Link Building Outreach Email Example: Crafting Compelling Messages for Effective Backlink Acquisition

What’s worse—no replies or no backlink acquisition? No matter the answer, you lose.

We all know the potential trouble associated with expectations: If you expect something to turn out a certain way—and it doesn’t—you likely end up disappointed.

The same applies to when writing link building outreach emails to prospects. The cost of making a mistake(s) is just too high.

Write a bad email to your prospect and it will produce disappointing results. You end up with no backlinks for your customers (or yourself) and lose a business deal with that client.

So instead of this extreme, we’ve done a comprehensive blog post that can help you learn how to write a link building outreach email your prospects will love.

Here is the overview of what you’ll learn:

• How do you write an outreach email for link building?
• How do you write an outreach email example?
• What are cold email outreach templates for link building?
• What are 7 free link-building email templates for outreach success?

Ready to learn? Let’s get started with some basics.

What Is Link Building?

Let’s lay out some foundations by reminding ourselves what link building is. Backlinks or inbound links are links pointing toward your website from another website.

Such quality links are pretty valuable in SEO. That’s because, a link from a highly authoritative site pointing to your site acts like a vote of confidence, telling search engines that your site and its content are trustworthy and helpful.

This subsequently helps your website rank higher in search, which helps more people find your business, start clicking around, and eventually become a much-coveted lead.

This makes these backlinks a much sought-after resource by SEOs—normally through outreach—which we’re calling link building outreach, a process of obtaining those links.

That could be a link from a business site, a local authority website, a blog, or a forum. In exchange, you’ll provide something of value like a guest blog post, article, or insight piece.

But acquiring those links requires that you master some rules (that you shouldn’t break). That’s what we’re about to discuss below.

The 3 Immutable Laws of Link Building Outreach

When it comes to link building, it's not just about the links you’ll acquire. Think of the impact the link will have on your site and your audience.

Here are the do’s:

#1. The best way to generate quality backlinks is to publish high quality and helpful content that other webmasters and bloggers can organically link to.

#2. Only pitch for backlinks that add value for the reader.

#3. Send individualized emails to specific publishers.

The bottom line here is getting successful with your outreach. But these rules are useless if you don’t apply them in your outreach. Let’s see how to do it correctly.

How Do You Write An Outreach Email For Link Building?

Email outreach for backlinks acquisition is the technical term for requesting a backlink from a prospect through email.

…and it’s one of the most in-demand skills in link building.

Here are a few benefits of considering email outreach for link building:

• Effective and reliable
• It helps you be strategic in planning your outreach
• More professional way than other communication platforms
• Can use email outreach tool to make the process fast and result-oriented
  

However, you’re not going to throw a random email (using the templates you see online) and expect to get the link.

Instead, prioritize your efforts to show the person on the other side, (journalist, webmaster, marketer, or blogger), that your aim is to improve the user experience of their sites—and the link is just the icing on the cake.

Therefore, your email outreach content should be:

• Relevant
• Insightful
• Creative
• Deliver value
• Packed full of information
  

The goal here should be to first understand what might motivate the webmaster to provide a link to your site.

That’s why your emails need to demonstrate that you understand the audience for the site that you’re pitching to.

…explain what value the site owner and their audience will get by linking to your site. And that calls for a well-written and intelligent email rather than a cut-and-paste.

So, what should you do?

Assuming you’re publishing high quality and helpful content on your site, here are four fundamental parts to successful backlink request emails:

• Do your research that will show the website owner, editor, webmaster, or publisher that you understand and appreciate what they do.
• Write a killer subject line.
• Go for a short and sweet introduction about yourself.
• Briefly express your idea and explain the concept or your content, run through the fundamentals but don’t give away too much.  
• Explain relevance by telling them why it matters to have a link from them and why it matters now.
• Offer exclusivity by not pitching your idea to too many editors.
  

Having said that, let’s take a look at various examples of outreach emails that work.

How Do You Write An Outreach Email Example?

Almost all of the link outreach starts from an email pitch. Name them:

• Guest posts
• Distributing infographics
• Leveraging broken links
• Resource page linking

Spend some time writing your emails to increase your chances of getting a response. The goal is to differentiate your link building email from countless others (who are also targeting the same link) to the same prospect.

But if you’re starting out, you might need some examples to learn from. Here is one:

Example: Reaching Out to Share an Infographic

Subject Line: An infographic on (topic) you might be interested in!

Hey {name}

I was searching the web today for some information on {topic} and came across your site {URL}.

I loved the way you went in great depth talking about {the topic}.

Actually, I created an infographic on {topic} that you might find interesting and helpful to your audience as well.

Turns out, on social media, infographics are shared three times more than other content types.

And since I know how much you like writing on {such topics}, you may find this super useful.

If this is something that interests you, do let me know and I’ll be happy to share more details.

Best-

{your name}

Let’s be a little honest, if it were you, could you have felt touched by the email outreach?

If yes, there you go, if not, it’s time to put more practice and improve the sample outreach email.

Just remember to make it:

• Targeted
• Personalized
• Professional
• Relevant and timely
• Add value to the user experience
  

The most pressing challenge that SEOs and link building experts face when doing outreach is how to scale and sustain the moment.

Obviously, you’re not going to write one email and get a favorable response. So, what do you do?

…scale your outreach so that you can get as many high quality backlinks as possible, in diverse niches as well.

This brings us to using cold email outreach templates. So, what are they? More in the next section.

What Are Cold Email Outreach Templates For Link Building?

Link building email templates are pre-written emails that are used to reach out to website owners, bloggers, and other webmasters to request a backlink or guest post opportunity.

These outreach templates are designed to be customizable and can be used as a starting point for your outreach campaign.

They can save you time and effort by providing a framework for your email, but it’s important to personalize them to fit your specific needs and goals.

There are many different types of cold email outreach templates available for link building—let’s discuss them one by one in the following section.

What Are 7 Free Link-Building Email Templates For Outreach Success?

The link building outreach email example here provides a snapshot of how to approach link-building outreach, giving you the best chance of securing a valuable backlink that will boost your site’s SEO.

Some of the most common ones include:

1. The broken link email template

This template is used to inform website owners about broken links on their site (that could cause potential harm) and offer your own content as a replacement for the broken link—as a value-adding gesture.

Subject Line: Your post (link or topic) has a broken link.

Hi there/first name

I was googling {topic} and noticed a broken link on one of your posts (link to the post and section of the broken link).

Broken links happen all the time, but we can fix them so that we give our audience a seamless experience when click around.

That’s why, I see this as a golden opportunity for you to enhance this piece. By replacing that broken link with a reference to our recently published {infographic/study/in-depth article…}, which has been gaining substantial traction on {LinkedIn+link}.

I genuinely believe it could add significant value to your readers.

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks

2. Guest Post Pitch Email Template

This template is used to pitch a guest post idea to a website owner or blogger. To get started, find a list of sites in your niche that accept guest posts. Then try and pitch 2-3 topics per site.

Here are the do’s:

• Don’t pitch a subject they’ve already addressed.
• Mention how your piece will form part of their content cluster.
• Share 2-3 examples of your content that is relevant to their site.
• Triple-check your email spelling and grammar.
  

Subject Line: Value-Rich Guest Post Opportunity For Your Audience

Hello there! I've been working on a new blog called (URL) since July 2024.

I'm reaching out because I noticed you might be interested in featuring guest posts.

I believe I could craft a valuable support article for your {topic} content cluster. Here are some potential titles:

• Title 1
• Title 2
• Title 3

Our guest posts follow the same rigorous writing process as our own content—basically EEAT. We typically aim for 2,000-word posts, complete with robust examples and actionable insights.

Here are a few examples:

• On our site (link to post)
• On domain.com (link to post)
• On domain2.com (link to post)

I would love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for your consideration.

3. Link Reclamation Email Template

This template is used to reclaim lost links to your website by notifying website owners of the broken link in their article and offering a replacement link to your website.

Subject: Thanks for mentioning my site in your article

Hello (prospect.first_name),

First of all, thank you for mentioning (my site) in your article on (topic+link).

It was great to see that our (site+URL) was of interest to someone. I was wondering, however, if it would be possible to add a link back to our page. It would enable your readers to view the original data and provide us with full credit for our work.

Please get back to me if that’s something you would do.

Thank you,

4. Resource Page Links Outreach Email Templates

Resource pages are websites that gather other pages on the same topic so that their users can have a lot of quality data all in the same place.

If you have a fitting piece of content that adds value to the resource page, you can use this template to request a link to your website on a resource page of another website.

Subject Line: Resource page addition?

Hey, (prospect.first_name)!

I was digging around for information on (topic) today and came across your resource page: (link to resource page)

What an awesome list of resources! I didn’t even know about some of them.

If you’re interested, I actually just wrote a guide on (topic+URL).

It might make a great addition to your page.

Either way, keep up the great work! Thanks for your time.

Cheers,

5. Skyscraper Outreach Email Template

This template is used to request a backlink to your website after creating a piece of content that is better than the existing content on the same topic.

The first step is to find the top 10 articles already ranking for the target keyword in your niche and have lots of backlinks, then write an article that is better than all of them combined.

After that, you can then pitch the article to a webmaster (or webmasters) that linked to the previous one, if your article is good enough, there are literally zero reasons to turn down your offer.

Subject: Bigger and better

Hello (prospect.first_name),

I was going through your articles at (their website) and came across this page: (article name).

I noticed that in it you linked to one of my favorite articles ever: (article name).

It’s an awesome piece of content, and it actually inspired me to write something bigger and better. (Your post’s URL)

So, I think my article on (topic) will make a good addition to your page since it is more recent and more informative.

Let me know what you think,

6. Update Anchor Text Outreach Email Template

If the webmaster has already linked to you, and you later realize it has been edited, moved, or renamed, you can politely write (using this outreach email example template) and ask them to update the anchor text.

Subject: Just a little update

Hi (contact name)

I wanted to reach out to you regarding our link (insert link) in your “(page title)” article.

We thought that changing the anchor text from (the current anchor text) to (the new anchor text) would better benefit your readers who want to learn more about our product.

We appreciate your time and look forward to hearing back from you regarding our request.

Thanks,

7. .EDU Outreach Email Template

.EDU domains don’t link to unproven resources, however, if you have a piece of content that is “extremely” awesome, you can give it a go. This can be done if you find a loophole in any of the three areas:

• Broken link
• Do donations or
• Provide scholarships
  

Here is a sample outreach letter.

Subject: Broken links on (Topic) Resources

Hello (prospect name),

I’ve been digging through data on (topic) and the resources listed on your academic pages on (topic+URL) came in extremely handy for my current project.

I would even say I couldn’t have finished my (article) without your help. I came across a few broken links though, so I was wondering if you are still updating that page.

I could send you all of the broken links and also suggest additional resources if you’re interested.

Thank you,

That’s just scratching the surface. The right framework can do a lot of heavy lifting for you—and it’s not about copy-pasting but improving the current outreach message sample (from any of the above) and making it fit for you and your prospects.

It goes without saying that, sometimes, you might not get a response on the first try. Instead, you’ll have to write follow-up emails, before you can move a needle. Even with those, ensure they’re helpful and polite.

Final Thoughts

A template should be a powerful teacher.

Take time to study the link building outreach template examples provided in this article and then study why the templates appear to be effective.

How does it help you achieve your objective?

The “essence” of link building outreach email requires that you first get to know the person you’re going to email more personally and the benefits they’ll get by giving you the link.

That requires time, effort, and patience.