Cold emailing can make or break your marketing campaign. While sending cold emails has the vast potential to open up new opportunities, many people don't have much success with it. This survey reveals that only 8 out of 100 cold emails get responses.
Finding an effective link-building cold email template is always a struggle. If your cold emails don’t get responses, website owners seem to find them boring and unconvincing.
But you still have an excellent opportunity to email people of interest to build links using well-researched and personalized email templates.
In this article, I will show you the best link-building cold email templates that can help you break the ice between you and, hopefully, website owners.
Let’s dive in.
6 Key Things To Consider When Crafting Effective Link-Building Cold Emails From Scratch:
Creating successful cold emails for link building requires more time and effort than copying and pasting a message from a subpar template. However, attention to detail and a dedicated IP lookup API can help you craft handy cold emails to connect with link-building prospects and expand your network.
Name and Subject Lines
Your header and subject lines are something the prospect will quickly notice when scrolling down the inbox. The subject line gives people an idea of what they can expect from the message.
Using a real name and avoiding spammy text will increase the chance of opening your email. As Derick Runion, the Founder of Runion Personal Injury Lawyers noted, “People talk to people, not brands,” or especially marketing emails.
The best way to create a subject line is to craft something short and to the point or long and very personalized. Regarding the first option, you can write a quick call to action or a killer one-sentence pitch. For instance, “Business Question or Quick Questions” or “Hi [First Name] Let’s Collaborate.”
If you want to stick to a longer subject line, use their name, referral names, and recent posts related to your niche.
Personalization
Finding the right contacts and personalizing are some of the most significant indicators of success in cold emailing. A recent report from Woodpecker proved that cold emails with advanced personalization (including custom snippets) can double your email reply rate.
Personalizing your link-building email template shows website owners that you know their website well and care about their requirements and their sites’ goals. Use the first name of a link-building prospect and tell more details about their website.
You can mention common interests or congratulate them on recent events or news. If you enjoy some of their recent blog posts, that will work, too. People don't respond to spam, but they do respond to personalized emails that demonstrate genuine interest in the recipient.
Content and Email Length
The last example perfectly shows how your link-building cold email should look: short and to the point. Longer emails can also work well, as they include personalized and valuable information.
This study showed that longer emails get more replies than short ones, but you may not want to spend that much time on them.
“No matter your choice, both may work well until your content sounds salesy and has nothing in common with the recipient,” said Justin Watkins, the Founder of Battle Born Injury Lawyers. “Cut the fluff to a minimum, make it actionable, and avoid copying/pasting too much.”
Give Value
The big problem with many link-building cold emails is that they don’t address the recipients' pain points or specific needs. They just send spam emails to everyone, no matter who they are or what they need.
You must make it more relevant to the website owners and give them something valuable. You can tell how you can help them by mentioning their pain points, needs, or goals.
Provide Proof of Yourself
When sending a cold email, people want to talk to real people who care about what they do. Proving your expertise and why recipients should take their precious time to respond is essential.
Ensure you include a real name or company name in the email header. Tell about your skills, credentials, and examples (guest posts, interviews, etc.) of how you can fulfill the work you offer.
Provide your full contact info in the signature. To build a professional signature design, you can try WiseStamp, which fulfills your brand needs. The WiseStamp browser extension for Chrome allows you to create and manage an email signature within minutes.
If you have a shared contact, mention it in the introduction of your cold email. If not, focus on the recipient and then provide proof of yourself, limiting to 1-2 lines.
Write Follow-Up Emails
Writing more follow-up emails can significantly increase your response rate by 56% compared to those without follow-ups. You should send at least three emails to get a response.
The follow-up process is a must for your cold emailing campaign. When sending follow-up emails, avoid reminding about the lack of reply. Instead, offer new, valuable information to better support your conversation.
Don’t be annoying. Try different email-sending options, such as other times and intervals between emails. Campaign Monitor saves time when creating email sequences and sending follow-ups at the right time.
How NOT to Write a Link Building Cold Email
Every day, I get a bunch of cold link-building emails. Here are some examples of horrible emails for your notice:
Do we respond to it? Of course not. This cold email looks intrusive and doesn’t make us want to collaborate.
The second one looks overly generic and lacks credibility and company information. Here’s one lousy example you should avoid:
First, it is an immediate offer for link exchange. Second, the sender didn’t determine whether we were interested in such a link-building collaboration.
Worse, he decided for us to offer a place for a link exchange, not interested in whether it fits our needs. In other words, the sender ignored the interests and needs of the recipients, which is absurd.
Avoid repeatedly sending duplicate generic spam when using a cold email template. Such emails are unlikely to receive any responses. Ask yourself whether you would like to collaborate with someone who pitches a service in this way. If not, it is time to change legal marketing strategies for success.
Sample Link Building Cold Email Templates
Writing a cold email template can be challenging, even if you know the best practices mentioned above. Even if you create a perfect template, it’s not a good idea to use the same email repeatedly.
To get started, use the following link-building templates as guidelines for your basic email structure. They will help you customize cold emails for your unique link-building campaign and serve as your starting point for making the ones that work best for you.
Guest Post Cold Email Template
There is no need to say about the power of guest posting to build links. The main thing is to initiate a conversation with a website owner about the opportunity to write a high-quality guest post for their website and get a link from there.
The first option is for websites with guest posting guidelines. Here’s how you can do it:
Subject: Contribute or Content Contribution
Hi [Name],
I found your website while researching a blog post about [Recent post topic]. You did a great job, as your post helped me with [How it helped you].
When I scrolled through your website, I noticed you welcome relevant contributors with a background in [Niche] to your blog.
A few words about me: I am [Name], a [Position] at [company]. Many of our customers are [Specify the audience, for example, B2B customers or eCommerce businesses], so we have a typical audience.
I would love to contribute to your blog, but I need clarification about the article ideas I could write for [Site].
Here are a few ideas I came up with:
[Article Idea 1] – a few sentences about your idea and takeaways for readers.
[Article Idea 2] – a few sentences about your idea and takeaways for readers.
Here are some of my recent articles:
[Sample URL 1]
[Sample URL 2]
Let me know if you have more article ideas that fit my expertise well. I’d like to be featured on [Site].
Let me know if you’re interested in moving forward.
Best regards,
[Full Contact Information]
The second option is for websites that don’t have specific pages for guest posting guidelines but have guest posts.
Subject: Contribute or Content Contribution
Hi [Name],
I found your website while researching a blog post about [Recent post topic]. You did a great job, as your post helped me with [How it helped you].
When I scrolled through your website, I noticed you earlier accepted guest posts from relevant contributors with a background in [Niche] to your blog. I think I could come up with some exciting ideas for your readers.
I found no guest post guidelines on your website, so I thought it was worth asking. Are you currently accepting contributions?
Best,
[Full Name]
Here is an excellent example of a personalized guest post cold email in practice I’ve recently got:
Brand Mention Cold Email Template
When monitoring your brand mentions online, you can find articles referencing your brand or website without a link.
Using this cold email template, you can try to get backlinks once you’ve found your targets:
Subject: Thanks for featuring [Your Site or Tool]!
Hi [Name],
I recently came across your article on [Article topic], where you mentioned us on your site:
[Blog post URL]
I appreciate you including us in your publication and hope we can continue to build our relationship.
I think that your readers would benefit from having access to [Your site], so it would be great if you included a link to it in your article or video.
Please feel free to reach out if you need anything from [Insert Your Tool].
Warm regards,
[Full Contact Info]
Resource Page Cold Email Template
While looking for backlinks, consider sending a friendly, cold email to the owner of a resource page in your industry. Before emailing, make sure you have a valuable blog post ready that would be a good fit for the resource site.
The following template can simplify your article addition to these pages:
Subject: Resource Suggestion
Hi [Name],
I recently read your article about [Article Topic], and I found it super informative for your readers:
[Blog post URL]
In reference to the article, I recently wrote an insightful article for [Blog post URL] that would be a valuable addition to your resource page because [Reason why it’s a good fit].
I would be thrilled if you considered listing it!
Thanks for your consideration, and let me know whether it would be a good fit for that.
Cheers,
[Full Contact Info]
Here is what it looks like in practice:
Be sure to send follow-up emails properly for success.
Broken Link Outreach Cold Email Template
“Broken link building is another way to generate high-quality links on authoritative and relevant websites,” said Mark Anderson, the Founder of Anderson Injury Lawyers. “The main thing is researching and finding the best replacement for the broken link. SE Ranking can help with detecting broken or toxic backlinks.”
Notifying the website owner about that is only one small matter.
Here is the email template that can help you a lot:
Subject Line: Broken Link on [Article Name] on [Site Name]
I was digging around for information on [Article Topic] today and came across your post: [Link to the post]
I loved your article, but when I read it, I noticed that a link to [Location of a link on their page] takes you to a 404 page.
I have a similar case study or valuable resource that might be a suitable replacement because [Reason it’s a good fit]. Your audience should get a lot of value from it:
[Blog post URL]
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Cheers,
[Full Contact Info]
Here is what it looks like in practice:
Bottom Line
Cold emailing for link-building outreach is a powerful weapon that can transform how you do business, whether b2b or b2c. However, remember that your recipients have other priorities, and getting their attention can be challenging.
The key is to respect your recipients and focus on how your offerings can benefit them. The link-building cold email templates mentioned above can be a great starting point for scaling up the process and building high-quality links.