What is Email Outreach?
Email outreach is the practice of reaching out to individuals or businesses through email. It is done to obtain backlinks, build relationships, form partnerships, or promote content, products, or services.
Email outreach is a great way to get your content in front of influencers, journalists, and bloggers. If they find it helpful and relevant enough, they can promote it on their platforms or may even link back to it. Even if they don’t, you would have established a relationship with the prospect of a future partnership.
Despite its numerous benefits, email outreach should be done ethically and carefully because the recipient may consider it spam.
Why is Email Outreach Important?
Email outreach is a common and efficient way to build backlinks to your site. Backlinks are a ranking factor, and sites that rank highly on Google typically have many backlinks pointing to them.
However, getting backlinks can prove difficult, especially when you are not an authority in your niche. In such cases, you would need to actively seek out sites that will link back to you.
This is where email outreach comes in. It is a link building technique that lets you get more links to point to your site. This helps to build your backlink profile and increases your chances of ranking on search engine results pages.
Types of Email Outreach
Email outreaches can be warm or cold:
Warm email outreach refers to emails sent to prospects with whom you already have a relationship. You have previously met or contacted them through other methods, and they know who you are.
On the other hand, cold email outreach refers to emails sent to prospects with whom you have no prior relationship. They do not know you, and the email is likely your first contact with them.
Whether you decide to send warm or cold emails is up to you. However, email outreach done at scale will usually include multiple cold emails. However, warm email outreaches are known to get more responses than cold emails.
How to Perform Email Outreach
Email outreach is a fairly straightforward process, although it can be time-consuming. However, the rewards are significant when compared to you waiting for other bloggers to discover your content and link to you.
1 Find the Right Site to Email
You want to send emails to sites that are likely to link back to you. One good method of finding those sites is to look for sites that have previously linked to similar content.
For example, if you are building backlinks to an article that teaches yoga to beginners, you will want to focus on sites that have previously linked to content that teaches yoga to beginners.
You can also select the sites to email based on the types of backlinks you want. For instance, if you are interested in public relations, you would have to focus on news sites, preferably those that have published similar content. In all, the type of sites you email depends on the objective of your email outreach campaign.
2 Find the Right People to Email
You want to make sure that the right person receives your email. The right person is the one who can give you the backlink. So, you should review the site to see who writes, edits, and publishes their articles.
You should get the names of these people. This is very important as you will address them by their first name in the email. That signals that you have done your homework, are serious about link building, and are not just sending the same generic email template to everyone.
It would help if you also researched a few facts about them or their blog or business. This could be something they achieved, an award they won, or a milestone they reached. Depending on your preferences, you may need to include this in the email.
3 Find Your Recipient’s Email Address
It is not good practice to send emails to some generic emails like [email protected] or [email protected].
Most bloggers have their unique email addresses. For example, a site managed by a blogger named Jane Doe could have an address like [email protected] or [email protected].
However, most bloggers seldom leave their email addresses on their sites, so you would need a specialized email address finder like Hunter.io and Viola Norbert to find their email addresses.
4 Create Your Email Templates
Templates are important if you want to send emails at scale. Otherwise, you will have to spend hours or even days writing email after email from scratch. The template will include placeholders where you will include the names and other details of the person you are emailing.
5 Personalize Your Email Templates
Now, you will have to replace the placeholders in your template with the details of the person you are emailing. Personalization is important as it distinguishes a spammy email from one unique to the sender. Personalized emails also tend to have higher open and response rates.
6 Send Follow-Up Emails
You may also need to send follow-up emails because some people may not reply to the first email. However, this is not definite, and it is up to you to decide whether to send a second email.
If you are sending one, you should include some new details in the email so they know you are not just another random blogger emailing them for a link. You may also send this second email a week after your first email. If they do not reply this time, do not email them again.
Email Outreach Best Practices
Email outreach has some do’s and don’ts. While they are not always necessary and may not apply to everyone you email, they typically increase the chances of you getting backlinks from your outreaches.
1 Familiarize Yourself with Your Prospects
It is always a good idea to familiarize yourself with your prospects before emailing them. To do this, you may need to perform specific actions that make them notice you.
For example, you could leave high-quality comments on their blog posts and social media posts or share their social media posts. However, make sure to add value when you can, and do not make it too glaring.
2 Keep Your Emails Short
Most bloggers receive many spammy and low-quality outreach emails, and the last thing you want is for them to think you are one of those spammers. So, keep your emails short and straight to the point.
You do not need to ramble, begin telling a story, or try to be funny when it’s not necessary. The people you email are busy and do not know whether you are a spammer. So, do not make them mistake you for one.
3 Don’t Follow Up More Than Once
No one asks to receive outreach emails, and those who did but did not reply do not want you to send them reminders either. However, some prospects would have replied but did not because they missed the email or forgot.
This is where the follow-up comes in. You can follow up a week after sending your first email. If they do not respond this time, assume they are uninterested and do not send another follow-up.
4 Add Some Personality to Your Email
Emails are words on a screen. Anyone can send them. So, adding a face to your email is a great idea. For example, upload your image to your email service provider. That way, it would appear in your recipient’s inbox when they receive your mail.
You can include links to your About page and social media profile in the email. You should stick to common social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter).
5 Use a Custom Email Address
Generic email service providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook do not work well with outreach emails. They appear unprofessional and can be mistaken for spam.
These providers also have guidelines that may prevent or limit the amount of outreach emails you can send. So, it is best to send your emails from a custom email address like [email protected].
6 Don’t Send Emails to Generic Custom Addresses
You should avoid sending emails to generic addresses like [email protected]. However, it is unlikely that you will find the email addresses of all the people you want to email.
In such cases, you can email the generic address since doing that is better than nothing. In extreme cases, you may even send the email using the contact form on the site. However, always remember that these should be your last options.