Link Building Outreach: How to Run Successful Outreach Campaigns

How many low-quality emails do you get each and every day requesting backlinks from your website?

Personally, I receive at least a dozen generic, grammatical-error-infused emails that simply go straight to spam.

Conducting link building outreach relies heavily on proper execution when it comes to the copy, angle, and value that you can add to build relationships and land hard-to-get links.

If you’re struggling to run successful outreach-based link building campaigns, in this article, we’ll walk you through our process and how we land links on high DA/DR domains that are authorities in their respective spaces.

TL;DR

• Link quality matters. Target links from authoritative websites and hard-to-get links. These actually will move the needle when it comes to SERP rankings.
• Your email copy and prospect list is crucial — if either of these are poor quality, you’re doomed from the start.
• You should be focusing on giving value first in order to receive value back when it comes to landing high-quality links.

Understanding Link Building Outreach

Link building outreach involves connecting with website owners, content creators, or editors to secure backlinks to your site.

The aim is to interact with key decision-makers who can integrate your link into their content.

Link building is a core component for any SEO strategy because backlinks from authoritative sites will help to boost your site’s ranking and visibility on Google (and yes – also ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, etc.)

Outreach plays a role in various link-building techniques, such as:

• Creating linkable assets
• Finding guest post opportunities
• Niche edits
• Broken link building & broken brand mentions

Building authentic relationships is at the heart of link building outreach. You must provide value and build trust with those who can offer a link.

Quality matters: spammy, low-effort emails fail to foster connections and often land in spam folders.

Focus on establishing long-term relationships to ensure successful link-building campaigns that align with your SEO goals.

Our Link Building Outreach Method in 9 Steps

Step 1: Develop Exceptional Content in the Form of Linkable Assets

Creating outstanding content is fundamental to successful link building outreach efforts.

You should already be developing high-quality content for your audience to aide them throughout their buying journey — and developing content to attract links should be no different.

Quality content attracts backlinks, engages readers, and delivers real value.

Here’s an example of how Exploding Topics blew the top off it’s referring domains, and leverages exception content and linkable assets to drive quality backlinks:

Journalists and content marketers alike LOVE linking out to other studies, statistics, and trend pages.

There are two ways to go about building out topics for your industry that are relevant and can act as link magnets:

• Conduct your own study, and publish those findings (first-party data)
• Utilize existing statistics from Statista, Google News, and other sources to create a curated piece of statistics or trends (third-party data)

Now, conducting your own in-house study requires time, resources, and a lot of planning.

Although this is the preferred route to go, utilizing existing statistics and referencing them also works extremely well to build links.

Think about it – someone is writing content on a topic in your industry, and they want to quickly reference a statistic.

Your page ranks with all of the statistics on that given topic.

You’ve made their job much easier, and they’re likely then to link to your single-curated statistic piece as a reference point in their content.

Exploding Topic’s entire blogging strategy is basically built on this strategy:

They essentially go out, grab statistics for a given topic, link to them as a resource, and curate these topics all into one single piece of content.

Their team also builds out visuals to go with the content, making it a super resource to link to.

Exploding Topic’s blog has racked up over 3.22k Referring Domains, and accounts for roughly 87% of all of their organic traffic:

This is the exact strategy they also use to fuel the usage of their tool, which is built around monitoring topics as they’re trending.

Remember – this is not content build to drive conversions.

The goal of this content is to attract quality links naturally, as well as to give you assets to link out against.

Ask yourself – what topics, trends, and statistics in your industry are sexy topics you can build data against to leverage in outreach campaigns?

Step 2: Find Your Link Outreach Targets

Alright, you’ve got the content ready to rock n’ roll.

Now, it’s time to start building your target list of websites and businesses you want to reach out to.

Choosing good prospects will increase the chance of securing valuable backlinks.

We’ll cover in the next step our process and the tools we use here, but here are some core considerations to keep in mind when getting ready to build your target list:

1. Aim for Relevancy

Look for sites that naturally align with your content. This means their audience would be genuinely interested in your material, improving the chances of getting a backlink.

Contextually relevant backlinks can not only help your overall SEO performance but can also drive quality referral traffic.

2. Steer Clear of Spam

Low-quality or spammy sites offer little to no benefit.

Some can even harm your search rankings.

It’s crucial to steer clear of these to protect the integrity of your link-building efforts.

If a website does not look like a real, reputable business or domain from the get-go, it’s better just to skip over it.

3. Review Core Metrics

You want to ensure you’re landing links from domains that are not only relevant, legitimate business, but you also want to ensure that:

• Organic traffic is trending upwards over the past 6 months, and not seeing a sharp decline
• The domain is also recognized as a quality domain by Ahrefs, i.e. has a strong Domain Rating (DR) – this is not the do all, be all metric – simply it can act as a high-level indicator
• The predominate source of the traffic is coming from your target market
• The domain is hosted in the target market, OR at least is within the same market – for example, if your TAM is in the US, links from CA/UK also are generally fine and can help, but your focus should be predominantly on US-based links

Your spreadsheet of outreach targets should involve researching these metrics and factors to ensure you reach out to sites that are worth your time.

Step 3: Build Your Prospect Lists Leveraging Data & Tools

For your first campaign(s), tools are your friend to help speed up the process and make your life easier when it comes to conducting outreach.

We leverage multiple tools and workflows in our process, but the most beginner-friendly tool that we also often use is Respona.

Respona is a link building and outreach tool that can help you to find opportunities, locate prospects, and even send outreach campaigns all within the same platform.

This is not a paid, or sponsored post – we’re simply fans of the tool for beginner link builders.

Here’s how you can leverage Respona to start building your target and prospect list:

Let’s say we want to find journalists that recently covered a topic that is relevant to your content from step #1.

Within Respona, you can enter your target keywords – and it will ideate and then build advanced search operators for you to review/modify:

Respona will then go and run this query against your parameters to pull back relevant domains for each and every search query across the 10 pages of results, and start to prospect and build your list for you.

You can also leverage Ahrefs to do this in a more manual fashion – but Respona is a good starting point for going and actually building this out fast to save you time.

Step 4: Identify Key Contacts at Your Target Sites

Once you have gathered a list of websites for your outreach, your next task is to identify the key people to contact.

This can be efficiently done using tools like Pitchbox, where a simple CSV upload will reveal relevant email addresses linked with your URLs.

This tool’s domain search option can also be handy for finding contacts directly from website domains.

This automated process is a time-saver, reducing the need to manually sift through websites.

Focus on acquiring email addresses that feature personal usernames, avoiding generic addresses such as “admin” or “info.” If uncertain about the accuracy of an email address, a quick online search can help confirm it.

Large websites often have several individuals you can email. Choosing the right contact is crucial.

Aim for professionals in digital marketing roles like:

1. Content Manager
2. Head of Content
3. Editor
4. Blog Manager
5. Head of Marketing

These roles are typically responsible for creating or managing content, increasing your chances of engagement.

For smaller blogs and sites, reaching out to founders or heads of marketing is usually effective, as they tend to wear multiple hats, including content-related tasks.

In contrast, larger organizations usually have specific content teams, so reaching the content manager or head of content is more strategic.

If Pitchbox doesn’t yield the right person, consider searching LinkedIn.

Look for individuals in the organization with suitable roles and contact them directly through LinkedIn or use Hunter.io to discover their email addresses.

This approach ensures you connect with the right people, maximizing the effectiveness of your outreach efforts.

Step 5: Verify & Clean Your List

Effective outreach relies on reaching the right people with the right message. A key part of this process is ensuring your contact list is clean, accurate, and ready for outreach. This is where tools like Clay can transform your workflow.

Why Verification Matters

Sending emails to outdated, irrelevant, or incorrect contacts wastes time and damages your sender reputation.

Emails that bounce back or are marked as spam signal poor email practices to email providers, reducing your overall deliverability.

A clean, verified list increases the chances of your email being seen by the right person.

How to Use Clay for Verification

Clay is a powerful data enrichment tool that can help verify and clean your prospect list in a few easy steps.

Here’s how to use it:

1. Import Your List:
   • Start by uploading your initial list of prospects to Clay. This list might come from tools like Respona, Ahrefs, or your own manual research.
2. Data Enrichment:
   • Clay connects with multiple data sources to enrich your contacts. It can verify the accuracy of email addresses, detect potential duplicates, and flag generic or non-existent emails like “[email protected]” or “[email protected].”
3. Filter Out Low-Quality Prospects:
   • Use Clay’s filtering capabilities to prioritize prospects based on relevance, domain authority (if connected to an SEO tool), and other factors critical to your campaign. Remove any contacts with a high likelihood of bouncing or being flagged as spam.
4. Cross-Check Key Metrics:
   • Leverage Clay’s integration capabilities to cross-check your contacts against metrics like:
     • Domain Authority (DA)/Domain Rating (DR) from SEO tools.
     • Organic traffic trends.
     • Market relevancy based on the contact’s location or industry.
5. Export a Clean, Verified List:
   • Once verified, export your cleaned and enriched contact list, read

Step 6: Build Your Copy

Crafting compelling email copy is critical for the success of your outreach campaign.

The way you communicate with prospects determines whether your email is read, ignored, or marked as spam.

Again, using a tool like Clay can streamline this process by helping you personalize your copy at scale without sacrificing quality.

Why Copy Quality Matters

Your email is competing with dozens, if not hundreds, of similar requests in your prospect’s inbox. Poorly written, generic, or overly salesy emails fail to capture attention and often damage your credibility. High-quality, personalized emails that add value are the key to earning a positive response.

How to Use Clay for Crafting Personalized Copy

Clay’s data enrichment capabilities can help you create highly tailored email copy that resonates with each prospect. Here’s how to build your copy using Clay:

1. Leverage Enriched Data for Personalization:
   • After cleaning and verifying your list in Clay, take advantage of the enriched data (e.g., job titles, company information, recent articles published, or social media activity) to personalize your outreach.
   • Example: Instead of starting with a generic “Hi [Name],” you can reference their recent work:
     “Hi [Name], I loved your article on [Topic]—your insights on [specific point] were spot on.”
2. Segment Your List:
   • Use Clay to group your prospects into segments based on attributes like industry, company size, or role. For instance:
     • Journalists who write about your niche.
     • Editors at high-DA sites.
     • Blog managers at smaller websites.
   • Tailor your email templates for each segment to address their unique interests and needs.
3. Create a Compelling Value Proposition:
   • Build a clear and concise value statement that answers the prospect’s unspoken question: “What’s in it for me?”
   • Use Clay’s data to identify what the prospect values—whether it’s fresh content, valuable statistics, or a collaboration opportunity—and highlight how you meet that need.
   Example:
   “Your audience will benefit from our [statistical study/resource], which aligns perfectly with your recent article on [related topic]. I’d love to share it with you.”
4. A/B Test Subject Lines and Openers:
   • Use Clay to create multiple versions of your subject line and email opener. Test variations such as:
     • “Exclusive data for your [specific topic] article”
     • “Loved your recent article on [topic]—a quick idea to share”
   • Track responses to determine which style resonates most with your audience.
5. Optimize for Clarity and Brevity:
   • Your email should be skimmable and to the point. Use Clay to automatically populate dynamic fields (e.g., names, company names, or content references) and ensure every email feels personal without being overly wordy.
6. Include a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA):
   • End your email with a single, specific action for the recipient to take. For example:
     • “Would you be open to adding our [resource/statistics] to your article on [topic]?”
     • “I’d love to schedule a quick call to discuss collaboration opportunities.”
   • Use Clay to dynamically tailor CTAs to fit each prospect’s context.
7. Proofread and Polish:
   • Before sending, use grammar-checking tools integrated into Clay or export your copy to tools like Grammarly to ensure it’s error-free, professional, and polished.

Example Email Copy:

1. Subject Line:
   “Your readers will love this [statistic/trend]!”
2. Introduction:
   “Hi [Name], I came across your recent article on [topic], and I couldn’t agree more with your insights on [specific point].”
3. Value Proposition:
   “We recently conducted a study on [related topic], and I think your readers would find our [specific finding/resource] incredibly valuable. It aligns perfectly with your content and offers fresh, actionable insights.”
4. Call-to-Action:
   “Would you be open to including our [resource/statistic] in your article? I’m happy to provide more details or answer any questions!”
5. Signature:
   Include your name, role, and a polished signature with relevant links.

By leveraging Clay, you can ensure your email copy not only stands out but also builds trust and adds value, setting the stage for successful outreach and high-quality backlinks.

Step 7: Reach Out

Reaching out effectively is the backbone of any successful link-building campaign.

While crafting the perfect email is important, ensuring that your outreach emails actually land in the recipient’s inbox—and not their spam folder—is equally critical.

Instantly is our platform of choice for sending. By leveraging Instantly and following best practices for email deliverability, you can maximize the chances of your outreach being seen and responded to.

Why Email Deliverability Matters

Even the most well-written email won’t work if it doesn’t land in the recipient’s primary inbox. Poor email deliverability can result in your messages being flagged as spam or ignored entirely. To ensure success, you need to set up your sending infrastructure correctly.

Setting Up Multiple Inboxes for Outreach

Using multiple inboxes allows you to scale your outreach efforts while reducing the risk of being flagged for spam. Here’s how to set up and use multiple inboxes effectively:

1. Use Domain Variations: Avoid overloading a single email domain (e.g., [email protected]). Create variations like [email protected] or use subdomains like [email protected]. This distributes your sending activity and minimizes the risk of your primary domain being penalized.
2. Create Additional Inboxes: Set up multiple inboxes (e.g., [email protected], [email protected]) for sending emails. Each inbox should focus on a subset of your prospect list to avoid high-volume spikes.
3. Authenticate Your Emails: Implement authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for all domains and inboxes. These measures signal to email providers that your messages are legitimate.

Warming Up Inboxes with Instantly

Before you start sending outreach emails, it’s essential to warm up your inboxes. This helps build trust with email providers and improves deliverability. Instantly is an excellent tool for automating this process.

1. Connect Your Inboxes: Add your newly created inboxes to Instantly. The platform will handle warming them up by sending and receiving automated emails within its network of verified users.
2. Gradually Increase Sending Volume: Instantly gradually increases your sending volume over time, ensuring that your inboxes aren’t flagged for sudden spikes in activity. Start small (10–20 emails/day) and scale up as the inbox warms.
3. Monitor Deliverability Metrics: Use Instantly’s analytics to track key metrics like open rates, bounce rates, and spam complaints. Adjust your approach if deliverability drops.

Step 8: Always Follow-up

When you don’t receive a reply to your email, it might just be because the recipient missed it or forgot to respond. Sending a reminder helps improve your chances of success in link-building campaigns.

Automated Reminders: Use tools like Pitchbox to automate reminders. This tool sends follow-ups to everyone who didn’t reply to your first email, saving you time and effort.

Keep your reminders brief and refer back to your original message.

Personal touches are important, so include details like the prospect’s name and their website. This shows you value their specific contribution.

If a prospect still doesn’t respond after your reminder, it’s essential to respect their choice and stop further attempts. Instead, focus on finding new leads and continuously improve your approach.

Key Point: Being persistent can be beneficial, yet you should also know when to redirect your energy to other possibilities.

Step 9: Sort Opportunities, Negotiate and Land Links

Interacting with the prospect thoughtfully is key to reaching an agreement on your link-building request.

Though their first reply may not be favorable, it signals a willingness to engage, so focus on building trust and finding a mutual solution.

1. Old Article Edits

If they say they don’t update old articles, see this as a chance to add value.

You could propose writing a guest article for their site, which includes your link. This offers them fresh content and shows your willingness to contribute, boosting your reputation.

2. Payment Expectations

Sometimes, prospects expect some form of compensation for the link.

If you’re open to paying, be upfront about your budget and ask for their rates. Maintaining a transparent negotiation helps solidify trust.

Alternatively, propose a link exchange if payment isn’t an option.

3. Pre-set Fees

Some sites state a specific fee for linking.

While paying directly for links can be risky because it violates guidelines, you can negotiate the fee or decide against the offer.

Final Thoughts on Link Building Outreach

Securing high-quality backlinks requires a strategic, value-driven approach to outreach.

Many low-effort, generic emails fail to connect because they lack personalization, professionalism, and a compelling value proposition.

By focusing on crafting exceptional content, targeting relevant prospects, and leveraging tools like Clay and Instantly to personalize, scale, and deliver effectively, you can significantly improve your campaign’s success rate.

Remember, meaningful connections and authentic relationships are the foundation of sustainable link-building efforts.