A Collection of Link Building Email Templates

I’m always curious as to the format people use when crafting link building emails for their clients, and I wanted to share with you a few that I thought were intriguing. I’ve also compiled a few best practice tips that all of these emails share, and few sources of not effective link building emails so that folks can see the difference.

First off, a few good link building examples:

Neal Patel‘s examples of email outreach templates:

I think they are a bit edgier than I could use working at a PR firm, but he states he has a 6-7% response rate.

Broken link email template

He states that you’d want to send this email out as an independent 3rd party. Not a website owner.

Subject: there’s something wrong with your site 

[insert their first name], I was browsing your website and I noticed you have a broken link.     You can find it on [insert webpage with broken link] and it’s the [insert anchor text of the broken link] link.

As an avid reader of [insert their site name] I love reading anything you write about, such as [insert article on their website] and anything you link out to. Sadly I couldn’t find the article you were trying to link to, but I did happen to find another good webpage on the same topic… [insert url to webpage that you are building links to]. You should check it out and if you like it, you probably want to switch out the links.

I know you are busy and probably get millions of emails a day, but hopefully this one was helpful. I just wanted to help you out for once as [insert their site name] has changed my life.

Cheers,
[random persons name]

Basic link request template

This one he recommends sending as yourself. 

Subject: [insert first name of website owner], i think i’m in love with you

Hopefully I didn’t freak you out by my subject line, but I’m really in love with you. Don’t worry, it’s not in a creepy way, mostly I’m in love with your website [insert their website name].

You probably get tons of people everyday whom are in love with[insert website name], so I won’t bore you with my reasons. Instead I thought I could show some appreciate by giving you some feedback on how you can improve your website.

1. Insert suggestion #1
2. Insert suggestion #2

And if you are wondering how you can repay your biggest fan, feel free to link to my website [insert URL]. 

Ah… just kidding, you’ve already done enough for me by making[insert their website name] so awesome!

Cheers,
[insert your name]

PS: If you do happen to link to my website, [insert URL], it will seriously make my year! Maybe even decade!

PR pitch

This one he recommends sending as yourself. 

Subject: don’t you hate it when people pitch you story ideas [insert their first name]…

Well, I too have a PR pitch for you, but before you hit the spam button and move onto the next email, just give me 37 seconds or else you’ll regret this for life! 

So here goes…

I’m launching [insert your website URL] on [insert date] and I wanted to see if you want to cover it. Here are 2 reasons you’re readers would love if you covered it:

1. Insert benefit #1
2. Insert benefit #2

I could keep on going with reasons on why you should blog about us, but I won’t bore you with the details. If you’re interested, let me know and we can setup a time to chat when you’re free.

Cheers,
[insert your name]

Oh… I think have 7 seconds left, so if you could just hit the reply button and let me know what you thought of my pitch that would be great. Even if it is “F off”… feedback would be great.

Paul May from Buzzstream‘s example of an link building template:

Hi ,
Don’t know if you remember me, but I’ve commented on a number of your blog posts and we’ve written a couple of posts on the (YOUR COMPANY) blog that continued discussions you’d started (I think the TOPIC post was the most recent one). I wanted to reach out to you about YOUR COMPANY, the PR/SEO startup I co-founded.
We’re now preparing to launch (DATE) and I wanted to see if we could setup a time to brief you on it. QUICK BACKGROUND ABOUT YOUR COMPANY. WHY YOUR COMPANY IS GREAT.

Here’s the gist. You can:

• SELLING POINT 1
• SELLING POINT 2
• SELLING POINT 3

Launch is happening DATE. We’d love to find some time to show the thing to you. Are you comfortable with an embargo until TIME a.m. ET on DAY, DATE (i.e. late Monday night PT)? If so, here are some suggested times…pick your poison ;)

• TIME OPTION 1
• TIME OPTION 2
• TIME OPTION 3

Thanks in advance.
Regards, NAME

Allie Brown at SEER Interactive‘s email link building template:

Hi NAME,
My name is Allie and I work with [Client] online marketing team.

First, I have to thank you for repeatedly featuring [Client] on [your blog name]. The [client] team truly loves it when their customers share their favorite looks with others on their personal blogs.

Secondly, I wanted to see if you would be interested in linking to [Client] the next time you feature one of their products. I noticed that you often mention us in your “XYZ” posts and I want to propose an idea that I think we could both benefit from.
In exchange for linking to [Client], we’d like to post a Tweet about your blog sometime within the next week. As you may know, we have over x followers, so the opportunity for exposure is pretty grand. You’d also be helping our team out by sending your readers directly to our site when they see a product they like.

Let me know if you’re interested in this idea, and hopefully we can find some way to work together!
Thanks again for all your support and Happy New Year!

And an example from Rand Fishkin at SEOMoz:

Dear folks behind website.com,

I have to say it – I’m a fan. I came to your site through Google (who doesn’t, right?) and was immediately impressed with what you’ve built. I’ve recently joined the ranks of site owners in the ultra-soft cotton bedding world myself, so I’ve been looking around and researching who else is on the web.

I’m sure you’re busy, but I was wondering if you had a minute for two short questions – #1 – For your article on Indian fabrics (URL), did you actually travel to India to buy those or do you have connections? and #2 – Have you found a good resource online on sewing silk? (NOTE: Obviously, you need to make the questions relevant to your industry, and the second should plant the seeds for a piece of content you plan to write and have them link to)

Much appreciate your time – I hope all’s well in Kansas City (I’m out here in Seattle and it’s pouring, as usual).

Best wishes,
John Such-and-Such

Here is what all of the link building emails have in common. They all have:

1. A catchy subject line that will stand out in the recipient’s inbox
2. Scannable format for the email with plenty of white space
3. Personalization – oriented to the email recipient and the site that is being pitching. This also means acknowledging that there is another person on the receiving end of that email who will know if you looked at their site or not.
4. A clear call to action

Other tips:

1. Try not to cold email. Your link building/online outreach efforts will be much more effective if you establish a relationship with the blogger prior to emailing. This can be by liking their content, following them on Twitter, just generally trying to establish a real life connection with them.
2. Try not to come off a sleazy as most people can pick out that behavior.
3. Realize that you’re asking a favor and often times the receiver of your email might be managing the site on the side.
4. Track your email open rates. Either email from a mass email software, or add Google Analytics coding to the link in your email highlighting the content that you want shared. With GA coding you can at least measure the number of bloggers you outreached to that were curious enough to click to learn more about your content.

And no blog post about link building email templates would be complete without examples of what you should not do.

Here are examples of what not to do when asking for links: 

• My rant related to a link building email I received to my @ketchum.com address
• Avinash Kaushik’s take on a link building email he received from Omniture.
• And another bad link building example that a blogger from State of Search recieved.

What do you think about the link building examples above? Do they give you a few ideas about how to tweak your own?