poorly-formatted email outreach.
While there are many link building email outreach templates out there, these tips are about helping you avoid some common mistakes that might make your out-reach looks like a "spam-reach" leaving your prospects to ignoring them.
6 Tips For Successful “Link Building” Outreach
If you follow these simple tips, you'll have a successful link building campaign.
1. Reach Out To The Right Person
You need to make sure that your message is hitting the right addresses.
Don't just scrape emails of prospects and then hit send.
Here's why…
Not every email address that's returned will make the right outreach.
Many organisations have people who are in charge of managing, creating and publishing content for the site.
And reaching out to the company's founder would make no sense and amount to a waste of time.
2. Don’t Rely Too Much On Templates
Every day, webmasters receive one email or the other from people asking for a link back to their websites.
And many of these link requests usually turn out to be dead on - or even before arrival.
Because, they often sound the same. People take templates and hit send without adding elements of personalisation.
You don't want your request to look exactly like others. And so, you should always try to customise (add your own) every template you see out there.
So, avoid using a general template for your link building outreach if you want your email stand out and your request granted.
With an email template, you can easily fall into:
- Auto-fill errors such as "Hello [Name]."
- Sending request to the wrong person.
- Sending the wrong template to the wrong address.
- Sending a sequential email all at once because all are included in a single template.
Templates can be an effective way to reach out quickly to prospects, but that doesn't mean you should do what other people are doing; taking templates and then, hit send.
Templates are there to provide a framework, and so you should add your own. Someone sat and put it together; you can come up with your idea and then turn it to a template.
3. Avoid Using Generic Name
Nothing fails as fast as an email with a generic name.
People ignore an email from someone who hasn’t taken some times out to figure who they are and address them by name.
If by chance I opened such an email, I quickly find the back button or swipe back my screen when I'm on mobile.
If you want your email to be read at all - don't make it appears like this one:
Hello, sir/ma,
Before you send your link request, take some time to figure out who might be responsible for the site maintenance and content publishing.
And even after you know this person, you should do a little research - you never can tell, you might find something that may compel him or her to granting your request.
For Instance, if your link outreach prospect attended a conference and tweet about the event alongside his photo. You can easily start from thereby offering a compliment. That way, he now knows that you must be one of his valuable followers.
4. Go Straight To The Point, Make It Short (Not Wordy) And Sweet
Remember the person you're pitching doesn’t have that time to read through a long piece of content.
As a matter of fact, he has tens of emails to read, and he wouldn't waste his time on one email.
Whatever thing you want to say should be put into - at most, four paragraphs. With each paragraph not longer than two short sentences.
And should always include the following:
- Recipient name (don't use the generic name)
- The broken link
- Where the link is
- Your suggested replacement and
- Why it'll be a suitable replacement (in one sentence).
5. Don't Be Pushy
No one likes being told what to do!
Never persuade someone into granting your request by all means. Words like:
"Please, could you replace this broken link by this link?"
You don't want to go overboard… the person you're sending a request is not your friend - he doesn't know you.
And you don't want to force him; hence he sees you as spam.
What's important in your email is...
The email should simply call the person to the *broken link* and then, suggest a replacement.
6. Send 1-2 follow-up emails
If you're reaching out for the first time and you aren’t getting a reply, send a follow-up to remind the person.
But, don't be pushy in your request.
Always follow up an initial email because It's a sure way to successful link building outreach.
Your first-ever email may get in between important emails and is possible the person gets too busy or even opens it and gets distracted.
It makes sense to keep your follow-up simple, and if no reply after the second follows up, just move on to new prospects; there are many gold-link opportunities you could mine.
You wouldn't want your email to be reported as spam, which can lead to your email being blacklisted.
Summing "Simple Tips For Successful “Link Building” Outreach" Up...
Using templates without customising and adding your ideas, can lead to a poor result.
To earn a link, you need to get it right with link outreaching. Because, no matter how great your content is, no matter how befitting the replacement link is (in the case of broken links), your success rate depends on the emails you send.
Pro tip: follow up emails 2x original (initial) email when it comes to delivering the result in link building outreach. So, don't give up on your initial email.
Remember, nothing can ruin a good link opportunity faster than a bad link outreach.
Good luck in your link building outreach.