Cold Email Outreach For Link Building: Definitive guide

Whenever you decide to do a cold email outreach campaign, questions like, will the outreach work? what if my email lands in the spam folder? is cold email outreach the right pick? pops in your mind.  

Amid all these questions, cold emails remain effective and popular. Hubspot’s statistics say that 86% of business professionals prefer email as a communication medium. 

Looking at the statistics, it is safe to say that cold email is an integral part of any communication, even in your link-building campaign.

They are practical and bring in quality backlinks only if you do it correctly. Sending a cold email outreach for link building without following the best practices is like taking a shot in the dark. 

So, how do you write the perfect email that gets a response? Well, don’t worry, you have our back.

In this guide, learn everything you need to know about the best practices for outreach link building, what works, and what doesn’t work. Additionally, get handy email outreach templates and email outreach tools that you won’t like to miss.

Let’s get started!

Why Cold Email Outreach For Link Building? 

Let’s discuss here why you should choose cold email for your link-building campaign. 

Cold email outreach might feel like a difficult choice, but it is the most effective among the different available communication channels.

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

• 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

A link is a sign of a vote of trust, and email outreach is a sign of valuable communication. 

Best practices for cold email outreach for Link building

Implementing the best practices always gets great results, and the same formula applies in link building. Here are a few proven cold email outreach best practices that produced great results for the Saleshandy link-building team.

#1 Personalize your subject line

Personalization is the key that opens many doors. A personalized subject is one of the keys to a high open-rate. 

According to Adestra reports, a little bit of personalization in your email subject line can boost your cold email open rate by 22.2%. 

Mentioning the brand name or marketer name captures attention among all the emails they have received and makes them feel valued. Writing a subject line can land you in their inbox, but personalization makes them open your email.

Whenever you’re writing a subject line, remember to personalize it and add value. Avoid using spammy words like free, grab now, or offer. Your email might go to spam. 

Add to your reading list: 20 Best Subject Lines for Cold Emails that are sure to stand out in 2023

#2 Content & formatting 

A bad email structure can have a negative impact on the mind of your reader. 

Skipping a greeting or bluntly addressing your point is not something you should be doing. Aim at creating a simple, polite, and well-formatted structure. The less complicated, the more reader-friendly it becomes.

Always remember to use your brand account to send emails (@xyz.com) and consider adding a professional email signature. Avoid using a personal Gmail id (@gmail.com). Marketers avoid emails from personal accounts.

#3 Mention your offering

A point that needs your extra attention, what you offer in your pitch is what any marketer is keen to know. 

It is a smart move to mention that at the beginning of the email or hint about it in your subject line. 

Mentioning the offer in your subject line can grab the marketer’s attention and entice them to open and read it.  Make your offer a highlight of your email.

#4 Write simple and lighthearted follow-ups

A well-written email can also slip from the marketer’s mind due to their busy schedule. That’s why a follow-up is a must to nudge and start a conversation with them.

Make your follow-up a gentle reminder without sounding too pushy.

Here is an excellent opportunity to mention your offer again. This time you can go a little bit descriptive as well.  

Keeping track of email and their time to follow-up. Plus, doing it manually. It can get frustrating and tedious.  

That’s where an email outreach tool comes in to save your day. They not only automate but help you in a lot more ways. Let’s jump to the next point to understand more. 

#5 Use an email outreach tool to become more strategic

You already know the amount of effort you put into drafting, writing, and sending a link-building email. If you use an email outreach tool to do the same task, you can do it more efficiently.

Reasons why should you consider an email outreach tool:

• Automates your email and helps you set follow-ups
• Advanced email analytics to make better decisions 
• Save your time doing the mundane task

One of the tools that our team uses to see the results in their link-building cold email outreach is Saleshandy.  

Saleshandy is a cold email outreach tool used by professionals to be more effective and strategic with their email campaigns.

Features that you are most likely to enjoy in your link building cold email activity: 

Schedule follow-up stages

Saleshandy offers an auto-follow-up feature that eliminates the need to send each email manually. You can schedule up to 9 stages of follow-up based on different conditions.  

For example, you can schedule a follow-up email for your 1st email if they have not opened it for 3 days.

Based on different conditions, you can draft and schedule your email. Conditions like: Email opened or not, and clicked on the link or not. This not only saves your time but keeps track of your conversation. 

The main benefit of this feature: Keeps track of every email so you can stay a step ahead and plan more behavioral-based follow-ups. 

Advanced email analytics

Email analytics is the need of the hour. Sending an email and never getting to know the action taken is futile. 

They play an imperative role in understanding the marketer’s interests and delivering what exactly they need.  

For example, you came to know that the marketer has opened your email and link but has not replied, then sending a follow-up email explaining your offer more constructively can give you the needed response. 

You can also run an A/Z test on the platform to understand which type of email sequence brings results.  

Automated email campaigns

Phew! No more sending each email manually. It sounds like a relief to me. 

Using Saleshandy, you can create personalized email templates and get analytics of each follow-up stage to know what interests your marketer.

You can send personalized emails to 5000 recipients in a day.  Simply add your contact list and send it. Saleshandy also verifies emails to avoid them from bouncing.

Less than 30 seconds to create your account and 3 minutes to set your email campaign. Watch to know-how:

Cold Email Outreach Templates 

Here are a few sample templates with a follow-up template for each. 

Template 1: Product mention

Subject line- Our product can benefit your readers

Hi, {First name}, 

I am {your name} from {your company name}. We {explain your company in one line}.

Recently, I came across your blog on {blog topic}, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, especially {mention a specific part of the blog}.  
That's when I thought would you like to include our product in your blog because {mentioned a feature related to the blog here}. 

I am sure this addition will bring great value to your user. Let me know what I can do for you in exchange.

Thanks!
{Your name} 
    

Follow-up email

Hey, {First name}, 
 
I hope you're having a great day! 
 
I am reaching out to you regarding our collaboration offer. Did you get a chance to check the {content and link} for our collaboration? 
 
Do share your views so we can move forward with this. 
 
Thanks, 
{Your name}

Template 2: Link exchange

Subject line- Our {Mention your tool} can make a difference.

Hey {first name}, 

Greetings for the day!
 
I am {your name} from {your company name}. {Explain your company in one line}. I recently started following your blogs, and let me tell you, your writing is very impressive. 
 
It would be interesting to know our audience are alike, so I wondered if you would like to do a link exchange. It would be a win-win situation for both of us.

Here is what I can do for you:
1. {write your offering here in points} 
2. {write your offering here in points} 

Let me know if you are interested.  

Thanks, 
{Your name} 

Follow-up email

Hey {First name}, 

I hope you're having a good week!

Just a quick follow-up to know what you think about the link exchange collaboration?   

I would be happy to return the favor from our website of DR {mention your DR}. 

Thanks!
{Your name}   

Template 3:  Influencer Outreach

Hey, {First name}, 

{Your name} here from {your company name}!

{Explain about your company in a few lines}. 

Our team has been following your blog, and we would love to connect with you. 

The latest blog on {mention the topic} can add value to our readers. I was wondering if you would like to collaborate with us? 

If this interests you, please let me know.

Thanks,
{Your name}
 

Follow-up email

Hey, {First name},

I hope this email finds you well. 

Just following up as I didn't hear anything from you. Did you get a chance to consider our collaboration? 

I will not take much of your time. Here is my short introduction and some benefits this collaboration can bring.
{Introduce yourself in 2 or 3 lines.} 
-  {Mention benefits} 
-  {Mention benefits} 
-  {Mention benefits} 

I hope the above points help you to cloud your judgment. I would love to hear back from you.

Thanks, 
{Your name}

Template 4: Guest posting 

Subject line- Can we be your guest?

Hi {First name}, 

I am {your name} and {company name}. 

Firstly, my team and I are great fans of your platform. Love every piece of content that is out there. 

I noticed that you’re accepting the guest posts, and I would like to contribute around the topic {mention the topic}.

Here are a few ideas that I have in mind:
{Topic Idea}
{Topic Idea}
{Topic Idea}  

I can submit the blog within a week, and promote it via different platforms.

Do let me know if you’re interested. 

Thanks, 
{Your name}

Follow-up email

Hey, {first name}, 


I hope this email finds you well. 

I just wanted to quickly follow up regarding the guest post email.  
If there is anything else, do let me know. 

Thanks,
{Your name}

You can use these templates for your linking-building outreach. Plus, you can edit them the way you would like it. Make sure you make the most of it. 

Conclusion 

Sending cold emails might feel skeptical. But if you follow the practices mentioned above, you will create solid linking-building outreach campaigns that drive results.

A key takeaway from this guide is to use a cold email outreach tool like Saleshandy. A perfect tool to do this task. It reduces your efforts and increases your output with its powerful features. 

You can sign up, and enjoy a 7-days free trial of the platform.  

I hope you found this helpful. Have you come across any best practices for link building? If yes, feel free to share it in the comment section. I would love to read it.