If you are actively involved in the work of making a brand more visible online, you are possibly looking to get some links to your website. Indeed, links are one of the leading SEO ranking factors because Google utilizes them to weigh a website’s authority and relevance. However, earning links is always a tough task.
First, you will have to generate high-quality content that is interesting as well as valuable to other brands, so that they choose to mention you. Second, you need to let other brands recognise your fantastic content. In simple words, you have to do outreach marketing- a term that describes the process of getting in touch with the right brands and people to assist you in telling your brand’s story.
Most of the people involved in content marketing often spend much of their time sending outreach emails, and most of these emails are guest blogging pitches. Since guest blogging is widely accepted as an active type of link building, in this piece, we will find out the best practices on how to compose outreach emails that produce high-quality links.
Before writing a pitch
As per optinmonster, guest blogging does work because you give value to a site owner in exchange for a link back to your website.
By picking the right guest blog post opportunities, you can build a diverse link profile and give strength to your positions in the organic Google search.
Before you start writing your first outreach email, you should:
- Identify and list the websites that are accepting guest posts
- Search email addresses of content marketers and editors who are responsible for blog content
- Ponder upon the content ideas that would draw your target’s interest
- Draft a brief bio that has a link to your website
To improve link building, you are required to build a system that enables you to cover all these tasks. Using proper tools will help you with that. For instance, you can use Buzzsumo, SEMrush or ahrefs to find and analyse links. The OxyLeads browse extension will help you locate contact information, while Google Sheets can assist you in creating a simple content calendar.
In case you have these four crucial steps covered, let us dig deep into how to write an email that will earn you a high-quality backlink.
Personalise
Outreach marketing forms relations; therefore your email needs to be highly personal. Using only “first name” and “company name” areas and loosely talking about how great somebody’s content is, does not count as personalisation. You must go deeper. Wordstream blog gives an excellent tip on how you can do this: leave your target with a note about something they have written about, citing what you found valuable.
Be natural
Usually, content marketers and editors do outreach themselves and can detect scripted emails easily. So, you need to make your email as natural as possible. Don’t forget, the people you are writing to are well aware of copywriting and marketing tips and tricks.
Do not sound boring
Fellow marketers are a demanding audience that is more critical and impatient than any other client you will ever meet. Therefore, make sure your emails are not dull and boring, your sentences don’t sound salesy, and your subject lines are short and to the point.
Warm up your contact
Sending your pitches suddenly is less effective than reaching out after you have formed a relationship. It does not have to be much: a comment on a blog, a reply to your target’s tweet, a clap on Medium, a share on social media, and so on. You need to be on your target site’s radar before pitching and let them know that you are following what they are doing.
Add a call-to-action
Don’t forget to add a clear call to action after complementing the target on their quality content and pitching yours. The recipient of your email should understand what you are expecting from them. The key is to make the call-to-action look like it is beneficial to both of you. You can tell how well your other guest posts have performed, and that you would like to do something similar for their audience.
Email script examples
We have talked about sending personalised emails, but it does not mean that you can’t use scripts. A well-structured email with strategically placed variables may contain a lot of personal information.
The following are some email scripts that we think remarkably written and recommend using a source of inspiration for your pitches:
Hello [First Name],
I was searching for content on [Topic], when I found your article: [Article Title].
Nice stuff! I especially enjoyed [Something [particular from their article].
Also, I recently published a new piece on [Your Topic]: [URL].
As someone that writes about [Topic], I believed you’d enjoy it.
My piece may also make an excellent addition to your page. Either way, keep up the remarkable work with [Website]!
Talk Soon,
[Your Name]
***
Hi [Name],
I have been reading your posts for a long time. You might have noticed my comment on your post on [Article] (amazing article by the way).
I’m writing to you because I would love to contribute a guest post on [Website].
I have been brainstorming some topics that I believe your readers would get much value from:
[Idea No. 1]
[Idea No. 2]
[Idea No. 3]
I will make sure that the piece contains information that cannot be found anywhere else.
To give you an idea of the quality I will bring to your site, here is a link to a guest post that I lately published on [Other Website].
Cheers,
[Your First Name]
***
Hey, [their name],
I wanted to say; I am a huge fan of your work. I especially loved [link to their recent post].
Wonderful stuff! [Insert key takeaway or funny comment]
I am publishing a post on [topic] next week. Being proficient at [topic], I thought you might enjoy it.
May I send you the link when it goes live to get your valuable feedback?
Thanks for your time,
[Your name]
***
Hello [Blogger’s Name],
I am writing to submit a post to [name of blog]. I was wondering whether you would be interested in reviewing pieces about any of the following:
[Pitch Article 1 title]
[Pitch Article 2 title]
[Pitch Article 3 title]
To let you know a bit about me, I am a professional [name of your job]. I have recently written for [names of other blogs you have written for], and you can see samples of my work here:
[Links to relevant articles]
I am excited to hear from you!
Best wishes,
[Your Name]
***
Sources: backlinko.com, blog.mailshake.com, ubi.co
Link building is vital, and guest blogging is an excellent way to score high-quality links. Don’t waste guest blogging opportunities by sending poorly composed pitches. Instead, personalise, avid sounding salesy, use natural voice and get on your target’s radar before reaching out.