We’re going to talk about some simple intricacies of emailing people to get what you want. At LinkBuilder.io, it’s our job to convince people one way or another that they should give us what we want.

Whether it’s asking for a link back to content which we think is amazing, or contributing a blog post which we think is amazing, the bottom line is this – it doesn’t matter what we think.

 

Why so many templates don’t work

There’s a few obvious reasons why so many of the templates out there on Backlinko, Webris and other thought leaders in the link building space don’t work.

1. They’re not intended to be copied word for word
2. Everyone else is using them
3. They’re void of personality

No disrespect to those guys, they’re at the very top of the game. But in most cases it’s extremely difficult to create a one size fits all email templates to attract links and press coverage to your website. The key is personalisation.

 

I’m already getting good results, why do I need to up my game?

Some link builders play a pure volume game and that’s fine if your clients don’t mind, but there’s probably some hostile responses in there and you’re probably not getting too many clear cut opportunities from truly great websites.

We’re getting such high response rates from personalised email campaigns that it’s making

 

More opportunities, Less effort.

Here’s a screenshot below showing two guest post campaigns we ran in Pitchbox recently:

 

We’re getting between 44-64% response rates reaching out to websites we’ve never communicated with before – that’s pretty impressive. On the health campaign alone we generated over 35 guest post opportunities, enough to last us for months.

 

Let’s get to the templates then….

 

Few quick disclaimers:

• Please do not copy any of these templates word for word – chances are if you try to use them in the same niche, the recipient will know who you’re copying
• I’ve adjusted signatures and website names to protect the identity of my personas & clients
• I’m using Pitchbox merge tags to show you the level of personalisation I do outwith the template itself

 

 

TEMPLATE 1) The awkward tech nerd

 

Since we’re targeting technology websites, this seemed to be the perfect outreach persona. I love the martian movie and was trying to think of an awkward but interesting character to liken myself to. Asides from that, I kept it simple, funny and honesty.

It creates a template that’s pretty endearing to read and you can’t help but like the person on the other end.

 

 

TEMPLATE 2) The cool, aloof dude

To give some context, this outreach was on behalf of a male blog. It’s a slightly ‘riskier’ approach, but worked well in making the recipients laugh.

 

 

 

 

TEMPLATE 3) The marketing guru

  

To give some context, this was sent on behalf of a SAAS client.

This was a more professional approach, showing that you can do outreach without thinking up some hilarious one liners or trying to be a comedian. There’s not much humor or wit in this template, but there is a lot of personality and it certainly shined through in the response rate and the number of people who gave a positive response to our approach.

 

Pro Tip: When using templates to blast to multiple websites, ensure you’ve built up additional fields of information on whatever outreach tool you’re using.

We use Pitchbox, which allows us to enter first names, company names and more to our templates, giving a true element of personalisation that feels real to the recipient, whilst allowing us to do outreach efficiently at scale.

 

Results

• Insert positive responses to emails
• Insert images from Facebook group – fooled even link builders

 

 

Even SEO pros are suckers for personality

I’m involved in several mastermind groups on Facebook. One of our outreach emails was shared to a certain group by a fellow linkbuilder who happened to own one of the blogs we contacted…

 

 

I did eventually come clean and admit this was me, but it was nice to fool people actively involved in SEO and I take it as a compliment that the persona we created was so strong that it convinced them. We even got a link for our client in this case from the wonderful Bibi.

 

The point is – If you make your emails interesting and personable you’re bound to improve your overall results significantly.