As an online marketer or business owner, you’re probably quite familiar with link outreach emails. In fact, you probably receive them all the time. You know, those pesky emails from other websites attempting to entice you to link to them in one of your blog posts. Or perhaps you’ve been emailed a pitch by a company hoping to score a guest post on your site. Yes, I’m talking about those emails.
White hat link building has become a lot tougher than it used to be and with a colossal 4.2 billion webpages in existence, trusting that you’ll earn links naturally isn’t always practical. This is why many opt to simply ask other websites for links via email outreach. But, is email outreach still considered an effective link building tactic? Keep reading to find out.
The Reality of Link Outreach Emails
Think about how many times you’ve received a link outreach email. How many times have you opened those emails? How many times have you taken the time to respond?
Recent studies have found that people open fewer than 24% of outreach emails and respond to less than 8.5%. The reality is that the vast majority of general outreach messages are ignored. But, when it comes to cold link outreach emails, open and response rates can be even worse.
The problem is that many people on the web just scrape other’s ideas and run with them without putting much thought or effort behind them. In the case of link outreach emails, many tend to copy and paste ingenuine, depersonalized, and uncompelling link outreach templates. If you’ve noticed that a majority of the link outreach emails look eerily similar, this is why.
With this approach, both Google and the recipient are likely to assume your message is just another spam email. In fact, many of them will probably end up in your recipient’s spam folder. This is not only an inefficient way to send link outreach emails but it also bares significant reputation risks.
The Right Way to Send Link Outreach Emails
Link outreach emails can work only if they’re done properly. Taking shortcuts is not going to yield the results you’re looking for and, quite frankly, it’s a huge waste of time.
Instead, consider creating your own personalized outreach messages that are concise and communicate value without pushing benefits. This is guaranteed to increase your chances of improving your response and open rate.
Here are a few other tips for writing your own link outreach emails:
- Be transparent: They know you want a link so don’t beat around the bush.
- Be Relevant: Don’t spam any email you find. Only connect with relevant sites and niches.
- Empathize: If you’re cold-emailing them, acknowledge that and let them know you understand the feeling.
- Tell them who you are: Share your title or position if relevant.
- Reciprocate: Let them know you are willing to share the love and help them out as well.
Link Building: The Bottom Line
Email outreach for link building can be very effective when done properly but, it shouldn’t be the only link building tactic you rely on. It can be extremely time-consuming and you shouldn’t expect to receive a huge response. If you choose to do email link outreach, take the time to do it right. Even if you don’t get the links you’re looking for, you may earn respect and that could lead to future opportunities.