Link Building Outreach: How to Run Successful Outreach Campaigns

Every year, the art of link-building changes. However, its goal remains the same — gaining authority within a domain and an industry.

Some websites still rely heavily on directory links, PBNs, and paid links. Are these methods effective? Sometimes, if done correctly. Does it pose a risk to use these methods? In fact, yes.

It's hard to deny that these link-building methods are frowned upon. When it comes to PBNs, it seems to me that Nathan Gotch's summary is pretty accurate in this regard:

It's then time to engage in "White Hat" link-building.

Before Penguin, websites gained natural links the same way they do today. Link-building has not changed for these sites; they create content and reach out to suitable bloggers for relevant links.

While some sites rely heavily on directory links, PBNs, and paid links, these methods are becoming riskier and riskier. Google constantly detects them, and the consequences are not always pleasant.

Editorial links gained through outreach have always been safe from regular Google purges, and there is no evidence to suggest that this will change.

All of that raises the question, "why doesn't everyone use outreach?"

Well, it is pretty hard to answer that question. The trick is to find websites that will find your content worthy enough to promote it. That's a challenge, and we are going to learn how to handle it!

Every outreach campaign, regardless of how successful it was, will eventually hit a brick wall. You can face a variety of problems, and here are a few tips for overcoming them.

You might simply run out of websites when it comes to very tight niches. Don't worry. The obvious solution is right in front of you! Don't limit yourself — expand your horizons. Maybe your content is relevant to a broader range of websites.

For example, let's say you specialize in a specific type of flooring. Consider expanding your niche to include all types of flooring. You can even include sites with different home improvement products.

You should be as specific as possible. Nevertheless, if you don't get much traction within your industry, don't be afraid to broaden it.

Finding potential links, filling in gaps in the internal content, and sending out emails take a lot of time. Be prepared for this and take your time.

I've run outreach campaigns where I have sent over 50 personalized emails, received six replies, and ended up with two links. I spent just under 15 hours on that campaign. Still, those two high-quality links I ended up with were editorial mentions from the high DA sites in an incredibly competitive online market that we now dominate.

Nobody likes to be ignored or told no. But if you want decent results from your outreach campaigns, you have to be prepared to meet many people saying no to your idea.

Consider my last case as an example: I sent 50 emails and received six replies. Do you think two high-quality links were worth it? Hell yeah!

Sometimes you can find the perfect site in your line of business.

I learned the hard way. Through burning bridges like this, I realized that link-building is a process vital to SEO success. It's not something you can accomplish in a few hours on a Friday afternoon.

I advise planning a gap in the prospect website's content and reaching out once you are fully armed with your excellent content.

Now that we have discussed the brick walls you can face when running an outreach campaign, let's move on to why your outreach campaigns ultimately fail. Outreach mainly fails because SEOs simply do not understand that outreach is a sales pitch and should be treated as such.

Too many webmasters are spammed with, 'hey, check out this content that I am sure you will love.' These emails get deleted as there is no effort or accurate content behind them. So the outreach ultimately fails because of poor email quality.

There are two main reasons why your emails are not good enough:

• Trying to get the job done quickly and spamming inboxes with generic emails.
• Not properly researching a blog or website enough before emailing.

As an example, here's an email I received requesting a link to one of my websites:

Do not be lazy to create a professional-looking email if you work hard on your content. I am pretty sure that the email above was done in a template fashion like this:

"Hello,

I had a look at your post [insert post name]
[insert post URL]

We have a similar article that goes into a lot more depth. Check it out here:
[insert post URL]

Please link to this if you think it is valuable.

Thanks,"

This example had minimal effort, and we may assume that the sender focused mostly on quantity rather than quality.

Like any good salesperson, you need to do your research. Find a "hook" that makes your pitch relevant to someone's current strategy.

Now that you are armed with all your research, it is time to craft your link-winning email. These steps will help you write awesome emails quickly:

Don't hesitate to use your research and sell your content, idea, or services. Make each email unique, quality, and flexible.

Even though I'm not too fond of templates, HubSpot has 9 Link-Building Email Outreach Templates that are effective. You can use these, but I'd recommend you use them only as examples, not simply copy and paste.

Here is an example of an email I recently sent out that got me a solid link:

Here I have properly researched the website, asked a direct question, and found direct relevance between my content offer and the website. It would have been good to shorten this email a bit, but it worked.

Here below, check out an interview, where Ann Smarty, a former Editor-in-chief at SEJ, tells about the main points editors of popular blogs pay attention to while reading the guest posting request and how to make your letter stand out of hundreds of other requests.

Make sure you follow up. I have nearly missed a few solid link-building opportunities by reaching out on a bad day.

When it comes to following up and securing links — I can recommend using a Boomerang. Many people use it to schedule a reply if the receiver does not respond. I instead change this to send me the email back if I have not received a response. This way, I can craft a more personalized response.

To use Boomerang for Gmail, install the extension on Chrome and follow the steps below:

Link-building should start with an assessment of site quality. This can be done using the Serpstat Backlink Analysis tool.

You can click on any of the sites and see a detailed report for each of them.

Such reports will help you to make a mass link analysis of the competitors and check the quality of links. This will determine which sites would link to your domain and vice versa.

All SEO specialists know that link-building is essential for climbing the ranks and dominating Google. Although link-building techniques come in and out of fashion, outreach remains one of the most effective (even though it can be time-consuming and challenging).


Use this guide to make sure you are getting the most out of your outreach campaigns. And feel free to contact us at any time comfortable for you!

Serpstat, SEO, marketing, and everything related to this area are discussed in depth here. 

Learn, succeed, and share your experiences in this group: discuss workflows, network with other Serpstatmates, and contact our dedicated customer support representatives.
Get the latest product updates and industry news here!

Looking forward to interaction — we’re sure you’ll love our little community as much as we do :)