How to Write Link Building Email Templates To Get Replies

Why Use Link Building Email Templates?

Sending cold emails that get replies is hard. Having a set of tried and tested link building email templates to tap into gives you a predictable way to reach out to your link building prospects.

Templates will make you more productive, as you can rely on one set format, then switch out fields like names and company names to improve personalization.

8 Best Practices for Writing Link Building Email Templates

1. Spend time building your list for the best results


The first critical step to link building outreach success is knowing who you’re reaching out to.

You need to approach this like you would in your company’s sales and marketing processes.

You need to have a clearly defined prospecting process to find leads. To help you get started, ask questions like:


• What industry do your link targets operate in?
  
• What job title does your ideal recipient have?
  
• What other criteria do your link prospects need to meet?

Once you know who you want to reach out to, you can use a combination of tools to find people matching those criteria. For instance:


• Serpstat or Ahrefs to identify websites that match your criteria for a link;
  
• LinkedIn to identify people with the job title you need at a company;
  
• ZoomInfo to source people and contact detail data for your prospects.
  

This process ensures you only reach out to high-quality, relevant prospects and gives you the best chance of securing a link.


2. Find individual contact details rather than catch-all addresses


It’s easy to find generic company emails like marketing@company.com.

But, if you email this, it’ll be immediately apparent that you haven’t thoroughly researched the company and person that you’re reaching out to.

Instead, go to LinkedIn, and search for the company you’re planning to reach out to. Then, look for the person most likely to be responsible for link building and SEO at the company.

Then, use a tool like Anymail Finder to find the email address for that specific person.




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Once you have an email address, it’s time to verify it. Email verification tools like Bouncer or NeverBounce will run checks on the email address to verify whether it can receive emails or not.

This verification process ensures you don’t reach out to invalid emails that will bounce back or get caught in spam filters.

At the end of this process, you’ll have a list of verified email addresses for individuals at the companies you’re going to reach out to in your link building strategy. 


3. Personalize the email to each recipient to stand out in a busy inbox

Every email you send needs to be personalized.

The people you’re reaching out to receive multiple link prospecting emails per day, so it’s vital that you use personalization to stand out in their inbox.

There are several ways you can personalize your emails.

First, use their first name and company name when referring to them.

Then, open up your email with a custom opening line. For example:


• “Found the recent article you published on SEO trends very insightful. Looks like some of the predictions are already coming true.”
  
• “Congrats on getting {{company.name}} featured in [publication], that must have taken a lot of work.”
  
• “Listening to your insights about link building on [podcast], you made me think about it in a new way.”

If you open your link building template with a completely unique sentence, it shows that you care about the specific relationship and haven’t just put your recipient on a huge email blast with thousands of other unsuspecting recipients.

Read more:

• Personalization in Guest Blogging - From Prospecting to Publishing
  
• The Ultimate Guide to Blogger Outreach: Everything You Need to Know
  
• Link Building Outreach: How to Run Successful Outreach Campaigns
  

4. Add social proof to your emails to build trust

Link building is difficult because you’re reaching out cold asking for something of value.

You need to show your recipient why it’s worth trusting and helping you.

The easiest way to do this is by adding social proof to your templates.


For example, you can mention:


• Notable companies who you’ve worked on campaigns with;
  
• The number of visitors to the resource you’d like a link to;
  
• A way you were able to give back to a previous link building partner.

If you can show how you helped other people who added your link to their website and reciprocate the favor, it will go a long way to helping you get responses.


5. Always provide value for the recipient

Your link building prospects will have objections to your pitch. After all, why should they give you a link when they don’t know you?

The answer is simple: you provide something in return.

Whether it’s:


• Offering them a link in return;
  
• Promoting their content to your email list or on your social media;
  
• Offering a helpful resource that they can give to their audience for free.
  

The key is that you’re not asking for something without returning the favor.

Offering value to your recipient will reduce objections and improve your success rate. The people you reach out to will want to continue the conversation and explore the opportunity, as they stand to benefit as well.

Without offering value in return, you’ll struggle to see results from link building.


6. Test your call-to-actions to improve reply rates

Your recipients are busy. If you’re emailing the Head of SEO or Content at a growing company, they’ll have a long list of to-dos, and replying to you isn’t a priority.

If you end your email template with a call-to-action like “Let me know when you’ve added my link to your article”, there’s almost a zero chance of getting a reply. If you do get one, it won’t be positive.

To get results, you need to make it easy for your recipients to respond positively.
That means using low-commitment call-to-actions (CTAs).

A low-commitment CTA is something that doesn’t ask for specifics, but gives your prospect an open-ended opportunity to reply.


Some examples of these CTAs you can use include:

• Worth a conversation about this?
  
• Does that sound like something of interest to you?
  
• Is this something you would be interested in?
  
• Can I share more details with you?
  

These all make it easy to reply, and don’t put the burden of work on your recipient.


7. Use cold outreach software to automate the process

Link building outreach is difficult to run manually.

You’ll have a list containing hundreds of potential link prospects, and each email you send needs to be personalized.

The easiest way to run the process is using mail merge software like QuickMail to help with your outreach.

There is a wide range of benefits to using outreach software, including:


• Reach out to multiple link prospects at the same time;
  
• Personalize every email you send using attributes like {{prospect.first_name}} in your templates;
  
• Add automatic follow-up emails to your campaigns in case prospects don’t reply at first
  
• Track your link building email campaign metrics in one place;
  
• Bring all of your team’s email activity into one platform.
  

For example, using QuickMail, you can write one template, insert your attributes, and then it’ll be personalized based on the information for each recipient in your prospect spreadsheet.




Using software is a powerful way to send more cold outreach than what would ever be possible manually, and you won’t need to compromise on personalization in your link building templates.


8. Track your metrics to judge success

When you’re running any link building outreach, you need to be aware of key metrics like:


• Your email open rate;
  
• Your click-through rate if you have links in your template;
  
• Your reply rate;
  
• Your unsubscribe rate.
  

Once you know your metrics, you can compare them against industry benchmarks to see how you’re performing.

For example, data from 65 million emails analyzed in QuickMail shows that the top 25% of outreach campaigns have a 20% reply rate or more.




If you’re seeing a 20% reply rate, you’ll know that you can continue to make minor tweaks and optimizations, but it won’t be worth completely overhauling your campaign any time soon, because it’s working well.

I’d also recommend setting your KPIs before starting a campaign.

The right KPIs for a link building campaign will depend on your goals, but here are some examples you can set:


• 20 new links for [specific page];
  
• 500 cold emails sent;
  
• Aim for a 15% reply rate or above.
  

These give you a framework to judge the success of your link building outreach.

3 Examples of Link Building Email Templates

Writing an email template can be hard, even if you’re keenly aware of the best practices to follow, such as those listed above. To help you get started, here are three link building template examples you can follow to get started.
Make sure to tailor each email to your unique link building campaign.

Example 1: Link Insertion Email Template

This template covers a common link building scenario: asking someone to add a link to an existing blog post, article, or page on their website. The key is that the resource you’re pitching adds real value to their readers and audience. Here’s a template you can follow for inspiration:

Subject: Your blog post on {{prospect.custom.Blog_Topic}}

Hi {{prospect.first_name}},

I just finished reading your article on {{prospect.custom.Blog_Topic}}. Hope to use some of those concepts in my next SEO audit to improve results.

Noticed that you added several interesting data points to back up your claims. I recently published a deep-dive on [topic] and we found some incredible data, such as [interesting statistic].

Think some of the data points like the above could be interesting to your readers?

Best,
{{inbox.name}}

Example 2: Guest Post Request Template

Guest posts are an excellent way to generate brand awareness, grow your personal network, and of course, build links. This template is a simple, effective way to start conversations that lead to guest post opportunities.

Subject: Contributing to {{company.name}}’s blog?

Hi {{prospect.first_name}},

Awesome job getting [notable guest] on your podcast, and thoroughly enjoyed the final interview.

Saw that you’ve accepted guest posts from relevant contributors in the past that add value, and with my background in marketing and SEO, I think I could come up with some interesting ideas for your readers.

Are you currently accepting contributions?

Best,
{{inbox.friendly_name}}

• How To Submit A Guest Post To The Serpstat Blog?
  

Example 3: Broken Link Template

Broken link building is a timeless backlink building strategy. First, you’ll use an SEO tool like Serpstat to spot popular pages with links pointing to a 404 or non-existent page. Then, you’ll then reach out to the website owner and let them know. If you’re lucky, they’ll be happy to add in a resource of yours instead to replace the broken link. Here’s a template you can use:

Hi {{prospect.first_name}},

Loved your article on {{prospect.custom.Blog_Topic}} – the first-hand experience you shared about paid advertising strategy was really helpful.

When reading your article, I noticed that a link to {{prospect.custom.Broken_Link}} goes to a 404 page.

I have a similar case study that might be a good replacement. Shall I send it over?

Best,
{{inbox.name}}

Conclusion

Link building outreach isn’t easy. Your recipients have other priorities, and catching their attention can be hard.

But, the best practices and link building templates we’ve looked at are an excellent starting point.

When creating your templates, make sure they are personalized to each recipient and make sense in context of your link building goals.

Once you start seeing results, you can scale up the process and it won’t be long before you’re regularly securing new, high-quality links thanks to your outreach.