There is one powerful digital marketing strategy that does not get the attention it deserves. Indeed, many may think it belongs to the days gone by. Yet, email marketing remains an important marketing tool. If you compare it to the more contemporary methods of communication, few managed to reach its efficacy,
With proper targeting, it is possible to reach audiences directly. Audience segmentation and email personalization increase the chances of recipients opening the emails.
Statistics show that email users are as high as 4 billion daily. There is a 37% increase in email budgets by brands. Mobile-friendly emails are becoming a helpful tool for marketers. Proper implementation of email marketing strategies can achieve a $36 ROI for every $1 you spend.
What you may also not know is that email marketing is fantastic for white hat link building. Read on to learn the art in our article below.
Email Outreach and White Hat Link Building
Email outreach in white hat link building is a concerted effort to seek backlinks by sending out personalized emails.
The aim is to get high-quality links from higher authority sites to hyperlink to yours. Indeed it is one of the most powerful SEO strategies. But, first, let’s start by defining link building to better understand what this means.
Exploring Link Building
When you read an article such as this, you may find hyperlinks, and clicking on the link redirects you to another website. Typically, the aim is to get more information on a specific point in the article. That is the most basic understanding of link building.
Link building is any step you take to acquire hyperlinks from another website to your own. Let’s say you write an article and submit it to, say, Forbes. You can request the site to put a link back to yours. That way, anytime readers click on the link, it brings them to your website.
The benefits of link building are numerous, including;-
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Generating organic traffic for your website
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It provides an opportunity to build your authority in a particular niche
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It is an effective SEO tool, thus higher rankings in search engines.
Sounds simple right? Well, the answer is not so much. To be honest, it can be quite difficult; so much so that 41% of SEO experts believe it is the most challenging part of their job. 51% contend that it can take upwards of 3 months to see the impact of their link-building efforts. And, a staggering 94% of content will get zero links.
Yet, that is not the least of your link-building woes. You need to be aware of key distinctions in link building. There is white hat link building, which is the best practice when building links.
In the middle is gray hat link building, which treads a dangerous line of falling on the wrong side of building links.
Finally, there is the villain, which is black hat link building. Please note Google has a whole list of what it considers link schemes. If the search engine catches you trying any of them, you will incur severe penalties.
This article will focus on white hat link building and how to use email outreach for the same.
White Hat Link Building and Email Outreach Best Practices
A standard white hat link-building practice entails serious outreach. You can reach out to website owners and nicely ask them to put a hyperlink in their articles. Other ways are through;-
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Guest blogger outreach
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PR outreach
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Broken link building
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Anchor text/brand mentions
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Resource link building
You will need to work on your email marketing techniques to communicate with the other website owners. Further, you must show the mutual benefit of the collaboration. Why should they listen to you and put hyperlinks to your site?
Email outreach can be highly effective if you do it well. We have you covered on this front with these excellent, practical tips.
1. Forget About Email Templates
The basics of email marketing are pretty simple. And that is the fact that you need to capture the recipient’s attention from the get-go. Think about your typical behavior when you receive emails.
It is easy to see which marketers used the standard templates that are plentiful online. We can bet that, more often than not, you trash such emails. Well, the same applies to your target market.
For an effective white hat linking email outreach, forget about using email templates. Allocate enough time to draft an appealing email. Remember, the point you need to push at all times is value. How does hyperlinking to your site add bonus points to the other website?
2. Know Who You Are Reaching Out To
One fact you must pay attention to in white hat link building is the type of website you want to link to. You will often hear an emphasis on high-authority websites. Quality signals include:-
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The site’s value and purpose
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Consistency in branding, language, and tone
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High user engagement
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Relatability or relevance to your niche
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Domain authority refers to the likelihood of the website ranking.
There are tools you can use to check the site authority, including Ahrefs, Moz, and Majestic.
Please take time to do proper research on your prospects first. In this internet age, there are so many resources you can use. The most useful are their websites and social media pages. This critical step aims at establishing relationships or collaborations. But how can you build one without knowing who you are talking to?
1. Work On the Email Subject Line
Have you ever thought about the impact of the email subject line? 69% of recipients will send your email to junk or trash because of the subject line. 47% will open it depending on this easy-to-overlook part.
Crack the art of writing compelling subject lines for your email outreach and see your white hat link-building take off. So:-
- Invoke a feeling of curiosity, so the recipient wants to know more
- Don’t be boring. A little humor will not hurt. But, be careful, though. You don’t want to cross the boundaries of propriety, which goes back to our point of knowing your prospects. You can’t be reaching out to a Christian site and include alcohol or gambling in your subject
- Use FOMO or fear of missing out to your advantage. That means creating a feeling of urgency or exclusivity.
- Personalize the subject limes. How often do you open an email with dear; To Whom It May Concern? Email recipients want recognition, so address them by name. Once again, the internet comes to your rescue as there are many email marketing tools you can use for this.
Spend as much time as you can learning how to write subject lines.
2. Don’t Forget the Hook
Closely tied to the subject line is the hook. You can reel in the recipient with the subject and lose them with the first paragraph. Your white hat link-building email outreach is not like a message to a friend. So, have the following in mind:-
- Be brief in the introduction capturing salient points about yourself.
- Be clear about what you want to pitch, ensuring value takes center stage.
- Go straight to the point. Avoid pontificating or using flowery language that comes across as aggressive marketing.
- Showcase linkable assets and the type of engagement they have managed to achieve. That will show the recipient that you offer high-value, relevant content.
- Include a call to action (CTA) to further nudge the website owner to accept your proposal.
Don’t forget to make your email scannable. That means including bullet points or subheadings. The recipient should capture the salient points at a glance. It helps if they don’t have too much time to read your email.
3. Follow-ups and Other Salient Points
Take note of the following salient points in your email outreach for white hat link building.
Follow-Up on Unanswered Emails
You will not always receive a response but it doesn’t always mean the recipient is not interested. It could be a case of too many emails, workload, or forgetting.
So, do a follow-up after about seven days and at least two other times. Sometimes it is okay to move on to another prospect if there is no feedback after repeated communication attempts.
When to Send Emails
There is no set time to send emails for your white hat link-building outreach. Although, you may want to avoid weekends.
The recipient may have too many emails to deal with on Monday morning. That means they are less likely to focus on non-critical emails. Unless, of course, you use our subject line tips above to capture their interest.
Reducing Bounce Rates
When sending mass emails, it is possible to experience high bounce rates. Avoid this by:-
- Personalizing emails as we shared above
- Audience segmentation for proper targeting
- Avoid anything that can lead to spamming. These include broken images and spammy language like act now or free.
- Allow for opt-ins and opt-outs.
- Take advantage of email marketing tools for scheduling mass emails. The rule of thumb is to avoid bombarding the recipients with emails.
If you are struggling with email outreach, you should consider hiring white hat link-building professionals. As we shared above, the ROI from link building is very high. Any money that goes into paying the professionals will be a worthwhile investment to your brand.
Final Thoughts
Email marketing will continue to command a seat at the table of effective digital marketing strategies. And as we have shared, it is also helpful in white hat link building. Use the tips we have shared to master the art of using email outreach for building links.
