Backlink Outreach Mastery: Proven Strategies to Build Relationships and Acquire Quality Backlinks

If you’ve ever tried backlink outreach, you know how tough it can be. The problem is that people with high-authority websites receive a lot of emails. For your outreach to work, you need a unique yet effective strategy. Worry not though. In this guide, we’ll help you:

Find a list of the right targets
Craft a compelling email outreach pitch
Track everything
And more

Let’s jump right in.

Backlink Outreach: A Comprehensive Guide to Acquiring Quality Backlinks

Backlink Outreach: What It Is and Should You Do It

Backlink outreach normally refers to the process of reaching out to webmasters and asking them for a backlink to your site.

You should do backlink outreach because:

It’s probably the best way to build high-quality backlinks in any niche. In fact, most link building methods require effective outreach
It helps you build long-term business relationships that lead to further business collaborations down the road

With that out of the way, let’s talk about our practical step-by-step backlink outreach process and best practices.

How to Use Outreach for Link Building

Compile a List of Prospects

One of the first, and most important, aspects of link building outreach is identifying who to reach out to.

Finding the right people is a must. Otherwise, you’re wasting all your resources just to stay where you are, i.e., at zero backlinks.

Don’t want to waste your resources on the wrong people? Here’s how you can create a list of high-quality prospects:

Set Goals: Start by identifying what you really want from your backlink outreach campaign. Your outreach targets may vary depending on your goals.

For instance, if you want to publish guest posts, you’ll want to find websites that accept guest posts.

Create a List

Next, create a spreadsheet file with the necessary information:

The name of the prospect or webmaster
The URL you want to get a backlink from
The outreach and follow-up dates (Or, outreach status)

Here’s an example:

Find Their Email Addresses

Once you know the websites you want backlinks from, it’s time to hunt for the contact person’s email addresses.

The best way to do that is by using a free tool like Hunter.io.

Or, simply visit the “Team” or “Contact Us” page and find the email address of the right person manually.

You can find content managers of larger organizations on LinkedIn as well.

Avoid using the contact form unless you have no other option. Try to do the outreach directly instead.

Develop an Outreach Email Template

The word “Template” may have a bad connotation to it when it comes to cold outreach.

But, if you know how to personalize a template, it can be a huge time-saver.

You don’t have to sit down and write an email from scratch every time you’re reaching out to someone.

If you want to scale your outreach efforts, you’ll need well-crafted link building email templates.

Here’s how you do it.

Start by getting some inspiration and look for sample outreach email examples.

Don’t use these emails word by word. Otherwise, you’ll look like everybody else. Something that will render your outreach ineffective.

Make tweaks. Add some humor if you can. Keep them concise.

Keep adding or removing content from the template to make it more powerful.

Here are some tried and true link building outreach email examples you can model.

Make your subject lines long to provide the reader with more information about what your email is all about.

At the end of your email outreach template, add links to your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

This will help your credibility and boost your reply rate.

Personalize Your Outreach

Personalization is key to getting your emails opened and read. It’s something that separates you from spammers.

Research suggests that personalized emails get a lot more responses than generic ones.

Here’s how you can personalize your email copy for every individual prospect:

Use their first name. The start of your email decides whether the reader will read the rest of it or not. Email openings like “Dear sir” are a turn-off and will only hurt your email readability. Addressing someone with their first name improves the chances that they’ll read the email.
Add a reference to something you noticed about their business on their blog or anywhere else. It shows that you’ve done your research before the outreach.
A compliment goes a long way when it comes to cold outreach for link building. Don’t make it sound generic though. Try to compliment them on something specific. Everybody these days uses generic sentences like “I love reading the content on your blog”. They’re not personal.
If you can, warm up your target before reaching out. You can do that by following them on social media or adding a comment under a blog post.

Be Specific and Concise

When developing your sample outreach letter or email, stick to the point.

People you’re reaching out to are probably busy.

Be concise with your outreach and you’ll increase your chances of getting a response.

The “Inverted Pyramid” method can help a lot when you’re trying to be concise.

It involves adding the most important information at the top of your email.

However, you don’t want to keep it too short.

Make sure the reader knows what you want from them.

Follow Up Wisely

A gentle follow-up is an effective way to get a response most of the time.

However, too many follow-ups can be annoying.

Only use one follow-up and instead of being repetitive, try a different angle.

Don’t Be Selfish

Your goal is to get new backlinks to your website.

But, you want to resist the urge to be selfish.

It’s human nature to want something in return.

Give your prospect something that’s of value to them.

This is where understanding your target will help you out.

Use an Outreach Tool

Outreach tools can help you save a lot of time and scale your efforts.

Here are some recommended ones:

Pitchbox: Pitchbox has everything you need to conduct effective link building outreach. It lets you:

Find bloggers quickly
Conduct personalized outreach and follow-up
Make data-driven decisions

BuzzStream: BuzzStream is one of the most popular outreach tools for marketers and bloggers.

With it, you can:

Find influencers and blog owners in any industry
Get deep insights into your campaigns
Collaborate easily with your team in a centralized dashboard

Before using an outreach tool, send some emails manually.

This will help you get the hang of the process and understand what works best.

Why Outsource Your Backlink Outreach

Backlink outreach can take up a lot of your time, effort, and other resources.

At some point, you’ll want to scale and automate your workflows.

Managing everything in-house is an option, but a relatively expensive one.

Instead, consider outsourcing everything to expert freelancers.

Here are some benefits of backlink outreach outsourcing:

Saves Time

Link building won’t lead to anything substantial if the core aspects of your business are left unaddressed.

You should outsource backlink outreach because it’ll give you time to focus on running and growing your business.

Leverage Expertise

When you’re doing outreach yourself, you have to guess or experiment a lot.

Outreach specialists know who and how to reach out to.

They know how to use data to make their strategies more effective.

Investing in an expert freelancer means you don’t have to do any guesswork.

Want to outsource your backlink outreach?

Here’s our recommended service!

Backlink Outreach: FAQs

What is Outreach Backlink?

An outreach backlink refers to a link you get after an outreach campaign. Most link building strategies involve outreach. Examples include guest posting, link insertions, and Help A Reporter Out.

What is Outreach Linkbuilding?

Outreach link building is when you actively build links to your website by reaching out to other website owners or journalists. After finding a target’s email address, you reach out to them, asking for collaboration. Outreach link building is safe and helps you build long-term business relationships.

How to Write Email Outreach for Backlinks?

Your outreach email should be concise and personal. Keep it short, but provide enough information to let the other person know what you want and what’s in it for them. Add a touch of personalization by addressing them by their name and mentioning something unique.

How Do I Reach Out for a Backlink?

Start by creating a link building email template. Then, find the email addresses of your targets and create a spreadsheet to track everything. Reach out to them with a personalized email, asking for collaboration.

Conclusion

If you’ve read this far, you know that backlink outreach doesn’t have to be complicated. If you follow the guidelines, it’s easy to stand out and get noticed. Start by identifying the strategies that align with your goals. For instance, if you want links from news outlets, you’ll have to use the HARO strategy. Next, create a spreadsheet to track progress. Add your list of targets to it. Conduct an outreach campaign making sure your emails are: