Despite the popular argument that link building is dead in 2021, backlinks remain one of the most influential aspects of your site’s SEO.
And even though it may be tempting to hire a link building agency to handle all of the SEO essentials (along with local marketing) for you and save a lot of your precious time, a much better approach would be to do it yourself.
Or, hire a link builder/outreach manager to do it in-house. This way, you will be sure that no shady tactics are being used and only legitimate websites are being contacted.
To run a successful link building campaign, you will need two things: strong, link-worthy content, and a good link building pitch.
And while I can’t help you with the content part, folks over at Metisentry definitely can.
And while I can’t really help you with the content part, I can definitely share some advice on how to craft a strong link building pitch that gets results. Not only will you get results, but you’ll help improve your online reputation, too.
#1. A Compelling Subject Line
The subject line can and often is your only chance to get the attention of your prospect, so it absolutely needs to stand out from the rest.
One of the most commonly used link building subject lines looks something like this:
“Question about {organization}’s blog”
Don’t use it. Seriously. Everybody and their grandmother has used it so much to the point where the word “question” in the subject line has become a spam word in and of itself.
Also, any blog owner has seen this one hundreds of times before, and can already guess the contents of your email - and in their eyes, it is probably the default, unpersonalized, spammy link pitch.
So, how can you make it better?
There is one thing that this subject line does right: it mentions the name of the organization that is being pitched. Everybody likes the sound of their own name/business, so that’s a good tactic, and increases your chances of getting your pitch at least opened.
I personally used this subject line quite a lot. In fact, it helped one of my campaigns get a 19% reply rate, which is phenomenal for link building.
It’s short, to the point, has the prospect’s organization as the very first word, and gives the reader an idea of the email’s contents.
You can grab it if you want, but I would advise experimenting with the wording and coming up with your own variations.
#2. Personalized Contents
Personalization is important for all types of outreach, and link building is no exception. It might not matter as much when you’re contacting othe link builders (since they’re after those sweet dofollow links just like you), but when you’re reaching out to bloggers and editors, you need to make sure your emails are personalized.
This shows that you have taken the time to get to know a little bit about the person you’re messaging and actually read their content.
It can be difficult and time-consuming to deeply personalize every single link building pitch (especially if you’re running campaigns with hundreds of prospects), so it is perfectly fine to use a template.
In order to make your templates feel more personal, you can include a section with a short comment about something your prospect said in their article.
Here’s the template I used for the same campaign with a 19% reply rate that I mentioned before.
“Hi, {first_name}!
I'm Vlad the outreach manager from Respona. How's your {day_of_week} going?
Just read your {url_title}, [comment]!
I'm reaching out to you because I noticed a link to Forbes' Brand Storytelling article.
We actually have our own post dedicated to brand journalism and some great examples of it. I think it could also be a good fit for your article and help expand the topic a little bit since Forbes only focuses on the reasons why brand storytelling is great for your business.
We can return the favor in a few ways (a DR 73 backlink is one of them).
Let me know if a collaboration like this is something you would be interested in.
Cheers,
{signature}”
An example of such a comment can be a sentence like:
“Completely agree with what you said about Apple: they are definitely the masters of storytelling marketing.”
This way, you can have the best of both worlds: a template to send out at masse, and the much-needed spice of email personalization condensed into a single sentence.
#3. A Strong Value Proposition
This is arguably the most important part of any link pitch. You can have the most outstanding subject line and all of the personalization in the world, but if you make your email all about yourself, your chances of getting backlinks are slim to none.
You need to offer something in return, so that the collaboration comes out as beneficial for all parties involved.
Google classifies any kinds of exchanges as link schemes, but in reality that doesn’t stop link builders from doing their job.
Here are some common value propositions that can work for your pitch:
- A link back to your prospect’s website from your blog;
- A link back to your prospect’s website from another domain of yours;
- A non-reciprocal exchange in which you link to a different domain of your prospect (the best option for an SEO boost);
- Social shares of their content (if you have a large enough audience on social media);
- A link back to your prospect’s website from one of your upcoming guest posts for other resources;
- Free access to your tool (if you have one);
- Money.
Paying for backlinks is quite a controversial topic. A lot of blogs charge an “editorial” fee and only accept sponsored posts/links. While this may make your blog a lot of money, it’s a very slippery slope as Google and others have stated this is not something they advise.
I would advise you against any kind of monetary transactions for backlinks. Usually a non-reciprocal exchange (a-b-c or a link from an upcoming guest post) works as a good enough incentive.
Conclusion
So, the three most important aspects are: a strong subject line that grabs the reader’s attention, personalized contents, and a value proposition that makes the collaboration beneficial for both sides.
Author’s Bio:
Managing brand partnerships at Respona, Vlad Orlov is a passionate writer and link builder. Having started writing articles at the age of 13, their once past-time hobby developed into a central piece of their professional life.
